So I just finished Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo (The Pet Girl of Sakurasou), and before I delve into the realm of spoilers, I'll give my general spoiler-free review:
Character relationships are interesting, and the representation of reality is almost painful at times, it is so accurate. I was slightly disappointed that, as a romantic comedy, the main character relationship triangle wasn't properly resolved, but most of the character story lines concluded well enough for me to be satisfied. There is enough romance otherwise to be satisfied though, even if it isn't the main romance you were expecting. The show does lose a bit of momentum in the second half, but it manages to build up to a nice finale that completely makes up for the slight lull.
8.7/10
Now my spoilered criticisms:
Now, I mentioned the main character love triangle doesn't get resolved. It actually gets annoying at times how much this follows the more standard formula of dancing around the main romance to try to drag it out. Aoyama fails to actually confess her feelings, Mashiro discovers her feelings and MC recognizes them despite Mashiro having a hard time voicing them, but fails to act, stalling their relationship. The MC manages to be surprised just about every time Aoyama or Mashiro so much as looks at him semi-romantically, no matter how many months pass. This is my big sticking point about the ending, since the MC doesn't end up making his choice despite making so many other leaps to be decisive. This is where Toradora shined, and where Sakurasou fell short.
I also was eager to see about a season two, but apparently the light novels absolutely fall to pieces and ruin everything good that you see in the anime. That is almost impressive in its own right. Not only is a season two unlikely, but even if it happened, it would likely be painful watching character relationships get mutilated as new cast members get plot priority.
I give Sakurasou credit for being a well done story and giving me feels, and I still rate it relatively highly because I enjoyed it start to finish. Even if the main relationship was indecisive, other relationships were, and that was satisfying in its own right.
