Toradora! - Anime - AniDB (2024)

show review

Rating:5.83

Approval:92.5% (1 votes)

A school setting, a super-loli as a protagonist, a harem-styled plotline, cliche'd comedy, teen romance. Damn, Toradora is a collection of everything I despise in japanese animation. Yet, surprisingly, it is not as bad as it could be. Toradora is, however, just another slice-of-life of a teenage life in a japanese school, offering enough to catch your attention, but lacking something to shine amongst the horde where the genre sits.

Toradora is the tale of Ryuuji, a boy with the face of a deliquent, and Taiga, a 10-year-looking girl with an angry attitude (yes, a perfect tsundere). They both help each other to win the hearts of their respective crushes, but as they do so, they also start to learn that they might in fact love each other far more instead.

1. How old is she?
   Taiga looks like a 10 years old girl, a flat-chested loli that, by comparing to the rest of the cast, should barely reach 4 feet. We've seen that before, its the all-mighty loli template that fills hundreds of shows since ever, especially from 2006 onwards. It is very hard to tolerate this stuff, but it can pass if you would take in account that she suffers from some nasty growing problem. She is 17 years old yet looks like a kid. She is no dwarf though, because her proportions are that of a kid and not of a teen. Does the show tackle that issue? Nope. Does it mock it? Yes. Surprisingly, Taiga never complains about her size besides one or two lines. Considering the semi-realistic nature of the show, this would pose a problem or at least it would be a major player in her life... but well, the author never thought of that, she just wanted a cutie-cutie so part of its audience could make their fetishes flourish.

   Romance? Comedy?
   I've seen a pattern in romances these last years that I could resume as: an average romance ends when the couple gets together; a great romance will tell us of more of what happens after that. Toradora barely gets to be a romance. You have your love polygons teased and a few dramatic events, but the show doesn't explore this, keeping itself secure in the slice-of-life within the school and filling time through the episodes. It ends when the boy and girl get together. As with Clannad though, you know who the winning girl will be from the promotional material of the show (yeah, Taiga, you thought of someone else? Duhh!). It ends up being a weak romance that is saved by some cliche'd comical moments, yet the show shines the most when it gets to drama.

   Decent tragedy, but...
   I usually say japanese authors are quite skilled at making you sad. Toradora is no different, you have many moments where some sort of tragedy or dramatic event occurs and the characters' emotions are put to test. These are the moments Toradora shines the most, yet, when you try to recall these events after watching it you start to notice very little occurs. The script consists basically of showing Ryuuji and Taiga doing daily stuff, getting friendly, and trying to forge a plan to win the heart of their crushes. Besides that the major events are far too few. A shame, but it doesn't harm the overall dramatic presentation of the show.

   It got the tools it needs
   A slice-of-life needs a powerful cast to work. Toradora is short of reaching the level of others of the genre, but it does a good job nonetheless. The biggest issue it faces, however, is the unrealistic essence of its characters. They try to be comical, cartoonish, and serious at the same time, but their aspirations and the life they take don't strike for a bunch of teenagers in their 17s. They all fret in the face of romance, they can barely make out relantionships, yet they all have thorny lives with disturbing problems and broken families... is that a realistic thing for japanese teens? Because the teens I know that had such twisted lives are far more mature than most adults I've seen... and well, when it comes to getting horny and dating, someone in their 17s usually doesn't have that much problem... anyway. The cast is charismatic, charming when they act, but there are too many issues to it at that.

   The harem cast
   Although Toradora is a slice-of-life, it is a harem-inspired show and has all the deres template. From the very beginning you get a sexualized dumb mother who is quickly joined by the loli tsundere (of course), the genki dumb girl, and then the tyrannical hime. Besides the mother (which of course, loves her son), the three girls quickly become obsessed with the protagonist and start to desire him secretly while doing random stuff and helping him in the harduous task of confessing his love to Kushieda (the genki dumb girl). The show teases a more complex love triangle, where another male is put in the soup, but that is quickly thrown out the window and he just remains there for some comedy relief and as a helping hand to the protagonist.

   And a memory...
   Remember I said about the protagonist having the face of deliquent? You do? Great. Because the show doesn't. As a matter of fact, the supposedly "outcasted and feared" protagonist only has a problem with his evil-looking face in the first episode. It teases you as being something important, but well... it is not. He can get friendly and popular as any other boy, he gets all the girls from the show to love him, and he doesn't have any sign of social issues due to that. Yup, another show of "let's present this boy as the guy who can never socialize and then put him on the spot as the most popular guy in story". Damn, this annoys me. Hyoukka (a more recent show) does something similar by presenting you the guy who "optimizes effort and profits" but quickly puts him to do all the useless stuff possible.

