Toradora! is a romantic comedy based on the light novel series. It is 25 episodes long with an OVA released afterwards. Takasu Ryuji is entering his second year of high school but he has a reputation preceding him. Despite actually be a nice and chill guy, his appearance makes him seem like a delinquent. In particularly, his eyes intimidate everyone around him, even his teachers, leaving him exasperated. Ryuji has a crush on his fellow classmate Kushieda Minori, who is an upbeat cheerful girl. While Takasu’s best friend at school is Kitamura Yasaku.
During the beginning of the first term, a girl bumps into Ryuji. Her name is Aisaka Taiga, who has a similar reputation as Takasu as the “tiger”. She’s strong and speaks honestly, leading others to perceive her as dangerous and aggressive. She takes an instant dislike of Ryuji. However, through sheer coincidence, she is a friend of Minori, and like a mirror, she has a crush on Yasaku. When Ryuji accidentally finds out about Taiga’s crush, and vice versa, they end up pairing together to create opportunities for the other to get closer to the one they like.
The cast is complete when Ami is introduced. Ami has a different personality that contrasts nicely with everyone else. With her personality, you wouldn’t expect her to be friends with Ryuji and Taiga and that appears to be the case at first. However, through various circumstances she ends up at least being forced to become acquaintances and it just kind of grows from there.
Naturally, the anime predominantly focuses on Ryuji and Taiga. Taiga lives in the apartment that towers over Ryuji’s place. At first, Taiga is the more aggressive one, blackmailing Ryuji to force him to help her. Although naturally they end up developing some camaraderie and eventually, some feelings for each other, even if it is one of friendship and even family. The anime has a slice-of-life element. While it is somewhat unremarkable and at times, boring, there are specific pockets that hit you hard in terms of how unexpectedly funny it can be. The episodes slowly become better as the season progresses, and the episodes in after the seventh has less dead spots than the first four for example. It really starts to come to its own after Ami is introduced and subsequently fully integrated into the group.
At first, you might think that we know all about Ryuji and Taiga that there is to know but they have deeper issues than that. Some of the story arcs explore these and shows off their weaknesses. It can be really sad when you realize their past situations and how it has shaped them to be who they are right now. Taiga is sensitive about her small size, particularly with how short she is. Taiga and Ryuji’s relationship is odd. They don’t quite become friends, or romantic interests, but there is definitely a bond between them. It grows stronger and their loyalty is shown in some of the tougher situations that Taiga has put herself in.
There is a strong family theme where Taiga’s family is not there for her, so Ryuji and his mother eventually become her family. The anime is all about interpersonal relationships, and not only romantic relationships, which makes it much broader and a lot more relatable. You can see the characters slowly grown and develop. It can be hard to tell where Minori is an innocent girl who easily overlooks things, or if she is secretly well aware of what’s happening around her. There are scenes which suggest both and this makes her an unpredictable character.
Some of the story arcs are less of a comedy and more of an emotional sob story. While there are some exaggerated and cheese scenes, at its core, it touches upon the characters’ insecurities and unstable emotions given their age. Their feelings resonate with you as you feel the pain that they must be experiencing, and yet cannot turn back or run away. Rather, they have to plow on to support their friends.
The anime is not the always happy, everything is perfect, type, which is what makes it so engrossing. While it can be confusing at times with the way some characters act or feel, this replicates what the characters themselves must be feeling. People are erratic and irrational at times, and the anime portrays that. The characters have more things to worry about such as their future, their family, and their friends, which combined can be overwhelming.
Naturally, you’d expect the relationships to become complicated but you may be surprised at how complicated and messy it gets. It keeps rising into a crescendo until the emotional waves crashes over you, each one bigger than the last. The final quarter of the anime is just one thing after another, not letting you time to breathe as the emotions spill out from the characters. By this time, you finally start to understand why some of the characters were acting the way they were earlier and their sudden behavioral shifts. The way each of the characters supports each other and help each other solves their issues is heartwarming. The second half of the anime incorporates more than just the main five characters, with a few other classmates starting to make frequent recurring appearances.
From the midway point onwards, it is a non-stop rollercoaster of emotional scenes that culminate into a nice ending where you’ll be sad to say goodbye to the characters. Despite a rocky start, each of the characters has unique personalities and are flawed in their own way. This allows you to become emotional invested in them. It closes off the most important plot points but leaves the fate of other characters in the open given that the ending focuses solely on Ryuji and Taiga.
The OVA takes place midway through the season when things wasn’t so serious and crazy. It has a lighthearted tone in which Ryuji gets into a competition (that only he is the participant of...) of striving to make the best bento. He goes over the top, as expected, and then learns the trust reason of why he makes bento. He makes them not for the admiration of others, but for the person who eats them, Taiga.
Overall, while Toradora! has a slow beginning, there is a reason why it is so popular and enduring. It has a great set of characters and a charming story that’s filled with ups and downs. The thing is, the characters aren’t perfect, but they are flawed and they go through issues with their friends, family and their life just like everyone else. So when they end up finally getting their happy ending, you are happy for them. It’s not a fairy tale but it doesn’t need to be, Toradora! manages to find a way to worm into your heart. It’s a great romantic comedy with more than a touch of drama. As a true hallmark of a fantastic story, your thoughts lingers on it long after the final episode and you just can’t help but seek out clips or summaries to refresh your memories as you don’t want to let go.
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