Anime 4224 Toradora Reviews Filter Check 3

Toradora! is one of the most annoying shows I have ever watched. And it has the single most ridiculous ending of all anime I've seen. Even the ending of Claymore was more satisfying, which is saying something.

It is naturally that annoying because initially it seems to have much quality. I liked animation, music, opening, and, most importantly, I really liked most of the characters, including Taiga and Ryuuji. It is definitely quite cliché but charming brainless high-school romance with engaging characters isn't something I automatically hate.

But, as episodes go by, all of the shows' cons start to become visible. First of all - ... it is too long relative to its content. Generally I'm ready to forgive Japanese for being so inept at confessing emotions, but my tolerance is limited and after over ten episodes fueled only by "omg, I'm so Japanese, I just can't spit it out" I'm totally fed up. Then around episode 11th Toradora experiences massive tone-shift and evolves into a soap opera without any significant comedy element. It wouldn't be a problem, but honestly it's not a very good soap opera - the dilemmas and problems seem forced for the sake of drama and easily solvable, had characters sit down and talked. As a result the entire middle part of the show feels completely unnecessary and contributes little to the main plot.

But still it is not tragically bad and these unnecessary middle parts may be fun for someone who likes Slice of Life genre. The real problems begin when the series after much overblown melodrama finally establishes official couple. There are many people who didn't like the pairing and preferred the other ones. For me the problem was not the pairing (because I personally preferred it over the others) but the way it was dealt with - I got the strong impression that the story on an emotional level actually justifies these other relationships better (even although I didn't like them). The final confession ends up being forced onto the couple, not only by the writers who want to rush the end, but by the other characters in-universe as well. As a result final romantic couple is not very romantic - at least one side of that pairing was literally dragged into it by external circumstances. And when one puts into consideration the fact that this forced side had all the chance to act on its own will few episodes before, yet it chose to pass, one begins to wonder what the writers had on their minds.

Still, I wouldn't dislike the show that much. But the very last arc also turns Toradora!, already an over-exalted soap-opera, into a full-blown Bollywood movie. The only difference between the two is that Toradora manages to have even more unnecessary stupid drama than its Indian counterparts. Characters start to behave completely at random, clearly with a goal to create as much drama as possible, without any other reason. The viewers are presented with a runaway couple (which ran away for no reason whatsoever), hasty engagement (without even sharing a single kiss beforehand), missing fathers, a few family reconciliations and the girl leaving a boy without a single a word for an extended period of time (again without a good reason). All of these serious events are introduced over the span of one and a half episode and resolved almost immediately. That was so unbelievably contrived, idiotic and poorly handled it was painful to watch. And it was absolutely not romantic. At all.

There is something seriously wrong with romantic comedy that manages to be ultimately neither romantic nor funny. That combined with the unbearable forced melodrama and the clumsy treatment of last six episodes sinked this show so much, I can't rate it any higher.

Mod Edit: This review may contain spoilers.

Story: Secret love, unrequited love, love triangle... So yeah... The funny thing is that the ending is given away in the beginning. This can't even be considered spoilers to say that the main characters are going to end up together. Anybody who says otherwise is just too blind to realise this. Let's take the main points of the plot. First of all, one guy, one girl, each in love with each other's best friend. Two, those two try to support each other with their love interest. In order to do that, make them spend a lot of time together. ... Even make them live next to each other. Give them a social outcast aura and the result is: congratulations! you got yourself a very unoriginal couple. Now this is a shame because the idea is quite realistic, only too obvious which gives you no expectations. For all I know, Ryuuji and Taiga could hold hands, cuddle, hug, kiss, have sex, get married and act like there is some distance between them. Awkward since there is absolutely none. From the beginning, they were already ridiculously close to each other by living next door but no, not close enough, need to live under the same roof. Even best friends don't do that (yeah I know, roommates or particular situation involving money but that wasn't one of them) so it clearly gives you an idea of their relationship.

Art: This part pisses me off, it is so bad. Taiga is supposed to be cute... it didn't do it for me. She looks like an underdeveloped child with a big head and permanent bed hair. Maybe it's just me but the chara design really needs some work. However Ryuuji's face gets +1. Now if I just say this without evidence to back up my argument, it's just trolling. If possible, watch the fight scene between Taiga and Sumire. To avoid spoilers, well, watch it on mute and no subs... The animation is really sloppy here, whether it's the lighting, the background characters with the same face or simply character motions. The art is good only when everything is still. Sloppy sloppy sloppy.

Sound: The openings and endings were nothing spectacular or catchy. When it comes to sound, I would say that music is more important than the voice acting since most of the time, the acting is flawless, it just comes to whether or not the seiyuu's voice is appropriate with the character. In Toradora, it's the usual. The usual being flawless performance. Now for the music, the comparison might be unfair but Toradora is nothing compared to say, Clannad. I chose Clannad because no matter the scene, sad, happy or epic, it's easy to remember the themes while Toradora produces music that you hear in elevators or supermarkets. Only one stands out: Lost my Pieces. But it's just one... Not enough.