   Its drama is what moves it forward
   Taiga's tsundere behavior can get annoying, the genki girl can get annoying, the protagonist is never truly developed, and the rest of the cast is just ok. Put these guys in a typical modern-day Japan and you have one certain consequence: a safe show. This means Toradora is not the most fun and enjoyable stuff ever, but also never derails to be something unbearable. Again, the dramatic small bits collaborate to engage you and some comical parts also grab you by your hand, so it can be quite pleasing and fun, maybe only taking some pressure for the huge amount of episodes to show very few important events.

   Generic looking, but good enough
   Toradora borders the generic template we've seen in most shows, with the big-eyed deres, your Japan-city background, and so on. It has bits of uniqueness though, with a smart tendency to be more cartoonish than others. This style however, puts some pressure on the show in two different points: the first half suffers a bit with consistency, with many scenes looking completely bizarre and takes that completely distorts the characters proportions, much like what happens in K-On; the second half sanates some of this, but as a consequence the show grows more generic in its style. The animation, however, is fairly consistent and good enough to deliver an awesome piece of slice-of-life.

   Lot's of lolis means...
   You want high-pitched voices? Yup? Then this is for you. Although it didn't annoyed me as much as I initially expected, Taiga's voice can be a major player in how to ruin the experience, especially when paired with Kushieda's. Besides the annoying girls, the reminder of the sound direction is an average work for the genre, with your high-pitched happy-go pop music, a few rare characters with mature voice-acting, and so on.

I was bound to hate Toradora. I mean, look at all that stuff, everything I've grown to hate with all these loli shows in the recent years are thrown together with Toradora. The moment I've learned of its release I automatically put it faaaaar away from any list I had. This remained for a few years, until I've watched Golden Time.

As it happens (and you can see in the respective review), Golden Time proved a major romance show built upon the already known elements. For my surprise, it was from the same author of Toradora! Well, it was enough for me to give it a chance. After watching both, I can see how the author naturally progressed from Toradora to Golden Time, as if a teen grew out to be an adult. Toradora is a childish, fan-luring, loli-inspired version of the more serious and grounded Golden Time. It turned out to be far better than what I expected, yet nothing worth of all the praise it gets around the internet.

show review

by ThatAnimeSnob on 2011-06-22 16:44

Rating:6.33

Approval:92.3% (1 votes)

Toradora is one of the most famous school romances in anime for 2 simple reasons. It has a twist and a somewhat satisfying conclusion. If that doesn’t sound like much, you are right. Anime romances are defined as nothing happens, including the romance part. So when something is slightly different and offers a tiny amount of progress, then you instantly have a great romance.

This doesn’t exactly explain why Toradora in specific got to be so famous, while every other romance that does things a bit differently, let’s say Paradise Kiss, got forgotten fast. And the answer is the same one which made many anime famous and gave the medium a bad image. It’s about fetishes. It has Rie Kugimiya voicing yet another loli-looking tsundere. She became famous thanks to that sh*t, to the point she began recycling older catchphrases. Shana’s “urusai” and Louise’s “bakainu” combined into Taiga’s “urusai bakainu”. There was already a pre-existing fanbase for this sh*t thanks to the success of Shakugan no Shana, which gave Toradora the traction it needed.

Anyways, the twist is about the main duo being initially in love with the best friend of one another and they only team up to scheme various tricks in order to win the love of their friend. They come so close to the point they start having feeling for each other, without of course missing the usual misunderstandings, indecisiveness, and romcom jokes that come with the territory. It’s not that different from the standard, it is still stretched to last much longer than it needed, and it just has a lot more going on with its romantic polyhedrons.

And trust me when I tell you variety is a big part of what makes it so memorable. For example, recently we had Tsuki ga Kirei being considered a great anime romance, although it’s plain and has nothing special about it. Not many people are not going to remember it. The male lead in Toradora has a killer’s look which makes him scary to others, even when he is a good guy inside. We saw the same thing recently in Ore no Monogatari and who remembers that one? Variety does wonders and so does a bit of introspection for most of the characters. Even the secondary cast is colorful and easily memorable for his or her personal body language and attitude, while occasionally delving a bit into their psyche. It’s no Kare Kano but it’s serviceable.

Bottom line, it’s not only one of the very few watchable shows made by J.C. Staff, it’s also a light novel adaptation that is not complete garbage.

show review

Rating:8

Approval:94.6% (3 votes)

Given the internet reaction, I was expecting Toradora! to be another Lucky Star, or at best another Clannad. Instead I found another Honey and Clover. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there isn't plenty of humour in Toradora. Some of it is even very slapstick. (If nothing else, female lead Taiga does a good line in physical violence, particularly against the male lead Ryūji). But crucially, the humour is always secondary to the drama.

In fact it goes further than that. The jokes don't simply stay out of the way of the characterization, they actively support it. We get plenty of laughs from Ryūji's cheapskate tendencies, but his (relative) poverty becomes an important part of the final plot arc. Minorin (the other main female) has a Haruhi-like energy and a tendency to make bizarre spaced-out comments, but the latter is also used to advance the plot, while here background eventually goes some way towards explaining the former. Most of all, Taiga's vicious tendencies are not just a cheap laugh, but a central part of her personality.

