First Impressions / Toradora!

Summary:

Takasu Ryuuji is a high school student who lives in a small apartment building that’s been eclipsed by a much larger one. He’s special in that he has a fearsome stare, but he’s actually a responsible person who takes care of his mother. Most people are nevertheless afraid of him, and his only close friend at school is a guy named Kitamura Yuusaku. Also in their class is a lively girl named Kushieda Minori whom Ryuuji gets embarrassed and tongue-tied around. On the first day of his second year though, Ryuuji accidentally bumps into another girl in their class: Aisaka Taiga. She is a girl with a small frame, but she has a fiery temper and is known as the Palmtop Tiger, and she ends up punching Ryuuji in front of everyone. Things take a different turn though that afternoon when Ryuuji tries to retrieve his bag from the classroom. He finds Taiga in the middle of a mess of desks, and when she realizes which bag he’s after, she panics and tries to take it from him. Ryuuji wins the struggle after Taiga sneezes, and she storms off in defeat.

That night, Ryuuji realizes that there is an envelope in his bag addressed to Kitamura from Taiga, and he figures out that she had accidentally put a love letter in the wrong bag. What’s more, he finds that there’s no actual letter inside the envelope. He decides to go to sleep for the time being, but he’s woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of something moving around in his apartment. When he goes to investigate, he gets attacked by Taiga with a wooden sword, and she’s bent on killing him or making him forget what he saw. She stops only after he reveals that the envelope was empty, and she faints soon after because of hunger. Because of this, Ryuuji cooks her some food, and in order to prove that she shouldn’t be ashamed, he pulls out a box of things he’s made for the girl he likes and shows it to her. This is how Taiga finds out that Ryuuji has feelings for Minori, and despite his pleas, she refuses to trust him until he offers to help her with her own love and be her dog. She leaves for the night, but she calls him again early the next morning, yelling for him to come over to her place. It turns out that Taiga lives in the large apartment building next door, and when he heads over, Ryuuji finds her place to be huge. However, it’s also very messy and has a horrible smell. Since Taiga has fallen asleep again, Ryuuji decides to clean her kitchen, and he’s got food ready for her when she wakes up, but she hardly shows him any appreciation.

ED Sequence

ED: 「バニラソルト 」 (Vanilla Salt) by 堀江由衣 (Horie Yui)
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming
I’m generally not a big fan of seiyuu songs, but this ED wasn’t so bad. Come to think of it, I haven’t had as many adverse reactions to Horie Yui songs compared to, say, Gotou Yuuko songs. In any case, I liked the song.

This first episode turned out to be fairly good. It more or less follows the novel/manga story, and the pacing so far makes me think that this’ll be a 13-episode series (I haven’t seen official confirmation on the length). The production quality meanwhile is also pretty good and seemed like a standard J.C.Staff production – nothing stood out as great, but this isn’t the type of series where you’d expect it to. And although this sounds a little odd given that Toradora isn’t really an action series, I ended up enjoying the two Taiga vs. Ryuuji scenes the most.

I wrote in my fall preview that Taiga’s role was tailor made for Kugimiya Rie, but she actually didn’t use her Louise/Shana voice so much. It was instead a meaner sounding voice than I’m used to and felt appropriate for the character. That being said, I was amused that she still managed several of her classic urusai lines throughout the episode. In any case, I’ll probably give this a few more episodes, but after this first one, I’m not sure if Toradora is worth me following. There’s nothing wrong with the series itself, but after having gone through the story twice now via both the novels and the manga, I don’t feel like I’m getting much more out of the animated version. Maybe that will change as the story progresses.

70 Comments

  6. >>-I wrote in my fall preview that this role was tailor made for Kugimiya Rie, but she actually didn’t use her Louise/Shana voice so much; it ended up being a meaner sounding voice than I’m used to and felt appropriate for the character.

    Probably something as awkward as Rie Kugimiya casting as Miharu in Nabari no Ou (that was really weird)

    Kit-Tsukasa
    Reply

  9. >>-Probably something as awkward as Rie Kugimiya casting as Miharu in Nabari no Ou (that was really weird)

    Rie Kugimiya is Alphonse in FMA (that was really really really weird)

    Deathpink
    Reply

  10. This sounds like it could be amusing. I’m usually not a fan of intentional puns, but I’ll admit that Taiga being a real Japanese name makes for a fairly clever cross-language pun. Is this an early showing of the first episode, or did it just start a couple days earlier than the other series?

    Justin Olbrantz (Quantam)
    Reply

  11. Kit-Tsukasa:
    It was weird hearing Kugimiya Rie as Miharu at first, but I was completely fine with it after a couple of episodes.

    Justin Olbrantz (Quantam):
    Hakushaku to Yousei and Akane Iro Somaru Saka had early broadcast premieres, but Toradora! started today.

    divine
    Reply

  12. I’ve been reading the manga but this is a real tough anime to get into early on. The relationship grows on you as this goes on but but Taiga is so hard to like. I mean, someone cleans your appartment, gives you food and treats you well. What do you get, an angry bit*h. Like I said, it gets better and she becomes more human.

    @omni – thx for blogging

    Irie
    Reply

  20. I actually found this entertaining. The commentary about the “mansion” (or in English we understand, condos) that blocks the sun making the laundry hard to dry by daylight…not to mention make the area moldy and damp…was pure lol for me.

    And its nice to not hear the Shana/Louise tone too. 🙂

    tau-tau
    Reply

  28. Also i think its kool that that Conf… part is gonna happen maybe next episode looking at the preview, that ways its better; since we get to see more past the current manga, and more in to where the Novel was headed.

    Chimasternmay
    Reply

  32. Ryuuji-Taiga is just a really cute pairing. I love the novels and I don’t mind at all to see the same story animated. Well atleast up to the point where they try to force some anime-original conclusion on us.

    bearzerger
    Reply

  33. if ur not sure if u plan to finish the series please let divine blog it to be completed. so it doesnt look bad when some1 is browsing around the site for pics and summary of the incomplete series. thnx a bunch anyways

    the_amazing_squiter
    Reply

  43. Hope you blog this. The manga was excellent, and it looks like the anime is living up to expectations, though I can see that in this instance, in terms of you going throught the story again, a third time’s NOT the charm >,>

    frubam
    Reply

  44. Crouching tiger, hidden dragon comedy-mode indeed!
    divine! I feel your pain…. but the scans of the manga hanged, and translations of the light novel lagged too. So I hope they go for at least 13 eps…

    moondoggiebuiscuit
    Reply

  52. Well I did enjoy the voice Kugimiya Rie used for Taiga. It fits much better than Shana’s/Louise’s. Though something that does not sit well with me are the character designs for Ryuuji and Kitamura. They just look a little funny to me. Overall a good adaptation of the first three chapters of the novel, but there is something that bothers me.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Fayted
    Reply

  55. I actually like goofy crazy stuff like this once in a while. For some reason, I cant get enough of Kugimiya Rie. Too bad the ending for this is way too predictable. BTW, I’m going to kill that parrot.

    Megas
    Reply

  57. I’m glad you guys started this.
    I recently read the manga up the latest and it’s good.
    However I don’t plan on watching it.
    I must say though Melancholy of Haruhi is a great manga, however I tried watching the anime and I was insanely bored. Thus the reason why I don’t wanna start this…
    however I may change mind

    kayne001
    Reply

  63. Toradora es una historia que contiene lo justo para ser una serie tierna y divertida, muy bien manejada y contada, de lo mejorcito que me he topado. Lean la novela!!!
    Thanks Omni.

    Huitzi
    Reply

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