The anime I am talking about is Toradora, and if you've watched this, you already know what I'm talking about from the title itself.
(This may contain spoilers if you haven't watched Toradora yet)
The main male protagonist is Takasu Ryuuji, who looks threatening but very kind and soft-hearted, often mistaken to be a yakuza due to his eyes that he inherited from his father (who's a yakuza).
And the main female protagonist, Aisaka Taiga, known for her short stature, and doll-like features but due to her (cough) short-temper (no pun intended), and snapping back at others in not-so-good ways, she was nicknamed infamously, "Palmtop Tiger".
Adding to the cast is Kushieda Minori, the over-energetic highschool girl bestfriend of Taiga, Yusaku Kitamura, the vice-president of the student council and best friend of Ryuuji, and Kawashima Ami, the last of the main cast introduced in the series who is a model and childhood friend of Yusaku Kitamura.
For the story, to sum it up, Ryuuji discovers that Taiga has a crush on his bestfriend Kitamura, while Ryuuji has a crush on her bestfriend Minori, so they got to an agreement to set each other up with their crushes (but it always backfire). Simple, right?
But the reason why this anime is so famous and still regarded as one of the best for the romance genre (even though it was released between 2008 and 2009) was because of the character development of each of the main cast throughout the series, how the drama was handled (which is magnificent), and also humor that sometimes is forced but doesn't spoil the mood for you.
(If you don't want to get spoiled, you can stop right here and watch it now! _, because the long review is below)
The series' main premise at the start was just a partnership between the 2 main characters to get close to each of their bestfriend. And due to them living next to each other, Ryuuji helps and looks out for Taiga a lot (she lives alone), and this causes misunderstanding with their classmates since they are always seen together, assuming that they are a couple which they try to clear up later on.
But as the series continue, you will see the progress of their relationship from a partnership, they are beginning to enjoy each other's company, understand each other's differences, and even though Taiga badmouths Ryuuji almost all of the time, Ryuuji knows that Taiga doesn't mean it at all and (sometimes) this is just to hide her embarrassment.
The first episodes (Episodes 1-10) looks to be the introductory and "comedy gold" of the series due to seeing Taiga and Ryuuji's plans that always backfire, while the second half of the series (Episodes 11-25) focuses more on drama, character development, some humor, tackling the problem of each of the main cast and seeing Taiga slowly falling in love with Ryuuji without realizing it.
For the music, the 1st OP song, Pre-Parade and ED song, Vanilla Salt are very catchy and it really fits the 1st half of the series which is also the same for the 2nd OP song, Silky Heart and 2nd ED, Orange which also fits the dramatic 2nd half of the series.
As for the soundtrack it should be played at the right time and bring out more on a specific scene, not just to fill the scenes that are empty and that's when it happened:
The soundtrack of Toradora "Lost my Pieces" just plays at the right time, and can put a tear on your eye if you listen to it alone, but mixing it with a dramatic scene from Toradora and you get a very, very great combination (and shed a tear as well), notably Episode 19, I've watched Toradora many times, but that scene still hits different every time I see it. After Ryuuji was kicked out by Taiga from her apartment to let him go to Minori and confess his feelings, Taiga started to realize her own feelings for Ryuuji, starts dashing out of her apartment trying to stop him, but when she arrived at the entrance, unable to find him she hopelessly shouts his name and the one who saw it all? Her best friend Minori.
As some of you may already know, the ending of the anime and the light novel is different due to the anime catching up to the light novel before the final volume was released, the anime studio was only given guidelines by the author on how it will play out, but nonetheless, Toradora has become one of the classics and best if you are into romcom animes but if you don't like the tsundere personality, I really can't recommend this series to you. This series will leave you laughing at the first half then a river of tears at the latter part but that doesn't take away the fact that Toradora will always hold a special place in your heart after the empty feeling it leaves after finishing the series.