More than anything, Taiga is a reconstruction of the tsundere archetype - at once a more realistic take on the idea and a reminder of why it became popular. Her inability to accept her own emotions, and the unpleasantness with which she treats even those closest to her, are second to none. But the series faces this frankly, making her more an object of pity than admiration. Yes, she's frequently horrid, but she's no happier about it than any of the rest of us. She wants to be true to herself, to be able to express her love. The initial harshness makes her gradual opening up much more meaningful, because we know how hard it is for her to be kind and gentle. Which is of course the point of the device, but it's made so much more effective because Toradora! never backed away from showing her outright cruelty at the start.

Of course, if another series were to show this much meanness, we would then be asking "why doesn't the guy just leave her?" But here again, Toradora's carefully integrated parts mesh together; Ryūji's entire personality, and even the jokes about his housewife nature, comes together to reveal him as exactly the kind of person who would stay with Taiga despite her mistreatment. Ryūji himself is another example, as he starts to acquire what would normally be an unreasonable harem of girls taking an interest in him. But Toradora retains its realism (and despite the superficial silliness, this is a realistic show; the personalities are exaggerated, but firmly rooted in human emotion, and the stories and interactions between them are very true to life) even here; Ryūji is a genuinely kind person, and each of the girls has discovered this in her own way, but his appearance has lead the ladies to avoid him until now, .Even here, Toradora follows through; his character design, even when we've gotten to know him, looks genuinely intimidating.

It must be said, though, that this and indeed all the other character designs are quite simple. The first opening animation makes a point of displaying the five main characters in silhouette, where they are indeed identifiable - but this is expedited by Taiga's shortness, and by colouring the other two girls to match their hair. Indeed the general unnatural hair colours are a cheap way of making characters distinct, and make rather a mockery of a plotline where a character shows his rebelliousness by dying his hair blond, the pinks, blues and oranges of the rest of his class not rating a mention. In a series as well put-together as this, though, one can't help thinking this is no mistake, that the makers were smirking at us as they did it. Regardless, the opening animation does manage to be memorable, and the general animation is good, if conventional. In an odd move, the one real dramatic fight scene shifts to a low-detail, low-framerate, stylized look, at precisely the point where the animation most needs to be fluid; again, though, the Toradora team gets away with it as something that must be a deliberate, stylistic decision, meant to focus our attention on the emotions rather than the actions, rather than a massive own goal.

Aside from these animation niggles, the only thing wrong with this series is some slight overuse of some background music themes; several scenes that should be poignant and emotional are marred by using the exact same short melody every time. The melody itself is good though, as is most of Toradora's music, with the first ending (which fits the series very well, presumably having been written specifically for it) being particularly catchy. The first opening, meanwhile, is harsher, even challenging - again reflecting the series perfectly. Voice acting too is good; the level of emotion the leads put into their lines is impressive, and everyone remains distinct, though this may not be so much of an achievement as the speaking cast is actually quite small. You won't notice unless you look for it, because the show makes very efficient use of what it has. The cast is very well balanced; the leads are clearly such, the other three main characters get a slightly smaller slice of time, then there are a couple of more or less major recurring characters before the interchangeable multitude. Even if not voiced, the animation keeps students in the support cast distinct, though as I said this is made easier with hair colours and similar tricks.

The plot, too, is perfectly balanced, neatly avoiding the slowdown that often afflicts 26-episode series in the late middle section. In fact this region sees some of the best episodes of the show, most famously with the episodes centred around Taiga's relationship with her father and the class' production of a wrestling show - a tour de force for another kind of balance. While one or two episodes are slightly comedy-heavy and drama-light, this is restricted to those immediately following the most serious dramatic moments. Generally, the series manages an enviable mix, with each episode doing what it should to advance the serious romance plot, and then sprinkling characterization and high school comedy around this. The pacing is helped by the evolving plot, as Ryūji and Taiga's initial reason for seeing each other is gradually displaced by their own developing relationship; certainly the ending, while it resolves the last few episodes well enough, doesn't have the gravity of something the whole series has been building up to. (It does, however, form a beautiful link with the very start, in a rather Shakespearian gentle framing device).

What we have, then, is a series as close to flawless as they come. But even so, I'd hesitate to list it among the all-time greats. When all's said and done, Toradora! is retreading old ground; it may be a very well-assembled high school drama, but it remains a high school drama, with no aspiration to be anything more. The characters are superb realizations of their respective archetypes, each with a carefully thought-out personality and backstory that fit together like a jigsaw; fans may declare Taiga the ultimate tsundere, but Toradora could also take a shot at the ultimate childhood friend, or the ultimate harem-protagonist-we-identify-with. But with the amount of care it took to craft them, surely the makers could have dared to try something more original. Even the animation is very much playing it safe. The show's willingness to portray emotional suffering gives it a raw honesty at times, but somehow it never adds up to anything, since we always return to traditional ground soon enough. The ending in particular displays a worthy willingness to go outside the box, but then loses its nerve before really exploring the consequences.

