At a glance: Toradora is a rare piece of slice-of-life anime. What strikes me most is its incredible ability to get me to care about all the main characters involved, especially with its rather sizable cast. A few moments won't be as satisfying as one would hope, but rest assured, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat or holding back tears enough times to sit back and say that it was worth it.
Story: 6/10
The "plot" of a character-driven show is kind of hard to define. Pretty much everything that happens in the story happens because a certain main character acted a certain way. The events that were "plot-driven", actually felt rather forced in comparison to the others. It doesn't happen to often, but again, when something happens because the story demands it rather than any real reason, it doesn't feel very natural to the story. However, these are rare, so I'll more or less give it a pass.
Art: 10/10
The visuals in Toradora are flat-out amazing. For a lot of shows that I've watched, there have been moments where it feels like a scene or cut was thrown in because it'd be cheaper to animate. While Toradora doesn't necessarily have any less of these, it at least becomes more of an artistic choice rather than a easy means of saving money. Characters designs are gorgeous, with Kitamura being pretty much the only design I didn't totally buy into. If I can be allowed to gush for a second, I will mention that Taiga may just be the best looking anime character that I've ever seen.
Sound: 7/10
To be honest, sound in anime doesn't ever particularly stand out to me that much, with exception of a select few. However, the emotional scenes were properly emotional, the funny scenes were funny, and the romantic scenes sounded romantic. I guess the true beauty of the soundtrack is that it just blends perfectly with what's going on. It never really stood out, but it worked nonetheless.
Character: 10/10
Easily this show's strong suit. I can't even begin to explain the care that was put into the characters, or even particularly why every individual one is as good as they are. It's really something that you have to see in action. You usually start off liking/disliking one character or another, but they all take their turn in the spotlight and, when it boils down to it, you end up appreciating (if not loving) all the characters for their flaws and talents.
Enjoyment: 9/10
What a perfect way to spend a weekend. I was very motivated to watch this show, which is a huge factor for me. I'm a bit of a completionist, and if I start an anime, I usually have to finish it. However, I didn't even need an excuse to continue through the episodes of this one, as the characters and their stories always kept me coming back right away. It's a fun show.
Overall: 9/10
I truly enjoyed Toradora, and I feel like a 9/10 is earned well by this show on both personal and critical fronts. What keeps it from having a perfect score, in my mind, are simply the show (a) slowing down a little in the middle episodes, and (b) by having a largely unnecessary bittersweet ending. Yes, the payoff was still glorious, but the latter half of the last episode can be painful to watch when you feel like everybody's already been through enough. However, I have this complaint with many other shows, so it's not particularly surprising at this point, I guess.
All in all, watch Toradora. It's a beautifully executed character drama that is very much worth its salt.
