Taiga Aisaka

Minori Kushieda

Maya Kihara

Yuri Koigakubo

Yasuko Takasu

Inko-chan

Sena Hamada

Kouta Tomiie

Kouji Haruta

Yuusaku Kitamura

Ami Kawashima

Sumire Kanou

Rikurou Aisaka

Stalker Otoko

Sakura Kanou

Ryuuji Takasu

Yuu Aisaka

Murase

Hisamitsu Noto

Nanako Kashii

Kuroma

Inage

Seiji Takasu

Sonoko Takasu

Yuriko Mitsui

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.

Gotta be honest, I really love Slice-of-Life Anime's, but this one is by far my favourite one! I finished this not long ago, and I really loved it, I'm sure most people can relate to this nice and loving story, I know I could. The ending~!Was actually a good way to end the Anime, I felt like it had a good ending, Where Ryuuji and Taiga get together (I totally predicted it) and there play wedding we actually cute to watch!~I love the comedy in this too, it makes the Anime a whole more enjoyable, the openings aren't even bad!~!The second one is better in my opinion!~
I thought the characters where very creative and had good thought and imagination put into them, I have to be honest My favourite is ~!Yuri, as she is a single 30 odd year old teacher who has a lot of funny and memorable moments!~However, my second favourite and someone was was my favourite for a while is ~!Minori, as she seems like the comic relief of the Anime. Her sweet, cute and funny personality makes you just love her. she seems to change near the last couple of episodes, also admitting her love for Ryuuji was quite a surprise, I was totally shocked at it!~
About the main characters, Ryuuji was a character I could relate to a lot of things that was happening to him, with his obsession for cleaning and not so popular vibe, I sometimes felt sorry for him, but that is also what just formed his character. 
Taiga on the other hand is a  somewhat adorable yet fearful character, with a lot of hilarious and memorable scenes with her in, she makes one hell of a character! I always love the line "You Dumb Chihuahua" said by her a lot, when talking to the character Ami, who is, in fact, my least favourite character, that is because ~!of her split personality she holds during the first part of the series, it really bugged me and I didn't like it at all, though she has a cute appearance, she isn't a very nice character, she did slightly improve by the end but not enough to change my view on her!~
Overall, I rate 9/10, as a good Slice-of-Life Anime. I think it's one of the best out there

Toradora is a nice, sweet and cute Anime with a lost of relatable stuff, I personally love it!

__Disclaimer: __ This review contains __spoilers.__

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We all want and seek love for various reasons, whether it be to avoid the grim darkness of loneliness, adding a new spice into your life, or just something that you wish for - even if have no clue as to why. In the beginning, _Toradora_ starts with a statement that love is a gentle and sweet thing. If you could put your eyes on it, it would be something that you would desire greatly. Therefore, the Earth has hidden it, to make sure that not just anyone can obtain it. Whether or not you will be able to take hold of it is up to you in the end. Is this possibly foreshadowing the events that will later unfold in the show? Possibly, but whatever happens, _Toradora _- just like most Romantic-Comedies (RomCom for short) - has a slightly hard time striking a balance between romance and comedy, with each half of the plot differing in tones. With the initial half being the weaker of the two, this leads to missed opportunities to establish a foundation for the events later on in the show. Overall, while this show had a lot of the things I like about RomComs, it still has some flaws that cannot be ignored.

One of the things people in love have in common is knowing how hard it is to approach the person they are interested in without fumbling their words all over the place, so they end up relying on someone else to help them with this feat. This is how _Toradora_ begins. The fated encounter between Taiga _‘Palmtop Tiger’_ Aisaka and Ryuuji _‘The Delinquent’_ Takasu starts with them helping each other out in their quests  to conquer their respective love interests, Yuusaku Kitamura and Minori Kushieda. Unfortunately, after forming the pact, their goals are pushed further away after Yuusaku and Minori misinterpret their relationship due to how much time they spend with each other. This starts a common theme throughout _Toradora_, showing that life does not always go the way you want it to. Nothing is ever promised nor owed to you; not unless you do your best to attain it. Then perhaps -- you might be able to take grasp of it.

One of the problems _Toradora_ has is how it inserts emotions into the watcher, giving us a slight clue on how the characters feel, throughout the show’s narrative. Hints that slightly sway you to think that this character has an interest in him or her. For example, when Minori and Ryuuji get trapped in the storage house we see her hand tremble. This could be an indication that she is nervous due to her being alone and stuck with Ryuuji in the storage room, perhaps liking him more than a friend. The problem is not the insertion, it is what happens afterwards as well as the frequency of it. It gets swept away most of the times and gets muddled in the comedy that occurs following it. It is as if it was forgotten. Events popping up like Taiga's sudden cry and worry of Ryuuji, after he almost drowned due to an accident, being one of the first “drama” tied with the misleading notion that she suddenly cares for her dog, Ryuuji, feels off and unfitting. You could perhaps say that the scene was to show how Taiga reacts to an emergency involving Ryuuji and thus unaware of her emotions reacting in this way. This would be a fine interpretation but once again, this does not really leave much of an impact - if any - and is as I said earlier, this becomes diluted and could be easily forgotten. This whole sum of foundation building leads to the later half where the show starts to show its more serious tone, gripping the actual romance part of RomCom, which is not as well supported as it could have been thus leading to a less enjoyable experience. You could say that the comedy is a bit too much at first.

Once we reach the beach arc we start to notice improvements in humor as well as characterization. The show is lead by the actions of the characters and therefor it has to emphasize the development of them. During the beach arc we get to see an actual beach episode where fanservice is not the all-in-all. This is where the show strikes the balance between humor and build-up for the upcoming drama. With all the characters trying to do their best chiming in on the fun (service), Ryuuji and Taiga trying to scare Minori which does not really go exactly as planned, Ryuuji getting played on by Ami pretending she is showering but she was actually just cleaning the bath, and the never-ending universal argument of how spicy the curry should be. We get to see a lot more interactions which lead on to learning more about the girls, most of all Minori. With Ryuuji and her having a tender scene where they discuss a bit of ghost and love, drawing parallel to both that some people do not believe in ghost and some do, but some people deny their existence even though they have seen one as well as some other people who put in an effort finding it to see one. This scene is filled with imagery which acts as metaphors to how each character feels, Ami even though acting strong she does not seem that fulfilled, Taiga not feeling complete even though she is spending some time alone with Yuusaku, Ryuuji getting slightly down due to how Minori doesn't believe she will ever experience love. There are even more scenes like these, short ones but fully packed with everything that makes love triangles - or in this case, a love square - worthwhile watching. One more noteworthy part of the beach arc is the cave where the group, with exception of Minori, tries to scare her by making scare traps along the way while they explore the deep cave. The enjoyment when their attempts fail, as well as the continuing trend of keeping two characters all alone together (Ryuuji and Ami), later on solidifying how Ami feels about her situation as well as Minori.

Everyone gets improvement in every way in the central point of the plot, which very well prepares and leads smoothly on to the emotionally heavy core, the climax of the whole plot. Yuusaku gets his own very own arc where we see him lose character and completely change his attitude. This gives him the spotlight he so lacked before his arc. We now get to see all the characters put in effort to help him out to the right path once again. An important part of this arc is how Taiga starts to change how she feels about him after being informed that Yuusaku has feelings for the school council president, Sumire. But weirdly enough it revealed more about the other characters than him. Sure he is in love with Sumire and he gets on the wrong track due to her moving far away abroad. But it doesn't evolve his character later on, just like what happened in Ami's arc. Sadly, not everyone's arc was well done. Even though it happened earlier, Ami's arc which introduced her to the gang had a lesser impact on the whole. She starts off giving the aura of being an innocent, pretty girl who models for various fashion magazines. The issue which had to be resolve in her arc was this stalker that kept following her around non-stop, disallowing Ami a peace of mind which leads her to go on hiatus from her modelling as well as being constantly paranoid. This is a rather ridiculous way of getting her into the group. She does not join the group because she likes Taiga's tsun-tsun behavior against her nor is she getting along with Minori like Taiga is. How it goes is that she ends up - somehow - falling in-love with Ryuuji, only for changing her mind on having the facade she used to have and to start being more "honest" with herself. The way this is done is making us believe that she will accept her "ill-natured behavior and look", but later on we see her continue with the facade, even though it is to a lesser degree than before. She also somehow falls in-love with Ryuuji during the process, which is not really explained, metaphorically nor literally. The sense of not knowing _why_ she feels that way gives the impression of her arc feeling flat.

But with weaknesses comes strength as well, one cannot exist without the other - with the exception of Pupa perhaps - and the later parts of the show is the one that completely toys with everyone's emotions. It finally digs into the conflict, where all the girls start to understand more about each other's feelings towards Ryuuji. We get to see Minori watch in the background while Taiga weeps after realizing her mistake of letting him go after Minori to confess. In the process Minori finally shows the side we were all waiting for, the one where she is not holding up this upbeat facade, and now she has to choose a path whether or not to allow Taiga to be with him or be selfish and fulfill her own happiness. But this is just the beginning of the steep hill towards the climax. Just the beginning. Scenes showing Taiga's care of Ryuuji are now more apparent than ever, an example where she fights for the hairpin which is a precious gift and item symbolizing his love in the form of an object. But staying in the same setting where the status quo  is upheld, there has to be a change of setting to force the characters - stubborn one that is, such as taiga - to break out of their shell, with them worried about hurting one another.

In the peak of it all, the group are now in the mountain tops, enjoying their school trip skiing which sets a perfect environment for the characters to - literally - be forced to be close to each other and leave no room for escape. Which brings us to the scene where Ami pokes Minorin non-stop questioning her feelings. Ami has always been the one that keeps on trying to make Taiga and Minori's shell to burst, because she is tired of watching ever so vigilantly on the "kids" playing around and never getting the the "true" core. Always avoiding the subject of love, which frustrates Ami since she understands how she is not able to win over Taiga -- which is continuously shown throughout the show whenever she pokes and flirts with Ryuuji when they are around the others, or whenever a topic that could lead to their realization of their emotions. Ami is not able to follow her heart, being with Ryuuji, which in her mind understands it cannot happen due to how she understand how he feels about Taiga. Instead of trying to hurt herself in an unwinnable war, she tries to brutally poke at Minori and continues to bash on how Minori fools around, which leads us to their fight of the previously mentioned fight in the room. With Taiga attempting to stop the fight, but accidentally falls off the cliff setting off a traumatizing event for everyone involved since they cannot find Taiga and a blizzard storm is now raging outside. _Toradora_ in its final moments at last uses to great effect its side characters as a clam to get Tiger and Dragon together. The ending felt rushed, but it fit how after the event of Taiga's disappearance, made an adrenaline pumping moment both for all the characters as well as for the viewer, thus making the what seems to be a rushed ending, a fitting one. The distraught coming from how Ami dealt with her fate with Ryuuji adult-like, and how Minori fell together at the end making a pool of tears, a bit like a child who weeps, set off a conclusive ending to both of their arcs -- now that fate has chosen Taiga and Ryuuji to be together.

At the beginning we asked if there is such thing as a fateful encounter, and whether it is possible to always stay with our loved ones. Is fate a real thing? Do our actions affect it? _Toradora_ explores these themes by showing us both sides to the story. Midori accepting that Taiga is better suited for Ryuuji, and while accepting that fate she also chooses her own path to make their happiness her own. For Ami, she is a little similar. Early on she understood that this is an unwinnable war, so she does her best to help them both in her own way, even though it may seem harsh. For some, fate does not favour them. After all, fate works in strange ways. One day, perhaps you might meet the love of your life, someone that you compare to. Like two beasts that stand equal to one another, just like Tiger and Dragon.

A decently done RomCom with likable characters and a strong second half which leaves quite an impact.

As I always say with this type of anime that involve love.... opinions are really subjetive, cause honestly, love is one of the most subjetive things on the world. That said, I think this is the best romance anime ever, and for many years has always been my favourite anime of all time.

The strongest part of Toradora! are the characters. Every character is really, reaaaaaally well done and always have a real and logical/coherent way to "do what/act how" they do. I have seen a lot of anime, and there is a lot of them were sometimes certain characters act or do things really different of what you would expect based on the personalities they were given, just to make certain situations more dramatic or whatever. After having watchet Toradora! several times (too much probably), I can definitely say their characters feels very coherent and real, and that helps A LOT to make the plot really touching.

Aisaka Taiga, the main female character of Toradora!, is what people would usually call a Tsundere. But contrary of what a lot of people think, being a tsundere is not about being really aggresive and kicking everyone asses at all times. I think Toradora! explains really great through this character what a tsundere really is and why is that they are like that.

~!A tsundere is a really really shy person, so shy that he/she act aggresive to "evade" embarrasing situations. A lot of time they don't even like/want to be/say those aggresive things, they even think the opposite (Note: Read Vanilla Salt -1st ending- english lyrics). Tsunderes are so shy they just can't avoid to run away of embarrasing situations, they get embarrased so easily, even if you tell a Tsundere he/she is really good at something, or cute, they will get embarrased and will say something aggresive to end that situation. They can be really glad, or even want to say "you too", but they are too shy they just can't, they are not capable of saying what they want. Pretty often tsunderes hate being it, they want to say one thing but they just... they can't. They really want to be more open, but they are so extremely shy they struggle SO much to be like/say what they really are/want.

Also, tsunderes don't even have to act violent or aggresive, they can also act confident, or even funny. It's just that on anime they usually act violent, and also cause when a tsundere acts violent is more noticeable that when, for example... Okabe Rintarou acts crazy/funny. Cause yea, Okabe Rintarou is tsundere too. Bet a lot of ppl dissagre/didn't notice that. Also this may sound weird but, my source is really good I would say cause... I am a bit tsundere too IRL xD That's why I understand really well characters like Taiga and other tsundere characters.
!~

Toradora!'s plot is basically their characters. Their feelings, their mistakes, their struggles.

Takasu Ryuuji, main male character, has a crush for Kushieda Minori, and his best friend is Yuusaku Kitamura. Both Minori and Kitamura are in the same class with Ryuuji. Ryuuji's hair/face makes him look like a bad guy to others, so he really doesn't have that many friends besides Yuusaku Kitamura, and always has problems with his look even when he is a really good person.

Aisaka Taiga, who is also on the same class, has a crush for Yuusaku Kitamura, and her best friend is Kushieda Minori. She is a tsundere, she is really agresive so she doesn't have that many friends either besides Kushieda Minori.

There are more important characters later, like Kawashima Ami, but those ones are the starting point of Toradora!.

So, since they get to know their crush is the other one best friend, Ryuuji and Taiga decide to help each other with that. That's it, can't say more! A lot of things happen, a lot of things change... you get to know every character on detail, and will love them, I promise! So go watch it already :)

Edit: Several typos :P

The best romance anime that even not romance fans end up loving.

In this world, there’s this thing that no one’s ever seen. This thing is very kind and gentle. And if anyone could actually see it, there’d be a whole bunch of people wanting to have it. Maybe that’s why the world keeps it hidden from everyone… Because if it’s that hard to get, that makes it even more special. And one day, someone will find it. Whoever does find it, they’ll be the one that was supposed to. Because that’s the way it’s meant to be.

Ryuji Takesu is trying to find this something… He’s in love with an energetic girl in his class, but his reputation as the second scariest student in the school has kept him at a distance from her. One day, the first scariest student in the school slips a love note into his bag by mistake, and the two of them realize that they’re in love with each others’ best friends. By joining forces in the pursuit of their unrequited loves, can this Tiger and Dragon finally find that one thing that they long to see?

Well, once again, we’re returning to JC Staff, although this series is an entirely different creature than the two shows I’ve reviewed before. It combines the budget allocation from Ghost Hunt with the hyper-cheap aesthetic from Ookami-san to some surprisingly great effect. It’s not what you’d call a great looking series, as movement is limited, but for the most part, the movement it DOES showcase is smooth and kinetic. The only time it really becomes ugly is during a few of the biggest emotional moments of the show, and their attempt to get as much movement as possible out of the characters leads to frameless, poorly drawn monsters that look absolutely hilarious when paused. But luckily, those moments are few and far between, and the high emotions involved are enough to overpower and revulsion these images may cause.

