Awkward Teenage Romance at Play Here...
Hi, people. It should have been done a LONG TIME AGO...it's time for a romance story that I had watched a LONG TIME AGO...It is...Get the drums rolling, boys!!!
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| The kiss...once again |
It is TORADORA!!! Well...you should have known from the screenshot above. Well, you might not have known. Who knows? Anyway, let's START!
WARNING:-
SPOILER ALERT!!! If you haven't watched it and plan to watch it without anyone being the spoiler, please DON'T CONTINUE READING!!!
P.S. If you want to be spoiled, well, go ahead and read it. You HAD been warned. Don't blame me for being spoiled if you INSIST on continuing to read this post.
Introduction
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| Light Novel series...sorry for the poor resolution there... |
The anime Toradora! (とらドラ!) is adapted from a Japanese light novel series by Yuyuko Takemiya, with illustrations by Yasu. There is also a spin-off light novel series, which is aptly titled Toradora Spin-off!. LOL...no creativity in naming at all...Anyway, there is a manga adaption by Zekkyō, which was serialized in the shōnen manga magazine Dengeki Comic Gao! and later in the magazine Dengeki Daioh
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| The manga cover... |
Since this show is quite popular, there is even an Internet radio show, which was broadcast between September 2008 and May 2009. Well, there are quite a number of these kinds of radio shows in Japan. I'm not updated with that is because one, I don't live in Japan and two, I'm not that passionate and I have a lot of other things to do and catch up.
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| Random Toradora art... |
As for the anime, it was produced by J.C.Staff and aired in Japan on TV Tokyo between October 2008 and March 2009. There is even an OVA and number of other realises since this anime is popular. It is so popular that there is even a visual novel based on the series, which was released in April 2009 by Namco Bandai Games for the PSP. Why the title Toradora? I will tell you later.
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| The anime cover... |
Plot
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| Ryuuji...the bad-guy-looking face... |
The anime starts off with our intimidating looking MC, Takasu Ryuuji. He literally intimidates everybody with his face in spite of gentle personality. He is happy to be classmates with his best friend Kitamura Yusaku since everybody is scared of him. I wonder how does he get to know Yusaku in the first place. Plus, why is that the MC of every anime has a best friend from the very beginning? Anyway, leaving that aside. Since this is a romance anime, our MC has a crush on a girl, whose name is Kushieda Minori. Well, not every romance anime where the MC has someone who he/she has a crush on, but that scene is not that rare either.
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| An angry Taiga... |
Unfortunate (or maybe fortunate?), he runs into a girl to whom the student calls as "the school's most dangerous animal of the highest risk level". She is Aisaka Taiga and coincidently, she is Minori's best friend. Why is called that? This is because she has a negative attitude towards others and has a habit of snapping violently at people. And she literally snapped at him on the spot and punch him. And even more a coincident, she lives in an apartment beside Ryuji's house, yes, that very apartment that he dislikes of.
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Yes, Taiga lives there. Right next door.
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Well, how does he knows that? Ryuuji found a love letter in his bag, which he later found out it wrongly given to him by Taiga. From there, Ryuji discovers that Taiga has a crush on Yusaku, and Taiga finds out about Ryuji's affections towards Minori. With that, they make an arrangement to help set each other up with their crushes. And of course, he gets to know where Taiga stays.
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| The love letter that changes everything... |
Sadly, over the course of the series, they have failed to set up romantic for each other and their crushes EVERY...SINGLE...TIME. LOL!!!! Even worse, their time with each other (for the sake of mutual benefits) are misinterpreted as them dating each other. There is also another character who is introduced as Yusaku's childhood friend, Kawashima Ami. She also happens to be a popular teen model who transfers into their school. Her appearance (and also her apparent crush on Ryuuji) further complicates the relationship and the ToraDora combo's plans.
