I'll cut right to the chase. From its opening scene, you can tell Toradora is not trying to be your stereotypical slice of life anime. The dialogue is witty and the comedy is crass and rapidfire. Ryuji initially seemed like a refreshing protagonist in both appearance and attitude. Given his parental background, his desire to be self-sufficient is understandable. This perception quickly deteriorates as more of the characters and setting are introduced, and the infamous tsundere, Aisaka or "Taiga" steals the show. Now if there's one thing I've learned, it's that girls and guys have a limited number of situations in which it's believable for them to be friends. Maybe they were in diapers together or what have you but most of the time it doesn't work out without someone getting hurt or having feelings for each other. Knowing this fact you can pretty much sum up the entire plot of Toradora within the first two episodes. They're eventually going to end up together. Ryuchi and Taiga are both in love with each other's best friends, so naturally they miserably attempt to help each other pursue the affections of the other party. Every attempt to get the prospective couples alone goes awry, a great bit of foreshadowing on the writer's behalf. It sounds like a simple love story, and it really should've been. Except the countless awkward conversations and feeble advances our main characters had with their respective love interests help to cement the fact they don't deserve to be in love at their age. The ensuing 25 episodes consist of these awkward exchanges and the melodrama is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Most every interaction is misunderstood or blown out of proportion, and literally everything becomes an emotional crisis with these characters. All the while Ryuji is incessantly berated with physical and emotional abuse from Taiga. But it's OK, that just means she loves him... or something like that.
Forgive my philosophical ramblings, but I've learned through the years and relationships I've had that you can't choose who you want to fall in love with. Love just happens. It can be crude and fickle, but at the end of the day it can give you a feeling unlike anything you've felt before. This is why I don't question the validity of odd couple romances (Ore Monogatari/Nodame Cantabile etc.) throughout entertainment. Sometimes characters are polar opposites in personality and looks but something subconscious draws them together. This is what Toradora tries to accomplish. However, a relationship constructed in this manner must be done with finesse, while not being overshadowed by such melodrama as this series has. Similarly growing up in a house without a father as I have, the furthest idea from my mind would be to take care of someone with so much baggage. Taiga takes advantage of the doormat Ryuji is and carries herself in the most bombastic way possible. Ryuji is most certainly a glutton for punishment. Even if I would've enjoyed the romance elements I don't know if I could've stomached the abortion of an ending Toradora had. Many anime fail at getting love right, and this series ends up no different. All it takes is for someone to have an overly emo moment and the entire conclusion gets blown to smithereens. As the final credits were about to roll, the same tsundere stigma that was starting to fade away was slammed back into my face, taking a big shit on my hopes and expectations for the show. Those who have seen the series know exactly what I'm talking about, One of the worst endings I have seen in quite some time, a romance cop out.
Toradora's writing was frustratingly inconsistent. Character's dialogue and emotions would swap from operatic to deeply intellectual within seconds, leaving me dumbfounded as a viewer. All five main characters put on some sort of a façade with their personality, driving the story into many arguments and miscommunications. That was an aspect that I enjoyed to some extent, as I believe most everyone acts a little differently in groups of people than in a one on one interaction. The pacing is well constructed, and the series ends up being split into three major parts. The first half of the series is used mostly to set up the relationships for the five characters, but unfortunately ended up being quite boring as a result. Around episode 14 things really begin to pick up, with conflicts coming to a head as the main characters start running out of time to profess their love appropriately. Everything is assimilated effectively but falls flat due to a train wreck ending. I feel like most people who consider the ending good are only fooling themselves with false reassurance for investing so much time in the series only to be greatly disappointed. I understand that I'm probably not the target audience for this anime, but just because you're portraying a high school romantic comedy doesn't mean you have to sensationalize each line of dialogue or character's emotions. We all went to high school, but I never felt like everyone was that annoying... at least not all the time.