As for the artwork, it’s above average. The character designs are brilliant, with inspired looks and bright, sharp color choices keeping the entire cast fresh in your mind for days after you finish the series, but outside of that, it’s pretty standard slice-of-life stuff. The CG, at least in the few moments that they choose to employ it, is flawlessly done, so it’s pretty easy to pick out where a good chunk of the budget went. The only aspect of the artwork that really bothered me were the constant jagged outlines around the characters, which is not an uncommon problem in anime from around the late aughts… Even Brotherhood and Spice and Wolf suffered from it. That problem is completely erased if you’re watching it on Blu-ray, however.

In any case, the show does it’s job visually, as all the extra effort in the animation makes for some impeccable comic timing, and the lighting and color scheme suddenly become gorgeous whenever there’s a romantic scene to showcase. The facial expressions are detailed and dynamic enough to make Kyoto Animation eat it’s heart out, which is important because in a lot of ways, the characters are the most important part of the show. The main characters… The ones who appear most prominently in the opening… Take the standard love triangle and evolve it into a full blown love pentagon, with enough plotting and emotional nuance that each one of them is as important to the unfolding drama as the next.

Our central character, Ryuji Takesu, is a hopeless romantic who’s been mistaken for a scary thug because of his tough face and quiet demeanor. If that sounds familiar to you, it’s because his character was ripped off wholesale by a series that I like to call “Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Original Ideas.” He’s the standard nice guy rom-com lead, but there’s much more to him than others of his ilk… He was raised by a very childish single parent, which lead to him becoming the responsible housewife she could never be… He cooks, fusses, and is an obsessive neat-freak who can’t stand to let dirt or mold sit unchallenged. His personality may not resonate with everyone, but that’s what’s so wonderful about it… He actually has personality traits that aren’t just positive gimmicks, and the majority of the people surrounding him actually DO find him weird because of it. He’s not the glorified perfect guy everyone loves, and after Kyo-Ani’s domination of the market, that’s pretty refreshing.

The other main character is Taiga Aisaka, a tiny girl who’s actually earned her frightful reputation. Blunt and brutal, she’s been given the diminutive nickname “The Palmtop Tiger.” At first glance, she may appear to be some calculated pander to the fans of the lolicon and tsundere archetypes, and I can kind of understand where people who say this are coming from. But as the story progresses, and you learn more about her family situation, her tough nature becomes more and more understandable, and it also becomes very clear that her physical shortcomings are a thing that she has to overcompensate for. Yeah, you can condemn her as being a shallow grab at the loli market, but the truth is, I knew plenty of girls like her in school, so it’s hard for me to become offended when one of them is very accurately represented in a story. She’s the most complex and (ironically) the most developed character in the cast, so it makes sense that she’s become the posterchild for the series.

Their friends(and initial love interests) are Yusaku Kitamura and Minori Kushieda, two lovable oddballs who are active in a lot of school activities. Yusaku is a relatively simple character, and in the beginning, he’s the only one who knows that Taiga and Ryuji are good people. This probably has something to do with his involvement in student council, as he seems to be the kind of person who makes an effort to get to know everybody. Despite being a little simple, he does have his problems, and he does get his own arc, and they don’t disappoint. Minori is the class’s genki girl, a bright ball of energy who tries her best in everything she does, is highly perceptive of other peoples’ true feelings, and holds about a dozen jobs outside of school. She can be annoying to some viewers, but while it’s never fully explored, it’s implied several times throughout the anime that she has a wealth of issues below the surface, and that she may secretly suffer from poverty, or even severe depression in her home life. Whatever the case, the only ones who never really believe in her sunny exterior are herself and…

My favorite character in the show, Ami Kawashima. When she’s introduced to the story, it’s as a sort of villain… Or, at least, an antagonist. She’s a bratty, arrogant model who puts on a much more manufactured, moe-like facade in order to manipulate people, and if you’re the kind of person who can’t stand all the infantilized doe-eyed ladies of the Key Trinity, you’ll be laughing right along with her over it. As she develops, and we learn more about why she transferred to this school and why she is the way she is, she’s eventually forced to drop her act, at which point she becomes arguably the most important character in the series. She becomes an almost Shakespearian character, a fifth wheel who’s free to observe the web of lies going on between her cast mates. She takes an active role in the story, pulling strings and making calculated comments, getting way too involved as she tries to unravel the truth behind it all.

The supporting cast is used with surprising efficiency, as none of them are featured any more or less than they need to be. Characters like The Student council President, Inko the brain-damaged parrot, and the parents of our two central characters exist not only to augment the comedy or drama of the material, but to drop subtle hints about why the characters are the way they are. Characters like Miss Koigakubo and four other select students exist to deliver some stunning paralells in regards to what’s going on in the main story, as well as to serve as a constant reminder that there’s a world outside of Taiga’s circle.

Toradora is one of a small list of shows that I’ve seen in both English and Japanese, and even though I may be woefully monolingual, I can personally attest to the fact that both tracks are nothing short of pure gold. I can’t really say anything about the Japanese track that a simple list of names wouldn’t say all on it’s own, as I don’t think anybody is a virgin to the works of people like Rie Kugimiya and Yui Horie, but the English dub really doesn’t have that kind of star power, so it does merit a bit more discussion.

In recent years, Bang Zoom Entertainment has taken to pushing it’s main stable to the back row, and instead giving some of it’s best roles to a series of newer actors that haven’t gotten nearly as much work in the past. This transition was a little rocky at first, with projects like K-On and Oblivion Island at the forefront, and some decent yet rather awkward acting in Madoka Magica. Well, Toradora was their moment, and they rose to it, putting forth better performances than I could have possibly imagined. They all far surpassed the relatively little work they’ve previously done, and after hearing them in this, I sincerely hope this stable becomes the next big industry powerhouse.

Going in, I already had respect for Cassandra Lee’s ability to understand and essentially become her characters, as her performances in both K-On and Madoka Magica were outstanding, but I felt Taiga’s depth was out of her range… And I never really liked Christine Marie Cabanos, although she was decent in Squidgirl. I wasn’t initially expecting much, but this dub is literally perfect. And yes, I know what I’m implying by putting the word literally before the word perfect… Believe me, I mean it that way. I can’t imagine any cast coming together for Toradora better than this one did. All of those actors I’d never heard of before… Like Erika Herlacher and Erik Kimerer… Are names I’m going to be looking out for from now on. Cassandra Lee has only strengthened my confidence in her abilities, and as for Cabanos? I take back every negative thing I ever said about her. She is the star of this dub, and as such, I don’t want to live in a world where her performance is anything other than star-making. Every inch of her becomes Minori Kushieda, from her sunny and boisterous exterior all the way down to her complex, insecure interior. She’s apparently found her niche in loud, energetic characters, so I hope she keeps getting roles like that one.

There are a handful of seasoned veterans among the cast, with Johnny Yong Bosch and Karen Strassman pulling off performances that are about what you’d expect from them… Which is a good thing, mind you. And even though she’s playing multiple second-string roles, like that weird parrot-thing, Wendee Lee hasn’t sounded this good since Cowboy Bebop.  You can’t go wrong with sub or dub, but I’m still going to recommend the dub, as I honestly consider it a testament to how good dubs can be.

So, right from the first episode, or just from a simple explanation of the plot, most viewers will give this show a dismissive wave and say that it sounds too predictable. “Okay, so they’re in love with each others’ best friends, but they’re going to wind up falling in love with each other, right?” I have literally sat and watched this with a first time viewer who said pretty much this, and then throw his hands up in defeat after about eight episodes of NOTHING going the way he predicted it would. And that’s part of the genius of this series. The characters are familiar, the tropes are familiar, the setting is familiar, but none of it is ever played the way you’d expect it to be played. Take any problem that the romantic comedy/harem genre may have, and Toradora either avoids it completely or turns it upside down.

For example, there’s the harem aspect. It’s a trend in way too many shows that nearly every female character in the cast will inexplicably fall head over heels in love with the male protagonist, ignoring all other options as not being main enough for them.  I complained about this in detail last week. This is one of the biggest issues I had with Sword Art Online and Clannad, but it’s not just a numbers issue… In Tiger and Bunny, the main character had ONE girl fawning over him, and it still bugged me by being completely unexplained. In Toradora, yes, the three main girls have feelings for Ryuji, but there are a few things that set this series apart… First off, it’s only those three characters. Second, all three of these love interests are explained in story, either explicitly or with subtlety, and they’re all played out differently. The crushes aren’t just flowing in one direction from the ladies to the gentlemen, oh no, it’s a distinctly two-way street.  And finally, Ryuji’s not the only eligible bachelor in the show… His friend Yusaku gets just as much attention, and hell, the first character in the named cast to get a significant other is one of their classmates!

Another example is that in most harem shows, particularly the ones adapted from dating games (Which Toradora thankfully wasn’t), the story seems disjointed, as each character gets their own arc while the main relationship just sits on the backburner until all the filler is done and the writers are damn well good and ready to just get to the point already. But Toradora’s story is, however, VERY tightly written. There is not a single story arc in the single freaking series that doesn’t somehow involve Taiga and Ryuji and their ever-developing dynamic, nor does the central plot ever get forgotten. The other three mains may occasionally take a backseat, but they never disappear from a story completely.

Hell, when you get down to it, all the little things that make up your typical romantic comedy are here… But they’re used in new, clever, often subversive ways that are never just there for the sake of being checked off of a tropes list. Everything that you’d expect to see in a show like this… From bathing suit shopping to the obligatory beach episode… Is executed in a way that’s fresh, unique, and important to the story. Hell, where most anime are happy to settle on a cafe or a haunted house for their culture fest episode, Toradora goes balls-out with a professional wrestling show, complete with faces, heels, an over-the-top script and choreographed in-ring action! We never see any characters in the bath, because no matter what a lot of other shows may think, no on screen conversation ever NEEDS to take place in the bath. There’s a little bit of fanservice, but it’s never gratuitous… Except for a dream that one of the side characters has right before the Christmas arc, which was funny enough to be excusable… And it’s offset by a heaping helping of manservice, often willingly supplied by the unnervingly confident Yusaku, and even then, it’s played entirely for laughs.

But if I had to pick out one thing that makes this series stand out over the tops of all the other rom-coms out there, it would be exactly that… Confidence. Toradora is one hundred percent confident in the quality of the material it has to offer, and unlike a lot of other shows that value enthusiasm over ability, it’s smart enough to know that it’s confidence is well founded. It never doubts itself, nor does it ever assume that YOU doubt it, and it never slows down or breaks it’s outstanding pace to try and convince you otherwise. It’s this confidence that gives Toradora it’s energy. Well, that, and the amazing soundtrack.

Toradora has an unwavering, dazzling energy just radiating from it at every moment of screen time. That energy never goes away, even during the more tear-jerking scenes, because it never screws around… Instead of pop culture references, Toradora casually rolls out references and metaphors related to it’s own universe. Where there are plenty of anime that fall into the trap of stopping their stories dead to show you backstory episodes you don’t care about for characters who are just going to fade into the background afterwards… His and Her Circumstances was particularly bad about this… Toradora doesn’t, because it knows that you’ll care about the characters anyway. It never does anything just because it feels like it should, nor does it ever show us anything just because we might want to see it. The only time it really slows down is towards the end, and it only does it then because it has one hell of a perfect post-credits ending to close on.

Toradora was originally released on a pair of undubbed DVDs by Sentai Filmworks, and while those DVDs were just fine and dandy… Once again, the sub is great all on it’s own… I would still highly recommend purchasing the DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack that was released last year by NIS America. It’s pricey, but it comes with a full color fan book and a generous helping of special features, including the cute and charming Hooray for Foodies mini-sodes. It also comes with a short video of some of the impressions that Taiga made Ami do, and a dubbed OVA episode about the magic of making bento boxes, but I’ll be honest, they were both kind of disappointing. The OVA wasn’t necessarily bad, but it would have dragged down the series if it had actually been included. You can also stream the entire series, in either language, on Crunchyroll!

Toradora isn’t just great, it’s glowing. With the exception of the animation, which is at the very least better than it has any right to be, there is nothing this series does wrong. At twenty five episodes long, it’s as fun to watch again and again as any other show with half the episode count. The high rewatch quality doesn’t stop there, either, as the comedic and dramatic material are both so effective and so timeless that I still found myself constantly laughing and choking up after seven entire viewings. It takes some of the worst things about the romantic comedy and harem genres and proves just how amazing those things can become with a little bit of effort, focus, and tender loving care. I won’t say whether or not the characters found that mysterious ‘thing’ they were looking for, but I found what I was looking for… The best anime romantic comedy ever made. I give Toradora a 10/10.

My main issue with Toradora, the underlying source of all my frustration with this show, is the structurally weak foundation of the characters and their interactions that the entire show is built on. Weak and unconvincing motivations and relationship dynamics make the characters feel empty and shallow with little meaning to back up their actions, however the plot depends on you believing and justifying these actions in order to have any stake in the outcome. It’s not helped by the fact that reactions and emotional climaxes are way too over-dramatic to the point where they seem completely manufactured for shock value and don’t try to tell a convincing story, but instead try to sell you on drama. This can be great if the intentions and the rationale behind actions are appropriately worthy of the drama, or as satirical and ironic comedic relief, but in TD not only is it way too overused, but it leans on these flawed conflicts as the only things moving the plot forward. It also takes everyone forever to accomplish anything meaningful, because no one is forward or open with their desires despite very, VERY obviously showing them. 

All of these factors make it feel as if the resulting illogical and irrational decisions are solely used to create drama for the sake of creating drama, instead of depicting a natural progression of a complicated story. Simple problems, that have simple solutions that should be as obvious as the sun is bright, are dragged out for hours resulting in a plot that barely goes anywhere for well into two-thirds of the way through. By that point, around episode 15 where the plot finally starts seeing some progress, it is hard to have any stake in the outcome as any credibility to the realism of these character relationships has been destroyed. The rest of the show and final arc after e16 feels rushed, finally progressing on a relationship on which the foundation is shaky and unconvincing.

I honestly do not understand why this show is so highly rated. There are a few good moments scattered throughout, but every single character except Ami (who is the exception to most of what I said in this opening) does not deserve a happy ending. Spoilers from here on out.
______________________________________________________

So let’s start with __Taiga and Ryuuji__. First, starting at the very beginning of the show, is the fact that their relationship is built on their crushes for other people, of which both crushes are are poorly justified from the very beginning and go more or less unexplained by the very end. However, my main complaint is that Ryuuji is a complete doormat to Taiga and her extreme verbal and physical abuse, and selfish, ungrateful, and downright nasty attitude. A little masochism can be great don’t get me wrong. However, there is absolutely no logical or justifiable reason for Ryuuji to continue taking that level of mistreatment. And sure there are people who love cooking, cleaning, and taking care of others, but the level that Taiga takes the abuse up to, and the level that Ryuuji takes the role of caretaker to, are just way too extreme to ever be believable or enjoyable. While it may be funny the first few times, this same dynamic relentlessly drags on well into +16 episodes. 

I personally get zero enjoyment out of the “quirkiness” or “eccentricity” of these 2 main characters and their interactions / relationship. It’s straight up domestic violence between strangers trying to pass as a wacky and funny relationship, and it’s just not convincing to me at all. And I have tried to understand peoples’ explanations about why Ryuuji likes Taiga. They just don’t make sense. “Having someone to vent to and act natural around” and “understanding and compassion” fall down in the face of Ryuuji literally getting the shit beat out him, and where Taiga reciprocates nothing but both Minori and Ami do to some extent. Honestly the only justification that would ever make sense is if Ryuuji were both a massive lolicon and masochist. 

I can understand that others may enjoy or even relate to Taiga and Ryuuji’s relationship, but I find it way too unrealistic and frustrating. This is the underlying problem I have with TD. It just falls apart if you do not find the main relationship of the plot to be believable from start to finish, since everything revolves around and is built upon it. 

