RRV: Toradora 1-4

It's a mark of how much I like this series that I'm blogging it right next to my all-time favorite, Eureka Seven.

Toradora ("Tiger and Dragon") is one of those series that seems silly but has inevitable charm and grows on the viewer quickly. Unlike Eureka Seven, which is a little harder to define as a genre, Toradora falls squarely into the slice of life and romantic comedy categories but has something that many other shows in these genres lack (and something that Eureka Seven boasts in huge amounts): natural development.

That's not to say that Toradora is free of the conventions of harem and romantic comedy series; it simply pulls those things off better than most. Based on a light novel of the same name by Yuyuko Takemiya, the story revolves around five high school friends and their complicated relationships to one another. The center of attention lies on the titular "Tiger" and "Dragon", Taiga Aisaka (Rie Kugimiya) and Ryuuji Takasu (Junji Majima) respectively, who are exact opposites of each other. Ryuuji is a sensitive and docile boy with fierce eyes (inherited from a deceased gangster father) who is feared and misunderstood as a dangerous delinquent at school as a result, while Taiga is a beautiful and tiny doll-like girl who really is a violent delinquent. When these two clash, Ryuuji decides that he should stay away from the dangerous "Palmtop Tiger" and Taiga herself would have nothing more to do with him, had she not clumsily placed a love letter addressed to Ryuuji's best friend in his bag. The resulting events lead to the discovery that the two protagonists are actually next door neighbors, and that both are in love with each other's best friends. In order to calm Taiga down, Ryuuji proposes an alliance between them, and thus their camaraderie in love begins.

This is the fourth time I watch Toradora, and even after having read the novels I still find it a pleasant experience now, especially RAW. I'm not the biggest fan of the art style in either the anime or the novels, but I do think it fits the occasionally quirky feeling of the series well. What really makes Toradora shine is the way it depicts relationships, and not just the romantic ones. This is a story of friendship just as much as it is one about love, and those friendships are the cornerstone of everything that happens. These friends support each other, try to understand each other (and occasionally fail), choose their friends' happiness over their own, are blunt when needed, hurt each other, love each other, and are simple kids at heart, trying to enjoy their high school days in a turbid and hormonal period of their lives.

These first four episodes introduce us to four of the five protagonists, and focus on Ryuuji and Taiga's relationship from allies to true friends. Total opposites they may be, but Ryuuji and Taiga are also complements to one another, and its only after Taiga is heartbroken from a failed confession that Ryuuji admits this out loud, declaring that only a "Dragon" is fit to be the companion of a "Tiger".

Quick Thoughts

-I've always liked the perfect duality between Taiga and Ryuuji, despite the fact that it's not an exactly new idea. Taiga is pretty much the stereotype tsundere, and Ryuuji the boy charged with looking after her, but the feeling they give off is somewhat different, fresh even.

-Inko-chan the parrot is no less ugly than I remember him being.

-Despite being younger a series than Eureka Seven I feel that this one has aged a little more in terms of art, which is strange considering J.C. Staff is using similar styles for Sakurasou, Ano Natsu, etc. Perhaps the lack of uniqueness is what makes it feel older?

-I'm not the biggest fan of Ami, so I'm not much looking forward to her introduction next time around, though she grows on me later on. She's something of a necessary evil in this type of series, I suppose.

-This was a much harder series for me to follow RAW than my other RRV project, but that's probably because I'm more familiar with the other than this one. Regardless, I much preferred this RAW to the subbed version I remember.

Opening 1 "Pre-Parade" by Rie Kugimiya, Eri Kitamura, and Yui Horie