As I touched upon before, Toradora! is a very well-received anime. From what I’ve seen, it’s regarded as one of the best romance anime. It is the favorite anime of many. This in and of itself could serve as a draw to the series. If you want to be in the conversation in regards to anime, after watching Toradora!, you’ll be sure to find someone to discuss it with.
Toradora! Follows Ryuuji Takasu -- a first-year high schooler who’s ostracized due to his frightening appearance -- and Taiga Aisaka -- a girl whose extremely short stature belies fiery and violent attitude. Their paths cross when Ryuuji inadvertently discovers a love letter from Taiga, causing her to blackmail him into helping her win the affections of her crush.
That’s a very simple synopsis, but I don’t really want to give away too much.
Toradora! has a very colorful cast of characters, and I’m pleased to say they’re a joy to watch. In particular, I love Ryuuji and Kitamura just due to how nice they are. For Toradora! I watched the Japanese audio version, and all the seiyuu sound fantastic, lending a lot of emotion and character to their roles. I don’t exaggerate when I say that every main character has hidden depths that allow you to appreciate them more. All of their actions make sense and they have reasons for some of their more bizarre and egregious traits. Most importantly, they grow as people.
You should keep this in mind, because the show certainly might not seem like its anything more than surface level at first.
Most of my marks against Toradora! are at the beginning, specifically the first four episodes or so. Toradora! is an amazing ride, but it takes a bit to leave the station, so to speak. The main problem for me lies in the fact that Taiga, at least initially, is a very hard character to love. Bear in mind that I generally loathe characters of the tsundere archetype and Taiga may as well be the queen. Violent, spiteful, load, and possessing a hair-trigger temper, Taiga is the epitome of the trope. And while she’s multi-faceted, she gets better, and she has a reason for the way she acts, it doesn’t watching her any easier. She proved particular aggravating to me because I had to watch her abuse the mild-mannered Ryuuji and see him warm up to her despite her doing nothing to deserve his kindness.
Even ignoring Taiga, I just didn’t find the first few episodes special. The jokes aren’t that funny and it just seems like your standard romcom. If I hadn’t watched the first eight episodes in one go, I might have dropped the series. I would have been missing out on a terrific series, but in my defense, I wouldn’t have known better. It’s a show’s job to hook watchers in early on, and Toradora! unfortunately doesn’t do that well, in my opinion.
Toradora! does reward the faithful for staying however, and it’s all uphill from there. I know one of the most ridiculous things to say when recommending a show to someone is “oh, just keep watching, it gets better! I swear.” For one, it forces new viewers to place their faith in a show despite evidence that its sub-par. With me acknowledging how crazy I sound, please, please believe me when I say the show gets better. It gets amazing. Come the second third of the show, all the jokes land, the animation becomes more fluid as J.C. Staff hits its stride, and serious elements are abound.
The final third of the series, signified by a change in OP and ED, is easily the best portion of the show. It’s definitely more dramatic than the rest of the series, but the shift isn’t jarring. The series gradually moves from comedic to more serious and romantic elements, and I was impressed by how natural it felt. Given the characters I saw at the beginning, I was surprised by how real everyone felt and how naturally the romance progressed.
The music is memorable and fits each scene well.
Hindsight is 20/20, so getting through the beginning will doubtlessly be easier upon a rewatch. As a bonus incentive to watch it again, Toradora! features a lot of foreshadowing.
Overall, Toradora! Is a show that I find a bit hard to recommend. It takes quite a while to hit its stride, but once it does, its all smooth sailing until a great finish. This unassuming romcom is like an onion - it has layers, and it just might make you cry. The art is great, the zany characters will make you laugh, and the connections that the characters forge will warm your heart. I’m really grateful that I got to watch such a heartwarming anime during the holiday season. At first I wasn’t sure what the fuss was about -- it just seemed like your typical anime. Toradora! still isn’t perfect, but there’s something about it that made me smile. And that’s good enough in my book.
Now if you excuse me, in Preparation for curing my Silky Heart, I must eat an Orange sprinkled with Vanilla Salt.
(Yes, I know the name’s Pre-Perade, but I don’t know how to fit that into a sentence, sue me.)
80/100
B-
