Seems like a fair amount of boilerplate. You really have to specify that the axes are Cartesian with every simple two-axis plot you make?
# make some test data
import numpy
x = numpy.linspace(0, 10)
y = x ** 2
# plot it
import toyplot
canvas = toyplot.Canvas(width=300, height=300)
axes = canvas.cartesian()
mark = axes.plot(x, y)
3 lines excluding the import doesn't strike me as a remarkable amount of boilerplateI really like the default axis styling where they have gone against the mainstream style of gnuplot/matlab. I'm definitely going to try this out sometime soon.