Reviews

Someone recommended this anime to me and I have to say thanks! I really like slice of life animes because the anime genre is so filled with mech, fantasy, and otherworldly animes to the point where a good normal anime with normal characters is a refreshing change of pace. However, even if the anime features normal characters, the characters still have to be interesting, exciting, and just plain watchable and the creators of Tordora understood that. My first impression of the anime with the male lead Ryuuji and his problem of people thinking he's some sort of thug based on his looks grabbed my attention, it seems interesting because who hasn't been prejudged by others based on their looks? But when we meet pint sized Taiga I became a little apprehensive. The reason is because for some reason anime creators and writers never seem to give women much diversity on a show, especially when it is a female lead. So when I saw her, I thought. Okay, she will either be a mega annoying whining bitch or some super sweet goddess. It turns out that she was neither. As a matter of fact none of these characters can be truly described by one or two words. But I can use one word, human. Seriously there isn't a character I can say I dislike because one moment I am hating certain actions then the next moment I am rooting for them. I couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic while watching because it reminded me a lot of my days in high school and all my friends who were very similar to many of the characters on the show.

I don't want to give away too much but the story is about two people who meet and form an almost instant friendship as they help each other get the person they are crushing on. Although the story is simple, the viewer has to almost decipher the words and actions of certain characters and sometimes even when you think you have their feelings sorted out, you could be wrong. However, as good as the story and the characters are, it is not without its flaws. For example, there is a certain character who just stops liking another character and you have no idea when it happened, this is one of the things the viewer is left to decipher, which I don't think it should have been done that way because it just comes across as the writers finding ways to add drama to the story, although the viewer is given subtle hints to leads to the characters decisions, we never see that final realization that ultimately leads to the choices they make. another example, there was a certain female character who suddenly began acting strange and we find out later that it is because that character has always liked a certain male character, However, we are never treated to a single moment to indicate that this female character ever had romantic feelings or the male character, we are just told by another female character that this particular female is good at pretending so you're left to assume that she fooled the viewers by her actions and now her feelings are all coming out.

Certain actions from the characters ticked me off near the end but the writers made up for it with a great ending that remains true to the characters in the story.