Character: Ami saves the show a little with Minori not far behind but Taiga... Damn she pisses me off! Ryuuji is not bad but too weak to be important.
Ami and Minori had good scenes, good chara development. I didn't give a shit about Kitamura because he is a creepy smiling guy. Ryuuji had some changes but nothing significant. Taiga on the other hand, just got more and more annoying. She's not even a tsundere, the dere part is inexistant and replaced by retard state, otherwise she's just a plain spoiled bitch who needs to be left alone. That does it, she gets a -2 for being so unlikeable. Past the physical appearance which I don't even like one bit, she has nothing left except her execrable personnality. Now one way to sum up this show is that the side characters are more interesting than the main characters. When I say main, I mean Ryuuji and Taiga. Kitamura, Minori and Ami are side characters to me. While watching the show, I realised that I had no interest in whatever happens to Ryuuji and Taiga cause they already act like a couple. The side characters however make you want to know more about them. Creepy smiling dude Kitamura has a good reason for being like this while double face Ami and oddball Minori are kinda left out towards the end after much chara development. Bad idea. My main concern is how people perceive Taiga. She does things that make you want to slap her really f*cking hard and shout "what the f*ck is wrong with you?" yet she is still described as being cute, lovely etc... That girl seriously has anger issues and they can't be justified by people calling you palmtop tiger, that's retarded. She's so rude it's not even funny. Now this might be spoilers but it sums up pretty much why I think her personality is the worst. In one scene, she learns about her unrequited love confessing to a certain girl who for specific reasons refuses to give a proper answer. This is because she's going away soon so she can't say yes yet doesn't want to lie to herself by saying no. What should Taiga do in this case? Well, nothing. For the simple reason that it doesn't concern her. Still, she goes out of her way to beat the crap out of that girl while insulting her and forcing her to say she hates the guy. I was thinking "WTF" the whole time. What gives her the right to beat someone up just because that person is a coward when it comes to love? If we had to beat up every person who is a coward because of love, we're doomed. Besides she's also overreacting and goes as far as insulting and hitting people for no reason. With Ryuuji, they represent the epitome of shallow people. Both of them have a crush on someone who's really popular. The reason surely is because they treat them differently from the rest of the class. If that's not being shallow. Take one guy who's a social outcast. Now take a girl who's really popular, kind, funny, pretty and easy to talk to. This one guy would probably fall in love with that girl if she goes to talk to him because he's probably thinking "she's so nice, she talks to me while the other bastards don't even look at me, maybe she cares about me" without realising that maybe she's just nice and talks to everybody. This describes Ryuuji and Taiga perfectly.

Enjoyment: I was really disappointed by Toradora. At first I thought it would have nice development with the introduction of Ami but I guess not. It was dull and slow. Once you feel like there's something going to happen just push the reset button because it has the same feeling. Got some funny scenes though. Unfortunately the show is barely realistic. You don't root for development of the relationship between the characters and their crush because there's no feeling, no background story. Things would've been simpler like this:
Ryuuji: I like Minori.
Taiga: Oh... I see. I like Kitamura.
Ryuuji: !!! What!? Ok. So...
Both: Wanna hang out sometimes?

Note: this series has been dropped at episode 14

Unlike the main protagonist of this anime, I do not have much strength to withstand torture. Put me in the clutches of a diabolical serial killer/torturer, and I have no idea what I’d do. Ryuji, our hero, is one of a kind. Bards should sing about him in taverns all across Tamriel. For 14 episodes, he stands Taiga’s relentless abuse with a smile.

In one of the greatest songs ever written, the extremely white lead singer of the Smiths sings about how it’s so easy to laugh and so easy to hate. Kindness and gentleness are difficult, and ... I do agree with him. That said, I wonder if the band and their fanbase would change their mind if they saw the anime. Actually, considering how huge this anime is, becoming iconic in the school genre – I think they won’t.

I’m a defender of the school genre. Many rant about how immature and derivative it is, but few people didn’t go to school. A lot of things happen in school and you meet a lot of people, so it’s a place rife for stories. Its low-key and stable environment actually makes it excellent for stories driven by characters. Conflicts will have to rise from within and not an external UFO coming to wreck the party. These shows rely heavily on their characters, and it’s enough to have a decent, odd cast – see Haganai – to make something decent. Toradora is a major failure because of how insufferable its cast is.

Since we’re talking about symbols and not actual human beings, I need to find a way to explain why and how disgusted I was with them and how that lead me to conclude this anime is horrid crap. Many a great story are about horrible people. In fact, one of the best novels ever is about such a terrible murder. It’s their darkness, their psychology and reasons for being so that makes them so intriguing. How frightening these characters are because we understand them and see us in them. Part of our obsession with villains and their backstories, or with serial killers’ childhoods is because we want to know why they’re like this.

Everyone in Toradora is a bit of an asshole. Actually, only two characters are but they’re so dominant that it’s easy to forget about the rest. Taiga is the big problem, since she’s both the main character and the worst. Tsunderes can often seem creepy, sometimes borderline Gacy-like sadistic. None of them are as bad as Taiga.

The archetype can be funny. Tsunderes’ appeal is their insecurity, how they address the Presentation of Self in Everyday Life – we put up a front in every social interaction, putting a different front in different places. The best Tsundere, Neptunia‘s Noire is all about this. Humor never comes from her being violent – she’s rarely is – but how hard she works on her image.

In contrast, Taiga is nothing but violence. She reacts to everything with violence, like a 10-year-old playing Elder Scrolls and thinking that it’s supercool to kill every NPC. She may not kill anyone, let alone essential NPC’s but it doesn’t make it any less creepy. In every episode, she beats up people at least 5 times. Her reactions are always with force, causing clear pain to the other characters. I’d expect anyone to beat her in return the first time.

