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fzzr · 1 year

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Uncontroversial Opinion: Toradora! is Perfect, Actually

Toradora! is the greatest love story ever told. It is Perfect In Every Way That Matters. This is a rant about how implementation can outweigh originality.

Characters

The romantic comedy is at least hundreds of years old as a genre. Toradora!'s core cast of five each fulfill a critical role in that formula.

The character archetype of the love interest who starts off hostile and softens over time is as old as the romcom itself, if not older. Anime and manga have had romcoms with such characters in them for generations. Today, the "tsundere" is almost inextricable from the very formula of anime romantic comedy, with examples as far as the eye can see. Toradora! came out in 2008 standing on the shoulders of those many giants. Taiga "Palmtop Tiger" Aisaka was the fourth to debut of the quartet of tsundere characters voiced by Rie Kugimiya in four consecutive years. Shana, Louise, Nagi, and Taiga, the "Four Tsundere Wonders," redefined the short and spicy female protagonist we know so well today.

Taiga, I would argue, did so the most. She's a lot of character in a small package, but doesn't actually take any of her traits too far. She's passionate, but doesn't just explode with emotion any time anything new happens. She doesn't always immediately recognize her own feelings, but she is always capable of at least some introspection. She sometimes acts spoiled, but she's not dismissive of others who help her. She is full of very relatable tension when trying to expose her feelings, but she doesn't let it paralyze her. She is capable of feeling the sting of social hostility but can also push past it and deal some in response. Toradora! doesn't just tell you why someone might love Taiga - it makes you fall in love with her, so when a character does you don't need any explanation at all.

Next let's talk about the male anime romcom protagonist. Typically unpopular and a bit different from those around him, he serves as the self-insert character for the target audience to imprint onto as he does something on the spectrum between "find true love" to "wake up each morning with his face in at least one bosom". Ryuuji Takasu is tall with the dark messy hair typical of his ilk. His poor social position comes from the delinquent look he inherited from his father. Of course, he's actually an all around nice guy who takes care of his mother and considers his worst nemesis to be the mold caused by the shadow of the giant apartment building next to his house.

No protagonist can go it alone, and the main guy will always have a loyal companion in the "bro character". Best friend and wingman, you can rely on the bro to help the protagonist on his way, though not always in the way he wants. In this role, Yuusaku Kitamura is the social glue of Toradora! Popular and respected by all, he keeps Ryuuji from total social isolation. He also unintentionally brings Ryuuji and Taiga together, as she enlists Ryuuji's help to act on her crush on Kitamura.

The 'com' part of romcom requires a certain amount of chaotic energy, and the wound spring of Toradora! is Minori Kushieda. Consummate Genki Girl, when Minori is in motion even a brick wall of social expectations can't slow her down. Everyone loves Minori, but Ryuuji's crush on her is the window through which we see her at first. There is a lot more to her than what we (or even Ryuuji) see at first. She might be the smartest of any of them, certainly on an emotional level. Somehow managing to both wear her heart on her sleeve and keep it under lock and key, Minori is also the hardest character in the show to really understand.

One character type to go: I don't know if there's some established name, but I call them the "Interloper." Typically the last major character introduced, they serve to knock the show off balance. In shows about shenanigans, they will be a source of chaos, an instigator. In shows that are going places they are often the catalyst, the one who nudges the story over any bumps that keep it from rolling down the hill. (These are not mutually exclusive.)

In Toradora!, that character is Ami Kawashima. Professional model, instant school idol, mean girl or klutz depending on the audience - Ami as introduced is designed to be hated. That doesn't last long, within a few episodes we peel away enough layers of the façade to start to understand her. Ami fulfills her role as Interloper flawlessly. She needles Taiga, using levers like her looks and childhood friend status with Kitamura. She flirts with Ryuuji, which confuses him and raises Taiga's hackles in a whole other way. She enables the beach, school festival, and Christmas arcs, each essential in their own ways. Toradora! is about Taiga and Ryuuji first, but it doesn't work without Ami.

Plot

I could rave about the series episode by episode, but instead I'll pick just one. Toradora! launches with one of the strongest first episodes I've ever seen. It spends a few minutes setting up Ryuuji's home and social life, introduces us to Kitamura and Minori, and puts him torso to head with Taiga all in under 8 minutes. That first encounter ends with Taiga wordlessly delivering an uppercut in retribution for how I called her short back in paragraph two. While this is their first meeting, it is not the true meet cute. Nor is their next encounter, where Ryuuji catches Taiga in the middle of "remodeling" their classroom, after which she assaults him when he takes his bag to leave.

