Toradora!

Ryuuji Takasu is a gentle high school student with a love for housework; but in contrast to his kind nature, he has an intimidating face that often gets him labeled as a delinquent. On the other hand is Taiga Aisaka, a small, doll-like student, who is anything but a cute and fragile girl. Equipped with a wooden katana and feisty personality, Taiga is known throughout the school as the "Palmtop Tiger."

One day, an embarrassing mistake causes the two students to cross paths. Ryuuji discovers that Taiga actually has a sweet side: she has a crush on the popular vice president, Yuusaku Kitamura, who happens to be his best friend. But things only get crazier when Ryuuji reveals that he has a crush on Minori Kushieda—Taiga's best friend!

Toradora! is a romantic comedy that follows this odd duo as they embark on a quest to help each other with their respective crushes, forming an unlikely alliance in the process.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Aisaka, Taiga Main

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Takasu, Ryuuji Main

Majima, Junji Japanese

Kushieda, Minori Main

Horie, Yui Japanese

Kawashima, Ami Main

Kitamura, Eri Japanese

Kitamura, Yuusaku Main

Nojima, Hirofumi Japanese

Inko Supporting

Gotou, Saori Japanese

Takasu, Yasuko Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Kanou, Sumire Supporting

Kaida, Yuuko Japanese

Haruta, Kouji Supporting

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Koigakubo, Yuri Supporting

Tanaka, Rie Japanese

Yamanaka, Takahiro Producer

Matsukura, Yuuji Producer

Ikeda, Shinichi Producer

Oohashi, Masao Producer

Reviews

Aug 1, 2022

rooserloom

Recommended

I don't usually watch the romantic comedy genre of things. I always enjoyed action, fantasy, adventure like Soul Eater, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun etc. but for some reason I was in the mood for something different.

Toradora is just the 3rd romcom anime series i watched and I can truly say that it has become my FAVORITE anime.

The short version of this review is: I very much enjoyed Toradora

-The characters are all unique, likable, and relatable due to the fact they all display their weak sides sometimes and moments of insecurity behind the personality exterior. The chemistry between the characters was fun to watch

-The story stays ... away from cliches and was relatively unpredictable for a love story. Every character had a reason and motive for what they did and how they acted, other than just being unnaturally dumb/too prideful/stubborn.

-The soundtrack was really good, making certain scenes all the more memorable

-I loved the comedic scenarios in the beginning of the series, which gets progressively more serious and emotional as we get deeper into the story and characters, but the overall vibe of the show stays relatively consistent to the end

-I became emotionally invested in the overall plot and characters and couldn't stop watching, which is extremely rare for me, especially for this genre

Overall:10/10

----

I watched the 1st episode and was interested. After the 2nd ep, I was hooked. I watched all 25 episodes in one go, back to back, because I couldn't stop. Never has another series been able to keep me going (I usually don't watch more than 5 episodes in one sitting), but Toradora kept me wanting to click on the next episode each time until I was finished, and left wanting more (even though I was satisfied with the ending)

Afterwards, I thought a lot about why an anime series of a genre that is usually not my taste could have been able to retain my attention for so long, and i realized the answers: the characters and the overall story.

The characters are what make this series so great. Each character have personalities that are unique and rather realistic and believable (or as realistic as animes go). There is no "super" character that acts too good or too cool for school. There is no "that annoying" character that acts too snobby or stuck up, which can sometimes be a problem for tsundere characters. And this is all because every character shows a weak side or moments of insecurity, which makes each of them more relatable. It also allows for many rather comedic scenes as well as emotional moments. But the best part is the interactions and chemistry between all the characters, and the way each of them change as their relationship with each other grows.

The second thing is the story. The reason I usually don't care for romance or drama is because I usually find the story too cliche or predictable. I also hate those cliche moments of "coincidence", for example, when a main character happens to see his/her love interest with someone else accidentally and misunderstands. I also hate it when characters act unnaturally stupid or too prideful for no reason and let it get in the way of the relationship.

But none of those cliche moments happen in Toradora. Every character has a reason and motive for the actions they decide to take. The story managed to keep me guessing and wanting to know what will happen next, instead of making me feel like i could write the story myself.