So now onto __Kitamura__, who is honestly pathetic. He spends a few episodes brooding and running away from an extremely simple problem in the most pathetic way possible. We later find out that it was all a pitiful stunt to try and win over the sitting student council president. A cry for help should not drive the plot of over 40 minutes of screen time. Again, completely unconvincing since we have very little backstory and reason for why we should be invested in his crush and his actions, and absurd dramatization and over-personification. While this arc of his is more of a side story and easy to separate from the main plot, it does become the motivating factor / foundation for many of the events between Ryuuji and Taiga. This adds another layer of unconvincing motivations which makes everything that follows that much harder to believe and to justify. Back to the story; so now this goes back to Taiga who finally realizes that Kitamura, the guy she has been creaming herself over for the past +16 episodes, loves someone else and not her - something that a chimp would be able to understand after him repeatedly ignoring her in every interaction between the two of them, during which she was publicly aroused around him to the point where it might as well have been hentai. After about 6 whole hours of this extremely frustrating and largely stagnant character dynamic, she does an immediate 180 and realizes that Ryuuji is the one she loves. How quickly this happens, (especially compared to how long and drawn out the plot was before this point) requires a major suspension of disbelief and is not even trying to present a natural or realistic progression of a meaningful relationship at all. And the kicker is, Ryuuji welcomes it even after the prolonged abuse and contempt that Taiga has been inflicting constantly over the past 16 or so episodes. Repeating what I said before, it just seems ridiculous that the ending and payoff of the show depends on believing in the validity or legitimacy of Taiga and Ryuuji’s feelings for one another when presented with things like this. 

But the main conflict of the show is that Ryuuji likes __Minori__ and we find out that she likes him back, right as taiga realizes that she also likes him. Keep in mind that this is more than 15 episodes in, where before it was long and drawn out story of X loves Y who loves Z who loves etc. Within that time by the way, the whole plot could have been easily solved if someone actually said something, ANYTHING. So much time spent on nothing, driven by everyone not wanting to say anything but showing it so obviously that it numbs the brain how it goes unresolved. So anyways, now we actually have a love triangle but the problem is that Minori is extremely loyal, obedient, and submissive to Taiga. Trying to pass this dynamic off as believable is another aspect that the plot depends on in order to move forward, and is the main focus of my frustration with Minori. Again, extremely unconvincing. Taiga deserves basically none of the affection she gets, both from Minori and from Ryuuji. Oh boo hoo her dad is rich and pays for anything she wants but she is too unmotivated to actually do anything and lives in filth and does nothing, on her own volition. Father not around? Neither is Ryuuji's, plus he’s poor, and it is implied that his mother is an actual prostitute. Got family issues? So does literally every single one of the 5 main characters.

So now we get to __Ami__, the only redeemable character. She makes decisions that for the most part make sense, has a great character arc, and reasonable, well explained plot development that adds substantial depth to her character which is not just used as a cheap trick to move the story along. She seems to be the only one of the group who has eyes and uses them to perceive the world around her. The only one who actually confronts people and talks about things and who does not let their blinding emotional desires overpower simple decision making. The only one who calls out the stupidity of the overly dramatic and emotional conflicts within the group, which are poorly defined but are the only things driving the plot forward. Sure she starts out as a terrible person, but literally the next episode her entire motivation and backstory is explained in a way that makes sense and explains her behavior, and she pretty much stops being such a terrible person. Her attraction to the MC is one that grows over time instead of a blinding love seemingly popping into existence at just the right time to create some drama and keep the plot going.
_____________________________________

Not everyone needs a happy ending - I am perfectly fine with that. However, Taiga definitely does not deserve one being the terrible person that she is, especially at the expense of both Minori and Ami. They are much better and more redeemable characters whose motivations and decisions are more reasonable, and whose attraction to the MC is much more believable and convincing. After having it explained to me, the last few episodes with the eloping (as weird as they were) do show Taiga's arc and ultimate motivations, but it is such an abrupt departure from her personality and her behavior from the previous +20 episodes that it is just not believable in my opinion, and also makes that final arc feel extremely rushed compared to slow and stagnant progression up until that point. 

The ending, actually the entire show really but the ending in particular, requires big jumps in logic and assumptions to be made; putting trust in both the changing and unchanging motivations that drive the decisions of these characters that you must believe but which are not actually shown. A fitting end, where the outcome relies on superimposing your personal belief that these characters have grown and progressed. Making the assumption that you will just believe it and go along with it without showing the effort and the self reflection of telling a nuanced and complicated story, instead opting for derivative, trumped up drama and showing you the result, hoping that you will fill in the gaps yourself and believe it to be convincing. While I can understand some of the appeal in that, in my opinion; the situations and character personalities presented compared to the outcomes of the plot are just too big of gaps to fill in.

Driven by unconvincing, overpersonified characters with weak motivations and reasoning. Frustrating to watch.

[ img20(https://bestanimations.com/Signs&Shapes/Arrows/Right/right-arrow-29.gif) ](https://anilist.co/review/3856)img820(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b7/a8/90/b7a89016b9569d1b97b182632d33343a.jpg)

Toradora! is one of those anime where you should refrain from casting judgement until you’ve seen it through until the end. As a case in point, even midway through, I wasn’t sure what all the hubbub about the show was about. Now, however I fully understand why the show has captured the hearts of so many.

As I touched upon before, Toradora! is a very well-received anime. From what I’ve seen, it’s regarded as one of the best romance anime. It is the favorite anime of many. This in and of itself could serve as a draw to the series. If you want to be in the conversation in regards to anime, after watching Toradora!, you’ll be sure to find someone to discuss it with.

Toradora! Follows Ryuuji Takasu -- a first-year high school student who’s ostracized due to his frightening appearance -- and Taiga Aisaka -- a girl whose extremely short stature belies a fiery and violent attitude. Their paths cross when Ryuuji inadvertently discovers a love letter from Taiga, causing her to blackmail him into helping her win the affections of her crush. 

That’s a very simple synopsis, but I don’t really want to give away too much. 

Toradora! has a _very_ colorful cast of characters, and I’m pleased to say they’re a joy to watch. In particular, I love Ryuuji and Kitamura just due to how nice they are. For Toradora! I watched the Japanese audio version, and all the seiyuu sound fantastic, lending a lot of emotion and character to their roles. I don’t exaggerate when I say that every main character has hidden depths that allow you to appreciate them more. All of their actions make sense and they have reasons for some of their more bizarre and egregious traits. Most importantly, they grow as people.

You should keep this in mind, because the show certainly might not seem like its anything more than surface level at first.

Most of my marks against Toradora! are at the beginning, specifically the first four episodes or so. Toradora! is an amazing ride, but it takes a bit to leave the station, so to speak. The main problem for me lies in the fact that Taiga, at least initially, is an __extremely__ hard character to love. Bear in mind that I generally loathe characters of the tsundere archetype and Taiga may as well be the queen. Violent, spiteful, loud, and possessing a hair-trigger temper, Taiga is the epitome of the trope. And while she’s multi-faceted, she gets better, and she has a reason for the way she acts, it doesn’t make watching her any easier. She proved particular aggravating to me because I had to watch her abuse the mild-mannered Ryuuji and see him warm up to her despite her doing nothing to deserve his kindness.

Even ignoring Taiga, I just didn’t find the first few episodes special. The jokes aren’t that funny and it just seems like your standard romcom. If I hadn’t watched the first eight episodes in one go, I might have dropped the series. I would have been missing out on a terrific series, but in my defense, I wouldn’t have known better. It’s a show’s job to hook watchers in early on, and Toradora! unfortunately doesn’t do that well, in my opinion.

Toradora! _does_ reward the faithful for staying however, and it’s all uphill from there. I know one of the most ridiculous things to say when recommending a show to someone is “oh, just keep watching, it gets better! I swear.” For one, it forces new viewers to place their faith in a show despite evidence that its sub-par. With me acknowledging how crazy I sound, please, please believe me when I say the show gets better. It gets amazing. Come the second third of the show, all the jokes land, the animation becomes more fluid as J.C. Staff hits its stride, and serious elements are abound. 

The final third of the series, signified by a change in OP and ED, is easily the best portion of the show. It’s definitely more dramatic than the rest of the series, but the shift isn’t jarring. The series gradually moves from comedic to more serious and romantic elements, and I was impressed by how natural it felt. Given the characters I saw at the beginning, I was surprised by how real everyone felt and how naturally the romance progressed.

The music is memorable and fits each scene well.

Hindsight is 20/20, so getting through the beginning will doubtlessly be easier upon a rewatch. As a bonus incentive to watch it again, Toradora! features a lot of foreshadowing.

Overall, Toradora! Is a show that I find a bit hard to recommend. It takes quite a while to hit its stride, but once it does, it's all smooth sailing until a great finish. This unassuming romcom is like an onion - it has layers, and it just might make you cry. The art is great, the zany characters will make you laugh, and the connections that the characters forge will warm your heart. I’m really grateful that I got to watch such a heartwarming anime during the holiday season. At first I wasn’t sure what the fuss was about -- it just seemed like your typical anime. Toradora! still isn’t perfect, but there’s something about it that made me smile. And that’s good enough in my book.

Now if you excuse me, in Preparation for curing my Silky Heart, I must eat an Orange sprinkled with Vanilla Salt.

(Yes, I know the name’s Pre-Perade, but I don’t know how to fit that into a sentence, sue me.)

~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/fN6vTRm.png)~~~

A romantic comedy that starts off rocky, but when it finds its footing, it becomes a sight to behold.

# __Spoilers ahoy__

Be warned, matey.

# __Hi__

Today I want to write some random scattered thoughts about Toradora.  I watched all 25 episodes in one day yesterday and have some things I want to get down on paper (figuratively).  This isn't really a review, but just some scattered thoughts, organized roughly by topic headers.  You won't understand any of this if you haven't watched Toradora, so for those who haven't: I would recommend watching this only if you are a fan of melodrama.  This is a show that only barely could be classified as romance.

# __Plot__

The plot is driven forward by Ryuuji's crush on Minori and Taiga's crush on Kitamura.  But neither of these romances ever feel believable.  Kitamura/Taiga and Ryuuji/Minori have no chemistry.  Even with all of the scenes of Taiga blushing up a storm in front of Kitamura and Ryuuji clamming up when Minori is around I don't *feel* it.  It just feels as if the show is forcing us to accept that these two have the crushes they do solely because that is the premise of the show and nothing would happen otherwise.  Only the main ship ever had a chance of sailing anywhere which makes all the fiddling around with these side romances up until basically the last couple episodes feel incredibly frustrating.  All I want to see is Ryuuji and Taiga happy together.

# __Kitamura__

Perhaps the biggest problem with Toradora is this guy.

img220(https://i.imgur.com/LQl4DJU.jpg)

Yuusaku Kitamura is evil.  If you ship him with Taiga, you are evil.  Taiga confesses to him in the second episode or so.  He denies her - but not by saying "I'm sorry, I like someone else now."  He does so in the lightest possible fashion, in order to incite Taiga to keep pursuing him regardless.  He further provokes her at every opportunity - taking every chance to be alone with her, or come in physical contact, or dance with her at the bonfire - __all the while fully aware that she has already confessed to him.__  In order to stoke the flames of her heart and keep her running after him.  He plays with her feelings over the course of basically an entire year, and for what?  I can only think of two reasons:
1. He is just a sadist, and takes sick pleasure in torturing Taiga emotionally despite having no intent to ever get together with her.  Or,
2. He knows he probably will get turned down by the student council president once he works up the courage to confess to her, so he wants to keep Taiga around for "backup" in case that happens.  In which case he is just pure scum.

In either case, clearly he is a malicious character.  However, the issue is not that he's evil, but that I don't believe Toradora is intelligent enough to realize this.  Certainly no characters in the show ever confront him over his emotional manipulation, and it is never a plot point, which makes me think that his despicable behavior was not intentional on the author's part, which if so is just incompetent.  But even if if it is intentional, and Kitamura is meant to be like two-faced Ami but 100x worse, this aspect of his character is never explored in the story so it's basically irrelevant.

# __Just Talk With Each Other__

Seeing a confession in the second episode might give you hope for Toradora breaking the mold of traditional Japanese romance anime where every character is incapable of speaking anything they are feeling, but those hopes will be betrayed ten times over. 
 You will be yelling "JUST TALK WITH EACH OTHER!" at the screen, either in your mind or literally, while watching this show.  Perhaps the worst example of this is after Taiga is rescued from the snow.

img720(https://i.imgur.com/nuwx2Tf.jpg)
#####~~~_I'm sorry_  ___WHAT___~~~

Why does Ryuuji ask this of Kitamura?  The entire series has been nothing but people covering up their feelings with lies.  Does he still intend to get with Minori at this point?  It's just like... What the f\*\*\* are you even doing Ryuuji?  Minori, after finding out Ryuuji has done this, is justifiably furious, despite her having done the same s\*\*\* throughout the series.  I suppose that segues into the next topic well.

# __Angry Scenes__

Some of the best scenes in the anime are when characters get angry or fight over the fact that other characters are lying about their feelings.  It's very telling of what a viewer can expect from Toradora that this is prevalent enough to justify it being its own sub-subgenre.

The Ami vs. Minori fights, both verbal and physical, are great, as is the Taiga vs. Student Council President one.

img720(https://i.imgur.com/ZmL3IgR.jpg)

And as I mentioned above, the one where Minori gets furious with Ryuuji is a classic.

img720(https://i.imgur.com/M6tprCX.png)
#####~~~_"JUST STOP IT ALREADY!"_~~~
#####~~~_"hurr durr"_~~~

##### 
# __Taiga Showing She Cares For Ryuuji Scenes__

img720(https://i.imgur.com/k8I9x3z.jpg)

The other type of scenes that were enjoyable where the ones where Taiga shows she cares for Ryuuji.  In particular, these are when Ryuuji was close to drowning in the pool, after Ryuuji left Taiga's apartment for the Christmas party, the bridge scene, and the kiss scene.  Honestly I think if you want to watch Toradora, you should watch up until the pool episode, then just skip to the penultimate episode.  In between there is just a bunch of melodrama where no one is happy and that's not fun for anyone.

# __The Ending__

img720(https://i.imgur.com/gSqDetx.jpg)
#~~~___...WHAT___~~~

The ending is so stupid.  The whole anime has a theme of finally learning to express your feelings and not keep them bottled up inside, and how does Taiga express her desire to return to her mother's house and mend her family relationships before returning to Ryuuji?  By leaving a note - a tiny little insignificant note - for the love of her life, speaking NOT ONE WORD to him, before leaving for an ENTIRE YEAR at the DROP OF A HAT.  What the FUCK is this.  All she had to do is TALK TO RYUUJI!  WHY DIDN'T SHE JUST TALK WITH HIM?  WHAT THE FUCK!  AAAAAAAAAAAAA

# __SAO__

There used to be a section contrasting Toradora with SAO here, rambling about how despite all the flaws of SAO, it at least provides a fun romance between Kirito and Asuna, unlike this show.  However, it was removed by a moderator for not being relevant enough.  (Incidentally, this moderator was a Toradora fan...  Suspicious.)

# __Other Assorted Thoughts__

 __Side Ships__
I would support Student Council President x Kitamura, except Kitamura is evil so I don't want him to be with anyone.  I also would support Ami x Minori - certainly that pairing has more chemistry than any other pairings each of the two could be in.  But I find myself against it just because Ami deserves better, as probably the most interesting character in the show.  She certainly deserves better than Ryuuji and somehow I don't see Minori making her happy either, even new, reformed, "actually speaks her mind" Minori.

__VA Work, Art__

img720(https://i.imgur.com/YTfPn3b.jpg)

Rie Kugimiya is brilliant as Taiga, great casting and great acting.  Similarly, Taiga is drawn incredibly adorably.  One of the most visually appealing anime characters I can think of.  The art in general is excellent also.

