Back to animeisscuffed's Profile animeisscuffed's Profile

Surprisingly disappointing.

The technical aspect
It's beautifully drawn and animated, with good looking characters. What is most impressive is the attention to detail: The technology shown, the computers, the hydraulics and electronics of the mechs and the large machines surrounding them, the weapons, the world itself all seem to make sense and they look, feel and sound believable and draw you in (minor exceptions like that one time where the massive mechs jump on ships and the ships don't instantly break apart and sink) .

This is sci-fi done right: It's still absurd, but the technology really feels immersive and even somewhat realistic thanks to real effort ... and attention to detail. Unlike a lot of modern anime, no frames are skipped in highly complex action scenes and it pays off. Instead, often times only one or two objects on the screen are moving, so they saved budget that way, but it does not take away from the experience.
I would say the art deserves a solid 8,5/10 - only movies with big budget get much better.

The story:
There were a lot of good ideas, but the first 16 episodes feel almost identical as they follow a very basic and repetative formula, which gets boring rather quick.
The main characters go about their lives, suddenly a threat, then the characters do a bit of talking and try to find a solution to the threat. Suddenly 16 episodes passed and there is still no further explanation about the enemies or the conspiracy broiling beneath.
Still no explanation as to why the pilots have to be 14. Why a socially inept, quiet boy has to be the pilot. Why his father doesn't care about him. Who the enemy is and why they are attacking. What all these secret organisations are.
Within the first 1-2 episodes the anime greatly establishes an amazing looking apocalyptic sci-fi world, but it completely fails to expand upon and explore it further.
While the city of Tokyo-3 comes alive visually, practically it may as well be dead and empty because for all we know the only people living there are the main characters and some random kids from school.
I often find myself aksing questions that the anime clearly intents to not answer *anytime soon*.

Shinji utters no more than 2-3 words for the first 6 episodes. Instead he just blankly stares or reacts coldly to his surroundings. They could have gotten the point across that something is wrong with him much sooner.
For example, at one point Shinji asks: What even are they and why exactly are they attacking us? Questions no doubt every single viewer will have from the very beginning, but it gets quickly dismissed and Shinji stops inquiring further, resulting in a very dissatisfying experience.

There just isn't happening enough to drive the story forward in the first 16 episodes and however great the payoff may be in in the last quarter of the series, I cannot with good conscience say that it is a good story based on that.

Why do I watch romantic anime?
To feel all warm and fuzzy inside. For those hearty moments where the characters slowly discover their feelings for each other. For when they suffer from angst and uncertainty until the inevitable collision of feelings finally happens. For when they end up in each others arms.


On a realism scale, I rate toradora 7 out of 10.
Taiga is a tsundere character at heart (rightfully referred to as the best one), frequently becoming violent. She is still a very lovable character who develops greatly and for me the main reason to watch the show. There is also a stupid, speaking parrot for ... comic relief and the always sleepy/seductive mom of Ryuuji. At times you will laugh or shrug at wierd, more or less funny situations that it seems only anime writers could come up with.
What stands out are the 5 main characters, their interactions and their development.


MINOR SPOILERS (you can still watch it after reading):

The story is summarized as follows:
Taiga and Ryuuji meet and decide to help each other with their respective love interests. Naturally, as everyone already knows, they grow to love each other instead, which takes some time to set in. It is however not the story itself that is original, but rather the sensible and very rewarding execution. Both characters grow up quite a bit and come to many realizations during the course of the show.

As events unfold and develop, we get to see the characters feelings develop over their crushes, until the first "bang" happens in episode 8 in the form of Taiga exclaiming her "ownership" over her "dog" Ryuuji (who nearly drowned in the pool) in tears in front of everyone. While exclaiming her ownership may not seem romantic at first, her tears gave a more accurate represntation of her feelings.
However, the next ~11 episodes, everything resumes back to normal and they more or less both go on about their days, with Ryuuji trying to pursue his own love interest, Minori (Taiga's best friend), when arguably one of the best episodes comes along: the christmas episode.
Here, Ryuuji is being his usual oblivious self and comforting Taiga, who spends Christmas Eve alone.
However, Taiga begins to realize her true feelings and this is followed by a tragic, beautiful moment, supported by the best track in the OST and worth all the build up to that point.
After that, nothing is the same, and everything gets concluded slowly, but yet so heartbreakingly well and satisfying over the last 6 episodes.

The last episode includes one of the best scenes I have seen from romantic anime, but I choose to ignore the controversial second half of it.

If I had to name a flaw, maybe it is that the whole premise is based on our main guy, Ryuuji, being completely oblivious to what is going on most of the time, but I did not care one bit: the homely day to day scenarios, the surprisingly great and deep character developments and the romantic conclusion made me completely overlook that.

So if you, like me, want to find out how exactly Ryuuji and Taiga end up together, do not hesitate one second to watch toradora.