Toradora, like so many shows, is a romantic comedy, and like so many shows, takes place in high school. But before you turn away in disgust, let me reassure you that it was good enough to make me eat through it in less than 24 hours.
The end of the story is painfully predictable from, well... practically the first episode, but it's not really about the ending in this case - it's about the journey. As you watch time pass and relationships change in this show, you become incredibly attached to the characters, and you really feel affected when they're put through a hurricane of troubling events and don't know exactly what to do. The plot itself is predictable, yet unpredictable, and that may be why it's so good.
Art was fantastic. There are a couple action-packed scenes in the show, despite the fact that it's not really about action, and they look really good. The main characters also look very unique, especially Ryuuji, who appears genuinely strange at first glance, but you soften up to his face quite quickly.
The music was nothing incredible, but it didn't bother me, and I rather liked one of the ending songs. It was catchy, and had cool lyrics.
The characters are what I really want to talk about. Ryuuji is the most unique main character I have seen in a long time. Some people say he's a "regular guy" like many main characters, but the fact that his best skills are the very skills that constitute the perfect housewife somehow makes him all the cooler.
Oh wait, sorry - I'm ignoring the tiger in the room. The Palmtop Tiger. The image of a tiny tiger so perfectly describes Taiga, the female lead, that it's almost scary. She herself is also intimidating at first, though she quickly becomes tsundere-like. That stereotype makes me a bit sad, but Taiga just looks and acts so adorable that I look past her obvious stereotype and enjoy her character for what she is.
I don't really know what makes this show better than the average RomCom, but somehow, when you put a thuggish-looking housewife-behaving guy named Ryuuji and a tiny, yet impressively violent girl named Taiga in the same room, you get Toradora, a show that is bafflingly enjoyable. Watch it, and don't question why it's good. It just is.
