From the first look on the cover you can’t really infer much from it other than it probably is another anime set in a high school and five students in particular are important, because they are on the front cover.
[Luckily for you, after meticulously researching (watching the series over and over) I have concluded that this anime is a shounen, harem series about a redhead tsundere who wants to bring justice (as well as embodying it) with her trusty dude companion to down a blondy. Wait what? Wrong series? You sure? Shi--]
Even if you understand the name “Toradora” it still doesn’t really tell you that much. “Tora” being the Japanese word for tiger and “Dora” being a shortened form of the Japanese “Doragon” which as you can probably tell means dragon.
However the fun starts once you break the cover and watch an episode or 2 or 5 or 10 or 25, because once you start, it’s not particularly easy to stop (first hand experience).
Without further ado, let us begin.
[If you can’t be “bovered” to read the entirety of this (essay) review (I don’t blame ya), go to the end and there’ll be a short TL;DR section. Baka. (jk jk)]
Art and Animation:
To be brutally honest, the art is SH- (jk jk).
To be brutally honest, I don’t know where to start this review, so might as well be alphabetically at this stage. Right, going to the nitty gritty, the art style and animation isn’t anything out of this world, but then again it doesn’t need to be. From the prospective of the environment that the series is set in (yet another high school), it’s pretty mundane and overused, hence it is fully justifiable; why go all out on making the generic high school (not the focal point of anime) looking like a f**king painting by Mashiro from Sakurasou, it wouldn’t make sense. That said, when the art and animation needs to be good, it is blooming fantastic. This is shown throughout the series on the character’s faces, and once they got that nailed down to a T, the rest of the anime just fitted in perfectly. Animation is great too, especially the subtle details on the character’s faces and body language, and how easily it can be used to infer their emotions and reaction to a situation.
Soundtrack and Voice:
Alright on second thought, alphabetically suck, so we are going to jump ahead and come back to characters.
The soundtrack can only be described as right. There music always compliments what is happening on screen and unlike a lot of other animes out there, Toradora’s soundtracks always feel fresh and add another layer of emotion and feeling. This is especially seen as some parts of the story where music takes more of the centre stage than the actual dialogue, and I can safely say that even without some of the dialogue, you can perfectly understand exactly what’s going through each of the character’s minds and the mood of the situation. Now, I would suggest that if you could, you should buy the entire OST for Toradora since it’s just beautiful and of course one of the more notable songs is “Lost my pieces” which alongside what you would have been witnessing on screen at the time that it’s playing, you would have felt an unusual stuffiness in your chest and your vision blurring (not a heart attack). OPs and EDs are also noteworthy; catchy, eccentric and suits the anime well. Right what’s next?
Characters:
So development’s dead right? I mean who doesn’t want 1-dimensional soggy cardboard cut outs of the most clichéd animu tropes, am I right guys or am I right! I’m not right? Well thank f*ck for that, it’s good to see most of you are still sentient.
If you like character development, then Toradora won’t disappoint you to say the least. As I have mentioned there are 5 main characters and a few more not so main characters, but the interesting and definitely one of this show’s strong points is the fact that by the end of 25 episodes, you’ll know their names and what they’re like pretty well and yes including the supporting cast (because hey guess what supporting characters are also important, without them, there would be no such thing as a main character).
Of course the main focus is going to be on the five I’ve already mentioned (they spent FIVE episodes on introducing the characters, now THAT’S dedication); now I won’t spoil any character at all, not even going to tell you their names, even though you probably know what their names are. Toradora’s development is subtle and big at the same time; subtle in the sense of going from episode to episode, you can’t really make out any change, but if you compare what the characters are like at the beginning versus the end, you would be shocked at how different they are. That said, it’s completely unfair to compare just the beginning and the end, since the entire journey is also very important. After saying this, I would recommend you watch the series at least twice, once to enjoy the story with no worries, and once more to witness the changes and development.
Favourite Character: Obviously the short, pettanko girl, I stick true to my name.
Story:
Up till now I haven’t mentioned what exactly is Toradora in terms of genre. Well if you haven’t read the tags yet, Toradora is a romantic comedy. So right away you should know what to expect right? Nuh uh, this romantic comedy is not like any other. The story doesn’t exactly follow two people and their interactions as lovers/friends soon to become lovers. No, this series follows two people and their interactions as practically frienemies, and their love for another two completely different people. So already breaking convention.
Obviously if you’ve seen the anime, what I’ve just said would be simplification beyond what is deemed acceptable. This anime is set in the basis of a romcom, but the actual message goes much MUCH deeper.
Warning, may contain some “spoilers” (nothing from the actual anime, just the deeper meaning behind the anime, which I hope you want to enjoy and discover yourself and not read up on it prior to experiencing it. If you don’t know what I’m trying to say, go watch the anime first then come back to see if you agree with me).
