Tag: toradora!

1925: Tiger and Dragon

I finished watching Toradora! last night — I also forgot the time we normally raid in Final Fantasy XIV on Monday nights, so I had to split the last episode in half — and I have to say, I’m very much a fan.

I knew nothing at all about the show going into it, aside from what a few of the characters looked like and that it was by the same person who did Golden Time, which those of you who have been reading for a while will recall was the last show I watched all the way through. I enjoy jumping into things like this, whether they’re books, movies, TV shows, anime or games. It means that you can start watching/playing/reading/whatever with no preconceptions, and it also means you have that genuinely pleasurable sensation of not knowing what is going to happen next — and the equally fun ability to play “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”

Toradora!, as it turns out, ended up pretty much where I expected it to end up, albeit with a bit of a twist in the latter half of the last episode. It was an enjoyably unpredictable ride along the way, however, featuring some extremely complicated interpersonal relationships between the main cast members — who were, in turn, complicated individuals in their own right.

Ryuji was a good protagonist. Eschewing the frequently-seen blank-slate or self-insert protagonist found in a lot of anime — particularly slice of life, romance or harem anime — he was an interesting character whom we gradually came to understand fully over the course of the whole show. The show sensibly didn’t batter us over the head with his personality traits or angst; a lot of his characterisation was quite subtle, with the things he didn’t say often being as important as the things he did say.

Taiga, meanwhile, was an exciting leading lady. Brash, unpredictable and quick to anger without relying completely on the tsundere trope, much of the show’s “point” — if indeed it had one — concerned the audience and Ryuji alike coming to understand exactly why she seemed so angry at the world. Again, though, the show didn’t fall into the trap of having her make overly melodramatic gestures of angst throughout; the things that caused her pain were real and relatable, and her relationship with Ryuji was believable and heartwarming to watch grow.

The other cast members all had their interesting elements, too. Minori, for example, lets her genki girl attitude slip more and more as the show progresses and reveals that her feelings for both Taiga and Ryuji are complex, conflicting and difficult to know what to do with. Ami, meanwhile, underwent some interesting development from being a simple two-faced bitch to someone with depth and not always entirely clear motivations. I did find Ami’s falling in love with Ryuji to be a little hard to swallow — it felt a little like drama for the sake of drama — but it added an interesting twist on proceedings.

I was surprised that the show had two surprisingly brutal fight scenes, too; these weren’t sexualised catfights that were intended to be arousing rather than shocking, as sometimes seen in more fanservicey anime, and nor were they overdramatic, exaggerated conflicts that, while stylish, were out of place with the rest of the setting and characters. They were gritty, believable, brutal and genuinely quite upsetting outbursts of anger from people who had been bottling things up for way too long. (As a fellow “bottler”, I could relate very much to the feelings in these scenes, although I have thankfully never come to blows with anyone over this sort of thing.)

Ultimately, everything wrapped up fairly neatly, but there was a pleasing tang of bittersweetness to the ending; the understanding that, despite your best intentions and grand plans, things don’t always go exactly as you expect them to — and that in a complicated situation of personal relationships, you need to know when to let go, otherwise somebody is going to get hurt.

I very much enjoyed the show as a whole, and understand now why it’s such a well-regarded anime. I think some lighter fare is on the table for my next show to watch, however; after an hour or so of several people I follow on Twitter exchanging a series of rather racy pics earlier, I’m strongly considering checking out High School DxD, because who doesn’t love a bit of fanservicey nonsense? Boring people, that’s who.

1893: Sweet Vanilla Salt

I started watching Toradora! after finishing Golden Time because it’s an earlier work by the latter’s writer, and as my posts from a short while back will attest, I enjoyed the latter very much indeed.

I knew nothing about Toradora! going in save for the fact that it was well-regarded by quite a few people (the exception being Andie’s sister, who thought it was “tripe”, but conceded that she was not the target audience) and it had even been a “jumping-on” point to anime for a lot of people. So I was confident it would at least be an entertaining watch if nothing else.

Toradora! tells the story of the relationship between the “Dragon” and the “Tiger”, better known as protagonist Ryuji and leading lady Taiga. Neither of these are typical leads according to slice-of-life/romance anime tropes: Ryuji is (at least initially) feared by his classmates for his sour-faced, intimidating appearance — a genetic inheritance from his father, whom it seems is no longer around thanks to seemingly being involved in some questionable activities — while Taiga is… well, she’s very short, and not at all happy about it, particularly as the combination of her height, slight figure and somewhat petulant tendencies tend to make her come across as considerably younger than she actually is.

Ryuji and Taiga are brought together by their attraction to each other’s friends; Ryuji likes Taiga’s friend Kushieda who, as a spunky, loud genki girl is the polar opposite of Taiga in terms of personality, while Taiga likes Ryuji’s friend Kitamura. Ryuji discovers Taiga is living a somewhat lonely existence in the apartment building next to his house: she’s living all alone in an apartment too big for her, and clearly doesn’t know how to take care of herself. Ryuji, having had to be the “man of the house” for some time thanks to his departed father and his dirty stop-out of a mother, takes it upon himself to look after her, cooking her meals and helping her out with all sorts of domestic chores.

Unfortunately, this, of course, leads to misunderstandings when people see them together, and this in turn makes their pursuit of their prospective paramours somewhat more challenging. I have little doubt that the two of them will end up with one another by the end of the series — though I will be pleasantly surprised if the show goes another route — because they complement one another nicely. Taiga doesn’t show any fear towards Ryuji and sees him for who he is; at the same time, Ryuji manages to bring out a side of Taiga she doesn’t show many people: an honest, frank and vulnerable side. It’s a rocky relationship, to be sure, but it has the makings of an entertaining watch indeed.

As I said above, I’m only four episodes in so far, but I’m enjoying it a lot. It’s sharply written, with some genuinely funny moments, and the cast of characters all have their own little surprises that defy the initial impressions they might make. I’m intrigued to see where it goes and how the relationships depicted in the show develop over time, and can already appreciate why this is such a well-regarded series.