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    King Baby Duck's Anime Calamity: Toradora!

    posted @ 10/10/2008 04:05:00 PM by King Baby Duck
    It’s that time of the year again: new fall anime. Today we look at the romantic comedy “Toradora!” which means “Tiger (Tora) Dragon (Dora).”

    Toradora! OP Theme


    Based on the light novels by Yuyuko Takemiya, the story follows Ryuji, a second-year high school student who’s nice, but due to having the eyes of a cold-hearted murderer everyone except his friend Yuusaku thinks he's a bully. On the first day of classes, he literally walks into Taiga; a woman who can only be described as the female reincarnation of, well, let’s say Satan. When he goes back to class, Ryuji sees the desks all messed up; and Taiga rolling out of a locker. He goes to grab his bag, only to have Taiga attack him. At home, he finds an envelope in his bag addressed to Yuusaku from Taiga. Out of nowhere Taiga appears in Ryuji’s house, attacking him for knowing the existence of the envelope. When it’s revealed that the envelope is empty -- and Taiga looking all-so embarrassed for trying out the love letter cliché -- Ryuji shows her a box of stuff he wants to give to the woman he loves; but doesn’t have the balks to confess to. Taiga quickly finds out that Ryuji’s in love with Minori, one of her best friends. In order to keep Ryuji’s secret love from being revealed, he decides to help out Taiga with not just Yuusaku, but also with everything else she needs.

    “Toradora!” is a series that, so far, has a good balance of humor and sweetness. Even though Taiga is going to be the type of girl who won’t let her soft side be seen until near the end of the show, it should be interesting to watch as she slowly progresses to being an open person. Ryuji (whose first syllable “Ryu” means “dragon”) is one of the rare leading male characters who looks evil, but is kindhearted in every sense of the word. The comedic action sequences are well-animated, but there are a couple of sketchy corners here and there that the animators could’ve cleaned up with before going to broadcast. Finally, the storyline is well thought-out. Instead of the usual “boy-meets-girl and become lovers,” we have “guy meets cynic and is blackmailed in order to keep his love interest a secret.” It might’ve been done before in past anime, but it’s not that often that we get this sort of treat.

    The first episode of “Toradora!” gets an A-. It looks like we’re going to be in for another good romantic comedy this year. Let’s just hope that the writing staff won’t run out of things to come up with; as some other series have in years past.

    Toradora! End Theme


    This is King Baby Duck: "Ain't born to lose, baby, I'm born to win! I'm so Goddamn slick, baby, it's a sin."

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