Another plus for Toradora is the music. There are some key scenes where the soundtrack actually triggered goosebumps and made me tear; it still does even after rewatching. THAT IS RARE FOR ME. In fact i don't think anything I've ever watched, not just anime, can even make me feel that emotionally invested in fictional characters.

Almost forgot to mention that after it was done, I started to watch it again from the beginning the next day. Another rare occurrence for me, as usually i don't feel like rewatching things for months. I was able to pick up certain things that i missed with the first watch thru. The only reason I put the story as 9/10 was because of this. A few plot points weren't really shown or conveyed in the best way and were missed even to an avid viewer like me. But I was glad to have felt that way, leaving me thinking about what I missed, instead of feeling like I could have easily figured it out or seen it coming.

Again, Toradora has become my favorite anime, as a guy that usually doesn't care for this genre, which says a lot. It gave me more enjoyment than any of the other anime I have seen so far. I would recommend it to anyone, not just romance lovers.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Nov 29, 2015

merryfistmas

Mixed Feelings

The premise of the show is pretty hard to believe. After an accidental meeting involving two violent outbursts, Taiga Aisaka and Ryuuji Takasu make an agreement to help one another pursue their respective love interests, Kitamura and Kushieda, who also happen to be Ryuuji and Taiga's mutual friends. It's the stockholm syndrome trope, create a situation in which the two main characters are forced to spend large amounts of time together and wait for them to fall in love. High school ‘contracts’ are an object of fiction, much like the accidentally overheard conversations that drive most of the character development. People do overhear things occasionally, ... but when the relationship is progressed entirely through cliches, it’s pretty hard to take it seriously.

However, after a rocky beginning I actually began to enjoy watching Taiga and Ryuuji. Ryuuji is more functional than most adults, doing all the cooking and cleaning for his mom who comes home late from her job as a cocktail waitress and sleeps most of the day. Ryuuji finds another dependent in Taiga, whom he feeds and launders for on a daily basis. He discovers her living amongst dirty dishes and garbage after entering her unlocked apartment to wake her up and make her breakfast. What’s important here is Ryuuji isn’t just a caretaker to Taiga, he represents something she’s never had, a person who genuinely cares about her and accepts her for who she is. He's a surrogate parent, which will be incredibly significant as we learn more of her backstory. He doesn’t complain that Taiga’s a mess, he just helps her pick it up and she slowly improves. This relationship does have some kind of benefit for Ryuuji as well, though it's far from ideal for him.

He seems to derive enjoyment from taking care of the dysfunctional Taiga, and given his relationship with his mother, who's equally bad at taking care of herself, it's very understandable that he's okay with it, he's used to it after all. But not only is their relationship is entirely one-sided, Ryuuji deals with being verbally and physically abused by Taiga constantly, aggression can definitely be attractive in a girl, but there's a difference between being aggressive and abusive. As part of their agreement, Taiga calls him a dog and commands him to do whatever she wishes... and he agrees. I guess he just really, REALLY wants Kushieda, and somehow plotting schemes with the diminutive and violent Taiga seems a better idea to him than simply talking to somebody he's already friends with. It's not like Kushieda's distant with him either, she bubbly, confident, and provides Ryuuji multiple opportunities to get closer to her, hell, they get locked in a storage room together for hours. At this point the overbearing use of cliches started to make me believe Toradora! was a satire, but given the amount of melodrama I'm pretty sure that it's takes its romance seriously. However, it’s important to remember that it’s Kushieda he’s interested in, so it’s not like the show is trying to force TaigaxRyuuji down your throat, they’re simply spending time together, so Ryuuji maintaining Kushieda as a love interest helps the story feel somewhat believable, despite Taiga’s abuse.

As the plot continues to carve its destructive path, Ami is introduced, and with her, more opportunities for "contract" agreements that force characters to be in the same place together despite their apparent misgivings. I'm not sure if Ryuuji is aware that he isn't legally bound by the results of immature high school contests. In any case, the writers continue to create contrived situations that force character interactions that would not otherwise happen.

I liked both Ryuuji and Taiga, despite the unbelievable circumstances that make up their character development. I stated before Ryuuji enjoys cooking and cleaning and is very good at both of them, this detail is the precipitating factor for most of their interactions. Taiga is pretty helpless when it comes to household tasks and Ryuuji provides those services to her. Despite the horribly unrealistic circumstances I felt that Taiga and Ryuuji actually acted in reasonable ways for the most part. Taiga beats Ryuuji frequently but it's clear that she actually does like spending time with him. They're both laughably bad at pursuing their romantic interest but that's pretty typical of high schoolers so it's hardly surprising.

