Toradora

**Toradora** is a romance, comedy, romantic comedy, drama, highschool, coming of age anime series.  It started with a

    light novel series which as written by Yuyuko Takemiya, illustrated by Yasu, and published by ASCII Media Works for the magazine Dengeki Bunko.  It originally ran from March 10, 2006 to March 10 2009, for 10 volumes in total.  After that came another light novel series, titled Toradora:  Spinoff!, which was written by Yuyuko Takemiya, illustrated by Yasu, and published by ASCII Media Works for the magazine Dengeki Bunko.  It originally ran from March 10, 2007 to April 10, 2010 for 3 volumes in total.  After that came a manga series, which was written by Yuyuko Takemiya, illustrated by Zekkyo, and published by ASCII Media Works first for the magazine Dengeki Comic Gao! and later for the magazine Dengeki Daioh.  It originally ran from September, 2007 to the present day with 8 volumes in total so far.  After that came the anime adaptation.  It was directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai, written by Mari Okada, musically composed by Yukari Hashimoto, and published by Studio J.C. Staff.  It originally aired from October 8, 2008 to March 26, 2009, with 25 episodes in total.  After that came a video game adaptation, a visual novel, which was developed by Guyzware, published by Namco Bandai Games, and was released in Japan on April 30, 2009; it was never released outside of Japan.  And finally, after that came an OVA, or an Original Video Animation.  It was directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai, written by Mari Okada, musically composed by Yukari Hashimoto, published by Studio J.C. Staff, and was released on December 21, 2011, for just 1 episode.

## Plot

Ryuji Takasu is frustrated at trying to look his best as he enters his second year of high school. Despite his gentle personality, his eyes give him the appearance of an intimidating delinquent. He is happy to be classmates with his best friend Yusaku Kitamura, as well as the girl he has a crush on, Minori Kushieda. However, he unexpectedly runs into "the school's most dangerous animal of the highest risk level"—Taiga Aisaka—who just happens to be Minori's best friend. Taiga has a negative attitude towards others and has a habit of snapping violently at people. She takes an instant dislike to Ryuji, and it turns out she is living in an apartment facing Ryuji's house. When Ryuji discovers that Taiga has a crush on Yusaku, and Taiga finds out about Ryuji's affections towards Minori, they make an arrangement to help set each other up with their crushes.

Over the course of the series, Ryuji and Taiga try to set up romantic situations to help each other get to know their friends, but many of the situations backfire. Their classmates observe that they are spending a lot of time with each other, leading to rumors that they might be a couple. Although Ryuji and Taiga try to dispel the rumors, they find that they do enjoy each other's company, with Taiga visiting Ryuji's house to share meals, and Ryuji checking up on Taiga to get her to school, and cleaning for her. They meet Yusaku's childhood friend Ami Kawashima, a popular teen model who transfers into their school. She appears to be friendly and is a self-proclaimed ditz, but beneath her facade is a rather mean and spoiled brat, and she quickly finds herself at odds with Taiga. In spite of this, Taiga tries to put up with her antics as Yusaku wants them to all get along, and Ami begins to grow feelings for Ryuji. The series follows the lives of these friends and how Ryuji and Taiga's relationship blossoms into love.

## Light Novels

1. Toradora
2. Toradora:  Spin-off!

## Why It Rocks

1. Excellent soundtrack.
2. Both Taiga and Ryuji are incredibly likable and endearing characters and they have excellent chemistry on screen so I want to see them end up together in the end.
3. Very appealing art style and character designs.
4. Some of the side characters, such as Minori Kushieda and Yusaku Kitamura, the former being Taiga's best friend and the latter being Ryuji's best friend, are also likable and important to the plot.
5. Good voice acting in both sub and dub.
6. The conclusion of the series was incredibly satisfying in almost every single way.  Not only do Taiga and Ryuji end up together, but they also make you feel for Minori having to give up on Ryuji, which we learn is hard on her becuase she confesses that she was in love with him.
7. Great animation in most scenes, especially the heavily dramatic ones.
8. Tones of character development with a lot of the characters in the series.  Taiga, Ryuji, Minori, and Yusaku all get an ample amount of character development throughout the course of the show.
9. Ryuji's mother is both funny and likable, even if she isn't the best parent in the world.
10. The drama with Ryuji's mother at the end was unexpected, but still welcome.  We learn that she acted the way she did becuase she was still hurt by the death of her husband, but she does truly care about her son, and is worried about him when he makes the decision to run away and elope with Taiga.

## Bad Qualities

1. Taiga's parents are both painfully irritating and unlikable.
2. While Minori is a likable character, she is kind of a hypocrite in the end.  She berated Taiga for not accepting her own happiness and instead being more concerned about the happiness of her friend, even though that's exactly what she was doing to Taiga.  The worst part is, this hypocracy is never referenced, even a tiny bit, by any of the characters.

## Reception

The *Mainichi Shimbun* reported in April 2009 that over 3 million copies of the light novel series have been sold in Japan.[38] The light novel series has ranked four times in Takarajimasha's light novel guide book *Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!* published yearly: sixth in 2007, fourth in 2008 and 2010, and second in 2009.[*citation needed*] In Kadokawa Shoten's first Light Novel Award contest held in 2007, *Toradora!* won an award in the romantic comedy category.[39][40] The seventh volume of the *Toradora!* light novels was ranked tenth best selling between December 2007 and November 2008 by Amazon.co.jp.[41] The second volume of the *Toradora!* manga was ranked 28th on the Tohan charts between March 3–9, 2009.[42] Taiga Aisaka became the champion of the eighth Anime Saimoe Tournament in 2009.[43] The *Toradora!* anime was selected as a recommended work by the awards jury of the thirteenth Japan Media Arts Festival in 2009.[44] In 2009, Rie Kugimiya won the Best Actress in the third Seiyu Awards partly for voicing Taiga Aisaka.[45]

The first *Toradora!* DVD was ranked 13th on the Oricon DVD chart between January 20–26, 2009.[46] The second DVD was ranked 15th between February 24 and March 2, 2009.[47] The third DVD was ranked 27th between March 24–30, 2009.[48] The fourth DVD was ranked 17th between April 21–28, 2009.[49] The fifth DVD was ranked 7th between May 25–31, 2009.[50] The sixth DVD was ranked 11th between June 22–28, 2009.[51] The seventh DVD was ranked 19th between July 20–26, 2009.[52] The eighth DVD was ranked 13th between August 24–30, 2009.[53] THEM Anime Review's Stig Høgset commends the anime for how it "actually resolves the relationship issue it set out to do instead of wimping out like so many romantic shows with several girls tends to do in an attempt to not make people angry or disappointed."[54] He also comments Taiga as the "genetical marriage" of Shana from *Shakugan no Shana* and Louise from *Zero no Tsukaima*.[54] However, he also criticized "Taiga's continuous behavior, particularly towards Ryuji" and the introduction of Taiga's father in which Høgset "felt that the whole story arc jerked me around".[54]