Toradora 02 - とらドラ！
(竜児と大河)」
My foremost impression from the first episode of Toradora was that it tried very little to avoid the trappings of its predecessors (Shana and Zero no Tsukaima). My fears of the show falling into the same old tsundere-romance rut as Zero no Tsukaima were not allayed. I quite liked the first season of Shana, and the first season of Zero no Tsukaima, but the second seasons of both were hard to watch, and with Kugimiya Rie saddled up to play another abusive tsundere loli things are getting tiring quickly. This episode shows promise where the first episode didn’t, yet still didn’t quash doubts that it might gravitate toward the usual formula.
On the one hand, Taiga’s character because a lot more likeable, and shows facets to her that are really a lot more interesting than I expected. A tsundere must always have a repressed fragility; a dere-dere side. And while Shana’s and Louise’s basically boiled down to romantic frustration, Taiga has a little more depth to her with parental problems, a clumsy-complex and (almost like Hinamori Amu’s Cool & Spicy façade) an unwanted reputation. Clumsiness has always been a bit of a moe gimmick but it really works in Taiga’s case, as an interesting counterpoint to her brash and self-assured personality. Plus, she seems to have dropped the hard-line, slave-dog approach to Ryuuji and wasn’t quite so violent. Ryuuji too is a little more likeable, actually proving himself to be not just patient and subservient but chivalrous. This episode he took a leap forward and has evidently fallen in love with Taiga – drawn to her tsundere appeal as well as the affinity they share in being labeled a delinquent and a palm-top tiger. This romantic slant adds to the predictability but at least it feels justified and genuine and not just born on the winds of inevitability.
The other characters all plummeted in the scale of likeability, particularly Minori, who is completely unrealistic. I mean, there’s a difference between being poorly grounded in reality and commonsense (see: Miu and Kana) and being a perpetual absurdist. Ami Kawashima is yet to make her entrance, so we’ll see if she can brighten the landscape of the supporting cast a bit. An improvement over the first episode, but still not particularly entertaining or gripping.
Ｅｔ Ｃｅｔｅｒａ 。。。
◆ My highlight of the episode was the senseless pole-beating scene. Not because I have a particular fancy for kicking poles but because Taiga’s monologue/rant really defined her character for me and gave the first real opening into her softer side. Ryuuji joining in and the both of them unloading their frustration together was strangely sweet.
◆ The botched confession was also a highlight. Hearing Kugimiya Rie doing stuttering embarrassment is always a delight, but this was particularly good. If she had done the predictable thing of not being able to confess I would have stopped watching the show (even if I let School Rumble get away with it). But the fact that the confession cropped up so early is a good sign…
◆ … I’ve seen a few people complain that the show is moving too quickly. I could not disagree more. This brisk pace is exactly what’s needed to stop the show from feeling too stale or repetitive. I really appreciated the amount of development they got through this episode.
◆ I may be among the few rather than the many, but I love the OP. The song …, well I’m not sure you can even call it a song. But with the cute, upbeat visuals it all just works and makes for the most memorable OP of the season. I wouldn’t listen to the song in its own right though.
◆ Had Ruuji’s demented bird been watching too much Lucky Star and been driven into spontaneous timotei reference? Is that was that was? If anyone seriously knows please enlighten me!
◆ Minori is the Girl Who Didn’t Leap Through Time.
◆ I like what they did with the episode titles. The first episode was Dragon & Tiger and this time the kanji are for Ryuuji & Taiga. Suggesting that the first episode was about their outward personas and this episode was about them as the people beneath the outer layer of their repuations.
Ｗｈａｔ ｔｈｅｙ ｓａｉｄ 。。。
Ryuuji’s so patient, which makes his connection with Taiga really adorable, because he seems how to know how to take care of her and cheer her up.
I definitely agree with this. While Saitou and Yuji were also patient, they didn’t really have the same role as being supportive.
While Taiga was doing everything from showing everything from venting frustration at how people looked at her to triyng to help Ryuuji’s imagine, and he comforting and trying to support her, Minorin and Kitamura were just one dimensional oafs. Hopefully they get a little more depth in future episodes, because at the moment, they’re bordering on Tenma-level relationship incompetence. Neither of them have shown me that they deserve Taiga or Ryuuji’s advances.
Actually, Kitamura is so bland he could almost pass as Karasuma.
I don’t think the series is moving too quivckly … okay, maybe so, but in a good way because these type of anime tend to bore me by the end of episode one, but Toradora! just seems down-right hilarious. I didn’t particulary like the rage-pole scene, but it did redefine Taiga’s character. I also thought that when Ryuuji joined in, it was both sweet and extremely cute lol. Thank goodness Taiga’s voice isn’t squeaky, or I would have stopped watching this by now. And nice post, btw! I shall be enjoying more of your articles from now on!
Thanks for stopping by! I checked out your blog and noticed that you went to manifest, which I assume means you’re Australian. I don’t bump into fellow aussie fans online often enough. I was this close to going to this manifest but didn’t get it all organised at the last minute. I’m in Tassie btw.
>> Thank goodness Taiga’s voice isn’t squeaky, or I would have stopped watching this by now
Heh, yeah. Actually I was going to talk about how much I appreciate Kugimiya Rie’s different voice in this series to what she usually uses (but I forgot).