No, the moment that launches the show and when their relationship is set in motion comes that night, when Taiga breaks into his house and assaults him with a wooden sword. Her motive is to cause just enough brain damage for him to forget about finding the empty love letter to Kitamura she mistakenly put in Ryuuji's bag. The result of a combination of shenanigans and oversharing is an accord: they will help each other get closer to their respective crushes. On the way out the door, Taiga tells Ryuuji to patch the hole she left in the wall with the envelope from the love letter. The episode wraps up with Ryuuji cleaning her apartment and making her breakfast the following day. The initial dynamic is thus established: Taiga acts as though she still considers Ryuuji beneath her, even as we learn about her vulnerabilities through the ways she depends on him for help.

Haha I tricked you, that dynamic lasts barely one episode. Toradora! is always moving. Sometimes it's faster, sometimes it's slower, but it's never spinning in place. The five principal characters are never static, nor are their relationships. Sometimes a turning point will be a conversation in the middle of an episode about something else, and sometimes it's the climax of a multi-episode arc. Other times you can't identify a phase change at all - you just look back and find that things are different now.

There's more to Toradora! than the romance, of course. The secondary theme is family, specifically relationships with parents. Both Taiga and Ryuuji have absent fathers, due to estrangement and mortality respectively. Over the course of the show, the way they think about those relationships changes. Their relationships with their mothers are not as distant, but they also prove malleable and important to the evolution of both characters. This thread is not disconnected from the romance, either - those changes prove critical to the final act.

Music

Toradora! has two opening themes and two ending themes, and they're all, guess what, perfect. They're catchy as hell, with on point lyrics. The animation is fun, with barely any reliance on footage from the show proper. I'm not here to break them down, so once again I'll give a single example. When Ryuuji patches his wall with Taiga's empty love letter to Kitamura, he does it by cutting out a piece in the shape of a sakura blossom petal. This serves as a symbol of the beginning of their relationship. In the second opening, there's a moment showing him putting it back in place from peeling away. This reinforces that symbolism, while additionally showing how that relationship is being reinforced with time. There's also an insert song at a critical moment of the story which will leave you in awe, but I don't want to go into it for spoiler reasons. Just know that it acts as a cultural touchstone among my friends for how an insert song can be used.

Conclusion

Toradora! is the nth entry in a flooded genre. Its characters all fit established roles in that plot and are built out of well-defined tropes. The plot beats are all standard issue: Intro, pool, beach, festival, Christmas, school trip, late-breaking twist, ending. The art is consistent, but conventional. It seeks neither revolution nor evolution.

No, Toradora! is the go-to example of how much of a difference execution makes. The soundtrack is consistently excellent. It has solid gold characters. The plot is free of cul-de-sacs and dead ends. Every obligatory shenanigan moves the plot forward a little bit. Not everyone gets what they want, but everyone lands in a place that makes sense. It's satisfying. It's electrifying. It's both fun on the surface and full of layers to peel away.

Score: 10/10. Toradora! is Perfect In Every Way That Matters. It is the greatest love story ever told.

Recommendation: There is no one who should not watch this show. I just wrote way too many words about why, come on.

Comparisons

Saekano was the reason I re-watched Toradora! in the first place, and that rewatch was what re-convinced me that Toradora! has no equal. The characters of Saekano are mostly assigned tropes at introduction as well, and they sure change a lot, sometimes drastically. Both shows have the destined love interest referred to in the title ("Tora" for Taiga and "Heroine" for Megumi) so while the journey does take you many places the ending is never truly in doubt. There is no question that Saekano acknowledges Toradora! as an ancestor.

The way Toradora! truly beats out Saekano is the ending. Both of them feature the obligatory last minute will things fall apart twist. Toradora!'s is connected to the theme of family, and Saekano's is connected to the theme of artistic fulfillment. In both cases, the choice of the character who follows the divergent path does so in demonstration of how they have changed. The problem with the Saekano one is it barely feels like a twist at all, instead being a token roadbump. The Toradora! one is truly heartwrenching, and the way it resolves will show you just how deeply the relationship on screen has become a part of who you are.

Final Word

I only had the one comparison for Toradora! because I haven't yet reviewed enough things on tumblr. You can expect many more things to receive Toradora! comparisons in their own reviews soon. Now, go watch Toradora! My mom put it on her Netflix watch list after a single episode, you really don't have an excuse.

#toradora #anime #tsundere #romance #if she's not from the tsuntsun region of japan she's just a spicy love interest #taiga #aisaka taiga #ryuuji #takasu ryuuji #yuusaku kitamura #minori #kushieda minori #ami #kawashima ami #anime recommendation #original post

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