The story is fairly simple - a young man moves from the country to Tokyo to start a new life at highschool, and falls in love at first sight with a promising athletic student (the titular character of the show). In short it's a love story, and while the premise sounds bland, so do those of some of the very best animes.
Suzuka, however, is not one of them. It's often described as "character driven" but this is a terrible thing because the majority of the characters (including the two main ones) are barely likable and have few redeeming qualities. Yamato and Suzuka both play to archtypes almost to the letter and this is incredibly frustrating to watch. Although the entire series is based around their romance, you are left with an overwhelming idea that this romance only exists because the writers said it does.
Yamato is ridiculous in his submissiveness, but there are certain points where you can at least feel some empathy and sympathy for him (those these are rare) - he also demonstrates a desire to try, which everybody likes to see. However, Suzuka is intolerable for basically the entire series, and since you as a viewer weren't written to love her like Yamato, you end up spending 26 episodes wondering why you're watching an anime that is literally about her. Quite a few of the side characters are far more likable, but they have almost no backstory and screentime, and can't carry the series.
The art and animation is also fairly poor - I'm not sure when the series was adapted, but it is low quality and not very good. The music is also uninspiring and sometimes I felt it was extremely dissonant. Apparently the sound switches between mono and stereo inbetween certain episodes. I'm not sure if this causes any of it, but the soundtrack as a whole isn't a strong point.
Through the entire show you are just left with a sense of pointlessness as the characters advance nowhere, widdling away screentime with obvious and drawn out internal monologues. It quickly becomes obvious how the show is going nowhere and how easily all of the development could have fit into a series half its length. From what I have read of the manga (which progresses far beyond the anime) things sound like they get quite interesting - but the anime adaptation is very stale.
I honestly can't believe the scores this show is getting - but I know there are other people like me out there who are unable to drop a series once they start it. I hope that those people read this review - and instead of starting Suzuka they find something better to watch. That wouldn't be very hard to do.