Toradora = Love

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There have been many harem comedies that have entertained me in my guess and check style of testing anime’s, but I have to say, none have surprised me in quite the same way the current series Toradora has. At first glance it seems to have the typical set up: You have the female lead an angry tsundere who also happens to be quite clumsy and has a lot of dere for all of her tsun. The first time I saw Taiga trip I thought I was going to have to throw a shoe through my computer screen since I believed she was going to be your typical weak, needs protecting, female lead. My initial impressions might not have been completely wrong, but they weren’t completely right either as she doesn’t fit into the mold that I had originally cast. So what’s the plot? What does it follow? A very wise person once informed me that all romantic comedies are in fact Pride and Prejudice. For all of those out there who haven’t seen any of the millions of movies with the title, than you’ll be happy to know it’s very similar to “When Harry Met Sally” only with slightly different settings. Pride and Prejudice has two very doxycycline price misunderstood people who make instant judgments of the other’s pride which leads to prejudice (heh heh heh, the title). This is slightly similar to the set up we get in toradora with the male lead Ryuji not initially understanding Taiga, but we assume by the end of the series that him and Taiga will realize they do not in fact love who they thought they did: Minorin and Ryuji, and fall madly in love with each other. Ok maybe you didn’t think that, but I certainly did.

I only mentioned this because at this point in the series I truthfully have no idea where it’s going and that surprises and excites me. It’s great to not know who the characters are going to end up with even though you’ve watched a similar setup always pan out the same way before. Which slightly leads into my next reason for praising Toradora’s writing. I’m going to talk about a theme that I think is prevalent through just about every episode.

What people are and what people pretend to be!

The protagonist, Ryuji, has the immediate reaction at the beginning of the series that he wishes to hide his eyes and face. He’s constantly seen in front of mirrors trying to hide his “ganster” eyes so people don’t get the wrong impression of him. The relevance of this to me is that he is actually probably one of the most honest characters in the entire show. When he talks he says exactly what he means and only plays the part of the ganster when entertaining one of Taiga’s crazy plans.

Minorin is also a powerful character. She’s Ryuji’s love interest and from the outtake we are shown a carefree, optimistic, the diet pills rather brainless girl who is the first in line to suggest an idea or fun, and the last person you would expect to entertain any sort of inkling about evils of the world, or what other people are really like. With this in mind her spontaneity is genius and always good for a laugh, but the depth of her character also is truly outstanding. When I least expect it she delivers in her thoughtful high pitched voice what I hadn’t even thought of. For example she informs Ryuji that Ami (another girl who wears a mask) is more mature than all of them because she works in the adult world. Minorin is very supportive of her friend and even quarrels openly with Ryuji trying to protect Taiga from her father. You wouldn’t expect the happy go lucky Minorin to hold such a grudge against someone, at least I wouldn’t from her initial introduction. That’s rather negative to think that he couldn’t change. Minorin is not quite what she appears to be. She wears the mask of a carefree high schooler, but the much deeper character reflects that she’s not quite as innocent as she appears. She understands the situation and she even knows and informs those close to her that she is pretending. Will Minorin ever discover love, which she does not believe in? I would guess that she does, but this series has given me many doubts.

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Ami, as mentioned before, is your typical idol. order online tabs Sweet, charming, innocent, well at least while the guys are around. The second they leave she turns into a cynical, angry, realistic teenager. She’s competitive and is not afraid to show her dislike of Taiga. Ami has really grown on me. My favorite line of hers is comparing Minorin to the sun and Ryuji and herself to the moon. They could admire the sun and wish to be like it, but they could never actually achieve it. In my experiences with girls I admire I find Ami’s words to strike a chord that I hadn’t quite put into words before. This coming from the supermodel who is supposed to be sweet and innocent. She still acts like an idol to win the affections of everyone but Ryuji who was allowed to see through her guise is perhaps one of the few people that she will sometimes speak openly too. Thankfully the story is told through Ryuji’s perspective so we can see her changes as well. I’m not saying that innocent idols can’t exist, but the character of Ami just seems so real. The problem I find with many anime’s is the liberties they take with the portrayal of characters, they work so hard to make them the ideals of their fantasies that they forget that we can’t take them seriously, good for a laugh but not much else. What two girls would seriously compete over half the loser males in most harem comedies. In Toradora the lead males are actually given some pretty interesting qualities besides just wanting to protect the girl who comes with her own ransom note.

Ryuji’s best friend and the subject of Taiga’s current unrequited love, Kitamura, is your typical honor student. He looks out for his friends, always ready for a good joke and a laugh, and a bit of an exhibitionist… He has his problems and can be a bit melodramatic, but seems to be another good judge of character. The depth of this character and what hides behind the honor student mask though is what I’ll call Romeo Syndrome. He falls in love quickly and wants to have a good high school life, but this isn’t exactly what you would call honor student behavior. It’s more of the motive for the things he does revealed in the later episodes. The real reason he’s in the student council is because of a certain girl that he fell in love with. This is perhaps one of the most understandable reasons for a guy to do anything and not the least bit surprising when spelled out for the viewer. However, for whatever reason, I didn’t initially guess the reason for his sudden rejection of everything he previously strived for because I hadn’t quite grasped this. I thought he was just doing student council to do student council. I think it’s good writing when the show can display that the characters move for other reasons than just the ones we initially believe, but yet are still believable.

Last, but not least, Taiga. Besides Ryuji, Taiga probably is the most obvious display of the mask wearer. She acts like a cold hearted ***** to everyone, even to the point of attacking others with a sword. This might just be typical tsundere behavior, but I don’t quite remember Kagamin ever actually trying to kill Konata. She has a hard time talking to the one she loves, but she’s well aware of her own shortcomings. Somehow they still make her shortcomings cute but the character deep. Her inability to talk to Kitamura would really be considered comedy and many times is, if he hadn’t already fallen in love with someone else, then it’s tragic. Nothing is sadder than witnessing Taiga accept that her love is in love with someone else and decided to try to make him happy at the cost of her own happiness. She’s willing to sacrafice and the writers have come up with a genuine believable situation where you can feel the weight of her decision and her loss. Not a fairy tale ending I’m sorry to say. She plays her part to hide her insecurities and really this can be said of every character mentioned.

There are many more themes present in this series that depict what I view as good writing, but I’ll have to save them for another time. I believe everyone where’s a mask of how they wish to be percieved. The people who appear the most confident are the most insecure. The ones that you think are the happiest are really the saddest. While this is certainly not true in every case I think we all are simply playing a part or a preconceived conception of how we are supposed to be. Sure we make changes and convince ourselves that’s who we really are, but our true nature is lurking just beneath. In Toradora I see this used in a brilliant way. All of the characters are so much more than they appear at first glance and their struggles although sometimes trivial are very real to them, and thus very real to the audience members. They are each trying to carry out their roles of who they are supposed to be while trying to convey to each other who they really are, and only want to be accepted for who they really are. Will they succeed, I don’t know. I hope they do because try as I might I’ve become entangled in their struggle and am forced to watch from the sideline and root for the characters who have earned a place in my thoughts.

If you have any thoughts on the subject please feel free to comment. Discussion is the best way to discover things I might have missed or you might have missed so I’m always open to new things.