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| The love triangle in the beginning... |
What breaks and destroy this plan completely is not Yusaku or Ami or any other character in this anime, but themselves. The feelings for each other start to slowly emerge as they spend more time with each other and enjoy their times with each other. Ami notices it even though their best friends didn't even notice it until it's too late. Well, what is the ending? You should know it yourself if you have watched it (or probably you can guess it from what I have here). For me, the ending is not exactly satisfying but overall, the story is pretty satisfying to watch. It was funny and ridiculous at times. So yeah, I think you should watch it if you haven't (and also rewatch it if you want).
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| That ceremony... |
Oh yeah, I still haven't answered the earlier question. The title Toradora! is derived from the names of the two main characters Taiga Aisaka and Ryūji Takasu. Remember that Taiga is nicknamed as the Palmtop Tiger (手乗りタイガー). It's so happened that Tiger in Japanese can be either taiga (タイガー) or tora (とら). As for Ryuuji, 'ryuu' (りゅう) means dragon. Again, it's coincident that dragon in Japanese can also be doragon (ドラゴン). Since taiga is an English transliteration in Japanese, Taiga 'gets' Tora. Same goes for Ryuuji, he 'gets' Dora. Combine tora and dora...you get what I mean here. OK, with that settled, it's time to move on.
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| Maybe...that why? |
Anime Rating
Story (Rating: 9/10)
The story of two people helping each other to get to approach (and hopefully, get to date) the person whom they are in love with is not exactly an uncommon theme. This theme is presented in a rather hilarious way rather than a serious manner. Even though the story slowly moves towards a more serious tone, the story still has occasional funny scenes and lighthearted scene. Great storytelling.
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| LOL! Taiga just 'died'. The misunderstanding...lol |
Art and Animation (Rating: 8/10)
The art and animation look pretty good and of course, the character looks good too. Nothing really special, to be honest. But, well, it's pretty well done. See? The art looks pretty good, isn't it?
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| Taiga and Ryuuji's special time together... |
Sound and Music (Rating: 8/10)
The BGM is well-coordinated, the two OP songs are quite good and the two ED songs are quite decent too. Sadly, not full marks. Why? It's because those songs are not the kind of songs that will be in my top songs list. So...it's just my preference la, of course! Duh! BTW, the change of OP and ED songs shows the change in tone of the anime perfectly.
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| OP1...a cheeky song |
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| OP2...more toned down... |
Characters (Rating: 10/10)
The characters are really likeable. There are love triangles (that did shift and change over the course of the show), the rivalry between characters and funny, lighthearted scene. Of course, it is not all that easy to catch (especially what Ami says) and some things in the anime are pretty much not exactly realistic. Still, they are fun to watch as their dynamic between each other is really funny. In the ending, the characters (mainly, the main characters) have changed and developed quite a bit away from what they were like in the beginning.
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| The character big gathering... |
Enjoyment (Rating: 10/10)
I enjoyed the anime. Things like laughing the ridiculous of how their plans fail and fall apart, getting to know how the characters feel etc, make it worth for me to have a full rewatch next time. Although the ending is not exactly satisfying, well, it's an ending that it deserves. だって, we are talking about Taiga and Ryuuji, isn't it? Hehe...still a FULL MARK!
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| LOL! Look at Taiga's face! |
Overall Rating: 9 (8.75)/10
Screenshots
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| Their plans... |
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| ...had failed. |
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| Ami's appearance changes the dynamic slightly... |
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| Another failed plan...ignore the Chinese sub pls... |
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| Sadly, Ryuuji doesn't exactly understand what are you trying to say. |
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| The bear costume and Taiga... |
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| Aww...Taiga dun cry... |
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| Taiga gathers them for chocolate... |
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| The moment of truth... |
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| Taiga blushes... |
PV/Trailer
Conclusion
Congrats! You have reached the end of this blog post! Anyway, I might wanna re-watch Toradora but I have no time for that...crying in the background...Anyway, that's the end. Nothing much that I could say except that I hope to post more in spite of my new job. Hope you all enjoy it and also hope to see ya again. Goodbye, and God bless you!
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| Cute Taiga twin tail... |
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