The fact Ryuji stays there is flat-out creepy. Moreover, she treats him with pure condescension. Rarely, if ever, she addresses him in a way that’s not hostile. Early in the series they make a pact to help each other, but Taiga doesn’t actually help him until the middle of the series. All the episodes are about the characters doing stuff and Taiga beating people up. The anime never answers why, exactly, Ryuji puts up with so much physical abuse.

Yes, ‘abuse’ is the only word that can describes their relationship. Switch the sexes. Imagine if Ryuji was constantly beating up Taiga, calling her ‘bitch’ and so forth. It’s nothing but sick. You can only watch it for so long before getting tired of this torture porn thing. Not only Taiga is violent to everyone, she also has a weird entitlement problem. She expects Ryuji to take care of her and do everything for her. She never asks, demands with the expectations that Ryuji must do it for her.

In the end, she’s nothing but a horrible person who beats up everyone but also thinks everyone owes her everything. Now, a character being a terrible human being isn’t enough. How their actions are framed is important and now we get to the main problem. Taiga is framed as okay.

A backstory occasionally rears its head, feelings of insecurity do show themselves. None of is it actually dark, none of it gives us a glimpse into a troubled psych that can only react with violence and cannot connect to people. The backstory may justify anger, but the anime never acknowledge how bad Taiga’s case is. No one around her also reacts like they should. They treat her like she’s a quirky friend, someone who occasionally goes off, like that friend who swears a lot. This is a person who’s in desperate need of help and a lawyer. It’s no longer a person having anger issues but a criminal that everyone tolerates because the plot demands it.

Such light framing of dark material is unforgivable. Humor doesn’t have anything to do with it, but how the frame never addresses the darkness of it. Physical abuse leaves people with trauma. People react harshly to physical abuse. If people stay for a long time with a physical person, being nice to them and doing what they want it means they got issues of their own. I can’t stress how dark this material is, yet the light framing is disrespectful to anyone who went through physical abuse.

Taiga and the framing of her behavior towers over the anime, so everything else ends up pointless. No matter how hard they try, the creators frame Taiga as quirky and cute. Nothing can salvage the anime, but then again it doesn’t seem they try. There isn’t much in the way of stories or characters. Ryuji is like that dude from Haganai only not as hot. Somehow he manages to be perfect and eventually the center of the harem because he’s nice to everyone and doesn’t have wants of his own. To the anime’s credit, the secondary male actually has a purpose here and he’s a bit hot, but besides being a more energetic nice guy there’s nothing to him.

Other females consist of a wacky redhead who’s entertaining for five episodes and then becomes tiresome. As for Ami, she’s another generic asshole who’s overall unpleasant without the darkness. Like Taiga, she treats people like crap but the cruelty is never meant to shock or make us reflect. Funniest thing is how the anime passes her off as sexy. Not only the characters can’t drive a story, but they look bad.

Art style is another problem the anime suffers from. No one has a distinctive look. School anime, at worst, create pleasing to look at characters. You may not experience anything profound but there is aesthetic value in the designs, in understanding human beauty. Designs don’t have to break boundaries, but little touches like Sena’s butterfly and deep eye color make an anime more pleasing to look at.

Toradora does nothing like this. Taiga does have a weird hairstyle, but Minori isn’t memorable at all. She has huge eyes and short red hair. End description. Worse offender is Ami who is meant to be the sex symbol. To express this, they gave her a longer hair and slightly bigger breasts. Unlike shows where the characters are actually sexy, her figure isn’t defined or emphasized – which is necessary if the character’s beauty is important to her personality. Her hair is just long without hairstyle quirks. Look at any anime that has a character whose beauty is important and you can always spot details expressing it – just as I described Sena in the above paragraph. The designers decided to do the bare minimum.

Character designs are integral to how we view them. How people look is a part of them. It doesn’t mean characters should all be sexy (that’s actually quite odd) but their looks should somehow find their way to their personality. If your character is meant to be beautiful, make them beautiful. Toradora is satisfied with just sending the signals, mistaking low effort for minimalism. Minimalism is when you have few details but these details are important. Ami’s design and everyone else’s has no effort put into it. A simplicity that has no elegance, that emphasizes no details is just a product of no effort and laziness.

Maybe the anime drastically improves. I have a hard time believing it. Watching this anime became painful. Witnessing the abuse Taiga inflicts on everyone, and expecting to be entertained and amused by it is too much. Torture porn at least acknowledges its characters suffer even if it expects me to find entertainment in pain. This anime pretends physical abuse doesn’t cause any pain. Truly, it’s objectionable almost on a moral standard.

1 abusive partners out of 5

I'll keep this short and simple. Screw this anime.

Sound and art are fine. Not really too detailed art with a little bit of comedy sketches. The sound matches well with the series which would give it a higher score if the series was good.

Now the reason why this series sucks. TAIGA IS A GIANT BITCH. That should be tazered and thrown into Mount Doom. I get the appeal of Tsundere which is the demographic for this show. Taiga is the completely horrible side of Tsundere. Tsundere are supposed to be a tale of two sides with a harsh side balancing a hidden sweet side. IF ... the harsh side is a psychopath I don't give a damn if there is a sweet side. I don't even need to go past the first episode to prove that this girl is certifiable. She breaks into the protagonist's home, illegal, assaults him with a deadly weapon, illegal, damages his property, illegal, and then extorts him to get her to leave, illegal.