__Tsundere Overload?__
Some people have called Taiga's violence too much, often calling her a "bitch".  Normally I am not too tolerant of excessive female-on-male violence but for whatever reason I was totally fine with it in Toradora.  Taiga is just too cute.

__Mountain Rescue Stupidity__

img220(https://i.imgur.com/eFZSEBz.jpg)

...Why did they just leave the scene where Taiga disappeared and go back to the hotel for several hours?  Why didn't they investigate for two seconds as soon as they noticed she was gone and see the obvious tracks from where she fell?

#__Final Thoughts__
Toradora is a melodrama anime, not a romance anime.  The characters are frustrating and arguably the best-written one (Ami) does not play enough of a role to overshadow everything else the other characters manage to get themselves into.  Even if you ship the correct main couple you won't come away satisfied due to the ridiculous ending.  Despite all of this, I do have to praise Toradora for being incredibly gripping.  I simply couldn't put it down.  I think this is because Taiga and Ryuuji are just such a compelling couple.  I wanted to see them together, to realize their love and become happy together.  I think I loved everything up through episode 7, but after that it should have skipped all the melodrama from that point on to the finish and just focused on the main couple. In the end I don't know if that temptation to keep watching the next episode was worth it.

Why SAO is the best love story ever told, and other random scattered thoughts.

ToraDora! tells a story about the bizarre tangled intricacies of teenage love, complete with matchmaker plots, zany schemes, and an increasingly convoluted love quadrangle that’s played for both comedy and drama. It also tells a story about how everyone has issues, inner turmoil, and inner selves that they keep concealed, usually with the intention of preserving a certain image of themselves for the people around them.
It starts small by introducing the audience to protagonist Ryuji, who most of his classmates assume is a delinquent because he has “the eyes of a killer” but is in reality a studious, quiet, and compassionate boy. This makes him a neat foil to his classmate Taiga, who at first glance is small, cute, and unthreatening, but has an aggressive temper. These two outcasts prove that outward appearances can be deceptive, but as they become friends and agree to help set the other up with their respective love interest, this theme of outward persona versus inner personality deepens and becomes much more poignant.

Each member of ToraDora!’s core cast is deliberately introduced to create audience expectations, then gradually revealed to have hidden depths and a side they don’t show to the public. This notion of the “true self” and the importance of embracing it is the most heartfelt and important theme of the show, tied into the coming-of-age story and the life lesson that even if you love and idolize someone, feelings change over time. It also goes hand in hand with the way the show deconstructs, examines, and builds from the familiar high school anime tropes that the core cast embodies. This is especially true in the case of Taiga and the show’s two other female leads, Minorin and Ami.

Ryuji’s crush Minorin is portrayed as an ever-optimistic genki (cheerful) girl; her rival and foil Ami as a cute, peppy idol figure; and dual-protagonist Taiga as a quintessential aggressive-but-adorable tsundere. They’re not so entrenched in these stock archetypes that they’re obvious parodies or self-aware nods to them (as seen in deliberate and genre savvy series like Nozaki-Kun or Saekano), but it’s easy to assign familiar labels based on their dominant personality traits, behavior, and establishing character moments.

These familiar patterns and the assumptions they create are thrown into question as the series gradually peels the characters’ outer layers away to reveal the real humans beneath the romance tropes. This shift away from their initial archetype—even if it means the character is more flawed and less pretty—is ultimately portrayed as a positive thing, which is the greatest strength of ToraDora!’s character work.

The most immediate example of this is Kawashima Ami, who’s introduced as a peppy, ditzy teen model. Before her introductory episode is over, however, we learn that her sugar-coated persona is a mask she wears to get people to like her. As soon as she’s left alone with Taiga—whom Ami can’t impress—Ami reverts to her “true” self: a vindictive, highly intelligent, selfish bully.

Her development doesn’t end with “cute idol girl secretly has a nasty personality” as a one-note plot twist, however. The relentlessly conniving, haughty version of Ami turns out to be yet another mask, concealing her anger and vulnerabilities. Ami hides a bully behind her sweet idol persona and a frustrated, lonely, out-of-her-depth teenager behind her bully persona. This comes to a head at the climax of the first solid character arc of the series, when it’s revealed that Ami gave up her modelling career and changed schools to evade an obsessive fan who’d been stalking her. Letting her understandable anger and fear finally bubble to the surface, Ami stops hiding, calls the stalker out, and stomps on his camera.

In this pivotal scene, Ami is animated as almost predatory and manic—a far cry from the clean lines and dainty body language used when she’s trying to win over her new classmates. The power of the moment lies in its shock value; she is terrifying, messy, and unattractive for the first time, which horrifies her stalker as well as viewers.

This final blow shatters the presumptions created during her introduction and emphasizes the core theme of the series: contrary to appearances, Ami is not a pure and perfect angel; she is an emotional, complicated human being. This realization terrifies and confuses the stalker, but the series makes it clear he’s in the wrong for believing and behaving the way he does. Ami is in the right—and portrayed as developing positively—when she abandons her persona and expresses herself honestly for once.

Ami is more than her body and more than either her cutesy or nasty personae. The Ami at the end of the show is not the same Ami in episode five, who in turn isn’t the same as the image she presents to the world—all of which comes parceled with the message that no woman is perfect, even if their career branding makes it seem that way. Ami is a realistically flawed person with emotions and frustrations, including unattractive and unfriendly tendencies, and that’s okay.

Ami makes for a smart foil to Kushieda Minorin, the resident sports-loving, adorable optimist. She serves as Ryuji’s initial love interest and acts like she’s always fueled by at least two cans of Red Bull. Minorin’s relentless happy-go-lucky attitude make her appear, at first, as a flat character with no internal conflict. However, as with Ami, it’s gradually revealed that Minorin’s cheerful exterior hides emotions often considered less attractive to others, like frustration, jealousy, and cowardice. Eventually Ami (who’s already gone through her major character development) calls Minorin out and tells her to be true to herself even if she fears people won’t like her as much.

This all revolves around the big plot twist that drops towards the end of the series: while Taiga worked to set Ryuji and Minorin up, Minorin secretly had a crush on Ryuji the whole time but noticed that Taiga was developing feelings for him as well and put a lid on her affections so that her best friend could be happy. This selfless act fits with both the genki girl trope as well as Minorin’s own dedication to inspiring happiness in people and putting others before herself, but the effort to hide her mounting heartbreak starts to crack her sparkly exterior.

During a long emotional arc, Minorin struggles to bury both her feelings for Ryuji and hide how much it hurts her to watch Ryuji and Taiga fall for each other. The mystery of Minorin’s true feelings becomes part of the tangled emotional intrigue of the show, and in the end, it parallels and bolsters the message of Ami’s arc: it’s unhealthy to hide your true self, even if that side of you seems ugly or causes trouble.
The strength of Minorin’s character arc is that it would have been simple to have her harbor a traumatic past beneath a cheerful mask, selflessly trying not to burden anyone with her problems. This is a trope all-too-commonly used as a last-ditch attempt to make a love interest seem deep and sympathetic while keeping her peppy and attractive to the audience. The show doesn’t need to break Minorin or reveal some terrible, tragic plot twist. In the end, Minorin accepts that her negative emotions are just as much a part of her as her positive ones. She resolves to stride forward as energetically as always, while also allowing herself to express anger or cry over a broken heart.

The peppy façade isn’t a façade, but simply one part of her personality. When she lets that natural optimism co-exist with other negative and less “user-friendly” emotions, she becomes a more balanced person. Minorin’s bittersweet finale features her sobbing with Ami after Ryuji leaves forever, the two girls begrudgingly bonding over their shared revelations. It’s a moving personal arc for the character and embodies the themes of the show.

Meta-textually, it’s also great to see Minorin and Ami—who at first seem like perfect, darling romance tropes—have parallel arcs about how it’s okay to let yourself be human and flawed. ToraDora! takes these tropes apart and explores the human beings underneath them. It argues that trying so hard to maintain a false and sweet persona is ultimately unhealthy, and that the girls should let themselves be themselves. It’s better for their own wellbeing and positive growth and helps them form more meaningful relationships—a message that’s also present in the character arc of the female protagonist, Taiga.

Possibly the most prickly and problematic archetype the show examines is that of the tsundere, embodied by Aisaka Taiga, who shares the role of protagonist alongside Ryuji. The tsundere as a character type comes with a plot twist built into it: this outwardly angry, haughty girl is actually sweet and vulnerable on the inside. In the context of the romance genre, this archetype often comes with the message that she just needs The Right Guy to wear her down and reveal her warm, caramel center.

However, Ryuji (and by extension, the audience) soon find that Taiga’s quick temper masks a depressed, immature, and emotionally vulnerable person rather than simply a cuter and more approachable side. The show then investigates how a person would end up like Taiga, who outwardly expresses her anger to make people uncomfortable and push them away—essentially the opposite of the people-pleasing Ami and Minorin—and how it’s an equally unhealthy way to live.

As with Ami, the execution is flawed: Taiga’s temper is the result of an emotionally abusive background, but it’s still frequently used for slapstick comedy. This behavior, as with Taiga’s temper, is often played for laughs, meant to be funny in the typical romcom sort of way. However, these personality traits also get explored gradually over the course of the series, with ToraDora! moving beyond the “angry little girl” archetype not only by using Taiga’s backstory as a vessel to explain how she ended up emotionally stunted, but by actually calling her out on her behavior.

Take the pool arc, for instance, another rom-com staple. These episodes feature many of the usual, expected tropes, and of course find an excuse for long conversations about the varying sizes of the heroines’ breasts. But amidst all that comedic nonsense, the start of Taiga’s emotional growth peeks through.

In learning that Taiga started a fight with some classmates who made fun of her flat chest the year before, Ryuji (and, again, the audience through him) realizes that below such an aggressive exterior is a girl that faces problems that any other girl would have. The pool arc also has a much deeper significance than Ryuuji merely getting angry that Taiga was taking it out on him. It doesn’t make sense, since it doesn’t really bother him. What really ticked him off was the idea that Taiga didn't care about him as much as he cared about Taiga. In the end, Taiga concludes that she does care about Ryuuji and goes to fight for him in the swimming race, showing to the pair how their feelings are mutual. This is surprisingly mature, since the idea of how much someone is putting into a relationship is a problem that extends far beyond high school. 

It’s an important first step in Taiga’s positive development: not only is the source of her anger explored, but both the characters and narrative recognize that this violent anger is unhealthy. Ryuji helps Taiga build confidence through positivity and support as well as mutual trust and communication, and Taiga finds herself, for the first time, in a safe environment where she doesn’t have to push anybody away.

Taiga might conform to a certain cute factor initially, but the series slowly strips this away as well, refusing to let her be a flawless romantic lead. Her neglectful parents instilled in her a self-enforced isolation and rely-on-nobody attitude, causing her to default to temper tantrums to either get her way or push people away, lest they see her vulnerable side and look down on her for it.

This behavior is used for comedy at first, but when the plot takes a heavier turn, the series shifts to depicting her actions as both the result of an emotionally abusive life as well as being immature and harmful to others. It’s not a cute quirk; it’s a problem, one that has real consequences as she gets suspended for two weeks after her fight with the Student President. However, it’s a problem that Taiga does eventually leave behind at the end of her character arc.

The narrative also avoids “breaking” Taiga or having Ryuji wear her down to induce this character development. Instead, Taiga learns to trust and communicate honestly with people. Though it’s more down-to-earth and thus less dramatic, this growth eventually takes precedence over her slapstick battles, and the series makes it clear this is the healthiest way for her to act. Ryuji falls in love with Taiga because he sees her as a rounded person with flaws and issues and someone he can be share his faults with, not because she’s a flat tsundere trope with a hot temper and a secret soft side. Their relationship is one of mutual trust and balanced friendship, and it helps them both grow and change for the better.

Taiga’s character arc comes to a full conclusion in the end. Taiga had been running away throughout the entire series, ignoring her family problems and such. Yet, by seeing how immature her mom was acting, she was able to look at herself more critically and decided to not run away from her problems anymore. Furthermore, she had been relying on Ryuuji so much this series that she became bothered by it, and how she wasn't doing anything by herself. She makes a point to explicitly do it without Ryuuji’s help to grow herself as well and become more independent. Ryuuji, for Taiga, isn't someone who will just love her who she is. Ryuuji is someone who she can place trust in to watch her, as she begins to move past her stagnation for the last few years. Ultimately, Taiga’s character arc is not characterized by Ryuuji saving Taiga, but rather Taiga recognizing that she’s flawed and choosing to save herself and fix those flaws independently because she can trust that Ryuuji will be there to watch over her. 

Like Ami and Minorin, Taiga is introduced as a one-note trope. But, also like Ami and Minorin, over the course of the series she learns that hiding her true self away will ultimately leave her frozen in this toxic state. She shouldn’t be afraid to change the way she’s perceived just because it might reveal emotions and traits she doesn’t consider part of her image. By the end of the series, the gorgeous preppy mean girl can be vulnerable and angry, the adorable selfless optimist can cry and express her emotions for her own sake, and the ferocious tsundere can recognize her issues, mature, and develop beyond her “cute” slapstick traits.

ToraDora! systematically dismantles the images of perfection surrounding the girls, and though it leads to turmoil, in the end these changes are all expressed as positive growth. Most importantly, these changes are about them, rather than the people they love or what they want other people to think. ToraDora! is a beautiful and nuanced exploration of societal expectations, fictional assumptions, and the multidimensional girls struggling underneath. It works threefold, making for a satisfying coming-of-age story, a great meta-textual mess-up of the tropes we all know and love (or love to hate), and giving us three well-rounded and interesting female characters that stay with us long after the final credits roll.


