It shows the viewer the hardships of your image and the hardships of coming over stereotypes.
The thing that I liked about this anime is each character develops. This is, for lack of a better phrase, a coming of age anime. As everyone grows and people become more comfortable with one another, the truth sets in, and the guards are put down slowly, but surely.
Evey character in this show could follow at least one stereotype e.g "air-head", "malcontent", "genius", "cheerful" etc. But in this anime unlike others, you see there is more to them then what meets the eye. In some animes you only see the wrapper, but in this one you get to see the candy inside.
The artwork that was used was well drawn and portrayed the characters very well. E.g: With Ryuuji, his cold, unfriendly looking eyes made you think that he looked like that of a delinquent, but at the same time something about his look made you know that he had a soft, supple underbelly.It, overall, went well with their start-off stereotypes. Not only that, the graphics and animation was overall well drawn. The characters had a certain complexity that made you want to continue watching and see what would happen. Even characters that you didn't expect to develop like Ya-chan (Yasuko - Ryuuji's mother) did in fact change towards the end.
Not only the complexity of the story and the characters, the thing that also made this anime so fun to watch was that it was comedic. Every episode had you laughing without fail and it even had you sympathetic or empathetic towards the characters. This anime drew a lot of emotion. Not only that, the metaphors they used like referring to the single star in the night sky and the "do you believe in ghosts" conversation were used beautifully and were very beautiful themselves.
This anime showcases the depths you will go to for someone you love and the sacrifices you will make. Very realistic in a sense, but also a dream-like fantasy.
Highly recommended for those of you who haven't already watched. Trust me, its not time wasted. It is one of the most enjoyable animes I have seen, and now when searching for a new anime, I think, "need to find something thats better than Toradora!." I haven't really yet, though.
