Part of the 12 Moments in Anime 2009, which will be my downfall.
It was written in stone before the series started. It was spelled out a thousand times. It was visible in the faces of all the characters.
Ryuuji and Taiga, your One True Pairing for the year.
So why did the English-speaking anihedron not get it at the time that Toradora aired? Blame shipping culture in general if you want, but that’s facile — besides, shipping’s not going anywhere. There are two more important factors here:
- Toradora! twisted genre cliches and tropes to create a smarter version of the anime love polygon (it was more a rhombus or maybe a pentagon than a triangle). I suppose that, given the unexpectedness with which it delivered some of its plot points, viewers were led to expect that anything was possible.
- We’re not used to such wonderful secondary characters. Part of the problem with the polygon or harem is the underdevelopment of the less-true girls — and I don’t mean in the chest. But the overly-cheerful Minori and the overly-crusty Ami didn’t fool anyone into thinking they were the simple characters that they pretended to be. And as a result, they won more fans than the average collection of fetishes that fill out the remainder of a harem.
But in the end, Ryuuji and Taiga made good on their celestially promised destiny. And boy was it wonderful. One of my big beefs with romantically focused anime is the lack of decent payoff for the 20-some episode wait. I want to feel it. If you didn’t feel this one, hang up your hat and give up on the genre.
I felt it. The one-year-separation thingie spoiled the night scene but it was still a happy end so…
This.
+1
Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we all agree that Toradora! is the true pinnacle of love polygonism since Ranma 1/2 screwed the concept a bit.
do8h8Z rbskdjswtvha
It was Taiga from day one. I’m not sure who was fooled by what.
you may not have been, and I certainly wasn’t, but some were and that’s for sure. I have 8 more posts to do, otherwise I’d go dig up the evidence
You speak The Truth, pal. I actually had friends who decried the “predictability” of Taiga and Ryuuji ending up together. It just boggled my mind. But I loved the hell out of everything in Toradora! so it didn’t get to me too much.
it’s not the destination, it’s the journey, and all that jazz.
Toradora Season 2 fucking where!?
that was a pretty definitive end, what do you think would happen in season two? I’m not saying impossible, just wondering what you would hypothesize it’d focus on.
I think the people who “saw” the pairing at the beginning kinda just looked at the surface and they (Taiga and Ryuuji) being the main leads and this being high-school romance anime, it’s not a bad assumption.
What threw me off for so long was that there wasn’t any romantic interest between the two until very late into the series. Typically, popular romance stories start up front with some kind of “oh you walked in on me while I was undressing,” slap in the face, or another occasion for blushing faces. Instead they started as true friends and comrades, sharing similar circumstances and lending each other a helping hand.
In a way, they were a truer pair than most because deep levels of trust and understanding were the roots of their relationship instead of just physical attraction. Even to the point they had me thinking, “if anyone can run away to elope and still have a happy life its these two”. I’m glad they didn’t in the end, but they had me going for a little bit.
Uh.. Tora => Tiger, Dora => Dragon? With a title like that you’ve got to wonder about the shippers
This was never a “polygon” show to me at all. It was a show about two kids who learned the difference between a crush and romantic attachment, and learned it together. The other girls just didn’t present themselves as serious competition to me.
Ami was too stuck up to try to understand Ryuji’s needs, and he seemed to know it. Even when she realized she had no chance, she continued to be cryptic and useless, instead of being a friend and hitting him properly with a cluebat.
Minori was basically doing the same thing to Ryuji he was doing to her.. they had a secret crush on each other. Minori had the guts to step aside as soon as she realized that Ryuji actually loved Taiga, and she masterfully hit both Ryuji and Taiga with a cluebat.
Frankly, Taiga was the only possibility. They basically spent the anime deconstructing each other and growing out of their various complexes. They each just needed a kick in the ass to get them out of “inexplicable teenage angst” mode, and once that happened the writing was on the wall.
By the end of episode 2 it was pretty obvious that both of them had feelings for each other, and that they were just too oblivious to understand what those funny feelings were all about (they were too busy mistaking a crush for the real thing that was happening between them all along).
The only real problem I had with ToraDora (like many people) was that the last half of the last episode was godawful. I liked the touch of Taiga finally having the courage to deal with her parents, but it was obvious that they were desperately reaching there:
Ryuji: “I understand you wanting to deal with your parents by yourself.. but for a year? Couldn’t you have at least called me once on your cellphone?”
Taiga: “The writers just wanted to show that I’m still the needlessly cruel and selfish jerk I was when we first met, and make the viewers question whether I really love you at all”
Um, no.
Yeah, the result was actually pretty well predictable, especially given all the bonding Ryuuji and Taiga underwent. It’s definitely no traditional What Will He Choose genre either, because the other characters more or less primarily served as catalysts for their growth, not as dangerous love interests. But it’s done in such a way that I can’t help but appreciate every single one of them as being unique souls and individuals themselves; I’m sure a fair number of people share this appreciation also.