Anime Review: Toradora

Toradora is one of the most famous school romances in anime for 2 simple reasons. It has a twist and a somewhat satisfying conclusion. If that doesn’t sound like much, you are right. Anime romances are defined as nothing happens, including the romance part. So when something is slightly different and offers a tiny amount of progress, then you instantly have a great romance.

This doesn’t exactly explain why Toradora in specific got to be so famous, while every other romance that does things a bit differently, let’s say Paradise Kiss, got forgotten fast. And the answer is the same one which made many anime famous and gave the medium a bad image. It’s about fetishes. It has Rie Kugimiya voicing yet another loli-looking tsundere. She became famous thanks to that shit, to the point she began recycling older catchphrases. Shana’s “urusai” and Louise’s “bakainu” combined into Taiga’s “urusai bakainu”. There was already a pre-existing fanbase for this shit thanks to the success of Shakugan no Shana, which gave Toradora the traction it needed.

Anyways, the twist is about the main duo being initially in love with the best friend of one another and they only team up to scheme various tricks in order to win the love of their friend. They come so close to the point they start having feeling for each other, without of course missing the usual misunderstandings, indecisiveness, and romcom jokes that come with the territory. It’s not that different from the standard, it is still stretched to last much longer than it needed, and it just has a lot more going on with its romantic polyhedrons.

And trust me when I tell you variety is a big part of what makes it so memorable. For example, recently we had Tsuki ga Kirei being considered a great anime romance, although it’s plain and has nothing special about it. Not many people are not going to remember it. The male lead in Toradora has a killer’s look which makes him scary to others, even when he is a good guy inside. We saw the same thing recently in Ore no Monogatari and who remembers that one? Variety does wonders and so does a bit of introspection for most of the characters. Even the secondary cast is colorful and easily memorable for his or her personal body language and attitude, while occasionally delving a bit into their psyche. It’s no Kare Kano but it’s serviceable.

Bottom line, it’s not only one of the very few watchable shows made by J.C. Staff, it’s also a light novel adaptation that is not complete garbage.