Toradora is another Slice-of-life shoujo anime revolving around the relationships of Ryuuji and Taiga. It is reminiscent of Kimi ni Todoke, in that it does briefly talk about bullying in schools based solely on appearance of the main characters.

Plot:

The basis of this story is the relationship between the two main characters, and their relationship with the world around them. They are constantly being misjudged by their appearance, and this helps the two of them form a bond throughout the course of the show. This show holds itself pretty tightly to normal shoujo standards, like types of characters(which I’ll talk about more in the character section) and plot devices that they use. I don’t want to dive to deeply into them, mostly to avoid spoilers.

Artwork:

The artwork in this anime is pretty stylized. There are quite a few action scenes, leading to an interesting flow to character movement. The color palette tends to favor more bold colors, and the characters tend to be more or less proportioned. It is very detailed in its background work and they throw in a lot of unnecessary movements to the characters, which give it  a more realistic tone. The music in the show is actually quite nice, more edgy than cute and poppy.

Characters:

Ryuuji is an interesting character. He is seen by the outside world as a delinquent because of his appearance, but his heart is genuine and sweet. The show is focused more on him, and so the audience gets to spend more time in his shoes than in Taiga’s. Throughout the course of the show, we learn he is more of a hopeless romantic than anything, seeking out a relationship with Taiga’s best friend.

Alternatively, Taiga is misjudged based more on her actions. Taiga is also seeking out the romantic attentions of Ryuuji’s best friend, and as such Taiga and Ryuuji end up spending a lot of time together. Taiga turns out to be a tsundere character, and over the course of the show we find out that she is actually quite kind-hearted, she just doesn’t understand how to show it.

I found this show to be quite entertaining, though a little bland at times. I would recommend, regardless.