ToraDora! is a beautiful and nuanced deconstruction of archetypal roles found in the romcom genre.

~~~img600(https://i.imgur.com/2oOnRuY.png)~~~
# ~~~__Spoiler-free review__~~~
<n></n>
# Review in brief:

Toradora! is full of the usual high-school rom-com tropes and clichés, yet it not only succeeds but excels at nearly everything it works towards. It doesn’t contain those tropes just because they’re standard; it knows how & why they were meant to be used in the first place and uses them to their fullest. By tying them together with a strong central theme, Toradora! becomes an excellent journey crafted out of familiar story elements.

# Review in full:

The premise of Toradora! is simple; it’s a high school rom-com in which the main characters are trying to hook each other up with their best friends, as they each happen to have crushes on the other's friend. It’s a premise that surprises nobody, and it doesn’t take much thought to correctly guess how things will end up. If you don’t know who the main characters end up with by the end of episode 2 then you simply had to have missed something. At this point Toradora! may sound like a waste of time, but that would be deciding that a cake tastes bad based only on its shape. The “main romance” elements are basically given to the audience from the get-go because they are only a setup for the real goal of Toradora!, and that is to cultivate a character drama around the concept of self-honesty within the artificial world we know as “high-school”.

It starts with the characters, both main & side. On the surface they are quite tropey and in many ways just what you’d expect out of this genre of anime. In this way they also tend to have exaggerated physical and emotional features, emphasizing their feelings and antics towards the other characters. However, in time it is shown that these “typical” behaviors are, much like the rest of high school society, a façade, within which vulnerable teenage self-identities hide in fear and feared personas are cast into by those less caring. These characters aren’t the standard templates they initially appear to be; they are actually defined by their thought processes and emotional reaction points. This refreshing form of characterization is the path that allows what at first is just a typical rom-com cast to grow into the central theme of self-honesty. It’s why the exaggerative covers are there in the first place; the slew of templated, cutout characters in anime’s ubiquitous high-school setting can easily give us viewers the depressing expectation that they’re almost all cover and no book.

<center>img600(https://i.imgur.com/8o6QZAw.png)
_Side note: Ryuuji would easily fit in with the cast of Cromartie High School and it cracks me up every time I think about it._</center>

Toradora! also makes great use of its generic setting and story arcs therein. It proudly features the anime-school staples: festivals, P.E. swimming, the beachside summer house, and a field trip so blatantly opposite to the norm that it’s a joke. Unlike lesser school anime that merely use these to run their characters through the typical thematic jokes and leave it at that (“It’s high-school, _surely_ you didn’t expect something different!”) Toradora! makes a point of using each situation to allow its characters to bond through necessitated teamwork, enter environments where they’re more willing to peel back their fronts a little, and create moments that snowball over the course of the show to become dramatic scenarios of their own later on.

Because of this, no matter how predictable or generic the main story elements get, Toradora! is always able to deliver a dramatic experience, witty comedy, or even both at the same time via multi-layered character-driven interactions. My only real complaint is that Kitamura's arc could have been handled better. Up to that point in the story, Kitamura's character and development were a little lacking for how much weight was put on his handling of his situation. Still, it's nothing too serious and succeeds in building the setup for the rest of the show.

Toradora! is also doubly entertaining, allowing it to appeal to a wide range of expectations. Firstly, its pace is maintained via arcs of 2-3 episodes, long enough to make each arc matter without dragging any scenarios or plot elements out longer than necessary. Secondly, it possesses a decidedly silly flavor of humor. Most of Toradora!’s comedy doesn't derive from situations or misunderstandings between characters (as one would expect from the genre) but most often just the characters goofing around and having a good time, especially where the outwardly enthusiastic characters are involved. Not that those other forms of comedy can’t be effective (otherwise one would think that they’d be far less common) but Toradora!’s comedy is innately refreshing. By allowing the characters to simply act as they are within these silly moments instead of following a rigid joke scenario it fosters an air of genuineness that gives the whole show a special charm and occasionally even sees characters develop through comedy.

<center>img(https://i.imgur.com/DoLVkoP.gif)
_Who said humor requires jokes?_</center>

Even the production values of Toradora! end up amounting to more than they initially appear. With its clear and effective use of both color palettes and emotive animation to reflect each scene’s mood, the visual artistry does everything it needs to do to make the end result shine. Of particular note are the dramatic sequences with highly controlled frame-rates, emulating a live-action movie to great effect. The sound (especially the voice acting) is just about a perfect match, with distinct and lively voice acting for nearly every character and catchy music that captures the mood from a high schooler’s mind noticeably well.

Now it must be said that many people who dislike the show cite a disdain for Taiga's violent and reactive character. If you don't like her it will likely detract from your enjoyment. For me, having known people who were surprisingly similar was enough to accept her when she wasn’t likable and led to her growing on me over time, which seems to have been the author’s intention. I can say with confidence that Taiga's character is exaggerated to the same degree as the other main characters and didn't come off as comically strange or unnatural to me like other violent tsun-type characters tend to.

# Verdict:

On the surface, Toradora! is a generic high-school rom-com with a standard premise and a cliché & predictable outcome. Dig deeper and it discards those notions when it turns out to be an intricately developed character drama, complete with moments both tender and lighthearted. It shows us that something doesn't have to be one-of-a-kind to be truly beautiful, special, or even unique. At the end of the day the journey can mean as much as or even more than the destination it leads to. That is Toradora! ~ a whimsical adventure in a familiar neighborhood.

# Side note:

This review, in part, was made to present the topics discussed in the MAL blog article [Toradora: Maturity and cliché](https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=769730) by Awesomecake with spoiler-free wording. If you’ve already seen Toradora! and want to know more about its underlying themes I highly recommend giving her article a read.

# Related reviews:
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# [Toradora!: Bentou no Gokui](https://anilist.co/review/4263)</center>

This is what using clichés properly looks like.

__I will start by saying that I liked Toradora more than I thought I will. I'm a person that enjoys romance combined with teenage drama so that might say a lot.__

Toradora is a show I've watched because word of mouth and I needed to watch something with a special someone after Your name and Violet Evergarden and this seemed not as serious but a great light show. And I'm glad I was wrong. There weren't many life world threatening events but when you are a teenager everything seems that way. 

With a cast that looks quite normal at first, you start to learn more about them as the show goes on. Taiga and Ryuuji, our two main characters are accompanied by some great ones that play in the bigger picture. Ami, Kitamura and Minori play big roles in the development of the our main two love birds.

The story baseline is quite simple but that dosen't mean it's not engaging, sometimes it gets a little boring, but mostly I was always looking for what it will happen next. It starts simple, gets complicated along the way but not cluttered and ends as simple as it started. The ending I can say was perfectly done for me, but I can see other people wanting maybe a different one and that threw them of. Like our great teacher Yuri says, you can't have everything in life. 

The show is well animated, with some great action at some points, the fights were surprisingly well done for this kind of show, and packed a punch. The character design was "cutsy" and they were different enough so you could see the difference between them in personality. 

Music worked in the favor of the story and key events and made the moments sadder, more intense or more romantic. The openings were cool, I prefer more the second one, Silky Love, but I acknowledge that the first one, Pre-Parade is probably more recognizable and better made. 

I can't say everything was exceptional about the show, but now that I start to think about I can't find something I disliked much about it also. There were some moments that I feel were stale story wise and the action seemed like it will not pick up it's pace.

Now for my conclusion: Toradora is a good show, exceptional one at it, and I couldn't find nothing to make me not recommend it to some other people even if the aren't into the Romance/Coming of age genre. I recommend to watch it with all my heart <3.

Now some favorites:
~! 
1. Taiga is such a cutey when she gets angry.
 2. Episode 16 after the fight ended and the confessions began and the last episode when Yasuko meets her parents again had me in tears.
 3. Ami is such a babe, and even when she's such a hassle some times, it's because she's a child looking for attention as much as everyone else. 
 4. Also, I knew from the start that Taiga and Ryuuji were made for each other but I shipped Ami and Ryuuji more.
 5. The Christmas episodes were so well done, especially when they sing on the stage and the Teddy costume. 
 6. Ryuuji looks like some Yakuza clan member with that suit on. 
 7. The Silky Love opening start is so cool looking.
 8. Inko should get some award for those performances. :D
 9. Haruto can be so funny sometimes.
 10. Ryuuji cleanness obsession is relatable. !~

~~~Thank you for reading this review
Hopefully is was as good as I wanted it to be.
LOVE <3
img220(https://media.giphy.com/media/GRzu5TkwUxjYQ/giphy.gif)~~~

A great show to watch with your SO, especially if you are teen. Well written and animated, with interesting characters.

The show is very creative, the music is really good, and it is well animated for its time. I am sure it is one of the top romcoms, but it does not deserve the amount of praise it gets, it's purely emotional rather than having a balanced amount philosophical and/or logical traits. The main and support characters made some dumb decisions, even taking into account that the characters are supposed to resemble high school teenagers, they were pretty irrational, many times even contradicting their actions with their own words; an example of this would be ~!how Minorin Kushieda lent all her savings to the couple, just as she was saying that she did not agree to their actions and that she would not support them.!~ Although this doesn't affect the quality of the show a lot, it does affect how logical the story is, which is something vital to every immersive tale. Now I will describe a couple of characters, take into account that these are personal preferences based on my personal views on life and humans. The character which ended up being my favorite was Ami Kawashima. Although she was spoiled and arrogant, she was quite realistic and mature, she was able to tell what was going through everybody's mind and caught up quickly in most situations, and despite the appearances, she wanted to make everyone around her happy and content.  The character I disliked the most was one of the main characters, Ryuji Takasu.  He was indecisive and insecure very often, something which contradicted his dependable, responsible, hard-working, and sentimental nature. Furthermore, he chose the worst girl out of the bunch, the most childish, the one with the most problems, the most irrational, the most selfish, Taiga Aisaka. I would call their romance nothing more than infatuation if it were not for the progressive nature of their relationship, it is rather a "puppy love"; the love between a young couple within a few weeks of getting together, not really true love, more blind affection, immature young love. In conclusion, one cannot help but loving the show since it's so creative and unique, but the nature of some of the characters is unbearable, and it just so happens that these characters are the main characters. This show certainly deserves the popularity but the too often acclaimed characters certainly do not.

A decent show that happens to be overrated

# ~~~ __ToraDora__~~~
~~~_The hidden story you never noticed_~~~

#~~~ Overview~~~
The Quest began on July 17th, 2019 when my friend known as Diego on the internet inquired that I immerse myself in this amazing show called Tora-Dora. I instantly thought to myself "why is he asking me to watch kids cartoons" so I instantly replied "I don't like Dora the Explorer, I'm not a child" , but Boi was I wrong! Toradora soon after I binge-watched it over the next six month's I realized that my life has changed and I'm now making this review to show you why.
#~~~Plot~~~
The story starts with Tiaga a presumptuous teenager who’s ready to storm the world, and her classmate Ryuuji a quiet guy just trying to live life. Little did they know, their paths were soon to intertwine indefinitely, as they become stuck in a vicious love-triangle that had me on the edge of my seat throughout this entire cinematic experience! As the story progresses through the limited amount of episodes in such an active series I noticed that maybe Tiaga wasn't the right choice for Ryuk and that maybe Amy was a better choice, this realization has vastly biased my outlook on this series and at the point of noticing this minor detail that all along the creator was leaving us a breadcrumb trail of points showing us that in reality, Amy should've continued to be the love of Ryuuji's life. The reason this plot arc wasn't explored is that the anime was cut short on the limited 25 Episode mark. In reality, we all know that over time Amy would've taken back Ryuuji from that devilish Tiaga . 

#~~~Characters~~~
Our main girl Tiaga is a great positive to the enjoyment of this show, as her character develops she is clearly made to be seen as a person with Progeria which lengthens the deep plot being this singular character and her relationship with the normal Ryuuji.
Ryuuji is a great representation of the teen spirit of the show, I myself experienced lots of events similar to Ryuuji, I was a renowned cool dude at my school before being transported down the realm of anime which made me realize.
The side characters were not a positive in this show because most of them made me feel empty inside, while I watched this show every time a new character would appear on the screen I would think to myself, I don't have any friends while slowly putting on my clown costume to go back to work.

#~~~Final Thoughts~~~
To conclude this in-depth review, Toradora is a brilliantly crafted masterpiece that is sure to make any anime lover crave for more! The story is excellent, the characters feel as if they have real personalities as they develop throughout the show and the art is phenomenal. The only displeasure I have with this cinematic journey following our 3 lovers is that it left me wanting more. The story is wonderfully crafted by J.C Staff but 25 episodes just weren’t enough to fulfil my Toradora cravings.

(This Review doesn't contain any spoilers. I Review an anime by stating the positives and negatives of the show in a point format to save time for the readers while getting the general understanding of the show.The score I gave is based on the positives and negatives that I had previously mentioned.Null refers to not positive nor negative but still I thought I should mention it. In the "recommendation" heading, I mention if it's a anime of you or not.  I also put some notes to keep in mind before watching the show for experiencing the anime with the  maximum enjoyment.)

THE NEGATIVES :
• All characters in the anime, atleast at the start seems cliché, as if the author didn't had a in-depth characterisation at first.

• You could hate the Female protagonist at the beginning.

• Way too much comedy related to pain.

• Some changes in the characterisation would seem out of nowhere.

• The last episode, last scene.... it's not that I have a problem with it but fine....anti climatic is the word.

THE POSITIVES:
• Wonderful openings and endings.

•Personally ,I think that both the dub and sub ,did an excellent job in the aspect of voice .

•The soundtrack, just wonderful. I don't want to mention any ost because of some people that may listen to it without watching the show but oh man, it can put a chill down Your spine.

• Characters maybe not very well written and some may even could not have unique design but all of them are memorable because of the cliché they follow. This may make you want to see some interaction between the characters.

• From episode 16 to 19, just perfect episodes in my opinion. Even if the whole show is painful to watch, I would still say that it's worth it for these 4 episodes. These episodes can be deducted as the true Romance Genre anime. The emotions was on point.

• Some funny moments that would atleast make you smile. 

NULL:
• Okay Animation and animation.
• The directory was nothing noteable.

NOTES:
•Watch it with a open mind. 
• Your Patience would be worth it overall.

RECOMMENDATION FOR:
•Otakus
•If u could watch Anime with an open mind.
•If you like Tsunderes.
• If u are curious why people love this anime.
• If you like the Romance Genre.

"The Most Popular Romance Anime With a Rocky Start."

I am personally a big fan of rom-coms, so it is no surprise that _Toradora!_ was at the top of the list of animes that I needed to watch after seeing the showers of praise the show gets everywhere online. I was also not disappointed due to high expectations as you might expect since I always assumed that the show was a generic high school rom-com that was overhyped due to nostalgia even before watching it, however the show obviously tries to be much more than that. Despite being surprised at the show’s attempt to develop complex characters, it is ultimately just an “attempt” that unfortunately falls flat due to the inconsistent characters and a messy plot that barely holds the show together. (Since I will mostly be talking about the flaws of the anime, it might seem like I hate the show which I don’t.)

This review will be very long and will contain a lot of __SPOILERS__ so skip to the end if you want a summary of my thoughts of the show. 

__Story - 6/10__
The story of _Toradora!_ is rather simple, and you should be able to get the gist of it in the synopsis. This is by no means a flaw, since I don't believe that every show needs to have overly complex plots for it to be enjoyable. However, the real problem with _Toradora!_'s plot is the horrible pacing issues that started to show up more prominently throughout the second half of the show due to the ham-fisted attempts at making the plot more complex too late into the series. I will be discussing more about the story/plot in the character section since they together form my biggest issues with the show.

__Art - 8/10__
Even if you have only seen the cover of _Toradora!_, you will already know that the art of the anime has nothing to really complain about. The animation is smooth for the most part and characters’ expressions and movements are all conveyed very well. Even though the art/animation is nothing ground-breaking, it is perfectly fine for the show.
~~~img(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/LeadingMatureHookersealion-small.gif)~~~
__Sound - 8/10__
Again, the same with the art, the sound is well done but nothing extremely memorable besides the first OP which is definitely very catchy. All the voice actors did a fantastic job and there wasn’t any VA who didn’t fit with their character counterpart.