People in the anime world, abuse isn't fine if it's female on male. It's one thing if it's a single hit or insult every once in awhile but Taiga does this abuse constantly. It makes her completely unlikable for anyone who has dealt with abuse before and can't just laugh off a shit character. The easiest way to see if it hits the double standard is flip the genders. This becomes a freaking black comedy/horror if you switch the protagonist's genders.

I get the reason why people laugh at pain. Watching a drunk guy on youtube fall over himself and try to base jump off his roof is pretty damn funny. What I don't get is why anyone would willingly hang out with a person that makes your life hell by insulting and hurting you all the time.

Any story that would try and portray a character like that as lead heroine role needs to be burned with fire. I would give this anime a zero but watching Taiga get her karmic justice raises the score. 2 out of 10 Recommendation: Put it on a rocket ship, fly it out to unknown coordinates, and hyper beam it into oblivion. The perfect example of how NOT to make a Tsundere lead in a romantic comedy (Her and Louise Valliere of Familiar of Zero).

Toradora is criminally overrated. It's very rare that I find an anime that lacks anything decent but Toradora is most certainly one. I truly loathe this anime and the support it gets.

I usually don't look at reviews and ratings of anime before I watch them so that I am able to have an unbiased and unspoilt opinion when watching the anime. So, after enduring the agony of the anime I went on a few forums and saw a few reviews. After watching the anime and thinking that it was a steaming pile of garbage it was to my dismay that I saw endless romcom ... thirsty viewers saying it was "Their favorite anime" and that it's "the most underrated anime ever". I despise myself for wasting even a second of my time enduring this anime and write this review in the hope that even one person saves themselves from the torture that is Toradora.

To begin with, the characters are unbelievably hate-able and predictable. I absolutely detest Taiga and everything she stands for, words cannot describe how much hate i feel for this woman and her actions. Ryuuji is the most boring typical anime protagonist that serves no benefit to anyone's existence other than Taiga and his mother with whom he has an oddly borderline incestuous relationship with but not enough for it to be an interesting hentai. Minori is another typical loud and annoying airhead anime girl although she provides some moments of joy within the depressing rage that is Taiga. Yuusaku has some sort of pathetic breakdown in the middle of the series and remains an unpleasant and unnecessary character throughout the series. Ami is simply a conceited swine that is incredibly forgettable and abhorrent.

The ending of the anime is one of the most pathetic endings I've seen in anime. It's as if the series defecated all over you and then just left. It removes what little purpose the entire series had by separating the two main characters and somehow passing that as some sort of tragedy. The show seems to label itself as a comedy, there was not a single instant within the show where I so much as smiled. The support that it gets from the community makes me lose faith in humanity and dislike the show even more.

I beg of you, if you have any sense of self respect, do not watch Toradora. I am not an unpleasant person in the slightest but Toadora brings out theworst in me. There are endless amounts of anime under the same genre that you could watch which are infinitely better.

I can't finish this anime. How is this Slice-of-Life when the main female character is so clearly a sociopath?!?! Within 15 minutes of the first episode she
1. Sucker punches a guy for no reason
2. Destroys a classroom and doesn't clean it up
3. Breaks into someones house and
4. Proceeds to fight him with a wooden sword, babbling nonsense the entire time
5. Eats his food without so much as a thank you
6. REFUSES TO LEAVE HIS HOUSE AFTER A CLEAR MISUNDERSTANDING THAT COULD BE SOLVED WITH WORDS

I can't. I just can't. This isn't cute. How is this anime rated so high? I'm not watching this anymore and ... I'm mad other people don't think it's effing weird...
And after finishing the first episode, oooof cooourse. She's a rich, entitled b**** with mommy or daddy issues who can barely take care of herself but is too proud to admit it. Which is likely where all her sociopathic mentalities stem from.
I know someone like that.
Guess it is slice of life after all.

Toradora is easily one of the worst anime around. It can't decide if its a romance/comedy or a romance/drama. Combine that with some of the worst characters ever and you have the final product.

Story:
The story is bland. It has been done so many times before the word cliché doesn't do it justice. You know the ending within the first 5 minutes of episode 1.

It is very slow-paced. A 25 episode series that could have very easily been done in 15. It spends time on pointless scenes that are irrelevant to the main series and feel more like a filler episode of a popular long-running ... shounen.

I will admit, the comedy scenes at the beginning were funny. However, an intelligent viewer will quickly realise the comedy is playing off of the female MC's tsundere archetype and the jokes become painful to watch.

The drama was forced and melodramatic, especially for a series not even tagged as a drama on MAL. The feeble attempts to provoke an emotional response were poorly written and painful to watch.

Art:
The animation isn't bad but it isn't good. The backgrounds are decent but there is nothing particularly memorable regarding the art.

Sound:
The series use two opening themes which would have been very fitting if it hadn't had so much melodrama which makes the themes seem more suitable for a series with more comedy.

The OST is average at best. The composer didn't really have his own style which made the music seem bland and uninspired.

Some of the songs fit the scene but you won't notice them unless you focus on the music.

Character:
The worst part of Toradora.

The male MC is a teenager who is isolated from his class mates because of his appearance. You know who else doesn't have any friends? Otaku.
He is too shy to tell a girl he likes her. You know who else is very shy? Otaku.
You can see where I am going with this.
The male MC is basically otaku-pandering.
I also view the MC as being a poor rip-off of Clannad's male MC. They both have few friends and are considered delinquents and both have blue hair.