But if Toradora never attempts to escape its form, somehow it's never quite true to it either. Its characterization is very realistic, but there's too much slapstick for a realistic drama. It's funny in places, but far too depressing to qualify as a comedy. It touches on issues not often seen in school shows, but at its core it's very much about growing up. In the end, I can't call Toradora the best anything. But the fact that I want to, that I feel this series deserves to be the best in some category, should tell you something.

show review

by ajburnett on 2009-09-05 08:21

Rating:7.83

Approval:77.4% (2 votes)

Toradora - great romantic comedy reshaped into decent full-fledged romance. Tsunderekko takes no prisoners!

There were a few times I wished the characters' facial expressions were a little more detailed, especially during dialogues. I'm happy otherwise.

The first OP got me moving every single time, it also fits the show perfectly, nifty little tune. Other OP/ED songs were fine.
I haven't noticed the BGM playing much at all - just a bit too background?

There's some very good voice acting in this one. Unfortunately, since the show gets its fair share of cheesy dialogue spread all over the second half of it, the voicing gets hurt by that a bit too.
Male lead Ryuuji is a strong showing by a fellow named Majima Junji who also did the teacher in Kodomo no Jikan, and I'd say he's improved quite a bit since that time. The other dude, Kitamura, sounds okay, just doesn't stand out much, partly due to the other seiyuus doing such a good job.
The few brief moments of my full appreciation Ami and Minori managed to steal away from female lead Taiga are largely thanks to damn good voicing too. So here's a shoutout to Kitamura Eri (Rin in Kojika) who clearly has talent for doing these conniving, naughty girls, and especially Horie Yui (Ayu in Kanon) who somehow manages a chirping, happy-go-lucky role with just the right twist to it so that it stays both true to Minori's character and actually bearable in large doses for a grumpy dude like me at the same time. Thumbs up!

Finally, the notorious tsundere lead Taiga. Kugimiya Rie does her magic, and I absolutely loved it all along. Due to the show's most unfortunate mutation however, more on which below, this magic is slightly less evident in the later episodes, but let's get this straight - it's just a great performance, and listing all of its little details would take way, way too long.
Okay, really wanna know how good it was? I liked the way she sneezes.

So this one is about five main characters engaged in a complicated multiple relationship triangle sort of thing. All of these characters are well designed, and I simply liked them.

Anyway, Ryuuji was kinda cool, seemed level-headed, at least when not around Minori, and had a sense of humor, this last trait putting him a step ahead of most anime dudes around.
Minori actually came off a little creepy sometimes I thought, but not in a negative way, just perhaps a little mysterious. And Ami was stirring things up being the villain in the group for the time being. I may not be her biggest fan, but she's certainly a strong personality, and had a huge impact on how this story develops.
And Aisaka Taiga - well, she was just something else. Loudmouthed and obnoxious, scheming at all times, very shy about her romantic feelings, but lacking any inhibitions whatsoever about other stuff. Like wiping her nose on clothes hanging around in Ryuuji's house. Now couple all that with 143 cm of all out blond rebellion and it should be no surprise this girl was scoring points with me so fast she was putting any other tsundere-based characters I've seen up until this day to shame.

Anyway, when I started watching this I had absolutely no idea what it's about, I'd only heard it's some kinda recent hit and has Kugimiya Rie. Seen the occasional picture here and there too. So I was expecting just about anything with this one, and the first couple episodes just blew me away.
Seriously, the first part of this show is so good I could hardly believe it. The humor had me laughing, and I actually mean laughing out real loud which doesn't happen to me often with anime at all. The story was moving along at a nice tempo with some unexpected stuff taking place, etc.
But here's what really matters: Taiga was running wild. A lot of this part of Toradora centers around her antics and how Ryuuji and the rest of the cast deal with it, and that's no easy thing mind you, this one can be a real handful at times. Sure she wouldn't get away with some of that stuff in real life, but I couldn't care less, I loved every bit of it, and just about when I started thinking, Hey, I could watch 100 episodes of this stuff, it rocks! - then it dawned on me.

This was obviously not going to last. The way this show started they set the bar so high, there was no way they could keep it up until the end. And that's exactly what's happened, as slowly but surely some real heavy romantic bullsh*t started to take over this show.
First bad sign was Taiga acting as if they put her on a leash, all calm and collected suddenly. Then they started to dress her up in cutesy clothes and do up her hair, clearly trying to make some kinda angel beauty out of her, to go together with all the romantic scenery and mood no doubt. Well guess what. This is not what I wanna see you morons! But alas, all hope was lost for this show when she came out on stage together with her arch nemesis Ami and started singing that goddamn Christmas song and doing the sweetie dance routine, and I don't care if that's a spoiler, I'm venting my anger here, so bear with me or go read something else!

