Dr4go

Im going to try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible for refference, but as honest and critical as I can, anyway... where to even begin. Well, lets start with technicalities.

Animation and sound structure for Sakurasou are, well over the roof sometimes, but only as much as it takes to still get across the comedic bits and enhance the more serious parts of the series, I myself liked the style of animation, which didnt go overboard to a more of a cartoony feel, but still kept the funny faces and over the top expressions, even if the quality may have suffered here and there.

Now onto the characters. Sakurasou keeps a very close circle of characters in the frame at all times so there is not that many minors as you might expect given the setting, but it pulls it off really well in my honest opinion and the characters themselves are very distinct and have very different outlook even ending in struggles between them as the series goes on.

Kanda the main protagonist, is your everyday student, who you will either love or hate, he resembles Kirito from SAO a great deal, even having the same voice actor as him, but he has a little bit more of a comedic character to him, but is overall very supportive and unlike a lot of characters he is not that dense, he is simply trying to accomplish too many things at once and ends up experiencing a lot of failure in the process, he is the kind of a guy, who if he fails, it decimates him to a point of lashing out against everyone around him, I found him as very believable in those reactions. Again that also could be a reason for some people disliking him for that exact thing.

Jin is your handsome looking guy in the series, he is very caring, but dishonest with himself a lot of the times, he gives of the image of a perfect guy, yet he is very critical of himself and doesnt feel "up to par" to everyone else around him, he tends to be easygoing in serious matters to lighten up the mood and keep everyone in high spirits, even if the circumstances are dire. 

Misaki she is...well, Misaki... Yeah...lets go with that one. She is crazy, talented, insane and cant sit still for five minutes, lot of people will most likely find her a bit obnoxious, but after a while she becomes likeable, because she is simply trying too hard, she treasures every single one of the residents of Sakurasou, I didnt like her at first myself, but couple episodes in, it just wouldnt feel right without her there.

Akasaka... Computer genius, complete shut-in, blunt, emotionless, afraid of women...all of those are him at the same time, he is straightforward, to a point where you might come to hate him, but in most of those scenarios, he is always correct, he is the guy who will tell the harsh truth regardless of the reception of the others.

Aoyama is hardworking girl, who works every minute of her life to reach her dream, she will do anything it takes even at the cost of her own health and feelings to help the others at Sakurasou, she is very stubborn and wont accept help, even with the smallest things, but after getting to know Sakurasou, she softens up and allows herself to take a little break here and there.

Mashiro she is pretty much emotionless, careless and an airhead on top of all that. Unbelievable at first, but over the course of the series it becomes a daily routine to see her doing something beyond stupid, yet its mainly through Kanda's reactions that those exact situations are what gives this series great comedy, whereas Mashiro is completely oblivious and Kanda is nearly jumping through the ceiling. She evolves as a character throughout the series very well, even if little by little and realizes just how much the people around her are important to her, even if she didnt care at all at first.

Alright now the story, need to keep this one short, since it would be spoilerific otherwise. So...

*SPOILER ALERT*...only a minor one though.

So Sakurasou as a story, starts off very slow, but still with a bang, they give very little backstory and all you see at first is a bunch of guys who are stuck in a dorm for "troublemakers". The series itself begins as very over-the-top slice of life, where you would expect only comedy and nothing else. Well...thats true for about 8 or so episodes, where the series turns into something I found quite interesting, everyone in Sakurasou has their dreams, but to accomplish them there is a lot to go through and in here they were not afraid to show the harsh reality, where you can fail and no matter how hard you try, there is nothing you can do about it, it brings a lot of drama, feelings and sadness, to an overall a silly place, they show that life in fact isnt a fairy tail, where if you dream it, you get it, no, not at all. In fact, there is a lot of moments, where I was taken back, since they really show, that life really isnt fair, but truly unforgiving and unfair, stomping on the hard work and kicking you, while you are down. It didnt feel as if the series was dragging on or rushed either, pacing was dead on, ending to their struggles at the episode, I believe, 23 was, at least for me, very emotional and touching. Overall its a great series, with a great deal of fun, but also a lot of struggle and great characters who have a lot more to them, than it looks at first. It definitely deserves your time, if you are a fan of Slice of life, because it does it REALLY well.