__Character - 4/10__
This section will be quite long since I will be talking about all of the main cast, however mostly on the two MCs and their relationship.
The character I want to start with is one of the better characters, Ryuuji Takasu, even though his intentions and actions were always confusing, especially with Taiga (I will talk more about this in the section about Taiga). One of my biggest problems with Ryuuji is his label as a delinquent who is feared by his class-mates due to his intimidating looking eyes. 
Being a delinquent or being misunderstood as one is a pretty common trait for main characters to have which is fine on its own, however this entire part of his character gets completely ignored by the second episode and is only used for a few jokes later on in the series. You might be thinking that this is no big deal and is a sign of the show and characters evolving. However, this part of Ryuuji is actually very important since it is one of the reasons he despises his father and it also sets up Kitamura’s character who is shown to be the only one who is not afraid of Ryuuji, which shows that Kitamura is someone who can see who people really are on the inside. This all gets set up in the first episode however without any doing anything or solving this problem on his own, all of Ryuuji’s classmates, even the ones who never interacted with him, suddenly stopped caring about Ryuuji’s intimidating looks within the span of a couple of episodes. This not only takes away from any development Ryuuji could have had with his issues but it also ruins Kitamura since when everyone is okay with being Ryuuji’s friend, Kitamura becomes noone special. Ryuuji is still one of the better characters because he is pretty much the only character to get some form of a finished character arc that somewhat bares resemblance to character development, with his problems with his mother resolving after she finally accepts Ryuuji’s independence which allows her to let go of the fear that her own failures in her youth and as a parent would negatively impact Ryuuji.
~~~img(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/45/5f/f5/455ff5cf4a7ab35edf18a369be75debc.jpg)~~~
Now to talk about the biggest problem that I have with the show, Taiga Aisaka. To be perfectly honest, I have little problems with Taiga’s character directly but rather needless inconsistencies made to her character and the overall story as well as the constant back and forth that happens with her character development. Taiga is considered by many to be a tsundere, or is she? A tsundere is someone who acts cold and then gradually becomes softer, tsunderes also are known to try and back out of their romantic feelings through violent tendencies. Taiga is definitely violent but her violence is never the result of romantic or personal feelings but rather the result of anger or hatred. Whenever she is talking to Kitamura (her crush) or Kushieda (her best friend), she always acts shy and end up doing stupid things. However, even after practically living together with Ryuuji, who clearly has always cared about her, Taiga somehow still acts hostile towards him. The show's attempts to push Taiga’s tsundere personality while also going against it at the same time only ends up confusing the audience on who Taiga is really supposed to be. But her attitude can be explained because Taiga always loved Ryuuji right? This is unfortunately also not the case because of the constant back peddling of the relationship between Taiga and Ryuuji as the show tries its best to blue ball the viewers on any development to the point of unbelievability. The first instance of the back peddling happens in the span of three (technically two) episodes. By the end of episode 2, the viewers as well as Taiga herself have realized that Ryuuji is someone who is always there for her, then in the very next episode, the development comes to a sudden halt as if the events of the previous episode never happened. This same problem happens again in episode 8 when Taiga shouts to the whole class that Ryuuji is hers which is a big step towards the development of their relationship together, or so I thought. Immediately by the end of the episode, Taiga makes a joke out of the situation and this entire event was never mentioned again for the rest of the series. The show stalls the development of their relationship again at the end of episode 13 when Kitamura shows up out of nowhere to dance with Taiga. This didn’t make sense at all in terms of the story since Ryuuji clearly tried to win the race to keep Taiga from feeling lonely (which is something he continued to sense throughout the episode when her dad abandoned her), however what could have been an impactful moment only left me confused when Ryuuji decides to leave it all to chance that Kitamura would keep Taiga company. This not only ruins the entire point of the whole episode but also makes Ryuuji completely break out of character for absolutely no reason other than delaying their relationship. The show then goes downhill after episode 13 when the development of the two MCs takes a complete halt as a result of the show’s desperate attempt to continue stalling out their relationship until the very end. The last problem I have is the entire relationship between Taiga and Ryuuji, which has always been more fitting as a brother-sister relationship rather than a romantic one. Throughout the entire series, we constantly see Ryuuji caring for Taiga and doing everything he can to help her. Taiga, on the other hand, does absolutely nothing for Ryuuji besides annoying and hitting him until the final few episodes. It always made sense for Ryuuji to help her since he has always liked cleaning and taking care of things (including his mother) and Taiga’s life is a horrible mess. However, it didn’t make sense for him to develop any sort of romantic relationship with her, especially because another girl who had feelings towards him is Ami, whose life is supposedly just as messy (based on her personality and the limited backstory she had in the show) as someone like Taiga, the only difference being that Ami actually helps and consoles Ryuuji when he needed it, albeit in her own twisted way.
~~~img(https://66.media.tumblr.com/8f9a4cfd77383e4885cbf5194aabb375/tumblr_mnvv83GjBP1s0myp3o1_500.gif)~~~
Since this review is already terribly long, I will not go into detail with the rest of the main cast, who are actually much better written characters that are still disappointing for different reasons. Kitamura’s entire character arc is the worst of the three “side” story arcs. His entire arc revolves around him giving up on the student council because of his crush leaving the school, which is completely out of character since even though he joined the student council to be with the girl, he has been shown to be a genuinely good person, so ruining the student life of his classmates is not something he would do. Ami is actually my favorite character in the show (not because she is a good person but because she is the most interesting character) who was still disappointing along with Kushieda since both of them get only half a character arc without any sort of backstory.
 
__Enjoyment 7.5/10__
You might be surprised that I actually enjoyed watching the show despite the many problems I have with the characters and the story. However, the comedy in the show lands most of the time and some of the emotional moments hit pretty hard when it needs to. The best part of the show that really kept me going all the way to the end was the character interactions/dialog. Even though the characters themselves left me utterly disappointed, their interactions with each other is what carried the show for me and made it much more entertaining than it would have been.

__Summary__
_Toradora!_ is a show that had so much potential as all the characters start out being interesting and unique, but unfortunately these same characters end up as half baked versions of what they could have been mostly due to the horribly inconsistencies in the characters and plots that left a bad taste in my mouth after finishing the series. Despite my criticism of the show, I would still recommend it only to fans of the rom-com genre, however if you don’t watch this genre regularly and is curious about rom-coms, I would recommend you try _Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai_ instead (even though they are very different shows in terms of premise) which is an incredible show that does everything _Toradora!_ tries to do but better; with a cast of well developed and written characters as well as a story that will definitely surprise you in many unexpected ways (as long as you don’t read any spoilers).

It is honestly not a big stretch to label Toradora! as quite possibly one of the most overrated anime of all time...

When it comes to Toradora!, I can't help but think of the pinnacle of the Romance/ Comedy genre. This is really my favorite genre to watch and it is because of this anime. It manages to bring together different facets of its characters without sacrificing valuable development. There are times when an anime touches on heavy subjects but shies away from them, but Toradora! manages to transform them to enhance its characters. It balances a love triangle, complex family and friend relationships, while exploring the lives of its side characters. I believe what separates a good anime from a great anime is all in the character writing. Look, we can all agree in some form that Romance anime's have certain troupes that they follow ie. the love triangle, the childhood best friend etc. While Toradora! has these elements in the plot, it is in the strong character writing that makes them unique. It builds upon Ryuji and Taiga's budding relationship while also developing Yasuko as a mother who, despite her whimsical lines and aloof mannerisms, cares a great deal about Ryuji the way a mother naturally would.  ~!This starts to become evident when Ryuji volunteers for the job to work with Minori (who I believe is criminally underrated as a character). Yasuko gets angry for the first time really in the whole anime when she finds out because she doesn't want Ryuji to have to sacrifice his schooling. Taking it one step further, I would almost argue that while the Ryuji-Taiga-Minori triangle is the one that takes center stage, the Ryuji-Taiga-Yasuko triangle is the one that matters the most. 
     Anyone who has watched a Romance anime can tell you that the allure of the love triangle is what makes it enticing, but this second triangle is what separates Toradora! from the rest. It focuses on the non-romantic aspect of the anime. While Ryuji and Taiga eventually fall in love with each other, they first become friends. (Ryuji relies on Taiga to show the rest of his class, and really the general public, that he isn't a delinquent despite his harsh looking eyes and Taiga relies on Ryuji to quite literally take care of her) As a result of their friendship (and Ryuji cooking dinner for Taiga every night), they spend a lot of time with Yasuko. It is easy to forget the pain that Yasuko is harboring inside of her that she hides with comedy. She got pregnant as a teenager by her boyfriend, yet she still gave the picture of them together to Ryuji and every time he looks at Yasuko she exclaims that he looks so much like his father and then fabricates a story about him getting stabbed or something (I don't quite remember exactly the reason she gives him) when in reality he just up and left her to raise Ryuji on her own (since she ran away from her parents because she thought they would be angry that she got pregnant). One of the most heart wrenching moments in Toradora!, for me at least, is when we get that flash back of Yasuko telling Ryuji that she will be "Super momma" to make up for him not having a dad. It all sort of culminates in the last episode when she tries to do what she did to her parents and leaves Ryuji after he decides to marry Taiga. Ryuji recognizes that he has to "save" his mom from the same mistake she made those years ago, so he forces his mom to confront her parents by calling her and making her go back to her parents house. I believe that while Ryuji and Taiga's romantic relationship takes center stage, the true underlying theme is really parental acceptance. Taiga wants her mom and dad to accept her for who she is and not what they want her to be, Ryuji wants Yasuko to let him help her with money (At the beginning of the anime, Ryuji and Taiga first really sit down and talk to each other when they both haven't filled out their life goal/plan worksheet, which we later find out was because Ryuji didn't want to leave his mom alone to cook, clean and pay all the bills) and all Yasuko really wanted was for her parents to acknowledge how hard she has worked to raise her son. Sure, it was all her own doing, there is no way to know how her parents would have reacted to her unexpected pregnancy since she ditched them, but did you see how she instantly broke down when her parents told her how proud they were of her? 
     Anyway, back to my original point about triangles Yasuko only managed to find parental acceptance because Ryuji meet Taiga, because they fell in love, because they ran away to Yasuko's parents house. That is why this anime is so darn awesome. There are so many facets to story and while I haven't read the manga, the anime does a great job of showing all the nuances to the Romance troupes it uses.!~

Toradora is all about triangles and it's strongest character is Yasuko, Ryjui's mom

__This review contains spoilers__

Toradora was my introduction to the world of anime, that's why when I saw that Taiga didn't know how to cook and is very messy (like me) and Ryuuji quite the opposite, I loved it! they were breaking all gender roles. We acknowledge that these Taiga traits are flaws, but is this really the case? There are many people in the world, if they were all the same, nothing would make sense. Ryuuji isn't perfect either, he's neat but he has an obsession for cleanliness and that's a mess. With this I am not invalidating people with this disorder (I do not even think it is a bad thing, I love people like that hehehe), I am only hinting that taiga and ryuuji are perfectly imperfect, like everyone.
As for the hatred towards Taiga, it seems unfair to me. His character is very cute. Yes, it is a tsundere, that means that she hides her feelings and her way of doing it is with blows, especially. These scenes are meant to provoke laughter, like the typical anime scenes when one character falls in a funny way or when one hits another and we all laugh, but when Taiga does this we criticize her. Why? because it is a couple. In real life this would clearly be violence, but in anime this is EXAGERATION that is often used to make people laugh.
The story is simple but it is very cute since Taiga falls in love from the beginning with Ryuuji without knowing it, and the same with Ryuuji. Of course, Taiga is the first to discover her feelings and it shows when she begins to refuse to spend time with Kitamura, unconsciously rejecting him because her heart loved someone else. The change of opening and ending is perfect, it shows us that this is no longer a comedy but that it is now a romance that is blooming and the drama that is coming.
I have to admit that the characters in this anime are not the most perfect (in character writing), but you still manage to get attached and even identify with some. They do their job and that's enough to entertain you. I don't think any of them are filler, on second thought, each one is there for the development of the plot.
One last thing to consider is the friendship of Minorin and Taiga, who were willing to sacrifice their infatuation for the happiness of their best friend. They are two wonderful characters and Minorin if he deserved Ryuuji, nothing from Ami, Minorin x Ryuuji is the best! but I really like the main couple so I liked that she stayed with Taiga. Toradora is sweet like a vanilla so I feel like the vanilla salt theme is the perfect description

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~~~youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I3c_qQ6LIE)~~~





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~~~I recommend this anime to everyone, and I accept that you may not like it because we do not all think the same but Toradora, for me, is a good anime. 7/10~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Toradora is sweet like vanilla, but also very salty

Toradora was an anime I accidentally stumbled upon while browsing Netflix, and after watching the first episode, was intrigued enough to see where it went. Two days later, I was lying in bed at 6 in the morning, after having just finished the show, trying to process all the emotions it had brought up. 

Toradora, while first appearing to be just a casual slice of life drama, quickly captures you with the depth of its characters and messages. They all start out as typical stereotypes, but as the show delves into their psyche, this is quickly broken as you learn the pain often hidden behind their smiles, or the feeling of being alone and misunderstood.

(Minor Spoilers)
~!So firstly, this plays well into possibly the main theme of Toradora, which is how it contrasts love and admiration. Both Taiga and Ryuuji start the show attracted to each other's best friends, however they soon come to realize that they're attracted to their idealized versions of these people. And though it's not in-your-face, I enjoyed that the show touched on this side of love, as opposed to just the feeling of being attracted to someone (that you often get in a lot of romantic shows). Another theme that makes its way into the show is the idea of masks and denying your true self. This is echoed particularly through the character of Ami who is introduced a couple episodes in. After going through her arc early on, she acts as a voice of reason throughout the show, highlighting how everyone avoiding their true feelings only makes things worse in the long run. She is far from a flawless character, but her viewpoint is a big element of the show, especially later in the series.!~

(Major Spoilers)
~!Ryuuji struggles with how he looks, and so the "shining" presence he notices in Minori could be why he was attracted to her - because that's the kind of presence he wants to have. Taiga mentions that when Kitamura pronounced his love, that she felt someone finally understood her - even if it was the shallow level things he noticed. However, while these two things are both real feelings, in and of themselves, they aren't "love". Yet Taiga and Ryuuji, right from their first interaction, have these moments of openness with each other. They connect on a deeper level through mutual understanding and a lack of a façade. Their relationship is a slow burn, but we as the audience get to see their realization of what love actually is: how it has matured past their obsession with their crushes and what they thought they wanted, into a connection and dependence upon each other, and a desire to serve and be there for the other. Ryuuji found someone who knows the kind of person he is and who inspires him to be the person he can be, and Taiga found someone who knows and understands her deepest flaws, yet preserves for her regardless. It's satisfying to watch, and the ending feels well deserved. However, I will mention its ending does feel a little rushed, and I didn't feel there was enough resolution at the end, or closure for the characters. All of them had amazing arcs and development, and after the suspense of Taiga going to resolve her conflict with her mother, it would have been nice to have a bit more let down to recover. But you can always read the light novels to see it expanded a lot more.!~

Two characters I'd particularly like to mention is Ryuuji mother (Yasuko), and the homeroom teacher (Yuri). Both were pretty much side characters, but had some great character moments in the show. 
Yuri is the single 30 year-old woman, who presented a somewhat realistic look at someone going through a midlife crisis, wondering where her life would lead due to being unmarried.
Yasuko is another character who seems quick shallow at the beginning, but upon learning more about her past and struggles she's gone through, make the final episodes even more emotional.

(Major Spoilers)
~!We learn that Yasuko had to raise Ryuuji alone, due to the fact that his father left her before he was born. She ran away from home, and worked endlessly for her son so that he could live a better life than she did. So then when we see Ryuuji yelling at her in the second last episode, it becomes a heartbreaking moment, knowing all she went through. It is thankfully resolved in the last episode as he gets her to confront her parents; and we see her break down into tears when they tell her she had done a great job raising Ryuuji. This of course makes Ryuuji realize he wants to marry Taiga properly, and is willing to wait for Taiga to get the blessing of her own family so that they can all share in their happiness. This of course leads Taiga to desire reconciliation with her own mother, and the decision Taiga makes for her self, so that she can love Ryuuji the way he deserves, reflects the growth of her character and how she too is beginning to move away from merely a 'dependence' on Ryuuji.!~

Outside of the characters, there's still quite a bit to this show. Art direction is beautiful, especially in some of the intense scenes of the show, and there are times where the visuals do the storytelling.
The soundtrack in this series is 10/10. Not only the opening and closing themes, but even the OST that played throughout the episodes. "Lost My Pieces" still gets to me every-time I hear it, and was used so well in every emotional moment in the show. I think once you hear it, you'll understand.
There's moments of comedy and just lighthearted enjoyment (though they're definitely more prominent in the earlier episodes).
The clichés are utilized very well. As I saw another review mention, Toradora understands what those tropes exist for, and as such they feed into the story brilliantly. You'll notice trends and tropes that exist in this genre, and while not every one is subverted, they all manage to feel fresh regardless. Though that all said, there aren't too many plot twists in the show, and you may be able to predict the ending. But, none of that detracts too much as the joy of this show comes from the journey it takes to get there.

In summary, the characters in Toradora present not only a realistic look at love, but also a beautiful message on being yourself and the courage it takes. Every character grows through the series, which enables you to feel empathy towards all their struggles and moments of realization. Ultimately, this is an uplifting story with a happy ending, but there is definitely this bittersweet feeling throughout the show that doesn't let go for long after the series has finished. And so I'd highly recommend Toradora - even if it's only for how long it left me continuing to think about it.

Toradora presents a realistic look at love, and a beautiful message on being yourself and the courage it takes.

[ENG]
“Don't worry, the perfect person will appear in your life”, how many times have you heard that phrase? Year after year, this echoed in your mind, so you ended up waiting all this time for that perfection...but I'll tell you a secret, and don't spread it to anyone, okay? Everyone who told you that, each of them, was lying, or rather, they didn't tell the whole story.