The female MC is easily the worst character ever written. She is the personification of the tsundere archetype which shows poor writing and a lack of creativity of the author's part. By the time the show gets started on her character development you already hate her so much you don't care. Additionally, all her issues in the show could be resolved if she stopped being a bitch. Her voice actor only makes matters worse. Its Rie Kugimiya, need I say more?

The side character are a mixed bag. Minori is just as bad as Taiga but for different reasons. Namely a bipolar personality and generally being an annoyance. The other two ,Kitamura and Ami, are actually decent but are thrown to the side for the worse characters.

Enjoyment:
It took me two months to finish this, purely because I don't drop shows. I felt my IQ getting lower as I watched each episode. It isn't enjoyable. I'm certain that listening to Rie Kugimiya's voice is a method of torture at guantanamo bay.

Overall:
It could have been a decent show if the story wasn't so cliché and the characters weren't so poorly written. It had some good scenes that were held back by reasons previously stated. Scenes that seem significant later become redundant and everything is so predictable. As a fan of the romance genre I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

Alright, let's get this over with.

I am going to preface this "review" (probably little more than a trite rant because I can't review worth a damn) by saying that I'm sure you have your reasons for liking Toradora, you know, that's totally fine. I'm not the be all and end all.

But to be blunt, I don't just dislike this show. I despise it and everything it stands for.

Let's see: Toradora is supposed to be a rom-com-drom, right? So, how does each category stand?

1. Romance
The romance is bad. Plain and simple. The connections between Taiga and Ryuuji are barely prevalent throughout the course of the show, ... barring like maybe the last few episodes, and even then it didn't give me any kind of emotions at all.

There's rushing your romance, and then there's dragging on for so long you almost forget who's supposed to be with who.

But hey, I could be interpreting it wrong.

2. Comedy
Comedy is subjective, right? Well, in my subjective opinion, this show is dull as fuck when it comes to comedy. Not much to elaborate on here, besides the fact I don't find this show funny.

3. Drama
Well, with the dull romance and comedy, we're left with drama.

And well, this show does have drama. Melodrama. And this is where my true hatred for this show comes into play.

I'm not kidding when I say the characters COMPLETELY overreact over the smallest fucking things in this show.

For instance, your crush gets rejected by his own crush?
Go fucking MURDER her with a wooden sword! Because that's not over reacting!

Your father sometimes neglects you?
FUCKING DESTROY his testicles when you finally see him!

You didn't give someone a box of chocolates?
Well, overreact over that too, because we don't have enough melodrama in this show!

The last example isn't a joke by the way. That's literally one of the scenes.

Honestly, this show tries to be dramatic just for the purpose of shoehorning in drama. It's almost obnoxious to be honest.

And to go over the characters briefly:

Ryuuji is forgettable.

Taiga is the worst tsundere ever.

Kitamura is forgettable.

Ami exists solely to spew meaningless meaningful words.

And Minori is bi, apparently.

If it wasn't obvious enough, I don't care about anyone in this show.
________________________________________________________
Overall, it's very likely I'm interpreting all of the messages that Toradora gives wrong, and for that reason, I suppose I can see why people actually go as far to say that this is their favourite show.

But according to my interpretation, Toradora is nothing more than a painfully unfunny, melodramatic failure of a romance.

At least the music and animation is good.

Kudos to whoever actually read my god-awful "review".

OVERRATED.

Whenever someone asks me if I have watched Toradora! That is the first thing I will say to that person. The story is overrated, the characters are dull and the ending is ridiculous.

Now I have your attention, the plot. The plot is a pretty average boy likes girl, girl like other boy, ends happy but not really type of boring story you will see in American rom-com movies that is so predictable you can see in coming 2 episodes in. The story is set around a male protagonist called Ryuji Takasu who is apparently considered a delinquent because of his eyes and because of ... this feels he will never get a girlfriend. We discover he has been put in the same class as his best friend Yusaku Kitamura and a girl he has a crush on, Minori Kushieda. When he is at school he happens to meet the Taiga-chan, a short girl with a short temper which is why she is likened to a tiger and the two create a dysfunctional 'friendship' relationship based around on their crushes.

My friend and I reminisce about this anime from time to time and the initial reaction is how did we watch 25 episodes of this? It was terribly boring with a cast of people who were pretty uninteresting too and a lot of pointless episodes that just seemed like the studio had some left over money so put in a lot of filler.
The characters, I think, are the main thing wrong with this anime. We have Taiga, a short girl who seems to be ostracised for being short and quick to get angry which I have never seen in anime before ever. We also have Ryuji, a lead male character who is also ostracised for because people think he is a ‘delinquent’ because he has ‘delinquent eyes’ which seems like a really superficial thing for someone to base opinions of him to me but it is what it is. Then the other two, Minori and Kitamura, who seem to change their minds, attitudes and actions every ten minutes to benefit the main storyline. The interaction between the main characters seems really forced, with Ryuji taking a lot of grief from Taiga and has to cook and clean for her because she knows he has a crush on a girl. I don’t know why he takes it for something that seems pretty trivial from where I am looking but there we go.

The ending to this anime is just ridiculous. I vowed to have no spoilers in my reviews so I can’t say what the ending is but take my word for it, ridiculous.

I must say the start of this anime for me did offer some hope that I found something that would be good to watch but this hope was quickly taken away by the poor story I was being sucked in to. I also must say the dub and sub work on this anime was a good quality as was the art but it was quite easy to overlook these points with Toradora!

In conclusion, if you are looking for a first-class romance/comedy anime, run very far away from Toradora!