Firstly, the anime explores is the idea of love itself, and its difference from the more common lust or obsession. Throughout the anime the main characters will think they are in “love” with a particular person but as the anime goes on they slowly realise what their true feelings are. It is this learning what love truly is for themselves and how they change/react in turn to it that is the real highlight of the series and one of the most unique portrayals of love as a concept than other romcoms. Because the show’s characters realise (eventually) that love itself is not simple as they thought (unlike most romcom animes) and is a mystery that only they can solve and the answer only applies to themselves, that makes this all a bit real since that’s how it works in this what we call reality too.
Secondly, the anime acknowledges the fact that love is not always what we associate with love. This can be seen during the first time the OP plays, “love is something that’s bittersweet”, this sentence basically sums up what I’m about to say. The anime acknowledges the fact that yes love is sweet like what we normally associate it with, but also it can hurt and in most cases, it will and does hurt both parties. But the anime the continues with this idea and shows to us that despite all the hardships, those who love each other stay together because they understand why sometimes it hurts and they become more appreciative of the time together that is sweet.
Thirdly, the anime acknowledges the difficulty of forming a relationship. Many times, we have seen that two characters who aren't lover, aren't lovers, aren’t lovers and bang suddenly, lovers, lovers, lovers. Toradora acknowledges how untrue that really is. The anime depicts many aspects of what most people would have gone through during high school/any period of their life, liking someone but not knowing if the other person feels the same way or not knowing how to break it to them saying that you like them. Of course then you would try many different methods to try (emphasis on try) to tell them but most of the methods would end in disaster and your embarrassment; the anime depict these as well to horrific accuracy.
I will stop myself here for now, but you get the idea.
So the story is definitely a good one (such an understatement) and I feel like most people that want to watch it will enjoy it.
Okay here’s the TL;DR section for those who can’t be bothered.
Art and animation:
Good mostly, Great the rest. The characters have the best facial expressions.
Soundtrack and voice:
Music is catchy, emotional and played at the right times. The music significantly enhances the emotional events that you’ll experiencing. OPs and EDs are nice too. Voice acting is top notch.
Characters:
Deep, multi-dimensional, and developed really well from start to finish. Each of them has more than meets the eye and the supporting characters aren’t left out either.
Story:
Romcom by name but nothing standard. The story goes deep to explore many ideas about love and its meaning whilst giving you a lovely complex and developing storyline.
TL;DR over, continue to read the next sections.
Enjoyment:
Well, I gave it a 10/10 for a reason.
Although I would say one thing, if you don’t like tsunderes at all, like you can’t tolerate any sort of tsun and practically allergic and would require significant medical attention upon seeing anything tsun, I would suggest you take a step back and watch a girl with autism (I’m serious) and her beautiful love story in Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo.
But if you aren’t the sort of person I’ve described above, I would suggest you give it a go at least. If you make it to episode 10 and don’t like what you see, then I can’t blame you for dropping it.
If you are concerned about the tsundere, don’t be. The trope is what you can describe as tsundere, but it’s nothing like what you’ve seen before, it’s not repetitive and it adds to the story development as well as the character development. (The tsundere’s voice actor is really famous for her work, so that’s always reassuring.)
Overall:
Toradora is one of those animes you watch, you laugh, you cry, you laugh again, you smile and you remember. I have to say it’s something special not just as a romcom but as an anime in general. And oh my the ending.
Appendix A:
Thank you for reading everything I have to say, hopefully I have convinced you to watch the anime. Hopefully you found this review useful and happy viewing!
[See Appendix B for what to do after you finish the anime]
Appendix B:
Okay so if you are here I will assume you have finished the entire series at least once. Here are a couple of things I would recommend you doing if you wish to see more Toradora;
0 – There’s an OVA, about bento lunches, so go ahead (#NotShokugekiNoSoma). Includes more character development! Yay!
1 – Didn’t like the ending of the anime? Want to ship the MC with one of the other girls? You can do that with the “Toradora! Portable” PSP game. You can purchase the game off Amazon and use either a PSP or an emulator to play it.
2 – Want to see the source material? Toradora is an adaptation of a light novel series, so you can always check those out if you want to see the story in its original detail, also there’s a manga too so, more money to spend!
3 – If you haven’t brought the OST, I would suggest doing so, since the music is varied, fun, and emotional, just like the anime.
4 – See Appendix C if finished all of the above.
Appendix C:
Okay no more material on the actual story and such, but merch is still a thing! Posters to stickers to figurines to plushies to body pillows, if you want to splurge then that’s what you could do!
If you are really desperate for more story, fan fiction is the next best thing I’m afraid.
(Doujins too if you are into that)