Okay, I vented. Now, I honestly feel like I'm not giving this show justice. The way I was raging, that's simply because it started out so hot it was hard to accept what it deteriorated into. Still I bet there are countless worse romance stories out there on the anime market. So let's see what is positive about this one, as even its worse part has its strong points.
First, the plot is not bad in itself and keeps up some sort of pace throughout, with small doses of humor left here and there.
Also, the guy it's all about is not that much of a random, clueless idiot, though he will at times certainly act like one. And I won't deny it, there were moments I wanted to shout, Look pal, you get a good grip of this brat here and just plant a fat kiss on that loud mouth of hers, you know she wants it! But what can you expect of a high school student? And one whose trying to make sense of things while being right in the center of the storm, or at least right next to the center at most times, hehe. It can get confusing.

And most importantly - Taiga is still Taiga. No matter how much you try to sugarcoat her skinny little self, her true colors are showing. And you guessed it: it's usually crimson red.

Might buy it. Definitely rewatching at some point. Recommended.

Sure I was wishing they'd just cut the crap and get on with the good stuff, but hey, nothing's perfect, and I really enjoyed it anyway.

SummaryAnimation - 8 - lookin good.Sound - 9 - impressive voices, good music.Story - 7 - maybe they should've just squeezed all the romance into one big retrospect and make it all 12 episodes or something?Character - 8 - just can't rate it any higher, most characters get too cheesy-sentimental at some point.Value - 7 - rewatching 100%.Enjoyment - 8 - okay I admit it, it was a lot of fun, even the romance in its own way.

show review

by summoner on 2009-04-30 18:31

Rating:8

Approval:80.4% (7 votes)

Note: This review is based on CoalGuys and AniYoshi fansubs both of which are of adequate quality and though you can find some minor errors in translation from time to time it's satisfactory for the most part.

Originally created by Takemiya Yuyuko and directed by Nagai Tatsuyuki (Honey & Clover II) Toradora![/b] is by far the best romantic comedy with harem archetypes I have ever seen. It tells a story about the relationship of two people, Takasu Ryuuji and Aisaka Taiga, and their, sometimes hilarious, attempts at helping each other seduce their crushes. It doesn't sound that great on paper, nor does it sound overly original when you have harems where women sprout from soda cans, but nevertheless, Toradora! is not only the best show of the genre, it's an example of how harem is done right. What makes it stand so far above the usual stereotypes is its complex and deep characters, complete lack of fillers or fanservice and finally a realistic romantic relationship which actually moves forward. The funny thing is that it is hard to commend Toradora! for originality since it adapts one of the most used setups around. Despite that it still appears fresh due to the fact that no show before has ever managed to move such setup as far as this anime did. Toradora! single-handedly managed to revive my hope in harem and romantic comedy genre. It appears that it is not the genre to blame for there being thousands of crappy harems in anime industry, it is lazy directors and their lack of fantasy what is at fault here. I must thank Nagai Tatsuyuki, who did wonders in Honey & Clover before, for finally adding a truly great show to this rotten genre. Now all I need is hentai teach me existentialism philosophy and I will have seen everything.

Animation: 8/10

Though technically not the greatest, it's J.C. Staff (Shakugan no Shana, Zero no Tsukaima) after all, animation of Toradora! possesses undeniable charm, similar to that of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Some facial deformation and awkward movements during "action" scenes only add up to the style and likability of the show, though I must admit I didn't particularly like how hair moved in big chunks as opposed, to well, how hair really moves. Anyway, the most important part for the genre - character designs are cute and adorable, furthermore they really work well with the personalities of the characters and even the plot of the show. I mean, the show would have lost half of its novelty if Taiga had looked different than she does now, right? Anyway, though not as finely detailed as in most modern anime, all characters have their own style and "moe" qualities which make this show even better to watch. Backgrounds, the same way as characters, don't particularly exhibit a high level of detail, but work nonetheless. Slightly grainy color palette makes the show look realistic and it's good since it really happens in a reasonably realistic world for a change. Fluidity is lacking and character movement is slightly choppy when compared to today's standards, but as I have mentioned before, for some reason, it doesn't disturb, it just adds to the overall charm anyway. Perfection is boring and imperfections are attractive because there are times when they look better than usual, thus making them more memorable. Also, unlike most of the shows which run out of budget near the end, Toradora! actually improves its animations in last episodes.