Let me be clear and explain that to you. Toradora! produced in 2008 by J.C.Staff studios and Yuyuko Takemiya's original work, shows the story of Taiga Aisaka and Ryuuji Takasu, the Tiger and the Dragon, and what does that perfection you heard so much in your life means

Let's go through the main characters to understand them better:

- Ryuuji is a different protagonist from other Animes, considering that he's relatively normal, despite his appearance and frightening eyes, he has a heart of gold and takes care of others like a mother;

- Taiga is the school's "tough girl", and her fame has spread all over the place, giving her the nickname "Palmtop Tiger", something like Pocket Tiger, referencing her size and her unusual aggressive temperament;

- Minori Kushieda is the class clown, a cheerful and fun girl who doesn't matter the day or the people around her, she always manages to brighten up the environment and leave a pleasant mood;

- Yusaku Kitamura is kinda similar to Minori's personality, but his appearance and composure convey the image of being someone confident and who can help you at any time;

- And Ami Kawashima, the model who has just been enrolled in their school, her beauty and body stand out in the eyes of everyone present, leaving the classmates to admire how beautiful and mature she is;

Well, now let me explain the premise of the story... Ryuuji and Kitamura are best friends, Kitamura is a friend of Minori, whom Ryuuji secretly likes. Minori is Taiga's best friend, and Taiga likes Kitamura in secret, who is Ryuuji's best friend, and Ami is Kitamura's childhood friend and...

A mess, isn't it? But it's from there that Toradora begins to give us lessons about life...because that "perfection" will never exist, everybody is a mess, you're a mess, I'm a mess, and the characters are also a even bigger mess. Everything I've talked about so far, have you ever stopped to think that it could be a mask they use to hide who they really are?

This Anime shows the real meaning of the phrase you heard at the beginning, that this perfect person will appear in your life, but that doesn't mean that is someone without flaws, but is perfect for you. Someone with flaws, weakness, imperfections and with difficulty to remove that mask, but when you're finally together and be honest to yourselves, you'll both shine like you always should be

So, instead of standing still and watch others shine, how about remove your mask and be yourself? And when you do that, just look to your side, because just like you, I guarantee you’ll also see another jewel, ready to be polished.

Bellow there is a video link, entitled “The Perfect Person”, which better analyzes the Anime and its premise as a whole, making this review even more accurate (Please turn on the English Sub for it).

[PT-BR]
“Não se preocupa, a pessoa perfeita vai aparecer em sua vida”, quantas vezes você já ouviu essa frase? Ano após ano isso ficou gravado em sua mente, então você acabou esperando todo esse tempo por essa perfeição...mas vou te contar um segredo, e não espalha para ninguém tá? Todo mundo que contou isso para você, cada um deles, estava mentindo, ou melhor, não contaram toda a história.

Deixe-me ser um pouco mais claro e explicar isso no final das contas. Todaroda! produzido em 2008 pelos estúdios J.C.Staff e obra original de Yuyuko Takemiya, mostra em especial a história de Taiga Aisaka e Ryuuji Takasu, o Tigre e o Dragão, e o que de fato significa essa tal perfeição que tanto ouviu em sua vida.

Vamos dar uma passada nos personagens principais para entender eles melhor:

- Ryuuji é um protagonista diferente de outros Animes, considerando que ele é relativamente normal, apesar de sua aparência e olhos amedrontadores, ele tem um coração de ouro e cuida dos outros como se fosse uma mãe;

- Taiga é a menina mal-encarada do colégio, onde sua fama se espalhou por todos os cantos, dando-lhe o apelido de “Palmtop Tiger”, algo como Tigre de bolso, referenciando seu tamanho e o temperamento agressivo fora do normal;

- Minori Kushieda é a palhaça da turma, uma menina alegre e divertida que não importa o dia ou as pessoas ao redor dela, ela sempre consegue alegrar o ambiente e deixar o clima agradável;

- Yuusaku Kitamura é o que tem semblantes parecidos com a personalidade de Minori, mas sua aparência e compostura passam a imagem de ser alguém confiante e que pode te ajudar a qualquer momento;

- E Ami Kawashima, a modelo que acabou de ser matriculada no colégio, onde sua beleza e corpo se destacam aos olhos de todos os presentes, restando aos colegas de classe admirarem o quão linda e madura ela é.

Bem, agora deixe-me explicar a premissa da história...Ryuuji e Kitamura são melhores amigos, Kitamura é amigo da Minori, quem Ryuuji gosta em segredo. Minori é a melhor amiga da Taiga, só que a Taiga gosta do Kitamura em segredo, que é melhor amigo do Ryuuji, e a Ami é amiga de infância do Kitamura e...

Uma bagunça, não é? Mas é a partir dai que Toradora começa a nos dar lições sobre a vida...pois essa tal “perfeição” nunca vai existir, todo mundo é uma bagunça, você é uma bagunça, eu sou uma bagunça, e os personagens também são uma bagunça ainda maior. Tudo que falei deles até então, já parou para pensar que pode ser uma máscara que eles vestiram para esconder quem realmente são?

Esse Anime mostra qual é o real significado da frase que você ouviu no começo, que essa tal pessoa perfeita vai sim aparecer em sua vida, porém isso não significa que é alguém sem defeitos, mas que é perfeita para você. Alguém com falhas, defeitos, imperfeições e com dificuldade de retirar a tal máscara, mas que quando enfim estiverem juntos e serem verdadeiros com vocês mesmos, vão brilhar como sempre deveriam.

Então, ao invés de ficar parado e olhando os outros brilharem, que tal retirar essa máscara e ser você mesmo? E quando fizer isso, basta olhar para o lado, pois assim como você, garanto que também verá uma outra joia, pronta para ser polida.

Segue o link do vídeo, intitulado de “A Pessoa Perfeita”, que analisa melhor a obra e sua premissa como um todo, tornando essa review ainda mais precisa.


[Link of the Video](https://youtu.be/fOWn0eUM3K8)

Showing the true meaning in "The Perfect Person for You"

It’s shockingly easy to confuse infatuation and love. Despite one being a feeling that inspires people to ask a stranger to a high school dance or to go out for drinks and the other being an emotion that drives people to spend their lives together, when emotions are involved the brain can be incredibly stupid. The distinction between the two is what lies at the core of Toradora and is what makes the show so special: this is the story of two people falling in love with each other and realizing the difference between a fleeting crush and something more permanent. 

The basic premise of Toradora is a pretty standard “high school romantic comedy meets coming of age” story. The narrative is centered around Ryuuji Takasu and Taiga Aisaka, the latter of whom happens to have a crush on Ryuuji’s friend Yuusaku Kitamura. As fate would have it, Ryuuji also has a crush on Taiga’s friend Minori Kushieda and the two find out about the fortuitous circumstances. Although ostensibly this story is about Ryuuji and Taiga working together to help one another get a date with their respective crushes, after the introduction of Ami Kawashima a few episodes in it becomes clear that, while the two may be struggling to land their supposed dream partners, they are starting to fall for each other. 

~~~img330(https://i.imgur.com/S4CjXKC.jpg)~~~

While the overall premise of Toradora may be standard, the execution is anything but. The show adopts the pretty common technique of building up to multiple emotional setpieces over the course of the story, and it’s honestly really where the series shines. When Toradora is at a climax, emotions are running so wild it’s incredibly easy to just get swept away by the show and what’s happening on screen. Now, it is worth mentioning that there are some moments in the show that feel fairly contrived in order to reach these climaxes, some minor moments that just seem very coincidental. Here’s the thing though: I’m willing to overlook a few coincidences happening in the plot. This is a romantic comedy, not a realistic depiction of an average high school romance. Toradora is trying to tell the story of two people stumbling through love with each other for the first time in their lives, and in that regard the show does a great job.

Basically every character in Toradora exists on a scale between “somewhat quirky” and “incredibly quirky”: Ryuuji and Taiga both probably fall somewhere closer to “incredibly quirky”. In his free time Ryuuji cooks and cleans so much one might think he’s training for some kind of “Japan’s Next Top Housewife” contest, but because he happens to look like a delinquent everyone assumes that he is one. Taiga, on the other hand, is basically the prototypical “short tsundere” who dials up the tsundere part to eleven. Earlier I mentioned that at its core Toradora explores the difference between a crush and genuine love – this is the relationship that is supposed to represent what genuine love looks like. At first, however, it might not seem that way. Taiga regards Ryuuji essentially as property (or a dog, if that’s slightly better?), and Ryuuji essentially accepts this treatment as a means to an end regarding Minori. But as the series progresses the viewer gets to see their relationship grow from “acquaintance” to “ally” to “best friend” and eventually to “partner”, and seeing that growth is what makes these characters so great. Ryuuji and Taiga are nothing alike and are both quirky; Toradora hyperbolizes these quirks to show that love isn’t supposed to be easy. It’s messy, the person you fall in love with won’t be perfect, and that doesn’t mean you should overlook their flaws, but instead face them together and balance the worst qualities of each other out.

~~~img330(https://i.imgur.com/oh7qHVn.jpg)~~~

Contrasting this, Kitamura and Minori get placed on a pedestal from essentially the start. Kitamura is the vice president of the student council, incredibly popular with the ladies, and just an all-around overachiever. Minori, like Kitamura, is also an overachiever who juggles being the captain of the softball team and working seemingly dozens of jobs. Exactly like how an average person will overlook glaring flaws their crushes have, Kitamura and Minori are idealized to the point where they seem perfect. In order for Ryuuji and Taiga to come together, these versions of Kitamura and Minori need to be deconstructed. Ryuuji and Taiga, as well as the audience, need to be shown that they were infatuated with an idealized version of these characters, and over the course of Toradora that is what happens. The perfect versions of Kitamura and Minori are broken down in individual arcs to show their more flawed, human side. While I think Kitamura’s arc was brilliant in basically every way, culminated with the best moment in the entire series and helped Taiga realize that she and Kitamura weren't right for each other, I will say I have a slight problem with Minori’s. I can’t shake the feeling that it was lackluster; it failed to show why Minori and Ryuuji weren’t compatible, instead using Minori to form a love triangle and create tension that I really don’t think needed to exist in the first place. I liked Minori as a character, but I can’t help but feel that a lot of what she did felt like it was done because the narrative demanded it, not because it was the organic thing for the character to do.

~~~img330(https://i.imgur.com/T0vCNBT.jpg)~~~

The character that really ties Toradora together for me, however, isn’t one of the four romantically involved leads, but instead is Ami Kawashima. When the character was first introduced as a gorgeous model who happened to be a childhood friend of Kitamura, as well as essentially being a sociopath, I was a little disappointed. My expectation was that she would be used in a “mean girl”-esque role – essentially she would hook up with either Ryuuji or Kitamura and cause some kind of drama with Taiga. I’m really happy to say that my initial impression was totally off. First of all, Ami is very well-realized as a character in her own right, and fits with the core themes of Toradora. She has a lot of internal conflict revolving around how the world perceives her based on this perfect “teenage model” image she maintains versus her own self-image and how she really is. If Kitamura and Minori were being idealized on a micro level, she’s being idealized on a macro level, with everyone thinking she really is the immaculate, mature person she has to be in public when in reality she’s a flawed teenager who is dealing with her own issues. Where Ami really comes through, however, is in her role as a sort of big sister/relationship guru to the rest of the cast. As the only lead with no real emotional skin in the game, she’s distant enough to realize early on that Ryuuji and Taiga have a thing for each other. Over the course of the series, she works to create (oftentimes uncomfortable) situations that force the two to confront their feelings for each other, and is a large part of why the show works as well as it does.

