The Toradora! anime series is based on the light novels written by Yuyuko Takemiya and published in Japan by ASCII Media Works. The series originally aired in Japan from October 2008 through March 2009, and NIS America licensed the series and released the first 13 episodes in July of this year. Part two, containing episodes 14-25, is scheduled for release on September 30, 2010.

The story of Toradora! centers around Taiga Aisaka and Ryuji Takasu, two high school students who haven’t had the easiest of lives thanks to their parents. Ryuji has an intimidating appearance and a very gentle personality. Taiga, on the other hand, is small and cute with a fiery temper. The series opens as Ryuji heads off to his second year of high school with hopes of overcoming his intimidating appearance. Unfortunately, he runs into Taiga, also known as the palm-top tiger, who promptly picks a fight. After Ryuji learns a secret about Taiga, though, the two start to work together to achieve their goals. Of course, just because they’re working together doesn’t mean they have to like each other all the time, and Taiga still gets a lot of enjoyment out of causing Ryuji pain and problems. Part one covers the first thirteen episodes of the series, extending from the first day of school through the school’s cultural festival.

The driving force of the series is the characters and their sometimes confusing love geometry. Ryuji looks like a delinquent, and Taiga seems to be the textbook definition of tsundere, but both end up showing far more depth than those labels denote. Beyond Ryuji and Taiga, the show takes some rather standard character archetypes, but makes enough changes to them that it’s not completely a re-hash of things you’ve seen before. Taiga’s close friend Minori comes off as just some weird, athletic girl at first, something that’s been done many times before, but the show does a great job of showing her human side later on. Then there’s Ami Kawashima, the manipulative rival for Ryuji’s attention, who does a great job of switching between her public persona and her true self, and makes it hard to tell at times whether she’s actually changing as a person or just putting on a show. As her character loves to do, she does a great job of stealing the scene, delivering some of the series best lines so far. And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out Ryuji’s pet parakeet, Inko-chan, who constantly looks as if it’s about to keel over. Ryuji keeps trying to teach it new words, and it never quite gets them right, but the expressions it makes are humorous in a rather pitiful way.

Toradora! is perhaps best categorized as a romantic comedy, though at times the storyline does veer away from romance into some slice-of-life and drama towards the latter half of part one. As with any show of depth, the first few episodes do spend some time on character introduction and development, but it doesn’t drag the series down at all. In fact the the show shines during many of these early comedic scenes – the conflicts between Taiga and Ryuji or Taiga and Ami or just watching Minori be her random self. The show does change speeds quite a bit during the dramatic moments, though. The juxtaposition of watching Taiga deal with her father one episode after a zany summer vacation almost feels like two different shows at times because of the complete change in atmosphere and seriousness. That’s not to say that it’s a terrible decision, simply be aware that the show isn’t a non-stop comedic romp for 13 straight episodes.

J.C. Staff did a very nice job animating and editing the series. The character designs stay true to the original art, and perhaps even improve upon some of them a little. There are two characters that actually do look very similar though, and only their voices really help in differentiating them. The animation quality is very smooth, and it is quite clear that the studio spent a good amount of time on the settings and backgrounds. The environments go a long way to help set the mood in the more dramatic parts of the show. All of the little details that went into making Toradora! help make this a very enjoyable show to watch.

The DVD is subtitle only, which may turn off some people who don’t like to read their shows, but everyone should give them a shot. NIS America is known for their humorous localizations of video games such as Disgaea, and they’ve brought that special touch to the anime realm as well. The show’s dialogue is pretty humorous overall, and NIS America did a good job keeping the English translations funny without losing the feel of the show. Of course, it helps that the original dialogue is both humorous and well-written, too. If you watch the show, you can look forward to great random lines like “Divine Fist of the Convenience Store!” and “As a warrior dieter, the gods of weight loss only smile on those willing to face their fat.” The only complaint that I have with the subtitles is that during internal monologue, the choice of italicized font doesn’t always look so nice.

Toradora! shipped as a “premium edition” which contained two DVDs with the first 13 episodes on them, but along with those discs came a special collector’s box along with an episode guidebook. The episode guide is a hardcover, full color book that details major events from the episodes, gives small character profiles and interviews with the voice actors and staff that made Toradora!. It makes a nice addition for anyone who likes to collect anime memorabilia. The DVD set also contains two bonus mini-episodes called Toradora SOS where all of the characters are represented in a cute, chibi form.

The character design and development make for a good high-school romantic comedy. Add in some very humorous dialogue and sheer randomness, and it makes it a great one. While there were reportedly some quality issues with the first printing of the series, the copy we obtained was made after the fact, and you can rest assured that those issues are long gone. This series is definitely worth checking out.

Disclosure: This series was screened using a review copy sent from NIS America.

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3 Comments Anime

3 Responses to “Final Cut: Toradora! Part 1 (DVD)”

1. Keep It or Trade It?: Z.H.P. (PSP) | G.A.M.E.S. on 21 Oct 2010 at 7:28 pm #

   [...] (DS)Keep It or Trade It?: Dragon Quest IX (DS)Keep It or Delete It? Cladun: This is an RPG! (PSP)Final Cut: Toradora! Part 1 DVDKeep It or Trade It?: Madden NFL 11 [...]

2. Final Cut: Toradora! Part 2 (DVD) | G.A.M.E.S. on 24 Oct 2010 at 9:12 pm #

   [...] For our Toradora! Part 1 review, click here. [...]

3. March 2011 Manga Releases | G.A.M.E.S. on 13 Mar 2011 at 8:45 am #

   [...] the first volume of Toradora!, the manga that spawned the anime series that we’ve already reviewed [...]

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