Out of all of the shows airing this season, the one that has piqued my interest the most is Toradora!. The reasons for this are mainly down to general internet interest, but I also quite liked the premise of the story. Even if it sounds like (and almost definitely is) a show photocopied from an identi-kit template for this season’s unexpected high school love story, at least it’s trying to change the variables in the formula just a bit.

I don’t know why anime shows do this, but they always seem to have some sort of voice-over at the beginning of every series, spouting some worldly phrase that’ll only become important in roughly twenty episodes time. It means precious little now, but at least we can discern that Toradora! Has some sense of where it is headed.

As we’re in the all-too-familiar high school territory, Toradora! is going to have to hit in the first episode with good plot and good characters. We’re quickly introduced to our main characters, Ryuuji Takasu and Taiga Aisaka, who certainly don’t waste any time in being acquainted. It seems that everyone has their own problems, as while Ryuuji has the face of a mugger, an embarrassing mother and unrequited love for a classmate, Taiga has the largest attitude problem this side of the Pacific, and unrequited love for a classmate.

However, it’s to the credit of Yuyuko Takemiya (the original creator of the light novel) and J.C. Staff (the producers of the anime) that these characters, who could very, very easily have become one-dimensional and flat, are depicted as people with genuine problems, and with multi-faceted personalities. Taiga goes to the extremes of these facets and is the driving force behind this first episode, while Ryuuji’s silent anger adds a layer of complexity to the episode.

Tags: autumn 2008, light novel, Toradora!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 12:49am and is filed under Anime, Toradora!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.