neko's thinkbox

( ¯3¯)

I decided I don’t like this series anymore.

…or do I?

You see, I have had all kinds of expectations and speculations about Toradora, the most prominent one was, of course, Minorin fighting for Ryuuji, and eventually being together with him. But obviously that would go against the flow of ‘logic’ of such romance shows (and the wishes of those innumerable Taiga/Kugyuu/Tsundere fagns): the two main characters must be together, no matter how much zigzagging there is between the beginning and the end. (Only KimiNozo managed to break that tradition, to my remembrance. True Tears too, but I’d argue about Noe being the main female lead in the first place.) In this aspect, I am disappointed indeed.

I mean, this series started out essentially as a normal comedy slapstick, which underwent a long should of SRS BSNS, and turned into an emotional romance comedy, through no other means than recycling old clichés. Mind you, every romance show uses them, but they are by far not as well placed and timed as in Toradora. The best way to use a cliché is to use it without anyone noticing it, and I bet I missed a lot of them throughout this whole series. Plentiful of examples there, read my old TD posts if you want some.

But exactly that is also the bad thing about this series. Trying to create something good by reusing old stuff might look revolutionary at first, and this was reflected by the massive downpour of praise from the aniblogosphere, but this method also has its limits. Episode 23 was horrible to me, because in the end, the cliché was bright as day. Valentine’s day, how convenient to place such an overrated event on that date! (And I’m not just saying that because I never got any gift on V-day… yet. T_T) Without such an event to unite all our main characters, it would have been so much more… normal if Taiga had just wanted to give everyone a present. Sometimes, simplicity is key. At least to me.

Unrelated Minorin picture. I find it so cute, I had to highlight it here. <3

Now, rarely have I seen such excellent character development as in Toradora. I don’t need to point out how well (or how badly) all of the characters have evolved, or how much (or how little) their true personalities have shone through their emotional masks, I think this is pretty clear at this final stage of the series. Or is it?

The person that most fostered escapism throughout the entire series is now the one that breaks the spell: Minori. I mean, on countless occasions, we have seen them all going back and forth on their own promises, I like you, I like you not. I hate you, I hate you not. I love you…? Well duh, Minori just let her chance slip away. Or rather… she just rushed the inevitable.
There are many different assessments to how or why Ryuuji may or may not have thought about Taiga, but especially in the end, it is crystal clear that he likes Taiga. But I cannot approve of that. I mean, listen, it can’t just happen on a whim can it? Either he was so densely density dense he never realized his feelings for her (and vice versa) and… subconsciously anticipated this move, or he felt so bad leaving behind a tiny, unrequited love, that he decided to give in to Taiga.

Minori, the endless hypocrit. She poked me in the eye, so I almost cried. Shit, I so wished for her to find happiness with Ryuuji, probably because she is the character I can identify myself best with. …except for her altruistic side, which I really, really, don’t approve of. I mean, who in their right mind would let another girl snatch away the guy she loves? Others would kill for that! But what’s done is done, she has triggered the apocalypse, now she can admit her love for Ryuuji without feeling bad about him changing his mind about Taiga. And eventually, she cried in Ami’s confidence. She who wouldn’t cry in front of anyone anymore.

MEIN EYES! 3.3

Ami? Oh yeah, that blue-haired girl! The one with the mature looks and adult mind! The one… who had no real aim in this whole series. Sadly, Ami is the greatest disappointment of this series. She had so much potential to turn this mess into havoc if only she had been more daring and lewd. She could have been the queen instigator of misunderstandings! But instead she just stood by and did nothing. Wait, she did actually. She dropped so many intelligent comments overflowing with innuendos, but in this time and age in anime, main characters are built to be stupid! No stupid soul ever got the real meaning of her messages, so her efforts were entirely useless!

Although in the end, it seemed like a consensus between the three of them (I mean Kitamura) to force the answer out of Ryuuji and Taiga. As if everyone magically flipped a switch, saying “no more lies, just admit you both want to hump each other” and see what happened? Ryuuji and Taiga want to marry omgomgomg…

(after minutes of rolling on the floor laughing…)

See the thing is, this whole matter was so quickly solved that we suddenly moved onto an entirely different topic! “Adults suck, we must live our youth to the fullest!” is now the new message. In episode 25, I really felt like watching an episode of Gokusen: delinquents on the run, blaming the adults for restricting their freedom, and trying to prematurely gain independence by running away. “But but, the main message is that parents do this because they love their children!” is what most people would say (and which is also one of the main messages of Gokusen), and I wouldn’t argue with that. But the point is, I don’t have this feeling of epiphany anymore. This feels like “oh, I think I’ve seen this somewhere before” and that’s what bothers me. Because I can now see where this is going.

CONJECTURE TIME!

Ryuuji blames her mom for being a failure at life, and for not having spent her youth studying so she could have a steady job and income, and a nice family. She’s out of the house, emoing all over the city, and left behind a watch and advised Ryuuji to visit his grandparents. There he will find out that she has actually been in exactly the same situation as him, but decided to elope with that Yakuza delinquent whatever, and to whoop her entire youth up – and see where she landed? In a shabby apartment with a part-time job as a club waitress. Epiphany time for Ryuuji, he will find no way how to sustain his marriage-to-be anyway, so he decides to return to his mother after a long, desperate womanhunt; actually, they will find her through Inko. They make up, expand their tolerance levels, and everyone will finally accept Taiga and Ryuuji’s relationship. And Minori and Ami become lovers, too. So Minori’s “I might be bi” reference from episode dunno won’t go to waste.

Oh, by the way, young lovers eloping without having said “I love you” to each other even once. How stupid is that. Seriously.

Sooo, after reading all of this, you might believe I really don’t like this series anymore. But unlike in old Top Gear reviews, a miss doesn’t necessarily mean that the entire car is rubbish. You see, I might not like a few things about romance animes, clichés, exaggerated melodrama, etc, but that’s not why I would totally write them off as awful. (There could have been worse things, like osanajimis and shit…)
Toradora has given me an excellent first impression, and it kept what it has promised all along: quality entertainment I could look forward to every week. Sortof. I blame my gaming habits for not keeping up interest, but I really liked watching Toradora, and I will remember it for quite some time.

KANSETSU GUUDOBAI KISSU!

Hahaha, I talk as if this series has already ended, though I have yet to see the last episode which airs (or already has aired) tonight. So this might not be the end review of Toradora, although I have almost said everything there was to say… yet, who knows.
I can imagine they’d push so hard in order to slap a second series onto this already established conclusion, because these days, an anime without a sequel/remake in whatever form it may come is a shitty anime. See NGE/FMA. Who knows, maybe Ami might have a go at Ryuuji after all? Or her long lost twin sister? Or Taiga might end up in a wheelchair, in a KGNE kind of script? Nyahaha.

And yes, I featured only Minorin pictures here, because she is the clear winner of my haato. Screw the rest. Although I must say that Haruta’s gf looked cute too.