Kushieda is obnoxiously positive. She shares many traits with Ryuuji including domestic competence and is very hard working. I'm sure you've all encountered that person in high school who magically balanced multiple jobs, sports, and school, all while staying unusually cheery. Most of the time she was on screen I just found her really annoying, she's just WAY too positive, there is such a thing. I don't think she was necessarily a bad character, just not the type of character I liked and I wasn't remotely invested in her. I didn't care if Ryuuji made in success in pursuing her because 1. Taiga the obvious romantic interest so you know that nothing's going to happen anyway, and 2. because Ryuuji was such an idiot when it came to trying to win her over that I wanted him to fail. She also becomes the source of more forced drama later on, making it even harder to take seriously and threatening to ruin ending.

Kitamura is the man. At first you get the impression that he's the stereotypical "obvlivious anime male highschool student" but he has his own agenda, and it plays out in spectacular fashion. You have not seen a love confession until you’ve seen Kitamura. To be fair, his arc’s only purpose is to help make TaigaxRyuuji a thing, it also results in a fantastic sword fight, but he’s still pretty funny to watch.

Kawashima is introduced later and is absolutely fantastic. She’s far more mature than the rest of the cast due to growing up as a model in the “adult” world, but is stunted in some ways by her air of superiority. Her development was the best part of the show and creates some of the only believable drama between characters. Her conversations with Ryuuji are similarly realistic, they are rarely on the same page but it’s clear to the audience what she’s trying to tell him, which makes their interactions much easier to understand, why Kawashima finds Ryuuji interesting etc.

The biggest mark against the show is that it’s totally drowned in melodrama. Taiga overreacts in ways the get old fast, and the forced pathos ruins the genuinely emotional moments in the show. I need to emphasize this, there were truly some great emotional moments. The Christmas episode with the bear costume (you’ll know it when you see it) [i]almost[/i] caused me to shed a tear, a feat that only Grave of the Fireflies is capable of, but because of the melodrama surrounding most of the show, these scenes lose their effect. Of course, there’s also the incredibly contrived situations (See accidentally overheard conversations/confessions) that bring these scenes about, which doesn’t help.

The production quality was fairly good, I liked the character designs and the animation quality was impressive at times and never bad. Nothing else about its artwork or animation stood out but that’s not terrible in a romcom. The OST was kind of forgettable but does add a lot to the emotion in certain scenes and I wasn’t a fan of the OP/EDs.

Toradora! certainly isn’t bad. Despite its issues it delivers an heartfelt romance with well-defined characters, but the frustration with its asinine story telling was enough to outweigh most of the positive aspects. If you like melodrama, you’ll probably like Toradora!.

One final note, the ending is talked about incessantly, and it is very good. Many complain that it was rushed and didn't explain things well enough, but if you pay attention to the character’s values and motivations, you shouldn’t need the writers to spoon feed you Taiga’s reasons for why she did what she did. Just make sure you watch the last episode all the way through, past the credits and everything.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Apr 29, 2024

PC14106

Not Recommended

Mod Edit: This review may contain spoilers.

Story: Secret love, unrequited love, love triangle... So yeah... The funny thing is that the ending is given away in the beginning. This can't even be considered spoilers to say that the main characters are going to end up together. Anybody who says otherwise is just too blind to realise this. Let's take the main points of the plot. First of all, one guy, one girl, each in love with each other's best friend. Two, those two try to support each other with their love interest. In order to do that, make them spend a lot of time together. ... Even make them live next to each other. Give them a social outcast aura and the result is: congratulations! you got yourself a very unoriginal couple. Now this is a shame because the idea is quite realistic, only too obvious which gives you no expectations. For all I know, Ryuuji and Taiga could hold hands, cuddle, hug, kiss, have sex, get married and act like there is some distance between them. Awkward since there is absolutely none. From the beginning, they were already ridiculously close to each other by living next door but no, not close enough, need to live under the same roof. Even best friends don't do that (yeah I know, roommates or particular situation involving money but that wasn't one of them) so it clearly gives you an idea of their relationship.

