TORADORA! SCORE: 8.75
INTRODUCTION & SYNOPSIS
Toradora! is one of the more popular school life rom/com
anime, and one of the first I viewed due to its presence in the community. Needless
to say, it was quite hyped to me before watching it, so I remained on my guard and
critical. Nonetheless, I found it to be quite the enjoyable anime. It follows
some classic tropes such as the beach/pool episode, the tsundere female lead,
and the fact that it’s set in high school of course, yet still its unique non-trope qualities seemed to overpower that…
Our story begins with a boy named Riuji. His prominent characteristics
include being a neat-freak, being an excellent cook, and… looking like a
criminal. That’s right folks, sweet and kind Riuji has the looks of a criminal,
making for great comedic scenes. When he walks outside people even hand him
their wallets and run away screaming! He lives across from, and goes to school
with, a short, but feisty flat-chested girl (yes, I just described a tsundere)
named Taiga or the “pom-top Taiga.” What’s clever about her, is that despite
looking like a cute little doll, she is actually a foul-mouthed girl with a ton
of rage. Do you see what they did there? So we have a boy that looks evil but
is nice, and a girl that looks sweet but is actually bitter. What begins our
plot is when the two end up discovering a deep dark secret about the other.
Riuji has a huge crush on Taiga’s best friend Minori, and Taiga has a big crush
on Riuji’s best friend Yusaku. Due to this, they decide to make a pact to help
each other out with their love interests. The four end up frequently hanging
out, the group later to include Yusaku’s childhood friend turned popular model
Ami. The five get into fun antics, try out comedic flirtations, create love
triangles, and develop friendships. The story focuses on Tyga and Riuji’s
perspectives, and through twists and turns of events the two discover their
true feelings.
PROS
This show has many things to commend. First, role-reversal.
This is a shining quality of the anime that gets pulled off well. The stark contrast
between Tyga and Riuji’s personalities is what makes them so dynamic and fun to
watch interact. When an anime’s characters are done wrong, the main characters
come off as stereotypical and the side characters seem more interesting;
however, here it’s just the opposite. Taiga and Riuji are the most interesting
thing about the show, which is great because they are our main focal point. Any
episode that center-stages one of them or their relationship together was a great
episode.
Another surprising, yet good thing that this anime installed
into its series is the use of parent child relationships. The vast majority of
time, parents are not around, we have no idea why, and yeah let’s just ignore it
because it’s not real life anyway! Contrastingly, In Toradora they actually took the time to
give stories to the parents, giving us at least an understanding of why the
parents aren’t there. We get to understand, and even see firsthand, why Taiga
lives alone, and why Riuji lives only with his mom. Riuji’s mom is even in the
series quite a bit, mostly as comic relief, but hey, we’re getting somewhere;
high schoolers should probably have parents, right?
Lastly, I really enjoyed the latter half of the series. Many
people say the first half was best saying the last half got too dramatic, but I can't understand why. That’s what I loved the most about Toradora. We get to see the character
development put to the test when drama happens, will the audience feel
the dilemma and care? I certainly did. To go along with the more dramatic
second half came the most amazing track: Lost my Pieces. It’s a beautiful and
sad song that fit the sadder mood to perfection. The rest of the music in the
series was average, but I do remember really enjoying the ending theme. As for
animation? It passes. I especially loved the way the Christmas episode was
animated. They stepped it up to create a more special feeling for the episode, and because of that it was definitely my favorite episode of them all.
CONS
As for cons, I think I will start with a character con: Minori.
Minori, Riuji’s crush and Taiga’s best friend, is just plain irritating. I didn’t
like her character at all, I couldn’t understand what Riuji saw in her, and she
was so unrealistic. Towards the end when she had some sort of emotions coming
out for Riuji, I just plain didn’t care at all. She had some funny moments, but
I feel that the amount of time spent on her was a total waste. Same for Taiga’s
love interest, he was pretty one-dimensional, and when they tried to give him
some depth it either seemed forced or confusing. Ami was the only alright side character in the
group, but in the beginning I kept confusing her with the student council
president – their character designs were way
too similar.
Additionally, because the first half wasn’t near as good as
the second you may want to drop the series after the first few episodes- but
don’t! It is worth it, my romantic drama fans. However, I will say that the
ending disappointed me a little. It started going down this over the top path, and then all of a sudden
it took a turn for the lack-luster. I don’t know how to explain it, but I was not satisfied and wish they could have took a happy medium route with the amount of whelm it had.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Toradora! is a highly enjoyable anime, and a rom/com fan’s
delight. The lead characters were very unique and interesting with a
relationship dynamic enough to be worth a watch. It’s considered a “classic”
amongst rom/com anime lovers and I certainly agree. All and all, weighing the
pros and cons I give it a solid 8.75 out of 10. Although it’s suffering from
flat side characters and a somewhat unfocused ending, there are too many
positive things about it for me to not recommend you see it! It even has a
great English dub for the dub fans out there.
Watched on: www.dubs2go.com
Cute
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