Oh, what a frustrating ride 'Toradora' is. For the first ten episodes or so, there was a certain sense of maturity to this romcom. Something that made you think, "this anime is something special". And then it took a complete nosedive into contrived melodrama. First of all, yes, the outcome is beyond predictable just after the first episode. You know exactly who will end up with who. But I don't have an issue with that, as long as the journey keeps me engaged. Things began fizzling out with wasted opportunities like the beach house episodes. Instead of setting up some cheeky romantic mishaps, they instead give us a boring scare prank plot. After that, the FOUR parter covering the Cultural Festival. I mean, wow, was that tedious or what?? Then the student council election, and the oh-so forced and yawn-inducing Kitamura arc. People yelling, hollering, getting into physical fights over trivial, stupid things... What a mess. I always prefer these stories when they keep it simple, instead of tossing every character into a blender, creating pointless drama for the sake of it. Despite all that, there is great heart to this series. Some sweet moments. The conclusion was pretty unsatisfying, but there were parts of it that were somewhat touching. I debated on giving this either a 5 or a 6, and in the end I went with the latter, because this is a quality anime, when it's not throwing everything into the pot.