Sound: 7/10

Toradora! has one of the best OP/ED combinations I have ever seen in anime before. First OP Pre-Parade by the three main female seiyuu of the show is an awesome upbeat piece of music which wonderfully blends with the comedic and cute atmosphere of the first half of the show. It's funny how the first frame of the first OP is the only scene in the whole show which looks relatively like fanservice. However, the way it is carried out feels more like a satyric attempt to make fun out of erotic innuendos so popular in the genre, I mean, the look in her eyes is deadly. Anyway, the OP not only contributes to the atmosphere, it also gives some depth to characters, whose actions, while perfectly timed with the music, actually reveal their personality traits rather than useless and random imaginary found in virtually all anime around. First ED Vanilla Salt by Horie Yui is also a pretty good song perfect for the atmosphere of the show, though on the contrary to the first OP I didn't listen to it for hundreds of times, that Pre-Parade is damn addicting. Anyway, once the anime finally jumps into its serious stage new OP and ED are introduced, and they are as good as the ones before, also more fitting since they cut down on upbeat nature, but never go as down as to sound gloomy or emo-like. Anyway, both the second OP silky heart by Horie Yui and the second ED Orange by the three main seiyuu of the show are good pieces of music to listen to. Now that I think about it, they are not that special as stand alone, only when combined with the show they give off that great feeling, as even the lyrics fit. Anyway, it only proves that making seiyuu sing for their own shows makes it all better because they know what they are singing about by heart.

Background music doesn't exceed as OPs/EDs do, but is still satisfactory to listen to. It's actually not the quality of compositions by Hashimoto Yukari, but their timing what makes them so acoustically pleasing. Most of the music disperses into the background the moment it ends playing, but there are some scenes when some above average music pieces are timed so well they work perfectly with both character voices and their actions, giving the scene an epic feel. I remember seeing many such scenes in Gundam Seed which wouldn't feel half as epic without their perfectly timed music. Anyway, I think you'll easily notice what I am talking about, as though I wouldn't listen to the OST, I would definitely like (and actually did) to re-listen to some scenes again. BGM does not shock, but is satisfying nonetheless.

Finally voice-work in Toradora is as top-notch as it gets. Tsundere master Kugimiya Rie (Shakugan no Shana as Shana, Hayate no Gotoku as Nagi) yet again offers a magnificent performance as Taiga, sounding considerably different from her other roles this time around. I didn't know she could produce such low-pitched voice and growl. Kushieda Minori is voiced by Horie Yui (Love Hina as Narusegawa, School Rumble as Sawachika Eri) and Kawashima Ami has the voice of Kitamura Eri (Chaos;Head as Sakihata Rimi, Seto no Hanayome as Shinarui Akeno). Needless to say that both veterans sound great. This show combines some of the best female seiyuu in the anime industry and I must say it works well in its favor. You can even hear Tanaka Rie in the background.

Story: 8/10

Though the show takes place in the real world, which I usually find boring, it turns its setting into one of its main strengths. The setup is quite simple - main character and heroine meet up by chance, have some comedic and hilarious misunderstandings and finally stick up together to help each other with their love, since both of them are best friends of the other's love interest. I must say I wasn't particularly amazed by the first episode, indeed I noticed the good pace and great potential outright, but I expected it to fall apart once the fanservice kicked in... but it never did. Nor did it ever fall apart. To the contrary, the further the show goes, the better in becomes. For that I must commend great director of this show since he made an almost revolutionary step and decided to ignore all the factors which make romantic comedies turn into crap. He never did any "anime original" fillers, he never did any fanservice, he never used idiotic deus-ex machina and he managed to turn each second of every episode into a meaningful tribute to the anime's plot. Though it's not completely clear at the beginning, all the episodes in the first, more light-hearted half of the show, are meant to give depth and develop characters all the while guiding them to the high quality drama which awaits them near the end. There is not a boring moment in the show, when the cute tsundere romance feeling is about to burn out you get a good joke and once the high-spirits from comedy run out you get some important drama to spice things up. The show keeps great balance between healthy angst and comedy, benefiting from them both. Even when the serious side kicks in, the show doesn't rely on blind romantic fanservice, but actually builds up mature and realistic relationships suiting the anime's real world setting.

What's even better is that the plot becomes better with every episode and never degrades. By having spent couple of years watching anime I have noticed that most of the shows tend to have good beginnings and f*cked-up endings, especially in the genre Toradora! belongs to. It's truly a miracle that Toradora!'s conclusive ending is not only better than its beginning, it also has parallels with it, thus proving that the show was planned out solid before it even started airing, unlike most of the random crap around. Anyway, I must say Toradora! starts getting epic little by little since kicking into the second half and the last five or so episodes are pure brilliance. All the build-up and character depth given in the beginning finally blows up and you get the chance to finally taste a ripe fruit of romance so rare in anime media. Not only it's the best harem/romantic comedy around, it's one of the best romance shows in anime industry as well. Though it doesn't offer enough novelty to remain classic among people forever, I will never forget Toradora! as the best crafted tribute to romantic comedies ever.