… yup, more hackage. They got rid of the ‘Ryuuji rushes Taiga off to the infirmary’ scene which helped cement the whole ‘they’re going out!’ rumors, they changed the order of the confession around (Taiga confessed FIRST, and then went on the ‘I don’t hate Ryuuji’ thing), and ditched Kitamura explaining his statement about last year by leaving out the VERY important “when I confessed to you and you rejected me” bit, which explains his lack of apparent interest and the ‘let’s be friends’ speech.
Oh, and the lack of inner monologue during the lamppost scene, which was supposed to show that he admired her hard-working nature as well as understood how she felt, which is why he joined her in the object-abuse; to show that he understood, and supported her, which is why she felt better at the end. The lamppost wasn’t REALLY tilted, but his inner monologue made it clear that he thought that, of anyone, she would be able to do so - which is why she was happy when he told her that she’d managed to take on an immorvable universe (in the form of the light pole) and put it out of shape, so to speak.
They seriously hacked the order of things around, and to no good reason. She wasn’t kicking him in the novels, IIRC, nor in the manga… and they left out the whole ‘air of defeat’ thing they had in the family restaurant. My worries still remain here, especially as Kawashima is more likely to ‘brighten’ the cast by being an utter hypocrite.
I read the manga the other day, and while I saw they did drastically shorten the events in the anime… I don’t know, I still thought it was okay. I agree with you, if they had followed it, it would have been stretched to at least an episode and a half- and that would have gotten messed up the momentum a lot.
The pole scene is important, but actually the span from when they are in Johnny’s to when they separate as “just classmates” is crucial for the viewer to feel for Taiga. It’s dere, but different from Kugimiya’s other roles. Though I’m not for calling her the typical tsundere, she does have a hard shell and soft inners, but Ryuuji isn’t the object of affection. So that’s interesting.
I believe the series will do better if it tries not to exploit her hot-cold shifts. ^^ and yea, I love Minori, but the side characters have nothing for now; they’re a bit floaty.
RyanA: Well, her hot-cold shifts last year cost her Kitamura since he HAD confessed to her… but then she shot him down brutally and he’s had a year to move on, while she started to fall for him. And with the cut dialogue about Kitamura’s failed confession last year, this scene lost some of its dramatic impact - the tsundere who belatedly accepted and returns the confession after the guy’s apparently no longer thinking of her as a possible love interest.
@Washi: You’re the second Australian anime blogger I’ve come across with that is rather popular and “successful” among the aniblogosphere, the first one being Adun from Moe Moe Rabu. Too bad you couldn’t go to Manifest, but at least there’s Supanova in March next year!
>>Well, her hot-cold shifts last year cost her Kitamura since he HAD confessed to her… but then she shot him down brutally and he’s had a year to move on, while she started to fall for him. And with the cut dialogue about Kitamura’s failed confession last year, this scene lost some of its dramatic impact - the tsundere who belatedly accepted and returns the confession after the guy’s apparently no longer thinking of her as a possible love interest.
Yeah, the fact that they didn’t think to convey any of this in the anime is both surprising and unfortunate. I was left feeling utterly baffled by Kitamura’s response to Taiga’s confession. Bit of a strange thing to cut. Also, the pole scene sounds like it played out a lot better in the novels. Perhaps the anime producers just thought it would be too hard to convey that kind of symbolic and introverted take in anime form.
>>but Ryuuji isn’t the object of affection. So that’s interesting.
Yeah, definately. That’s one of the key distinctions between this show and the Shana-model, and I appreciate it.
>>Too bad you couldn’t go to Manifest, but at least there’s Supanova in March next year!
I’ll endeavour to go!
Honey and Clover had a lot of inner monologues from Takemoto in scenes like this: it wouldn’t have hurt them to insert one from Ryuuji in the lamppost scene, especially given how Episode 1 opened WITH one of those monologues. Between that and the cut part about Kitamura confessing last year only to be rejected, it takes away quite a bit of context and suggests that she confessed to HIM last year rather than the reverse. Between this and the filler, which is the THIRD episode… I’m worried. J.C. Staff seems dead-set on screwing this up.
The tsundere behavior basically blew her chances with Kitamura, as the novel, manga, and this scene is supposed to show. Not that it stops Taiga from trying to win him over ANYWAYS, but the ‘this is not a typical tsundere story’ vibe from the original source is lost because it now looks like it IS one. The director either didn’t read the original source, or else decided to ‘fix’ it so it was more like ZnT or Shakugan no Shana.
>>Not that it stops Taiga from trying to win him over ANYWAYS, but the ‘this is not a typical tsundere story’ vibe from the original source is lost because it now looks like it IS one.
Well in terms of the anime it was destimed to be relatively typical (JC Staff, Kugimiya Rie), but I still think there are enough differences to make it worth watching. I’m still not completely enthusiastic about the show yet though.
I’m not enthusiastic about the show anymore either - three episodes to filler’s damned fast, especially given they’ve got like 9 novels of material to pull from, plus the spinoff.
Episode 3 brings filler based on on scene from the novels and manga… and adds more physical violence than episodes 1 and 2 put together. Now we just need Taiga to break out a whip and a pink wig, and we’re back into Zero no Tsukaima.
Heh, doesn’t sound good. I liked episode 2 but I certainly won’t be keen on filler or Louise the second.
Let’s just say that the way things are going, I expect Louise’s whip to be making an appearance as a supporting character soon. When that stage is reached, expect an essay-length response somewhere that will break obscenity laws in several countries.