Although there were numerous moments of immaturity, Toradora created a setting that made me quite reminiscent of my time in high school. Embarking on school trips, creating chances to talk to that one girl you liked since grade school, or waiting for that same opportunity during a school dance or function. Although I'm frustrated by it now, hindsight is 20/20 and I could probably imagine myself being slightly timid or awkward when it came to confession time... perhaps just not on the same level as the writer portrayed here. I also love the scene with Ryuji and Minori when they were at Ami's beachhouse at night. The way they were talking about love without coming out and blatantly saying the word kind of made me laugh, and help me put back into perspective what I was watching, and how young the characters really were.
I found it irritating when the writers tried to pass off Ryuji's slanted eyes as the reason everyone thought he was rough around the edges. I know I've judged books by their covers before, but this one is just silly... not to mention the fact that most, if not all of these characters are Asian, which kind of throws that reasoning out the window. As I said before, I related to Ryuji based on personal experiences, and I was initially hoping he'd be a character I could identify with. His germaphobic nature and desire to be the patriarchal figure in his household was right on point, but I didn't buy into his relationship with Taiga one bit. The tsundere trope has always felt unnecessary to me. Even yanderes like Senjougahara from the Monogatari series has some believability, because I've encountered some crazy chicks in my lifetime... And sometimes it makes them even hotter. But it just isn't working in Taiga's case. I can give positive remarks to the amount of depth she had as a character though... and the relationship with her parents was certainly believable. I guess you never realize how pampered some kids can be until they start trying to live on their own (Taiga=primordial millennial). I just don't understand everyone's general praise for Taiga as a character, he'll she's not even the most enjoyable character from the series, let alone all of anime.
Minori actually had some depth as a character. She put on such a ditzy and carefree attitude, but in all actuality she was just as perceptive as anyone else in the series, especially when it came to Ryuji. It was refreshing to see a character playing an "out of reach" love interest that was everything but one-dimensional. That scene when she approached Ryuji while he was in the bear suit was kind of heartbreaking. By that point you knew the feelings she had for him were mutual, and how covered up she got them to be for Taiga's sake. Kitamura is a turd. High school taught me how vain and superficial girls can be, and if I learned anything from that, it's that no girls are attracted to the guy with glasses. Not to mention he was a complete dweeb, with spastic mannerisms that often made no sense and a complete lack of composure when he finds out his crush doesn't like him. Grow up dude, you're barely old enough to drive! It's like he almost went completely nihilistic after he bleached his hair. I kind of kept wondering how Ryuji even became friends with him, they're really nothing alike. Ami is the only character in Toradora that I actually liked to be honest. It seems that her history and modeling has actually injected a sense of maturity into her mind that the other characters just don't have. While the rest of the cast is laden with melodrama, Ami seems to come out of left field with a comment I'd expect to see in real life. Although I don't understand what she saw in Ryuji, I would've preferred if they would've ended up together vice the way that it turned out. I can only imagine how she struggled to take her friends seriously.
The music in Toradora is so-so. It didn't necessarily add or subtract much from the series... But there wasn't much variety in the use of background music. I really enjoyed the first OP and ED, but the 2nd OP really didn't flow well with the rest of the show for me... And those lyrics are ghastly. I will give props to the voice acting in Toradora, as most all of the characters were played fantastically and were very distinguishable. Most notably was Rie Kugimiya as Taiga. Her voice absolutely nailed Taiga's seething personality and tsunderisms to a tee. Yui Horie also dos a fine job as the spacey Minori. The art and animation is okay, considering the anime came out over 7 years ago I'd say it aged quite well. As I mentioned above I was pleased by the stark differences between the five main characters, in character models especially. Some older anime have trouble differentiating the characters due to lackluster illustrators, but Toradora does not fall into that trap.
Overall, I was quite disappointed with this series. It just didn't capture the natural, unadulterated love that so many romance stories have. It even got boring with its unneeded drama and emotion-stricken scenes, leaving me to take the characters less seriously. People say that Toradora is the pinnacle of the romantic comedy genre, and if that's the case I may not be returning to it for quite some time. I can't say I enjoyed it all that much. I'd recommend Toradora to fans of romance anime since that's the target audience, or someone who enjoys the tsundere trope... it just wasn't necessarily for me. As always, thanks for reading and be sure to check out my other reviews!