Characters: 9/10

Obviously, most of Toradora's quality comes from its characters. The main lead, Takasu Ryuuji, though a normal high school student living a relatively normal life (that would be an insult to the genre if he wasn't anyway), is much more interesting and nowhere near as generic as I have originally thought. Though his obsession with cleaning and assorting stuff is not the most innovative, his stubborn feelings for Kushieda and surprisingly strong spine makes him rise above most of the generic leads in the genre. His "evil" eyes also add some needed spice to the comedy. He is still a perfectly normal human being, nonetheless, he is interesting, mostly due to the fact that most of his personality traits completely contrast with Taiga's thus creating a really entertaining relationship.

Anyway, the real star of the show is Aisaka Taiga, who is also known as Tenori Taiga (palmtop tiger). She is there on a fine line between man and a beast, as I wouldn't be surprised if she would beat someone to death one day. I mean, she doesn't even mind raiding classrooms and hitting other girls with fists to let the steam off. I must say her existence itself is a really heavy blow to the whole tried and true tsundere stereotype industry. Hell, is she even a tsundere? Now that I think about it, tsundere's defining trait is that she masks embarrassment with violence and is never honest, that doesn't add up to Taiga, because she is almost always honest. Actually Taiga is naturally violent and stubborn, she hits people because she wants to, not because she is embarrassed about something. Furthermore, she rarely acts violent in regard to those she loves, she'd rather go all red and be unable to piece a sentence together. Her relationship with Kushieda also shows that she is completely honest concerning feelings to people she likes or doesn't. Then again, if you would have to describe her personality, tsundere is probably the closest word to it. Either way, Taiga is an awesome character who literally shatters all stereotypes (and their skulls) and becomes one of the best leading heroines in romantic comedy genre and anime industry as a whole. I'm buying her figure, because there is definitely no other character like her elsewhere and if there ever will be, it will be guys copying THIS show.

There are only three other characters who are in the center of attention, but as I say, quality beats quantity any day. Other heroines include Kushieda Minori who usually behaves like a wacky entity from another planet or something, doing incomprehensible things, walking with "bald" wig sometimes and generally appearing very hyperactive and high-spirited (or just insane if you are a doctor). Obviously, that wouldn't account for the awesome character she is, hence all that is just a facade to mask her true feelings which are hard to perceive even for the most experienced of viewers. The other heroine in question is Kawashima Ami who is a two-faced narcissistic model appearing innocent and "clumsy" to the masses and majority of people around her. Her acting cracks up once Taiga decides to beat the hell out of her, thus revealing a surprisingly mature and experienced character who, though standing at sidelines, is the only one who perceives the situation in a crystal like view and is the wisest of the bunch. Her meaningful yet ambiguous one-liners is one of the highlights of the show. Finally, the third one is Kitamura Yuusaku who is Taiga's love interest and, again, isn't really honest to others. Despite appearing cheerful and wacky all the time he never really tells anyone his inner feelings and usually plays stupid, even though he realizes the complex relationships going around him. His worth both as a comedic relief and plot device exceeds the complexity of his personality, but he is, as all the characters in this show, interesting and deep.

All characters in this show, even the background ones, are very realistic and resemble real world human beings very much in the sense that they are rarely honest to others or even themselves. Despite posing as exaggerated anime stereotypes, all of them are very realistic inside. Even miscellaneous things, like Ami's tendency to sit in a short gap between two vending machines, give characters great depth and brings them even closer to full fleshed human beings. I wonder if it is the influence of Honey & Clover since I have never seen such complex characters in other romantic comedies.

Myiers-Briggs personality indicator:

Value: 8/10

Hey, I've just declared it the best romantic comedy or if you perceive it that way, harem ever. Of course it's valuable. Not only I'm going to keep it in my collection and re-watch it from time to time, I will use it as a proof that romantic comedies is also a full-fledged genre able to offer deep and entertaining shows.

1. Conclusion: Watchable by anyone above 13 years old, Toradora! is an example of how good romantic comedies can become. If you are a fan of the genre or just have it for tsunderes - this show is a must-watch. Hell, I recommend watching it even if you don't like the genre, whenever you are in the mood, it might as well change your perception of it, since it did change mine. Other shows with equally intense quality romance: Seikai no Monshou, Rose of Versailles, Kodomo no Omocha. Another anime I relatively enjoyed starring a tsundere was Shakugan no Shana, don't expect much from it though, it hasn't even ended... yet.

show review

by ace52387 on 2009-04-03 20:35

Rating:7.33

Approval:70.4% (2 votes)

Quick Synopsis:
Ryuji and Taiga find out through an amusing accident that each of them has a crush on the others best friend. They form a loose agreement to play the other’s cupid, but because taiga lives alone and also right next door, they end up eating together, waking each other up in the mornings and going to school together, all in the name of their matchmaking ploy. Both of them are mushy messes around their heartthrobs, so they spend much more time with each other, plotting the next hookup or going through various trials in their friendship and only wind up with a few severely awkward moments with their targets.