I decided to make a review on this coz people are praising this like it's the face of the Romance genre, it's not, I would argue Kaichou wa maid-sama but even that is flawed

Story: 1

there's hardly any story in this show tbh it's just about the two main characters love interests which got handle very poorly by the author, this is a poorly written "love story" I can't even call this a love story

first we have this the two main characters whom both have different love interests which means what's supposed to follow is both of them losing interest in their respective love interests while ... slowly develop romance with each other coz they're the main characters for pete sake but nah that ain't what happened at all and you'd expect the show would utilize itself having 24 episodes, our main male and female MC still madly greatly in love with their respective love interests in the final 2-3 episodes of the show I repeat there's hardly any romantic development between the love square, female MC even hallucinated and mistook Ryuuji for his crush, Ryuuji still madly in love with Minori, mind you Minorin and Ryuuji was about to have a 1 on 1 convo/confess at each but no worries Taiga is there to ruin the day and went on a tantrum spree, you gotta let them angst come out amirite angsty teenagers needs break amirite and the next day (final 2 episodes) the two main suddenly wanna live in together coz they're suddenly on a relationship smh talk about forced romance this is the most forced romance I have ever seen ever I can't believe this is the most recommended romance, RomCom coz this is just bad most of the episodes got wasted on some random moe SoL and male and female mains failed attempts to their respective love interests with Taiga beating Ryuuji and Ryuuji being the ultimate white knight

Art: 5

hardly a matter in this kind of show coz they usually have a good to average art

Sound: 4

can't remember if it's the first or second but it has a decent ending song while I can't even remember the opening songs coz they're so forgettable

Character: 1

Minori and Yasuko are probably the only likable characters in this show while the rest are downright detestable, forced and badly written ones especially Taiga, guess I'd expect no less from a violent tsundere, there's even this Ami chick who was implied to actually likes our male MC too but nothing happen in the end she was just there for the sake of it, I mean why add a character who won't even confess and try with Ryuuji, such a pointless character again this is a harem in guise of a Romance, people needs to stop branding this a major Romance coz this is a RomCom harem and it's a bad one

Enjoyment: 1

the only reason that I would watch this again is so I can get even more details and more evidence of how bad this show is coz I've watch this back in 2010 and I actually thought it was a good show back then, people praise this like it's the face of the Romance genre even tho it's clearly not

Overall: 1

this is lowkey harem in guise of a Romance, if anyone asks for a recommendation of a Romance, I wouldn't recommend this but for a RomCom I will coz they're usually a random with most of their episodes with a plot next to nothing with non existent story development and for this romantic development. and this pulled the most forced romantic build up I could ever think of

I liked it maybe 10 years ago. Watched it again and it just might be the worst thing i've ever seen. 2/10 it's not too late to break out of the matrix my friends. +1 point for ryuujis MILF mother

Story: typical high school anime, nothing interesting
Art: it's okay
Characters: probably the worst part of this show. Not sure how anyone is supposed to like taiga, unless hmm they just like lolis..?
Sound: music was bad. The OPs are an instant skip. As for voice acting, english dub is way better than the original japanese. Pretty much the only reason i was able to finish watching this show.
Enjoyment: ... there are good animes and animes that are so bad they're enjoyable. Unfortunately, this one is neither as it is just boring.

If anyone is looking for a new anime to watch, this one is a hard pass. hope this helps ^_^

/!\ STUPID CHARACTERS /!\

When watching an anime, it's always likeable to have interesting and deep characters. When watching THIS anime, I have the feeling to witness a big clown party, where everybody is reading lines. Let's imagine that an interesting event is happening, anime watchers would like to think "wow, I don't know how this will end ! How deep charcters, they're so well written !" but in this anime... well, the first part is true, you say yourself "wow, it will introduce a whole new dimension !" No. Nothing change. Sometimes, all I see are charcaters being sad on purpuse, the only reason why ... they are in this situation being they are dumb. Sometimes characters cry. When it happened, I was litteraly screaming "YES CONTINUE, I DRINK YOUR TEARS !!" BECAUSE THEY CRY FOR NOTHING EXEPT THEIR UNINTELLIGENCE.

I found this anime very bad, it's a lack of love and attention around all the characters.
For having a very positive evaluation, I decided to try it, I thought the anime would be very good, but it's very bland!
At the beginning of the story I was waiting for the anime to improve, to have a little comedy to have an interesting story, in the middle of the anime it started to improve a little, in the end I thought the ending was good but nothing very exciting, although the characters still reached the age of majority , I found them very childish.
I thought the secondary ... characters would have an ending, but nothing happens, not even a conclusion, just a lack of love and attention from all the characters throughout the entire anime.
What I liked most about this anime was that it had an ending and only had one season, which for me was more than enough.

It's hard to come up with an opening sentence, I mean, this show was so unbelievably bad. It was abysmal, mind-numbingly boring, fucking trash. BUT, since watching I have searched for the answer to why people like this show, and I think I've found something. Actually, no I haven't.