~~~img330(https://i.imgur.com/i8Wm5cY.jpg)~~~

As far as production values go, Toradora is all around solid. From a visual perspective there are two noteworthy factors. The first is that the characters are incredibly expressive, and most of that stems from the focus on the face.  The oversized eyes amplify the slightest change in facial expression, letting the audience know in real time exactly what the characters are thinking without anything needing to be said. The second thing of note is the framing in the series. In many series it's not uncommon for framing to essentially be “if the characters are talking then they’re in the shot” and leave it at that. Toradora eschews that idea, instead focusing the shot on exactly what the director wants the audience to see and nothing more. Oftentimes the camera will be fixed in place around one focal point, and characters will be talking or moving around offscreen with the audience not seeing them unless it’s needed. 

~~~img330(https://i.imgur.com/XXfpwd6.jpg)~~~

In terms of audio related production, I thought all of the voice acting of Toradora was great; I understand that some people find Taiga’s voice to be grating, however I felt Rie Kugimiya was fantastic in the role and really made it her own. While I did think the music as a whole was fitting, with the first opening “Pre-Parade” in particular standing out, I was not a big fan of “Silky Heart”, the second opening. I can't really pin down why I felt that way, maybe it's just too different than what I usually listen to, but I think I just felt like it didn't fit.

Toradora is fond of subverting expectations: at the start you feel like Ryuuji and Taiga are just too incompatible, that Kitamura and Minori are perfect, that Ami is nothing but a sociopath, and that the series is nothing special. And over the course of 25 episodes, all of those initial assumptions get turned on their heads. The series is funny when it wants to be, dramatic when it needs to be, and touching throughout. Toradora is a story about infatuation vs love, idealization vs reality, and while it may not be perfect its best moments will stick with me for a long time.

Idealization and Infatuation versus Reality and Love

As much as I personally don't really like the romance genre in anime, I was pleasantly surprised by shows like Sing Yesterday for Me, which many people say is mediocre but I disagree, and Rent a Girlfriend, which many people have a problem with the main character and I didn't.

So when I heard that so many people really liked Toradora, I checked it out and thought it was just ok. It wasn't bad or anything, I wouldn't even say it was bland, boring or mediocre. I just didn't think it was anything special and I was personally annoyed at the presentation of certain scenes. One example I can think of is with Taiga's father being a douchebag episode and how Minori was really mad at Ryuuji from the beginning. I thought that was really stupid especially considering his circumstances. I get that he ignored negative aspects of her father's character but I still felt that episode didn't work in the way it wanted to. I felt that Minori was being overtly ignorant to how Ryuuji would and does view the situation, making me dislike her during the course of the episode. 

Another example of my annoyance with the presentation of events in the anime comes with Yuusaku's rebellious phase. When that was happening, I already knew it had to do with some sort of rejection on the Student Council President's part based on the scene with only the two of them in the council room. Given that information, everything that followed was too hard to believe for me. They didn't characterize Yuusaku as someone very reactive or emotionally vulnerable and as such his reaction to this situation felt invalid and overly dramatic for the sake of engaging the audience. You can argue that his surprising reaction to this situation was the point, adding layers to his character, but I personally see it as the writers inventing a problem that can be relatable to the audience through pandering and to get us to be more invested in his character and the show as whole. In addition to that, they antagonized the Council President to what I felt was an absurd degree and I got really upset when Taiga went into her classroom to fight her as i felt that was just too much and further supported my suspicion of this arc to be an additional hook into the show with it's overly dramatic presentation of events.

As far as characters go, I don't have much of an issue with the show. The only downside I would say is that they failed to make Minori an interesting, layered character, so it was hard to see why Ryuuji loved her. While I suppose it could just be a case of him loving her positive spirit that she brings with her, that's just something that I find to be a bit boring. Taiga's character surprisingly didn't really annoy me much as i felt her actions weren't too ridiculous for me to handle besides Yuusaku's arc where I felt both her and Yuusaku's characters were at their worst. I do think they did a great job of characterizing Ami as she was the most interesting character with the most interesting developments in her attitude towards Ryuuji and becoming less abrasive and pushy to the main cast.

I also didn't fully get why the ending was meant to be satisfying or cathartic. I get that Tiger went to patch things up with her mom to make things right and get the relationship she wants without it being something the mother would hate for her. Even with that, it felt like it came out of nowhere and the random decision beforehand to run away together felt really forced. It was as if they got feedback to hurry and wrap the story up so they rushed Ryuuji's and Taiga's confession of love to each other while also separating them from any conflict that would get in the way of that conclusion. Ryuuji's mother's character was also highlighted in the ending of the show which made me upset because I felt that this idea of his mom essentially being a kid with a kid was just an idea floating in the air up until this point and they only chose to fully address it at the end, robbing us of any build up and development up to this point in the show's end. When Taiga returns to the school in the last few moments, I didn't feel satisfied or emotional, I just felt disappointed.

For what I really enjoyed in the series, it can be summed up in the Beach house arc. There I felt is where every character was at their strongest and the writing itself was at its best. As much as admittedly nothing really happened during this arc, it gave greater insight into Ami who I already enjoyed as a character and Minori where they give a hint to a more interesting side of herself. The comedy was fairly enjoyable, character interactions were fun and it just felt like this is where the team behind the show were really enjoying themselves. It had me invested with a minimal amount of drama, purely through the strength of the characters.

In all, the show was enjoyable, especially Ami's relationship with Ryuuji. I think it begins ok, the middle is the really enjoyable part for me and the ending was stupid. Toradora is a frustrating show with enough enjoyable elements for the viewer to come out with a net positive experience, though I can see this show being very easy to hate or love. With that, it's solidly above average for me but not far above average. Hope you can enjoy the show more than I did, form your own opinion and maybe even justify some of the things I dislike. 

Thanks for reading!

It hurts to write this review, as, while selecting the votes I'm constantly like "No, you can't score those that low!", and then I remember why what could have been one of my favourite animes, now fills me with anger just thinking about it.


I think Toradora! is the biggest self destruction I've ever seen an anime do, and while it's not bad, what could have been a 9/10 anime has a terrible ending, which, to be fair, is just an episode, but it's the most important one, and it manages to destroy so much of what the previous ones created.


Art and Sound: They're both good, but not overly so, I've watched the italian dub and I was very pleased with the job that the team did. The first opening is good, but has a terrible metallic filter all over the vocals that makes it really hard to listen to it, the second opening is solid though; the first ending is very good and is the right mood for almost every episode it is in, the second ending is probably the best track, but it's almost impossible to find it online, and I could only find covers to listen to legally. Overall solid but not extraordinaire, 7/10.


Story and Character: There are two VERY distinct parts of this anime, as I mentioned earlier: episodes 1-24 and episode 25.
Episodes 1-24 are great, they establish great characters, not terribly original, but they are very good at this tried and tested blueprint: everyone is very recognizable and deep, the social connections between the characters are sensible, strong (so strong in fact thaat at a certain point we get a love HEXAGON, and it works, because it's so tightly knit, a real treat for people who love gossip!) and always play a role in how they act, so even actions that may seem inconsiderate on paper, actually work really well, and stuff that seems strange at first is always explained in way that doesn't make you facepalm.

The plot, while starting out as a very normal high school rom-com is very engaging, thanks to the characters holding it together at first, and then it ramps up the intensity real fast after the halfway point, very few thing are casual, and character actions are never inconsequential, even the strangest stuff is explained and makes sense in the context that the series builds up; episode 24 is the pinnacle of the series, it could've been a perfect ending, filled with drama and desperate choices that make sense for the characters, it shows the trouble that comes with growing up and coming out of one's comfort zone, but that in the end you can beat your fears, and that often, a happy ending can be different from the one you expected, at this point the anime is a 9/10.

Episode 25 singlehandedly destroys everything that was have established about the characters: they try showing someone learnt something, but they show them doing the exact opposite of what they should have learned, almost everyone goes out of character in this absurd attempt at an unnecessary wrap; also, never mind actions and reactions being totally out of character, sometimes they are against every logic, and the characters don't even act like they're human!

As for the plot, it particulairly stings that episode 25 comes after episode 24, so you remember very well what can be done with this story, and you see it get completely thrashed, because what happens is so absurd and unexplable, it just looks like putting in a plot-twist just for the sake of having one, even though not all endings need one! An ending CAN be open and sartisfying. How you ask? Just look at episode 24!!! Closure doesn't need to be the final period in the story, it can be one that goes into a story that isn't the one we're telling, and that's fine, because trying to give final closure to a high school drama, never ends well! Life goes on for a long time after high school, and if you're not going to tell the whole story, it is best to leave things open! This obviously doens't ALWAYS work, but in cases like this, where at thend the real story is merely beginning, you should either make a part 2 or stop. Oh, did I mention that there is an after credits scene that tries to solve the problems in the episode and be cute while it does it, but it only makes things worse? 'Cause that happens too.

The final episode is among the worst endings I've ever seen, it deserves a 2/10, it destroys many of the things that it built up, but the work put into the characters and story is still good, it just shoots itself in the foot and actively avoids being great, a very painful 7/10.

As for enjoyment, I was having a very good time throughout the whole series, I would've thought about giving it a 10/10, if it wasn't for the dreaded final episode: it has a great mix of relatable stuff, that makes you bond with the chatacters, and more absurd stuff that keeps you engaged with the plot, again the end filled me with a sort of primordial rage, but I had an overall good time while watching the whole thing, knocking off two marks seems appropriate, 8/10.

In the end, Toradora! is a great anime that tries its best to not be, and it sadly manages to do it pretty well, to have a better experience, I would suggest to avoid watching the final episode, as episode 24 is a great ending by itself, it hurts, but overall it's a 7/10.

Romcom with a fantastic beginning, good center, and rushed and disappointing end

~~~img220(https://occ-0-1722-1723.1.nflxso.net/dnm/api/v6/LmEnxtiAuzezXBjYXPuDgfZ4zZQ/AAAABU5ItYe1YqK1TQzqhu5IrL8sntzvgqf-H8TcPG-rctsPkQKLBWpvqiPd-iOGo8E6Zi9BDYBPRz4tStFewitEoeXKTC0u-J7JYdl4.png?r=9fb)~~~

~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/5ah02Qw.gif)
~~~Toradora was very fun and enjoyable to watch. With this being my first Highschool like anime,  (rather than my typical Fantasy/Action ones) I didn't really know how much id enjoy the show going into it. But as a kept watching, I kept getting more and more engaged in the characters and the story. If I'm being completely honest this show had me looking back at a lot of my life and my high school experience. some regrets but also some happy memories. I think I really got to connect with the main character, Ryuuji Takasu, because of fact that we both really didn't have a father figure growing up. we both had to help take responsibility for our families to help out. I also felt connected to all the emotions and other characters as well. I mean for starters I also went to high school. My friends and I have shared conversations like the ones they had on this show. And that overall made me reminiscent. The fact that I connected with Ryuuji made me want to continue to watch his story and continue to watch him grow throughout the show.

~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/ijNWApy.gif?noredirect)
~~~

One pet peeve of the show was the bird. I know he was there for some comedic relief but god damn I hated him lol. I also didn't like the way Ryuuji and Taiga met. I mean Taiga ~!breaking into his home with a sword just felt weird to me!~ other than those two little things that I didn't like about the show, the rest of it was pretty amazing. the soundtrack was pretty good but not too amazing which I was fine with and the visuals didn't need to be out of this world so I was also cool with that. the story and the characters. how they were written was amazing to me. I think the whole crew and the writers did a great job at showing how dumb we can be in our youths and how love can make us so shy and crazy and all over the place. 

~~~img220(https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/7712c9e6-3ff3-4020-8b95-67eb7c1b0268/d9hrhfh-0496564f-e995-454e-bea4-f2b820d7c091.gif?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzc3MTJjOWU2LTNmZjMtNDAyMC04Yjk1LTY3ZWI3YzFiMDI2OFwvZDlocmhmaC0wNDk2NTY0Zi1lOTk1LTQ1NGUtYmVhNC1mMmI4MjBkN2MwOTEuZ2lmIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.DtbI4ZiT-vNCloB7DjAtr0-Dh8I1IKjWr5XyAuTNBm4)
~~~
One character I would really like to show some light to is Ami. And I wish we got more background to her character and her life, ~!but the tiny bit of it at the end is fine with me.!~I also felt a small connection with Ami with her believing/thinking that she had to act mature because she had an adult job, otherwise, people would look differently at her. I've felt the same way about a different matter and that just made me really like her character even though she didn't have much screen time. 

~~~img220(https://i.gifer.com/EE0m.gif) ~~~

sorry for the long rant over this show, just wanted to show my surprise over a show I would've never thought to have watched. thanks, beginner anime challenge thing haha. Overall, great show! I'm thinking about adding it to my highly recommended list!

__Here is my rating for the show:
__ 
Story: 9
Characters: 10
Visuals: 7
Soundtrack: 8
Enjoyment: 10
__Overall: 8.8__

why i liked Toradora and my thoughts on the anime

Toradora, A name that any avid anime watcher should know. A staple in the Romantic comedy genre, it set a precedent for rom-coms going forward. If you haven’t seen the show (stop reading this and go watch it) ill do a quick rundown for you. The show follows the story of our two leads, Taiga Aisaka, and Ryuuji Takasu. While Ryuuji acts more like a single mother than a high school student, his daunting appearance makes it hard for people to talk to him. Taiga is a small and short-tempered girl; she is THE definition of a tsundere which I will go into more detail about later. These two find themselves being in love with each other’s best friends. We follow Taiga and Ryuuji through their many hi-jinks, as they try to confess their love. In doing this they end up spending a lot of time together, learning more and more about one another as time goes on.

with the rundown out of the way, let's go into more detail on the characters individually. Starting with the main man himself, Ryuuji. Like I said earlier Ryuuji acts much differently than he looks. Living in a fatherless household, he became very self-sufficient. He does all the cooking and cleaning while his mother works. Despite his looks, he is a very kind person who can see the good side in all kinds of people. He struggles with showing his emotions, which leads to many problematic situations as the show progresses. This apathetic attitude is the complete polar opposite of his female counterpart. I feel that this weird chemistry between the two makes all their interactions much more enjoyable. It’s kind of like a chocolate-covered pretzel with a combination of sweet and salty.

Speaking of the female counterpart, let's talk about Taiga. The palmtop Tiger, a very fitting nickname for this small short-tempered girl. Born into a very wealthy family, Taiga was always handed the things she needed. She didn’t get along very well with her parents and moved away to live on her own. Due to her upbringing, she lacked the basic ability to cook or clean. Throughout the show, this characteristic of Taiga leads to lots of development between her and Ryuuji. This is one of my favorite aspects of the show. Watching these to people who in any other situation would never get along. With the help of Ryuuji Taiga slowly changes as the show progresses, adopting many of his good qualities.

Next on our list is Yusaku Kitamura. (sigh) Oh Kitamura, being Taiga's love interest throughout most of the show he has a pretty important role. Unfortunately, this is pretty much all he has to offer. In my humble opinion, his character is weak at the start of the show. Not much is known about his background, other than his childhood friendship with Ryuuji. He has a unique way of handling different situations during the show. This, to me, comes across as “fake”, like he’s trying to hide his true personality from the people around him. He does get better later in the show as we get to see what’s going on in his weird head.  

On the topic of fake characters, Minori Kushieda is up next. The super Athletic, super bubbly never-ending flow of energy. Minori is Taigas's best friend and the love interest of Ryuuji. On the outside, Minori is a super peppy go-getter who wastes no time. She’s the captain of the softball team and holds several part-time jobs all at the same time. Alongside all that, she has to deal with the emotional wreck that is the rest of the cast.  This is where her “fake” tag comes into play. Unlike Kitamura, I feel like Minori acts differently around her friends because she doesn’t want them to worry about her. She always puts everyone else’s feelings ahead of hers. There are several scenes where her personality does a complete 180 as she gets deep into thought.

Last on the list is Ami Kawashima. Ami is a very unique character in the show. She was introduced as a friend of Kitamura. She’s shown as a very kind and clumsy girl, who models for a living. We quickly see what makes her special as her alter ego comes out from time to time. Her other side is mean, snobby, and brutally honest. She tries to hide this from people to try and fit in better. She has spent a lot of her time around adults which gives her a different look at the things happening around her. I think Someone as honest as her is a necessity when dealing with all of the developing relationships going on. She puts things in perspective for the other cast members, a perspective they wouldn’t be able to see otherwise. Unfortunately, she is often left on the sideline when it comes to her own emotions.

Now, with all the main characters out of the way let's get into the real meat and potatoes. This show has a very special place in my heart. Back to my first watch-through to my most recent, this show always hits me like a truck. I have yet to find a show that makes me feel the same way this one does, and there are a few reasons for that. The emotional ties this show puts on the watcher are extremely tight. Watching the characters change and grow, seeing how their decisions vary as they expand their horizons. Nothing is ever cut and dry, things are always moving and changing. In my eyes, there was never a dull moment. Each episode felt like it had development, some greater than others. This constant story building is what I think many modern romantic comedies lack. When watching some newer shows, I find myself wanting episodes to end so I can see more progression. They almost feel like a standstill in some cases. This is something that Toradora doesn’t have a problem with. Now I like to think of myself as a serious guy that tends not to get very emotional when watching something. Or that’s what id like to think. This show makes me cry like a newborn baby, really gets the waterworks going. (especially the outro on the last episode) That’s something, at least in my case, that very few shows have done. Even now I can’t help but shed a few tears when watching it. The big emotional scenes (at least the ones between the two mains) are done extremely well. I’ve gotten tired of watching shows with half-baked messes for impactful scenes. When something happens that is going to change the complexion of the show, or the relationship between two characters I want to be able to look back on it, not forget about it in an episode or two. Many parts of the show have stuck with me and I can vividly remember how they went. This is also achieved by the great soundtrack the show has. Many of the songs throughout the anime will be engraved in your head. You will be able to see the scenes play out just by hearing the song associated with them. I will say, not every song on the ost has aged very well, but it is still home to some great songs. The last thing I want to touch on is the ending.  Many recent shows I’ve watched feel very rushed when it comes to the endings. The new trend seems to be dragging the relationship of the two big love interests so the main character can finally get the kiss that has been teased throughout the entire series. This is a trope that I’m not very fond of and is not a problem that Toradora suffered from. Toradora focused on building the main relationship right up to the very end, and the ending in my eyes was a great way to wrap up the show.

Overall Toradora is hands down the best romantic comedy that I’ve seen. It set the path of success for other shows in the genre and has gone down as an all-time great. It will be talked about for years to come.

#In a Shellnut
Takasu Ryuji really doesn't deserve his reputation. Sure, his eyes might make him look like the Yakuza that his estranged father was, but the similarities end there. Where his father was a promiscuous gangster with questionable morals, Ryuji is a shining example of the domestic house husband.

By sheer coincidence, he bumps into Aisaka Taiga -affectionately (or not) called the Palm-Top Tiger for her diminutive size and typically violent attitude- and is promptly shown just how she earned her nickname. However, when he's accidentally embroiled in a failed attempt at a confession, they come to realise that they're both in love with the other's best friend and an alliance is forged that will see them experience first hand how messy and complicated relationships can be.

#Strong Points
Excellent characters (if occasionally lacking in the creative design department) that I very much found myself empathising with throughout.

It's a double-length anime, and they profit fully from this, taking time to set things up and explore a great deal of neat topics. Had it been shorter, or split into two seasons, it might have lost something along the way, so I'm content with the decision.

This show has a good balance between romance, drama, and comedy. Neither genres overtake the other at any time and generally complement eachother very well.
#Weak Points

Some things are a little rushed or sudden, but they're always justified and resolved properly, so it's more of a style than an error. I just find it a little surprising sometimes.

#Elaboration
Toradora is one of my favorite animes; It's among the first I watched and, rewatching it years later, it still holds up to the memory.

It's not a very generic romance. As soon as the second episode, it already becomes clear that the central characters are close and get along well -a fact acknowledged by several characters in-universe as well.

I don't know very many shows that have three genres. Often you'll find romance paired with drama or comedy exclusively, but here they're expertly combined. It's a nice change of pace and feels a little less biased in any particular direction. The result is a show that can handle heavy topics without ultimately feeling heavy itself, and I think that's rather impressive.

However, my liking of this show is mostly holistic. Small details and little moments add up to create characters with varied thoughts and backgrounds. As much as I like the central romance, the secondary ones are just as interesting and it's almost a shame that they didn't end up panning out. At the very least, it leaves me hoping that they might become friends in their fictional futures.

One of my favourite romance animes; It's a great, long watch with plenty of relatable characters.

Toradora! Series Watch Order

Complete Series