Comments on: Toradora! halfway thoughts

By: Jack

Jack — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 11:42:58 +0000

I would say, I thought it kinda slow and didn’t expect much after I watch the first 2 episode, however, it gets a little better and better. It’s a little bit similar to Nyan Koi but less impressive event pops out. It isn’t bad at all, I’m kinda picky of animation and I give this one a “B -”.(Nyan Koi will be B+) and (5 centimeters per second is A+++) and (Occult Academy is about B+) and (Macross Frontier TV Serious [not movie] is A-)…

By: gwern

gwern — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 03:02:35 +0000

> leading me to assume that the original manga-ka is female

Good observation. The author of the light novels was in fact female.

And if you read the end author’s notes to the novels, you find that the authoress is awfully like the teacher character – unmarried, heading to the wrong side of 30, and fond of food…

By: animecridick

animecridick — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:48:37 +0000

i personally think that in some ways every anime is good story wise. but there r way to many repeats out. please someone come with something new!

By: beyozXXIII

beyozXXIII — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 03:35:18 +0000

Toradora! is the real deal. Don’t watch a lot of Rom-com, but with Kare Kano as the benchmark, it was a a perfectly decent blast to watch (and every fifth episode wasn’t filler or recaps! A testament to KK, though, was despite massive structural flaws, it remains one of my favorite all-time animes as well). Some of my favorite moments were whenever Minorin’s outer shell cracked a bit. She was probably my favorite seiyu in the series as well, since there was so much range to it (and she did the op theme.)

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:22:09 +0000

@Gen: yeah, I think the VAs deserve a lot of credit, considering how character-driven the series is. Rie Kugimiya’s turn as Taiga reminds me a lot of her work as Shana, but that’s no bad thing.

@Santori Time: I’m at a real disadvantage in that I’ve not seem much H&C at all, but the comparisons have been flying around thick and fast so there must be some solid basis for it. The director could well go some way to explaining it, yeah.

By: Santori Time

Santori Time — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:21:18 +0000

I’m at the halfway mark as well right now. I have to say, this along with Honey and Clover completely nails the emotional experience that is one’s final years in high school. The culture gap here is breached with the same sort of well-placed off-the-wallness (I took some liberties there) that allowed me to make my way through the sometimes overwhelming nostalgia and melancholy that seems to be present through the entirety of both shows. Sometimes Toradora borrows a little too much however. The dance after the culture festival seemed so reminiscent of that scene where the group from H&C is picking clovers for their professor’s safe journey. The narrative seems almost identical, but it could be that my memory’s just a little foggy. I think the director is the same for both, so maybe I’m not too crazy.

Opinions? Thoughts?

By: Gen

Gen — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:42:09 +0000

I believe the seiyuu performances deserve a bit of credit for that indiscernible something that makes this series great.

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:51:56 +0000

@Omo: it’s entertaining fluff for sure, but it’s the best fluff I’ve seen in ages! What I love about the show is how it chooses to do simple things well rather than ambitious things and fail. I can understand why it makes it easy to watch yet hard to write about though.

@Ghostlightning: yeah, it’s hard to pin down exactly why you find yourself caring about them, but whatever the reason that’s the thing that makes it work. I think Kitamura was the catalyst but I really appreciate how it gives all of them plenty of screen time. Nice post BTW…dunno why I hadn’t read it earlier!

@Hanners: there are light novels?! Interesting. Oh, this.

It’s also rare to find a series centred on romance where I don’t actually mind who ends up with who

I know exactly where you’re coming from. hopefully this’ll mean that even if the ending is unsatisfying it won’t ruin my enjoyment of the series as a whole.

@Sorrow-kun: It’s getting back to the competency vs ambition issue I guess, where the writers seem to know where the boundaries are but have the dexterity to make the most of what lies within them. The characters are cliched in some ways, but that makes it all the more satisfying when they do or say something unexpected!

@gaguri: I’ll pass on the vid for fear of spoilers but thanks for pointing out who the director is – I was getting a bit baffled by the H&C comparisons, which didn’t make a lot of sense to me. But then, I haven’t watched much H&C either (shameful, I know).

@Peter S: yeah, it sometimes feels like the sun and moon are in alignment or something because sometimes the component parts don’t work at all, while other times some unlikely combination creates a winner. I’ve given up on trying to figure it out now and just resigned to enhjoying it!

@Omisyth: it’s a shame to hear Kitamura takes a back seat later on but I can understand it if he was the one who unknowingly started the chain of events, as Omo suggested. His work is done here, as they say. I’ll have to keep watching now!

@Sasa: art-wise I think true tears was stunning, but this is much funnier! To me it’s what Itazura na Kiss could have been, if the characters hadn’t been so damned annoying!

By: Sasa

Sasa — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:49:35 +0000

Toradora makes me want to sit in between two bookshelves. By the way, I think it’s outstanding, much more so than True Tears.

By: Omisyth

Omisyth — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:07:49 +0000

He’s just a decent guy, pure and simple.

I just can't like Kitamura after certain events in the show. He's become a joke in comparison to the rest of the main cast. At least with Haruta, we know that he's simply comedic relief, but with Kitamura it just feels like he showed up, angsted and then was pushed into the background.