Art: This part pisses me off, it is so bad. Taiga is supposed to be cute... it didn't do it for me. She looks like an underdeveloped child with a big head and permanent bed hair. Maybe it's just me but the chara design really needs some work. However Ryuuji's face gets +1. Now if I just say this without evidence to back up my argument, it's just trolling. If possible, watch the fight scene between Taiga and Sumire. To avoid spoilers, well, watch it on mute and no subs... The animation is really sloppy here, whether it's the lighting, the background characters with the same face or simply character motions. The art is good only when everything is still. Sloppy sloppy sloppy.

Sound: The openings and endings were nothing spectacular or catchy. When it comes to sound, I would say that music is more important than the voice acting since most of the time, the acting is flawless, it just comes to whether or not the seiyuu's voice is appropriate with the character. In Toradora, it's the usual. The usual being flawless performance. Now for the music, the comparison might be unfair but Toradora is nothing compared to say, Clannad. I chose Clannad because no matter the scene, sad, happy or epic, it's easy to remember the themes while Toradora produces music that you hear in elevators or supermarkets. Only one stands out: Lost my Pieces. But it's just one... Not enough.

Character: Ami saves the show a little with Minori not far behind but Taiga... Damn she pisses me off! Ryuuji is not bad but too weak to be important.
Ami and Minori had good scenes, good chara development. I didn't give a shit about Kitamura because he is a creepy smiling guy. Ryuuji had some changes but nothing significant. Taiga on the other hand, just got more and more annoying. She's not even a tsundere, the dere part is inexistant and replaced by retard state, otherwise she's just a plain spoiled bitch who needs to be left alone. That does it, she gets a -2 for being so unlikeable. Past the physical appearance which I don't even like one bit, she has nothing left except her execrable personnality. Now one way to sum up this show is that the side characters are more interesting than the main characters. When I say main, I mean Ryuuji and Taiga. Kitamura, Minori and Ami are side characters to me. While watching the show, I realised that I had no interest in whatever happens to Ryuuji and Taiga cause they already act like a couple. The side characters however make you want to know more about them. Creepy smiling dude Kitamura has a good reason for being like this while double face Ami and oddball Minori are kinda left out towards the end after much chara development. Bad idea. My main concern is how people perceive Taiga. She does things that make you want to slap her really f*cking hard and shout "what the f*ck is wrong with you?" yet she is still described as being cute, lovely etc... That girl seriously has anger issues and they can't be justified by people calling you palmtop tiger, that's retarded. She's so rude it's not even funny. Now this might be spoilers but it sums up pretty much why I think her personality is the worst. In one scene, she learns about her unrequited love confessing to a certain girl who for specific reasons refuses to give a proper answer. This is because she's going away soon so she can't say yes yet doesn't want to lie to herself by saying no. What should Taiga do in this case? Well, nothing. For the simple reason that it doesn't concern her. Still, she goes out of her way to beat the crap out of that girl while insulting her and forcing her to say she hates the guy. I was thinking "WTF" the whole time. What gives her the right to beat someone up just because that person is a coward when it comes to love? If we had to beat up every person who is a coward because of love, we're doomed. Besides she's also overreacting and goes as far as insulting and hitting people for no reason. With Ryuuji, they represent the epitome of shallow people. Both of them have a crush on someone who's really popular. The reason surely is because they treat them differently from the rest of the class. If that's not being shallow. Take one guy who's a social outcast. Now take a girl who's really popular, kind, funny, pretty and easy to talk to. This one guy would probably fall in love with that girl if she goes to talk to him because he's probably thinking "she's so nice, she talks to me while the other bastards don't even look at me, maybe she cares about me" without realising that maybe she's just nice and talks to everybody. This describes Ryuuji and Taiga perfectly.

Enjoyment: I was really disappointed by Toradora. At first I thought it would have nice development with the introduction of Ami but I guess not. It was dull and slow. Once you feel like there's something going to happen just push the reset button because it has the same feeling. Got some funny scenes though. Unfortunately the show is barely realistic. You don't root for development of the relationship between the characters and their crush because there's no feeling, no background story. Things would've been simpler like this:
Ryuuji: I like Minori.
Taiga: Oh... I see. I like Kitamura.
Ryuuji: !!! What!? Ok. So...
Both: Wanna hang out sometimes?

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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