I finished Toradora! last night so here are my final thoughts on it. I'll try to keep them vague and spoiler tag anything major but people who haven't seen it still probably shouldn't read this.
It was good the whole way through, but the second half of the show wasn't
as
good. Maybe I'm just slow but it became difficult to keep up with all of the characters. Everyone had a way they were acting but their true feelings were also shining through in small moments and they all had secrets, for every permutation of character relationships. I think I understood everything but it felt convoluted at times, especially since a lot of plotlines in the second half were 'this character is acting strangely, what's the reason and how does everyone react?' and there was always a lot to sort through. Also,
for how hyped I was to see them together, Taiga/Ryuji wasn't especially satisfying. They overcame every obstacle... and then she ran away for a year. I get why she did it but it still killed the momentum a bit for me
.
Best moments: Ami/Taiga Christmas song, Taiga's election posters with her posing like an evil dictator,
Taiga/Ryuji kiss, awww
.
Anyway, it was still a good anime! I'm ranking it towards the bottom here but that's mostly a reflection of how few animes I've seen. I haven't finished Sankarea yet but it'd have to improve immensely in its last four episodes to pass Toradora and I don't want to repost this ranking every two days so I'm putting it in now. I hope Sankarea will eventually become my baseline for 'slightly below average'. Everything above it is varying levels of good to great.
Definitive Anime Ranking
(of a guy who has finished exactly seven animes)
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Your Lie in April
Little Witch Academia
DeathNote
Knights of Sidonia
Toradora!
Sankarea
Unfinished
(due to being bad)
Restaurant to Another World (made it three episodes)
Gantz (made it two episodes)