Story&Characters
It’s easy to pass off Toradora as just another tsundere romantic comedy with the same gags, character archetypes, character pathologies, and sitcom-esque setups that create awkwardly romantic situations. Indeed the characters start out lifeless and generic. The “dere” part of Taiga’s tsundere personality is cloyingly sweet, as if she is a maiden who hasn’t so much as had her skin defiled by the touch of a boy. The “tsun” part is unreasonably disagreeable, violent, and straight up mean. Ryuji always gets this end of her moody personality, and it’s difficult to see any human being with a semblance of pride and self respect standing the insult and humiliation he receives from Taiga, but he actually begs for more. Only a diagnosis of a severe masoch*stic disorder along with horrible self esteem could explain that. Suffice it to say the two main characters have an unnatural and off putting relationship at first. As the series moves on, it switches gears completely, but gradually, to a high school drama. The objects of the two main characters’ affections, a hyperactive girl, Minori, and an overly enthusiastic brown noser, Yuusaku, who were nothing more than gag fodder in the earlier half, as most side characters in tsundere/harem romantic comedies are, become fully fleshed out, though not particularly nuanced characters. In fact, the gags all but disappear after the halfway mark. Taiga, though still easily categorized as “tsundere,” becomes almost unrecognizable from what she was early on in the series. Her character mellows out a lot; she gets to be more apologetic, and because of this, her relationship with Ryuji, though still on the sadomasoch*stic side, at least resembles a healthy friendship.

The series then goes all out Asian Soap Opera, pulling out love geometry complex enough to stump a math major, family dysfunction, and the ubiquitous trials that friendships are put through due to crushes and the resulting jealousy; basically every trick a typical Asian TV drama has for dragging the tears out. Toradora is indulgent with the melodrama, and it’s hit or miss. It’s usually quite deft when it comes to the central romance and family problems. The situations and the ways the characters face them feel genuine, enough so that most people probably can find some common denominators in their personal experiences. The love and affection is surprisingly down to earth given the tsundere premise. No tearful kisses, thank god. The same amount of melodrama is applied to the characters’ friendships, but not to the same effect. Jealousy is the culprit of nearly every friend-to-friend conflict in the series, but melodrama is something that inherently does not suit that emotion. Envy is brooding and dark, not loud and whiny. There is but one character that comes close to expressing jealousy believably, but in the end, she, like all the other side characters, are simply “dealt” with, unnaturally resolving complex issues in simple ways so that the final BFF ending can happen. When melodrama goes wrong, it really goes wrong, and there may be scenes that are corny enough to make you want to plug your ears, close your eyes, and god forbid if you’re watching with a friend, laugh awkwardly to hide the embarrassment from the fact that you actually agreed to watch something so darned cheesy. I can easily see how one might feel differently, but if you ask me, the payoff tear jerkers are worth the occasional bits of torture.

Animation&Sound
Toradora is definitively superior to any other Anime drama I’ve seen in terms of animation. The character designs and vibrant color schemes in clothes and hair are reminiscent of fanservice-y harem gag comedies (which Toradora is quite far from), that is to say, they’re not particularly inspired or impressive, but the characters are consistently well animated, with none of the excessively stiff motions that most high school dramas, especially of the shoujo/josei variety, seem to get away with. Then you have those few sequences with animation beautiful enough to make nearly every action series green. It’s rare enough to see such liberal use of high frame sequences with impressive key animation in any TV series, let a lone a drama. There is one real fight scene, and the rest of these sequences are used on climactic chasing, fleeing, or falling. The fight scene aside, good animation may seem wasted on a drama, but it actually provides a much needed element that Anime sorely misses over its live action counter parts in the same genre: physical expression. The physical expression in Anime melodrama is way too basic. We’ve all seen chase scenes before: the characters run with robotic arm and leg motions, and the only form of physical expression is scrunched eyebrows indicating concern or worry for whoever is being pursued. The same scene in Toradora would have fully animated the pursuer’s body mechanics while sprinting; it would have shown slight random stumbles and slips while turning corners, all of this serves to highlight desperation that when expressed physically adds a layer of emotional depth over some generic verbalized thought like “please be okay…”

You would think that the production value would also apply to music, but it’s sadly absent, or so passive and muted that it might as well have been absent at the most crucial, climactic moments of the story.

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Toradora is well paced in that it weans the viewer from comedy to drama gradually, but it never successfully integrates the two. In the latter half of the series a few old gags pop up very rarely, but they feel forced and unnecessary. People will probably have different opinions on each half of the story. To me, Toradora is generic and uninteresting as a Tsundere comedy. It doesn’t have a knack for laugh out loud humor, and Anime is saturated enough as it is with Tsundere gags. As an angsty, melodramatic high school drama, it’s painful to watch at times, but the frequent tear jerkers and occasional poignancy make the series worth finishing.