With the new broadcasting season starting properly this week I have the honour of starting of AniAri’s writing season with the latest series from J.C.Staff, Toradora! Named after the lead characters (more on that later), Toradora is a romantic comedy adapted from the original light novel series by Yuyuko Takemiya. I saw the first episode with little more to go on than the premise and I was pleasantly surprised by the simple yet endearing plot and the character design that backs it up.

Ryuji Takasu is your average highschooler where it not for his intimidating eyes, a gift he inherited from his runaway father. While he’s actually a caring and gentle guy, his constant glare gives him a bad reputation. Apart from some hinting to the yakuza, little else is said about his father while his mother seems to be a complete airhead who works as a bar hostess. Ryuji is now the one taking care of the household, cooking, cleaning and removing the mold caused by the enormous skyscraper next to his house.

Keikaku Doori

With the first day of the new school year starting, Ryuji finds himself isolated until his best friend Yusaku Kitamura shows up, one of the few who managed to look past his threatening appearance. One of those few is Minori Kushieda for whom Ryuji has developed quite an impressive crush over the years.

On the way to class, Ryujii has a run-in with Taiga Aisaka, a short girl with a fierce temper and a reputation to match his own. She has been given the name “Palmtop Tiger” due to her short stature and brutal behaviour. Quick to anger, she sucker punches him to the face without even saying a word. In class we see that Minori is one of her only friends. (plot device anyone?)

Unlimited Desk Works?

After being called to the teacher’s office, Ryuji goes to fetch his bag where he interrupts Taiga. Possessing inhuman speed, she rushes into a cabinet in a not so subtle hiding attempt, knocking over half the desks in the room. She seems obsessed about Ryuji’s bag, only conceding the fight over it after her illness starts to act up. (Going through ten handkerchiefs a day with my cold, I can certainly relate.)

When he gets home he finds a love letter from Taiga to a Kitamura Yuusaku in his bag, which she mistakenly put in there. Not only that, the letter even turns out to be empty. She really does seem to be the clumsy type.

Ryuji is awoken that night by Taiga who has broken into his home with a bokken. Bent on killing him for reading her love letter, but willing to settle for amnesia she chases him around the room. However, upon hearing that the letter was empty she collapses out of exhaustion and hunger. Not knowing what to do, Ryuji decides to fix her a meal.

After trying to teach her some table manners, he puts her embarrassment into perspective by showing off his secret obsession for Minori. Ryuji has everything planned from poems to music, lacking only the resolve to actually confess to her. After a brief introduction the Inko, a sickly though not quite dead parakeet, Ryuji tries to work Taiga out of the house before his mother gets home, going so far as to promise to obey her like a dog.

The next day, while cooking breakfast, Ryuji’s interrupted by a phone call from Taiga, ordering him to look out the veranda. There he finds her staring back at him from her apartment next to his house. Going over with breakfast, he finds her place in a state of total squalor. After noticing the total mess his cleaning Ryuji’s Cleaning Power kicks in, tidying up the room and indirectly curing Taiga of her runny nose by getting rid of all the filth.

[insert preferred meme here]

So far Toradora seems to be a promising series. Rie Kugimya’s voice acting is once again exceptional, fleshing out her character without falling back on her typical Shana voice, even with the occasional Urusai thrown in. Rie is probably the best voice actress out there for tsundere characters and she puts down another excellent performance here.

We haven’t seen enough of to be sure, but Taiga seems to be set up for the typical “Tsundere with a troubled past.” stereotype while Ryuji is certainly the more interesting of the two. He’s reminding me a lot of Genzo from Cheeky Angel for some reason. Just a quick note, the series’ Title is taken from the names of the two leads: Taiga is the phonetic equivalent of Tiger, which when translated back to Japanese becomes Tora. Similarly, Ryu is Japanese for dragon, pronounced doragon in Japanese.

Urusai! Urusai! Urusai!

There are certainly some character similarities to be found to J.C.Staff’s earlier work, notably Zero no Tsukaima and of course Shakugan no Shana. What little we’ve seen of the plot so far seems to put it in the romantic comedy or slice of life genre which I think would work perfectly by keeping things simple yet charming.

I’ve yet to see any information on how long it will run, but I’m guessing it will clock in at your standard 13 episodes. I will certainly be following this in the following weeks to see where they take the story.

  Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream