Too many people told me they wanted me to post about Toradora after I finish it, so here I am, but what do I say? Back when I was on episode 11 of this show, I did a metric fuckload of fanboy-riffic posts on it. I was kind of too scared to continue the show knowing it would become a love shape of sorts, and I hat love shapes, but I watched it now, and I can safely say that all the problems are far behind. For the time being, toradora makes my Top 5, once again reinforcing the embarrassing fact that most of my favorites come from the past 2 years!
Where do I start, and what do I say? I’ve gotten terrible at doing cumulative posts, or rather, they were always lacking to begin with. I don’t want to write a review for Toradora like I’ve done for some of the other shows I finished lately. Why? Because I just like it too fucking much. I can’t really say anything about it that won’t lead to ungodly amounts of masturbatory fanboying. No, this show needs an Epic Journey post – and it’s actually already due for one. Ordinarily, I would wait till it’s been a while before bringing a show back for an epic journey post, but I feel like I have more than enough experience with this show to bring it back sooner. After all, this is the ONLY show to ever get a spot reserved in my favorites list before I finished it, and it came through with my expectations, seizing my number 3, 4 or 5 spot (depending on a very complex system of future posts.)
And the reason I don’t want to talk about it before then is that I wan tto show people just how immensely I cared for this show. Especially because it’s a show I know everyone’s seen and everyone has their own thoughts on. I really want to just bust this show open wide and spill out all of the contents of it on the world. I want to say everything about this show – I don’t want to just say a few things in a summarizing way, because I don’t want you to misunderstand. I don’t want to say ‘this show was fucking amazing’ and for you to underestimate that. But anyway, here’s some notes for now to shut some people up, and you can expect extensive EPIC posting on it after next week’s vast multitude of incoming Eureka Seven.
Let’s see. Taiga is one of the only female characters I’ve ever seen who I love more than any other character but not because I would personally pursue her. She’s insanely attractive, sure, but she isn’t my personality type – I simply have insane amounts of respect and love for her and wish the absolute best for her and Ryuuji, both of them are just fucking amazing. Somewhere between them must be my favorite character ever. I might actually care about this relationship more than Eureka x Renton, I am not fucking kidding. I’ll seriously have to try and deliberate on it.
Minorin is fucking incredible, spectacular, and had to be one of the hardest characters to write so believably ever. Kitamura was insane and hilarious and awesome and had his most epic of moments throughout. Kawashima Ami was hard to get into but as she became friends with Taiga I started to like her and her brawls with minorin were just fucking AWESOME. All of the minor characters were a ton of fun, and Ryuuji’s mom really stole my heart at times.
Best drama ever, best romance ever, best characters ever, best love shape ever, but perhaps most importantly, BEST ENDING EVER. Okay, not literally, but it was a fucking amazing ending and everyone who said otherwise needs to kindly FUCKING CUT THE SKIN OFF OF YOUR BALLS AND ASS, MAKE A ROPE OUT OF IT, AND HANG YOURSELF, YOU SORRY ASS FUCKING EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN BEING. FUCK YOU.
Absolutely SUBLIME from start to finish, and few shows are so privileged for such praise. It has probably passed ef, because as important as ef’s messages are to me, the romance got beat, which is a major deal to me. It also may have beaten Manabi Straight because for everything I adore about Manabi Straight, the characters and interactions just can’t match up to the insane love I have for Toradora’s cast. The show isn’t without it’s flaws, which is why it can’t quite go up to the insanely ridiculous standards of my number 1 or 2 spot, but god fucking damn the show was so amazing that I’d feel about about not giving it a top spot if one of those shows wasn’t the thing sitting up there.
It’s been a while since a show made me feel this magical. It’s the same feeling as those other shows I mentioned, which I prayed I’d get to feel from another anime. I definitely remembered love for anime as a whole. Fucking. Incredible.
My Sword Is Unbelievably Dull 
Well, you’re clearly on the fence on this one wwwwwww.
I really enjoyed Toradora! and I’m insanely pleased that my son or daughter will be born in the Year of the Tiger, because I was born in the Year of the Dragon. Now read this [->]
I agree 100% with your thoughts on Minorin. The genki girl archetype never worked for me, but seeing her in action was just beautiful.
Agreed on all accounts. I absolutely loved keeping up with Toradora! week after week during the fall and winter seasons. You couldn’t ask for a better show to watch every week, because it just does not stop getting better. I think I spent the entire time wondering if the pace would ever slow, if we’d get maybe one or two episodes that would put a halt to the action, and it never happens. Toradora! is a consistently exciting, heartwarming and joyful experience, and it definitely secured a spot in my top ten upon completion. (Actually, I think it is No. 10 on my list … the numbers get screwed up in my head sometimes, haha.)
Man, be careful with the unconditional love. I can safely say that the penultimate episode wasn’t just a series low-point, but fairly awful for rom coms in general.
But I loved the ending. I loved the ending so very much.
There was nothing in there I found anything less than amazing, so I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Maybe instead you should just written HNGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH a thousand times.
@21cdb You mean other than the massively awkward plot timing, the contrived and sudden appearance of both parental figures, and the blatant rush towards a conclusion? I mean, it’s easy to overlook, given the quality of the episode after, but…
There was nothing in there I found anything less than amazing, so I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Where to begin? This show was one of the best I’d seen in a while. The writing, cast, and characters were simply outstanding. Some of the best writing I’ve seen actually.
Kugimiya Rie’s best role.
This show easily made my top ten, and I don’t see it moving from there in a very very very long time.
And yea…..a bunch of people said the end was bad, and this just confused me, as I really liked the ending.
I totally fell in love with Ryuji, he’s such a sweetheart and its hard not to root for Taiga. Minorin is such a ball of energy and fun to watch as is Kitamura’s insanity.
I ended up having a great deal of respect for Ami, because while everybody was busy burying their feelings, or just stubbornly refusing to acknowledge them. Ami was always pretty much honest about how she was feeling.
The friendship aspect of this show is what made me love it so much. Taiga willing to shut up about her own feelings for Minorin’s sake, Minorin sacrificing her feelings for Taiga’s sake. Its all good.
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