REVIEW TIME- WARNING- SPOILERS AHEAD. IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO WATCH THIS, DO NOT READ AHEAD.
Here is the plot, according to Wikipedia.
Toradora!'s story begins with the male protagonist Ryūji Takasu who is frustrated at trying to look his best as he enters his second year of high school. Despite his gentle personality, his eyes make him look like an intimidating delinquent, so he is utterly hopeless about his chances of getting a girlfriend anytime soon, and does not have many close friends either. After being greeted by his hungover mother in the morning, Ryūji goes to school and is happy to find that he gets to be in the same class with his best friend Yūsaku Kitamura and a girl he has a crush on, Minori Kushieda. However, it is then that he unexpectedly knocks into "the school's most dangerous animal of the highest risk level"—Taiga Aisaka—who just happens to also be in his class, and is a good friend of Minori.
Taiga has a negative attitude towards others and will not hesitate to snap at people. After meeting Ryūji, she takes an instant dislike to him. Taiga comes from a rich family, but she has moved out to live on her own due to family issues. She is coincidentally living in an apartment next to Ryūji's. When Ryūji discovers that Taiga has a crush on Yūsaku, and Taiga finds out about Ryūji's affections towards Minori, Ryūji suggests that they cooperate to win the objects of their affections. Taiga exploits the fact that Ryūji will do anything to get closer to Minori. She makes him her personal servant, getting him to do all her household chores (cooking and cleaning). Taiga spends a lot of her time over at his house, so much that she could almost be considered a member of his family. Since Ryūji spends a lot of time with Taiga, he has opened up to her world and to a side of her that most people do not see. The two also try to help each other improve the way people view them. However people they know from school start to become curious about their strange relationship and rumors begin to spread about them behind their backs. Ryūji and Taiga start getting along more and eventually become a couple.
Yeah, that's about it.
So, I absolutely loved the character of Ryuji/Ryuuji (everyone spells it differently. I think it's actually Ryuuji). I thought he was adorable and very sweet. He was just so nice to people, especially Taiga.
Taiga, on the other hand, I did not like. I found her annoying, selfish and rude. Not to mention completely underserving of Ryuuji's niceness. Just my opinion. A very unpopular opinion at that... Taiga is generally pretty popular with the fanbase. Oh well. I always think different to the fanbase. What's new?
Now, the side characters! Here is Kitamura, who Taiga was in love with for at least 75% of the series. He was meh. He had his funny moments, but he wasn't a really stand-out character for me. He did, however, look cool when he dyed his hair blonde...
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| This being one of his funny moments... |
Now, for my second favourite, after Ryuuji, Minori. Minori is Taiga's best friend and the girl Ryuuji was in love with for over 85% of the series. She is funny, but has some emotional issues. She is independent and determined like hell and a great friend. I liked her from the start. Actually, towards the end she kinda bugged me, but I still like her.
Now, for Ami. Ah, Ami. She is a model. She is apparently extremely hot. She provides any fanservice in this show, obviously for guys only, when she wear swimwear in some episodes... She is kinda horrible. Ami acts nice to people so she can use them. Eventually, you realise she has issues (Freudian Excuse, guys) and she tries to change. By "change" she doesn't mean "become a better person". She actually means she'll change and stop hiding her true self. I actually really liked her. I thought she liked Ryuuji, but this was never revealed. I would have really liked it if she confessed to liking him, but whatever.
So, towards the end of the anime, things got intense. Minori rejected Ryuuji before he had the chance to confess his love, he got depressed, Taiga tried to set them up, she realised she actually liked Ryuuji, she fell down a mountain and thought she was being saved by Kitamura so she confessed to liking Ryuuji, but actually Ryuuji was carrying her. He freaked out, she was confronted by Minori, she ran away, Minori and Ryuuji chased her. Minori confessed to liking Ryuuji and they both realised that Ryuuji actually liked Taiga. He found her, they kinda confessed. They decided to get married (Yeah. I'll get to that), they insulted/ran away from their mothers, they ran away to go get married and left their friends. Minori cried. Eventually, they came home with Ryuuji's mum. Taiga, however, ran away. Everyone was sad, especially Ryuuji obviously. Then, at the VERY end, she returned and he told her he loved her. Aw.
So, my opinions.
I LOVED how sweet Ryuuji was towards Taiga, but I actually didn't like them as a couple much. The more it went on, the more I realised I would have preferred Minori and Ryuuji to be a couple. I think they would have been adorable and Minori would have treated him so much better than Taiga.
I hated the idea of the two of them running away to get married. For almost the entire anime, they had been in love with other people. Now they both wake up and realise they love each other and decide, "Hey. Let's get married when Ryuuji turns 18!" How about no. Why not go out for awhile and THEN see about marriage?
I kinda wish Taiga didn't turn up at the end. I mean, when she ran away, I was sitting there like, "OH MY GOSH! WHAT KIND OF AN ENDING IS THIS? AH, SO SAD! POOR RYUUJI!" But when she turned up I was all, "Ugh." I think it was more emotional when she didn't turn up. I mean, it was awful for Ryuuji when she wasn't there but... I don't know.. This anime is conflicting..
I think Minori got the short straw in this show. Her best friend didn't tell her everything even though she would ALWAYS be there for her. In the end, her best friend decided to run away with the boy she liked. Poor chick.
Overall, it was a good anime. It wasn't what I expected. I liked it, but didn't love it. I'm not sure what it was, but I didn't find myself really attached to the characters, as I have with my favourite animes. Towards the end, I felt like I was wanting to finish it, not because I was addicted and loved it, but because I just needed to finish it to say, "I finished Toradora!" I think the ending kinda ruined the character of Ryuuji for me and I didn't feel as attached to him anymore. Also, there ended up being too many cheesy quotes for me to handle towards the end. Hm. Out of 10, I'd probably give this anime a... 7.
7/10 for Toradora!
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