However, from the very first episode I could tell: Toradora! isn’t really anything special. Perhaps the series was groundbreaking when it was first released, but I failed to see what was so amazing about it. Sure, I had a few chuckles here and there, and certain scenes (ski-trip incident, Taiga’s mental breakdown about losing Ryuuji, and a few others) were pretty great, but I definitely wouldn’t consider this anime a masterpiece.
Now, I may sound like I’m just trash-talking this series, but there were some pretty decent points, too. I’ll go through each category one by one and explain both the positives and negatives I found.
Story:
5.5/10 — Ryuuji Takasu, a 2nd year high-school student who is often feared for his scary-looking face, meets Taiga Aisaka— the school’s most feared girl. After discovering that Taiga has a crush on his best friend (Kitamura) and that he has a crush on hers (Minori), the two join forces in an attempt to play matchmaker for one another. The story follows their attempts at getting their friends to fall for each other, but in the end, it’s Ryuuji and Taiga that end up getting together.
Let’s face it, Toradora! had a very basic storyline. While I admit the plot of having the MCs play matchmaker was new, the majority of Toradora! was your basic slice-of-life/high school storyline. I enjoyed the class trip, the pool “arc” and other typical high school activities since I’m a fan of the slice of life genre, but what bothered me was the overall pacing of the story. There were far too many episodes and not enough entertaining content to fill them. Certain problems were drawn out unnecessarily (i.e.: Ryuuji trying to confess to Minori) that dampened the show to boring at times. Other times (particularly the first episode) the scenes cut through quickly and weren’t even given proper conclusions. One example of this was in the first half of episode 1 when Ryuuji literally bumps into Taiga for the first time. Taking offense, Taiga punches him.
…And that’s it.
Ryuuji moves on as if getting punched in the face is an everyday occurrence. It doesn’t show him angered, saddened, even bothered by the fact that he got socked in the face for no apparent reason by a stranger. He just rolls with it, because, hey, why not? On top of that, the next time he meets with her, he has nothing to say about being punched. He doesn’t confront her or complain about it. He has no reaction; he just moves on. Normal humans don't do that.
Skipping ahead, I also find it worthy to add my feelings about Ryuuji and Taiga as a couple. Though I understand the build-up for Taiga's feelings toward Ryuuji, I can't quite understand why Ryuuji liked Taiga in return. The anime made it seem as if, once he figured out Taiga had feelings for him, he decided to like her, too, just because. Taiga falling in love with Ryuuji made sense because he was a generally kind person that helped her through thick and thin. In fact, the majority of the series is spent with Ryuuji trying to help Taiga win Kitamura over. Ryuuji, on the other hand, didn't have the same luxury from Taiga. There were only about a handful of scenes where Taiga honestly tried to help Ryuuji get together with Minori. This, in the end, made Ryuuji's love feel forced, considering that he didn't really have any reason to like Taiga. Instead, it seemed as if he just got used to her being around.
Characters:
8/10 — Definitely strong and entertaining, this is probably where Toradora! shone the brightest. I found Minori and Ami the strongest of all the cast with special emphasis on the former. Though Minori was presented as an oddball character, she succeeded where other whacky anime characters fail– she had substance. There was meaning behind her odd behavior and even slight hints at a deeper layer that I wish could have been explored more. Ami, though depicted as a spoiled, self-absorbed girl, seemed to undergo an entertaining personality change that was subtle enough to be believable and flawlessly executed. Kitamura, though a kind and chuckle-worthy character wasn’t particularly notable, and the same can be said (but to a lesser degree) about Taiga and Ryuuji— the main characters. Ryuuji is another likable character that makes you root for him, though nothing about him particularly stands out. He’s introduced as a character that scares most of his peers due to his fearsome appearance, but this detail was barely touched upon. In the end, I felt Ryuuji was a flat character— kind, a little snarky at times, and a cleaning-fanatic, but hardly worthy of becoming anybody’s favorite character. As for Taiga, I personally liked her quick tongue when it came to battling Ami’s jeers and her dynamically fearless spirit, though, at times her attitude was a little annoying. There were also times where I was a bit confused because her actions clashed with her personality. For example, though she and Ami seemed to fight and bicker constantly, they decide (without any build-up) to sing a cheerful and festive Christmas song together on stage at a class party because… why not? Perhaps there was a love-hate relationship that built overtime between the two, but I didn’t feel as if it was executed in a subtle yet comprehendible way.
All and all, everyone was fairly likable and pulled off the series very nicely.
Art / Sound:
5.5/10 — I don’t have much to say about the art and sound since I don’t often focus a whole lot of time on them with anime. But for the sake of the review, I’ll leave my two cents. The art is decent. I wouldn’t say it’s particularly beautiful, but it wasn’t bad, either. It gets the job done. As for the sound, I felt the first opening didn’t really fit the show. It wasn’t because it was a bad song, but I just felt that its techno-y sound clashed with the series’ genre. As for the other songs, I admit that I didn’t give them much of a listen with the exception of the second ending, “Orange” (a song that I rather enjoyed and found very catchy).
In terms of the voices, everyone did a decent job and I have no real complaints about it. The only exception to this is Taiga who was voiced by Rie Kugimiya in the Japanese version. Having watched Gintama (another anime where Kugimiya plays the main female heroine ‘Kagura’) before Toradora! I kept getting a “Kagura” vibe. There were times when she sounded decent for Taiga, but when her pitch changed, I just kept picturing Kagura. Kagura has such a vastly different personality from Taiga’s, so to keep picturing her, I couldn’t help but feel a bit irritated. This is just my personal opinion and I’m simply including this tidbit because it did have an affect on my enjoyment. Her voice, to me, just didn’t feel right at some points.
Enjoyment/Conclusion:
7/10 — Toradora! is a decent anime if you want to pass the time. It does have its excellent points as well as its weak ones. I found myself bored by a few of the center episodes, but the anime as a whole is marathon-able. If I had to give it a grade, it would get a B-. I’m honestly a little confused as to why this anime is hyped about and given as much praise as it has received over the years. However, I’m not above recommending it to anyone that wants a satisfactory romance story with great slice of life elements.
