[Ended] Toradora: Just Right

One thing all romantic animes (including romantic comedies) suffer is that the ending is never a real ending, it's really just a transition to the new beginning. Toradora is no exception. However, it still makes a difference how they handle the transition. In many cases, what they want is to leave the story open enough so they can make a sequel or sell more manga where you feel the story really isn't quite complete if nothing comes afterwards. As for Toradora, even though it is still somewhat open-ended, it does bring a pretty complete closure to current drama chapter that you don't really have the urge to go find the critical "missing element".

As for the overall story goes, I think they did pretty well on keeping the balance of comedy and drama where they push the plot along the way in a slow but steady pace without making the audience feel being too dry.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 90 (Almost a little excessive)

Comedy: 90 (Definitely on the money)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 85 (In a bit simplified art style)

Sound/Music: 85 (Ok, nothing really exceptional)

Character: 90 (Good depth)

Plot: 85 (Twists and turns)

Ending: 80 (Good enough)

Re-watch value: 70 (It may still be interesting second time through)

Overall (not average): 88 ~ Nicely done...

Recommendation: While I wouldn't call this top-notch just yet, as for romantic comedy, it's pretty good. So if you have some free time and feel like watching some romance with comedy, you can't go wrong with this.