Characters - The characters in Toradora are either generic to the highest degree, or they're Taiga, and just might be the worst character in existence. The main characters Taiga and Ryuji have the personalities of rocks. Ryuji is an average nice guy and Taiga is an extreme tsundere, there is basically nothing else to these characters. I’ve ... heard some say that the characters in Toradora are rich with development but all I could see on that front was Taiga finally growing in the last 5 seconds of the show and a side character named Ami learning how to be less of a bitch. Ami’s development was decent at best though I don’t really have complaints about it, but Taiga’s development was executed very poorly. As I said earlier, she is a tsundere, but not just any tsundere! From my experience, Taiga is the most extreme tsundere I’ve ever seen. She beats people up at every turn, and it isn’t even limited to her love interest, she is just the definition of a prick. She remains this way for 24/25 episodes and until 30 seconds near the end of the last episode, she’s finally nice. How sweet. I guess this technically counts as development, but if you want to stick with this little asshole for 24 and ¾ episodes until she actually grows, please do. Trust me, it’s not worth your time. I find it hard to believe people can actually call her cute, root for her pursuit of romance, or most importantly call her a good character. As for the other 3 characters, Kitamura, Minorin, and Ryuji, they don’t get development. I heard that Minorin does, but no one has actually bothered to explain it from the many people that I asked so I can only assume Toradora fans have no clue what they’re talking about. While we are on the topic of Minorin (and Taiga as well) I just want to slide in the fact that no voice actress has made me want to mute what I’m watching aside from these two characters. I didn’t come here to hear annoying orange on helium crack some even shittier jokes than usual.

Plot - The basic plot of toradora is, just like the characters, lacking originality in every way. The 2 main characters go through the trouble of trying to get the other one laid only to realize they wanna get with each other. Everyone is constantly put into a generic and predictable high school romcom situation where basically nothing happens except for small remnants of “rElAtIoNsHiP dEvElOpMeNt”. This results in an extremely predictable storyline with little to no reason to be invested. A big example is when Taiga's dad come to town and she tries to mend her relationship with the help of Ryuji. But nothing actually happened so there was no point at all. If someone read the synopsis and saw the cover art, they’d immediately know most of what they need to do on this show and see how it would end. Don’t even get me started on the pacing holy shit. I guess if you enjoy the shitty and flat comedy then you won’t mind, but I’m not trying to wait 24 episodes to see some romance happen. I’m fine waiting to the end of a 12 episode slice of life, but 25? If it was actually funny I'd understand. I can’t believe that this was green lit. This isn’t even mentioning how rushed the end was compared to everything else. OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD!!! Throughout the whole show it’s just generic romcom scenarios where nothing happens. It’s as slow as a snail. Around 24 I think though, now we get going. Taiga and Ryuji finally kiss in a scene I could take about as seriously as I can take an annoying orange on helium kissing someone. Then they get married. Well that went from 0 to 100 fast. As if I already couldn’t take it seriously, now I just thought it was really, REALLY fucking stupid. Like c’mon, they had their first kiss and the natural next step isn’t a first date or maybe making it official, no it’s marriage.

Aesthetics (art, animation, sound) - It was bad. The OST was like everything else, generic. The animation was just bad, the art is about what you'd expect from a 2008 anime from a studio that puts out too many shows, and I think I’ve already covered the worst part of the sound, Taiga and Miorin’s voice actresses. It’s not even an exaggeration to say that I cringed when I first heard them speak, and a few times afterwards (I watched sub btw). Also the openings and endings are just utter shit. Maybe, maybe I could say that the first opening is passable but I can’t lie to myself, it’s far from it.

Enjoyment - I don’t usually cover enjoyment, but I feel like I should in this case because by the time I finished, my emotions toward this show were just so extreme. I tried to stay optimistic, I really did. I kept telling myself it will get better, as did my friend who told me to watch in the first place. Looking back I have no clue why I finished, but I did. Off of a false hope that the show would be good because, honestly, I don’t think I liked a single second of this show, EVER. What started as standard boredom turned into extreme dislike over the course of this show and it would’ve only happened sooner if I didn’t have that hope. Amongst me and my friends, this show has transcended the definition of bad and has just turned into a fucking joke. It is LITERALLY laughably bad. Like if someone called something horrible someone could say that at least it wasn’t Toradora or something like that.

I like to think that I missed something, maybe I didn’t pay enough attention and this show isn’t as bad as I think it is, but that has proven not true. I have tried to find what people like about it but all I get back is stuff like : “It gets development” then when I ask what development they never respond. Or maybe I’ll get, Taiga is cute, which I still can’t quite wrap my head around but hey, whatever floats your boat. Another one is people saying it’s funny which wouldn't even be a bad response, except that the comedy is unbelievably stale. It makes "Friends" look like a masterpiece. At this point I don’t think I missed anything, it’s just a shitty and extremely overrated show. In fact I’d argue the definition of. Thanks for reading!

I was thinking to write my first review on MAL when I got recommendations to watch this anime so I decided to make this.

Story: Well, when I saw MAL rating about this anime I actually had big hope, but when I watched the 1st episode I lost my hope. The plot is about a boy and a girl which in love with each other's best friend and that made them support each other and spent time like almost all day long. From what I saw, it's too obvious that the main characters are going to end up together, especially when Ryuuji and Taiga lives next ... door and even almost like livin together. That's why I said it's too obvious they'll end up together, and when I saw a character has a crush on either Ryuuji or Taiga, this things always came to my mind "it's impossible, you got no chance with your love"

Art: In this anime this part is really bad, especially Taiga, I was hoping she will be the cute character but it never happens. Taiga's fighting scene also really bad, or maybe it's just because I just finished action anime with an epic fighting scene.

Sound: I think the sound is not that bad if you really focus on the sound, but for me the music didn't impress me, maybe because I in clannad, just by hearing the themes I can remember the scene.

