Synopsis/Overview: Sorata Kanda, the male protagonist, is an ordinary high schooler with no special talents, average looks, and is just going through the motions of life with no real goal. In contrast, Sorata's roommates all excel at something.
One day Chihiro (a teacher at Sorata's school and dorm supervisor of Sakurasou Hall) tells Sorata to pick up her cousin, a transfer student from England named Mashiro Shiina (female protagonist), and bring her back to Sakurasou Hall. Sorata does as instructed and the next morning Sorata realizes something about Shiina... she has no clue how to live on her own and needs constant help and guidance. And so begins the relationship of "master and pet".
Story - 9
The story is good, but far from innovative or original. As explained in the synopsis, an ordinary high school boy meets a special high school girl. Not original. Boy has to take care of girl who is incapable/barely capable of living on her own... I believe a recent very popular high school rom-com took this approach as well (Toradora). Again, not original. Hmm, why did I give it a 9 then? Why not a 7 or a 6?
So while the most basic premise of Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo may not be unique or even creative, it does have 1 thing very few high school rom-coms REALLY explore... self-discovery.I'm not just talking about shallow emotions, I'm talking about questions like "What am I really? What am I good at? What can I become?" One of the major plotlines in the story apart from the romance, relationships, and the everyday life of the people in Sakurasou is also Sorata's frustration and feeling of ineptitude and how he struggles to find a goal. That is why I give it a 9, because it's fucking real.
Art - 10
JC Staff, by far my animation studio. I have 0 complaints as far as art is concerned whenever they work on an anime. Loved the art in Nodame Cantabile, Maid-sama, Toradora, etc etc. I'm no art connoisseur so I won't pretend to know a bunch of technical terms, all I can say is the simple "I love the artwork and animation JC Staff brought to the show". Art, for the most part, is purely subjective. I enjoyed it a lot, others may not.
Sound - 9
Not a big sound guy, as it's not horrible/repetitive, and as long as the voice acting is believable, I'll most likely be favorable. I really enjoy the opening and ending to Sakurasou. Other than that, nothing really stands out to me. Voice acting is good, no complaints here.
Character - 10
I'm going to as blunt as possible. The reason I'm giving Character(s) a 10 is because of Sorata Kanda. The supporting crew (everyone but Sorata and Mashiro) are entertaining and multi-dimensional. With that being said, they borrow a lot of common themes/traits popular among similar animes, but it's also a very daunting, underestimated task of making a truly original AND interesting supporting character(s), so I don't really mind that much. I won't go into much detail, or really any at all, about Sorata's and Mashiro's roommates/peers, I'll leave that for you to discover. Now on to the main course.
Sorata Kanda - Sorata is, as previously described, an ordinary high school boy with no particular specialties. He is nice and always willing to lend a helping hand, but at times can become frustrated at others. The source of his frustration is really just his own issues, being particularly good at nothing while being surrounded by talent. His frustration, self-discovery, and romantic feelings take off when he meets Mashiro, whom at first he is tasked to take care of, but later begins to enjoy of his own will. Sorata is interested in video games, both for personal enjoyment and later aspires to be a video game creator. Sorata is the kind of character you root for regardless of the situation and circumstances, and I rarely ever find myself doing that.
Sorata is probably one of the realest anime characters I've ever seen and that makes it all the more interesting that he's surrounded by, relatively speaking, unbelievable characters. To make a popular parallel, although I haven't seen a whole lot of Melancholy of Haruhi, he's similar to Kyon.
Mashrio Shiina - Unaware of most things other than painting and drawing, Mashiro is the oblivious, mono-toned, extremely gifted heroine of the Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo. Mashrio is a world-renowned painter who comes to Japan to become a manga artist, something she's new to, but shows she excels very quickly in the world of arts. While being extremely gifted and brilliant at art, she is a complete dunce when it comes to even the most basic form of living. She doesn't know how to clean her room, wash her hair, and gets lost on her own; however, throughout the progression of the series, she begins to learn how to live on her own, little by little, thanks to the help of Sorata. Mashiro is interested in Sorata, and with his help, she slowly breaks out of her emotionless, hapless shell.
Mashiro Shiina has some pretty unrealistic qualities, but at the same time, she's very interesting and can show genuine, believable feelings such as loneliness, love, and joy.
Enjoyment - 10
I love this series, it's definitely one of my favorite... although I wish they turned down the ecchi/fanservice a little. Some scenes are completely unnecessary and only exist to satisfy some fan's ecchi needs or whatever. With that being said, there really isn't a lot of it so it doesn't derail from the show itself so it's okay. Other than that, not only do I have no complaints, I look forward to watching this show the SECOND it airs every week. If a show elicits that kind of a response from me, it's an automatic 10 in terms of enjoyment.
Overall - 9
Toradora 2.0 delivers in a bigger and better way. I can see me giving this series a 10 when it's all said and done, but for now there isn't enough depth and the ecchi-esque air of the show detracts from what is really could be, a masterpiece.
1st review plizz b gentle thxthx
(This review was written without reading any of the manga and having watched 12/24 episodes [episodes available at the time of the review])
