STORY = 7
The story is of course, romance-esque. Shoujo-ish and all, preferrably not my cup of tea. The story itself is mild and has a basic plot, it's nowhere near as tense like Shingeki no Kyojin, not as close to laughing as the wacky Yuru Yuri, and even CLAMP's romance anime have more twists and turns than this. The story is as basic as what to do with a teaspoon: a shy, awkward, unpopular girl easily misunderstood because of her looks and introversion, with a running joke of being quite the resemblance of The Ring's Sadako, and on the other side is a "gary-stu" guy who is seemingly perfect in a lot of ways that everyone loves him, then add up a tandem of supporting characters who are not really all that dynamic yet been able to make some impact on the plot, and yet this story has worked like having that cup of tea with the right cake.
In literature, we're particularly taught of what not to write. And this anime kind of ticked all those boxes BUT despite its elements as non-applicable to real life as we know how twisted the reality of our society is, Kimi ni Todoke just handed back all things literature taught to the butler who brought the tea and cake, and simply went on with its own ingredients; a creation a mild and touching, easy-to-watch shoujo-story with feels. In reality, no guy can act like Kazehaya, and only few friends out there can be like Chi-chan and Yano-chin and Ryu as well; and if you act like Kurunama you'd probably be the bully-magnet;
and I could still go on with hampering reality from this ideal romantic story, but being ideal and mild as it is, that's what makes the storyline as captivating and even sublime.
It's just so unreal you'd wish it real. Kimi ni Todoke simply gave us a glimpse of an ideal love story as what it should be, full of laidbacks and awkward fleeting emotional heartbeat-skipping fidgets, yes, it's a love story after all.
ART = 10
When I watch anime, I'm not really particular about the art because being particular at it is like being particular at what box your mind wants to be comfortably snuggled in. But I never stay inside the box. Never.
CHARACTER = 8
Back in 2009, there was a hideous American mushy-mushy so-called love-story that gagged the entire vampire lore into a cheap, nasty vomitus.
Its proponent was the use of a silly romantic (romatic, as how its author wanted to put it, but tbh it's not romantic: it's bullshit) setting and mary-sue + gary-stu characters, where the author claimed she knows nothing about vampires among other hideous claims, but in the eyes of the mainstream, that story worked to their fandom (and this is one of the major-major reasons never to trust mainstream).
Kimi ni Todoke then, which was made in 2008, kind of used the same mary-sue + gary-stu characterization: an ideal pair, ideal setting, ideal supporting characters, ideal plot, but it's far from barfing to what it offered acidic to the stomach. Kimi ni Todoke is actually sweet, and actually right in mixture of ideal plot and character elements. It isn't acidic to you sitting in front of the screen and doesn't make you puke and roll your eyes like how Mokocchi did. You just simply cheer for Kurunama and Kazehaya with giggles and feels.
American-made vampire story has nothing on this, this is how Japanese love story makes it.
SOUND = 9
Full respect to Mamiko Noto on this one. She fully asserted and gave Kurunama Sawako the 100% life she needed. And this is one of the fewest anime where I can decipher (and yes you don't need forensics to sense that out) that even the seiyuus were having fun doing the voicing; for example, Miyuki Sawashiro is at her natural best as Yano-chin, and also is Yuuko Sanpei as Yano-chin; EVEN Aya Hirano as Kurumi-chan can't hide her natural voice on this.
As for the music, I'm not a fan of either the opening and ending songs but I don't think I can ask for anything better.
ENJOYMENT = 10
It's not that difficult to rate it at 10. I mean, I wouldn't even be writing this long if I haven't enjoyed it. There are romantic anime out there like Tsubasa Chronicles, One Week Friend, Kannazuki no Miko (okay this is shoujo-ai), Waiting in the Summer, Clannad, and the list goes on, but Kimi ni Todoke is juz special.
OVERALL = 9
I can't believe a time will come when I've watched a shoujo anime and be able to genuinely rate it at NINE. I originally wanted to rate it as EIGHT (around 7.5 if only MAL wills it), but I can't; because it feels too understated to put an 8 rating to it.
But not to worry, I'm about to watch the 2nd season so maybe, just maybe I'd fetch the 10-rating there.
Kimi ni Todoke is just brilliant. It's like how Bruce Lee quoted "Simplicity is the key to brilliance".
It's like if we're comparing (analogy) cars, the American-made vampire story is like that silly but famous DeLorean which is a very flawed car in real-life but reeks of Hollywood thanks to its fictional time-traveling alter-ego. But Kimi ni Todoke, being an awesome sublime Japanese car--this is a Lexus, the Lexus LFA. It just went on from being simple, idealistic, unrealistic little shoujo story to being a love story you can perfectly love at all thanks to its right touches, and the right delivery of characters (and the right seiyuus---but okay, that's a personal opinion) in a plot that was meant to be wrong in every literature sense. And this is what you get: a shoujo love story worth the watch (and love).
Verdict: Kimi ni Todoke is just like how Lexus was idealistic to their LFA, and it worked.