Overall I didn't enjoy this anime, my only motivation to finish this is because I don't want to make a review if I haven't finish the show.

I don't know. I personally did not feel attached at all to this series. I don't get it why a lot of people are praising this as one of the best romance anime out there. Maybe nostalgia hits? Did not like the girl anyway since she's so frustrating to watch. Not hating on her though but its just that the way things happened were like so out of place. Story wise is okay-ish and the development was lacking for me. The ending was pretty bad for me. How could they think of doing things like that??? Middle High School kids be doing that? Come on ... now.

I'll keep my review short and sweet. Switch the genders of the two main characters and watch this show again. I'll wait. It would be a show about a disgusting abusive short man constantly being violent and demanding towards a sweet and misunderstood girl who likes to cook and clean.

Taiga has zero redeeming qualities as a human being. It is a complete mystery why Ryuji stays with her for any length of time, barring his exceptionally forgiving nature coupled with a good dose of Stockholm Syndrome.

The fact that this show has so many ratings above 5 horrifies me about what people think is tolerable ... in human relationships (romantic or otherwise). If someone treats you the way Taiga treats Ryuji, you need to run as fast as humanly possible in the opposite direction.

I don't know how this show proceeds after episode 11 (because I'm not a masochist) but I assume the two leads end up together. In that case, this show is missing a MAL tag: Horror.

Why is this anime so popular?

What I thought of this anime was that it was a waste of time. Yeah, the plot wasn't cliche and great overall. Yeah, the characters were kind of unique and well put. But then there was these characters that weren't in need of being there. Instead of developing on Taiga, Ryuuji and their best friends' relationships, they just wasted time by putting in events and characters to draw time. 20 episodes of nothing. 5 episodes equal the development and actual romance. The end was great, I guess, and when we saw them progressing on their relationship it was great. But ... that was only a small amount of the whole series.

Sorry if this review was confusing. That it's my first review and that I watched the anime a year ago should explain it.

***SPOILERS N SHIT***

I'm routinely let down by poor endings. As a writer I know firsthand how difficult it is to conclude a story, particularly if you've become attached to all the characters. Do you want them to live happily ever after? Do you want to punish them for a character flaw? Do you want leave the audience guessing with an ambiguous ending so they can form their own mental picture? Or do you just fuck it all up because you clearly misjudged what drove your work in the first place.

That last one isn't a question because it's how Toradora!!!!!111! decided to do things. The writers ... took generic characters, gave them enough personalities and quirks to keep even someone like me--who is not a fan of romcoms in the slightest--invested in the outcome, and weaved a clever up-and-down rollercoaster of emotions. The best part was that the ride transcended its high school setting and never seem tied to "teenage years" melodrama.

Well, until the last few episodes. Running away from home? Eloping? Enabling friends? Conveniently-away roommates/family? Convenient loving grandparents? Convenient unconcerned friends/parents/school officials/thefuckingpolice? Well, I could deal with all that. I was even considering this a 9/10 despite all that stupid crap because of how invested I was. And then the final episode rolled around.

I barely have the heart to talk about it. I could not be more frustrated. She expects him to just wait around while she selfishly runs away "to deal with her own problems and become a stronger waman" like a complete idiot? For various reasons I've seen more than my share of romcoms and this plot thread is repeated so often it's an actual cliche. And guess what? IT NEVER WORKS. It's ALWAYS stupid. It would have been better if the protagonist had broken his neck falling from the bridge, because at least that's interesting.

Oh, what could have been. Just like dating whores in high school instead of forging meaningful friendships, watching this anime was a mistake that I will regret. Mostly because of how good it should have been if the writers had been great instead of good.

On to the next disappointing anime.

PS. I really liked all the characters here, so if you're into that sort of thing it's still worth a watch. But if you want a satisfying ending that flows with the rest of the series just give up before you start.

Oh boy, where do I start! Toradora is usually one of those shows that everyone recommends as a great slice of life, romantic comedy anime, and I do enjoy a good romance story, but I do not understand why people enjoy this show at all.

To begin with, I honestly find the art to be inoffensive and bland. Besides Taiga, Ryuuji, and maybe a few others, I just find the character designs are just forgettable. The students finding Yusaku incredibly handsome is still a mystery to this date. If you find the art to be decent or good, I would not blame you at all. ...

As for the characters, I find them extremely, extremely, extremely unlikeable. Characters like Ami, Minori, Yusaku, Yasuko (especially you), and most importantly Taiga. I can probably explain opinions for all the characters I find insufferable, but I will just explain my hatred for Taiga. The overall writing and characterization of these characters actively wanted me to continue hating them and/or feel nothing. The anime community's love for Taiga makes me wonder if I even watched the same show. I am usually fond of tsunderes simply because they tend to be some of the most complex, sympathetic, and well-written characters of a show. A lot of the actions Taiga is just simply inexcusable; I know this is just anime, but I am having a hard time keeping my suspension of disbelief. Like how can you honestly constantly physically and verbally abusive someone for cares take for you for free? It is not cutesy or funny; it is infuriating!!! I know she does develop in the later episodes, but I still find her to be incredibly annoying.

As for the story, there is not much, but that's fine for this setting.

One redeeming factor would at least be the soundtrack. It is overall pretty good, and the OPs and EDs are great!

Overall, I found the show to be extremely unlikable with its lackluster writing, characters, and art. If you want to watch a show with some complex and likable characters with actual good writing in a rom-com High School setting, watch Oregairu.