Random Reviews: Toradora

Animation Company: J.C. Staff
Genre: Comedy, Romance, School, Slice of Life
Episodes: 25
Aired: Fall 2008
Personal Rating: 9.5/10
Recommended: Yes

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Here comes one of my favourites! I don’t think I can ever get sick of Toradora. EVER. I’ve watched this show 4 times already and I’m ready to rewatch it every year if I have to. Romance fans, if you haven’t watched Toradora, you are not a romance fan.

Plot/Story

To summarize the show very quickly, Takasu Ryuuji is a high school boy who has a huge crush on Minori, while Aisaka Taiga is a high school girl who has a huge crush on Kitamura. After Ryuuji and Taiga learn of each other’s secrets, Taiga enslaves Ryuuji into being her dog, and thus, the story starts and romance ensues between Taiga and Ryuuji while they both hunt for other people.
What I liked most about the plot of Toradora was mainly the fact that the romantic events weren’t completely generic. Looking at specific events like the Christmas event or the confession at the end, everything had quite a bit of originality to it, and despite the main couple being easily predictable  it was fun to see how they would get there in the end. Having Minori and Kitamura on the side as our main characters’ respective crushes, you never knew what they would do to eventually mess things up, just like having Kitamura show up naked in order to get Taiga to freak out like a maniac understandably so. Scenes like that also added in a lot of comedy, which was great because it lightened up everything and made me happier while I was watching it.
It was easy to see Ryuuji and Taiga’s relationship grow more and more as the show went on. I can’t say that this story had humongous plot twists (A romance always remains pretty predictable), but the story had a fresh sense to it, it was adorable and made me fangirl and cry more than once. The confession scene was original, the kissing scene was completely and utterly adorable, and overall the story was very touching. This was well played out in terms of plot and humour!

10 / 10

Characters

TSUNDERES!!!! Kugimiya Rie knows how to voice them really well, and J.C. Staff knew how to portray them in a great way it’s too bad they’re failing at it now. Taiga was one of my favourite characters ever, and her small size made her violent fits even more amazing. As for Ryuuji, he seemed like such a good man, it was only natural for him to take care of a Chibi tiger as he went on with his high school life.
Their relationship was definitely something which I loved in this show, because rather than portraying both as “embarrassed little kittens who don’t admit their feelings”, Ryuuji and Taiga definitely took their time to develop feelings for one another, and it was amazing to see the bond that was forming outside of having lovey-dovey feelings. Not only are those two lovers, they’re best friends, and this was probably what I loved the most about this show, the fact that the 2 main characters are really close before they actually start dating. J.C. Staff portrayed this really well I guess it’s a once in a lifetime kind of thing, and overall the character development between the both of them was incredible.
The side characters were… Oh boy, how can I describe this? Different? That’s one way to say it… Minori stood out the most of all of them, if only because she had reaaaaally retarded moments where she’d simply start acting like a Buddha during class time or something of the sort. She was so energetic though, I ended up liking her a lot, the only thing I didn’t like much was what she ended up with at the end: Nothing. It ruined much of her character development, and in the end she lost a lot of substance because of it. Others were quite noticeable as well personally Kitamura was my favourite, and overall I’d say they were quite well done and added a lot of substance to the story. They weren’t just “there”.

9 / 10

Technicalities

TAIGA WAS SO CUUUUUTE!!!! That’s about all I have to say about the art. Oh wait… Inko was disgustingly ugly. Whoever designed that horrification had either absolutely no artistic talent or too much creativity in bird-drawing, because it was seriously disgusting to look at that bird every episode. It works with Inko’s personality but… Ugh.

The first opening remains one of my favourites of all time, as I have listened to it over and over again, and I’m still not sick of it. Overall, all the OPs and EDs were good. As for the OST, I can’t say it was completely genius because this isn’t a music show, but holy shit it was good. The OST was what made this a lot more enjoyable to watch, and I particularly enjoyed their version of “Holy Night“, sung by Taiga and Ami.

Altogether, this was well animated and the OST stood out a lot, but I’ve definitely seen better in terms of animation quality, since the character art felt a bit rushed.

8 / 10

Overall Impression

Light-hearted, cute, funny, you can’t deny the fact that it’s pure romance. However, compared to the complete crap romance which has been coming out these past few seasons, this one’s good. Amazing OST, hilarious and original characters as well as fresh content, Toradora will make you want to watch more and more as you keep watching it. It will follow you in your dreams, you will become addicted to it as if it was cocaine *ahem* I mean, it’s a good watch Damn! I wasn’t supposed to mention the other bit.

Recommendation: WATCH IT. NAO. Anyone who likes to watch romance should watch this show, because it is just that great. So far I’ve only ever seen one show beat Toradora in the romantic genre, and that was Lovely Complex but nothing can ever beat Lovely Complex, so it’s ‘kay. Despite my pure hatred for J.C. Staff’s new productions, I have to admit that this was one of their immense successes which I adored, and I would recommend it to anyone who says they don’t mind romance shows. Heck, even without that it’s a really good comedy show, and I will forever stay a fan of it. WATCH IT!!! Or you might just get kicked by Chuck Norris.