Toradora! - Review

Duration: 25 episodes, 24 minutes/episode
Genre: Romance, School Life, Slice-of-Life, Harem, Comedy

I scratch your back, you scratch mine; a fairly simple premise to this fairly recent romance anime. Toradora's plot revolves around Takasu Ryuuji and Aisaka Taiga's love woes as they try their best to draw attention to their crushes Kushieda Minori and Kitamura Yuusaku. Oddly enough and in typical romance/drama-like fashion, Ryuuji is good friends with Yuusaku while Taiga is good friends with Minori. From the clichéd foreshadowing I gave above, Ryuuji and Taiga join forces and help each other win their crush's heart over in some way or fashion. For those who have watched enough romance/drama series, one could probably figure out how the rest of the plot plays out--it is a love story after all. Just for the record, I technically didn't give out any spoilers there.

Story

Aside from the brief description of the plot above, it follows a fairly standard story similar to other slice-of-life/school life anime. The story can be outlined through several different events; all fairly typical for Japanese kids in highschool. These include the daily functions at school (e.g. class, club activities, lunch), typical special events held at school (e.g.time at the school pool, cultural festival, the field trip to Okinawa), and time spent outside of school (part-time work, summer vacation, Christmas/NewYear's break)--hence, slice-of life. Of course with every slice-of-life anime, Toradora puts its own spin on these various events, and for the most part kept me entertained; there were rarely any moments where I felt the story getting stale.

Characters

(From left to right: Aisaka Taiga, Takasu Ryuuji, Kawashima Ami, Kushieda Minori, Kitamura Yuusaku)

Aisaka Taiga: She's the cold-hearted, cold-blooded bitchy girl who has a crazy puppy dog crush on Kitamura. Despite her outward appearance of being very cold and violent, she's a very caring character you'll love towards the end of the series.

Takasu Ryuuji: Characterized as a so-called delinquent for his threatening looking eyes like his father, many people fear him for no good reason. He's a kind person who seems to have a weird obsession with cooking and cleaning. I found him to be quite different from the typical mindless/stupid harem anime protagonist. Although he can be very dense sometimes, he's very true with his feelings.

Kawashima Ami: She's the super-rich-beatiful-idol-I-have-a-summer-house character tossed in for eye candy. She doesn't really serve too much of a role, but she makes things fairly interesting along the way. Although she is a shallow person up front, she does have a personality worth looking into later on.

Kushieda Minori: Ryuuji's crush, and with good reason; she's the energetic genki character on the show who manages to put a smile on the group's faces throughout the series. She partakes in various club activities and works too many part-time jobs to count. Despite having the genki label, her character has a lot more depth and had me guessing her various moods and motives throughout.

Kitamura Yuusaku: The student council/class representative goody-two-shoes/socially awkward character of the group. I found his character to be fairly bland. Despite having his own issues later in the show, he's simply around to act weird and make Taiga a nervous wreck. He definitely has his moments. I guess he's not all bad.

Voice Acting/Sound

To be honest, there are no complaints here. I don't natively speak Japanese and currently there is no English dub recording of the show. The voices sound compelling and natural to their respective characters--nothing sounds out of place. The soundtrack really impressed me as I was expecting a fairly standard/stale sound, but there are some worthwhile tracks that evoke the right emotions at critical moments in the show.

Loved:
The Animation: It's a very pretty looking anime. J.C. Staff did a wonderful job of making all the characters and settings look vibrant and colorful. Surprisingly, the various close-ups of food made look really impressive too; almost good enough to eat. Also, if you want a lot of funny close-up pictures of Taiga, you got 'em.

The Characters: Everyone at first seem to fit well into very tight knit stereotypical roles, but are not as one-dimensional as you thought they would be. I just love this cast of characters and would like to see a season two. It's a common problem I have with slice-of-life anime, you simply just don't want them to end, but the show would jump the shark if it continued.

Blatant Ripoff: Of Starbucks, humorously called Sudoubucks. You'll just have to watch it to see it for yourself.

Hated:
Inko-chan: The show's attempt at comic relief through Ryuuji's pet bird Inko-chan. I had a hard time stomaching the various scenes with that bird. Honestly, I don't think a constipated/possibly mentally retarded bird is very funny. It's just not my cup of tea.

The Lowdown: A very refreshing romance anime that plays it safe, but doesn't at the same time. Although the ending is fairly predictable, we watch romance anime because we love the drama that ensues. It's not the end that's important, but the journey to the end.

The second opening for Toradora. Yui Horie - Silky Heart

Notes:Watched entire 25 episode series from beginning to end (CoalGuys fansub).