Review 57; Toradora (The palm top tiger)!

Something quite different again, well for me anyways; Toradora, the show where best friends fall in love... But who will fall for one another?

I found this one on Viewster, they seem to have unlikely things on there that I've never thought of watching before, rather handy. It came out in-between 2008 and 2009, So I wouldn't say it's quite old or quite new really, just feels neatly tucked in the middle; you can tell by the opening sequence, it seems all fuzzy for some reason, I think it might of been the streaming, not quite sure.
My boyfriend had already beat me to watching the series, turns out he actually watched it ages ago!

The series is based around 4 friends (and a random one joins eventually), so there's two boys and two girls and one of the boys likes one of the girls and won't admit it too her. Then the other girl, likes the other boy... If this is making any sense, kind of like a complete mix up really. our main lady killer, Ryuji, is a sweetheart really and is kind hearted but rather clumsy; however, his eyes and fierce facial expression always means that people are afraid and intimidated of him, but the girl he loves is still friends with him despite what people think. Then we have Taiga, she loves the other boy and she is also known as one of the fiercest people within their school.

So basically this school is very, very strange; not like a supernatural strange, but the clubs and how people go about our main characters. For instance, when everyone thinks that Ryuji and Taiga are in love, and everyone freaks out about it all and they're showing reports of their evidence in class and it's all rather strange really. Even characters who have nothing to do with the story line and are just there in the background, now they can be quite funny when they do get the chance to speak up a little bit.

Every morning Ryuji wakes up to his hung over mother sprawled across the floor, because of her job, and he cooks and does the house work and look after her before going off to school. Now, he comes from a working class family and they only have a tiny house, but then a giant block of flats appear next to them. Coincidentally, Taiga' family is rich and she's moved into one of the huge flats, so when they become best friends she's constantly going over to Ryuji, and he then has to do everything for her too!Taiga eventually finds out about Ryuji' love for Minori, the other girl who's best friends with Taiga, and she tries to help him get closer to her so he's more likely to go out with her. The same happens with Ryuji, he finds out that Taiga actually likes his best friend, Yusaku, and he then helps her get closer to him. It's all quite cute really and was quite funny to watch.

They try all sorts in the end, but Taiga and Ryuji end up becoming closer, and closer as they try to help each other fall in love.Here's a small bit on each of the four characters that we follow:

Ryuji; his father left before he was born, and his mother loves to talk about how he would stuff magazines into his jacket just in case someone tried to stab him. He only lives with his mother, but Taiga ends up practically living with them with the amount of times he goes over each day. People in the school mistake Ryuji for some tough school bully, his eyes make him seem stern and un-forgiving in a way. He has a huge crush on Minori, but eventually falls for someone else.

When I first saw Ryuji, I didn't quite think he looked to scary, he looked more like a typical teenage student to me so I thought that was a bit miss-leading (if that's even the right term to use). His character a whole is quite clumsy and he tries to get everything right the first time round, his clumsiness makes him funny and quite a loveable character. By the looks of things, he always tries to get everything right with his friends as well and always does tasks in an effort to please them in some way, or, to make them feel better about themselves.

Yusaku; He's a very clever guy actually, he's the vice-president of the student council and his classes representative, along with these, he's also the caption of the schools softball club. Despite his appearance, he's actually really popular with the girls; he's tall, has dark hair, wears glasses and can be quite withdrawn at times... But if you do pay attention you'll notice quite a lot of girls speak to him about how amazing he is, even though he thinks that he's actually terrible at talking to girls. Throughout the series, he also appears whenever Taiga and Ryuji are discussing how to get closer to their lovers.
I thought he didn't suit Ryuji that well, considering that the majority of people are quite scared of Ryjui because of his appearance. He also doesn't suit Taiga, and I don't quite see as to why they are paired up in the show as they really don't suit each other at all... I wouldn't ship them together. I don't quite like him as a character, to me he just seemed like the typical "everyone gets along with him" kind of guy to me.

Taiga; She's tiny and very rich, very, very rich. Her father is a rich and respectable man, however, she doesn't get along with him at all and they fight a lot, which is why she moved out and live in one of those large posh flats that are right next to Ryuji's house. She's also quite clumsy, but she is REALLY clumsy; but does well to hide it from others around her. Because she came from such a respectable household, she doesn't know how to complete domestic jobs like cooking and cleaning... Since that's all Ryuji does at home, he make him come over and clean for her whilst she sleeps. She' nicknamed the "palm top tiger" due to her tiny appearance and her trait of snapping and getting aggressive rather quickly at other people. Along with her appearance, she appear as very doll-like and gets a lot of boys fall in love with her due to the way she looks, but she does what every love struck anime character does and she turned them down... Since she absolutely loves Yusaku.
During the anime opening I actually thought that she was a fighter of some sort since she has what I believe to be a wooden sword or something along those lines... She's rather aggressive and even attempts to kill Ryuji in the first episode, she trashes classrooms and practically hates everyone, so I basically think that she's got small man syndrome! I thought that her character was made out to be the bad guy quite a lot of the time, but it turns out to just be a lot of built up frustration which I thought was weird at first considering how small and innocent she looks at a first glance. I don't quite think that she's the school bully in the series, more like someone who just hates people in general; which also makes you question as to why she's going for someone Like Yusaku.

Minori; She's Taigas best friend and she's so cute, outgoing and bubbly! Just one of the characters that makes the anime so adorable really! She has a younger brother who she takes care of regularly, she loves softball and is also the captain of the girl's team, and she has multiple part-time jobs... but can also be quite air-headed, forgetful and clumsy. She loves horror and anything scary, but she makes out that she doesn't just so Taiga will try and scare her more often, she does get her own back later on in the show though. She tries to keep everyone else happy and enjoys the company of others, especially Ryujis...
I think I love her more than I Love the main character Ryuji, she's just so outgoing and happy all of the time and it make you happy watching her be happy about something she's forgotten, if that even makes any sense. She's quite cute, but doesn't act it too; she seems more of a tomboy than anything to me.

There is another main character that appears quite suddenly, her name is Ami and she's a model. She moves to the area when her life is put on hold because of a stalker that won't leave her alone... Pre-warning, you'll hate her!

There are only 25 episodes, but it feels like a lot of it is just filler kind of stuff that eventually makes some sort of sense and fits in with the storyline. Even though it felt un-needed, if you don't watch it then you'll miss out something that does actually link in with the storyline. Everything is very cute too, but most of it is like clumsily cute, and not like the character is purposely trying to be cute which was a nice touch I think; it definitely felt better than a character wearing a cute pink dress to look cute.

It's another one of those feel good animes that can really put you in a good mood, I'm almost finished watching the series now and I'm till really enjoying it, despite how short the series actually is. I'd say another 2 hours or so and I would of finished it, but I have been trying to binge watch it so I could try and get another quick review out there.

I'd have to give it a solid 7/10 really; it was enjoyable, funny, the characters had funny quirks that added something extra and it was a feel good show with cute characters that brightened up my day ever so slightly. But it dragged on for too long, some of the episodes are un-needed as I already knew how it was going to end and because I knew, a lot of the episodes had no key information that lead up to the ending of the show. I'm not sure if it just felt that way to me because I knew the ending, but some episodes weren't worth watching because I knew what was going to happen. The character designs and back stories where quite unique and weren't as boring as I thought they would be for a romantic, comedy anime like this. I don't quite like romantic animes as well, I think the cheesiness of it all just puts me off of the characters; but these guys weren't cheesy about it, if anything they were quite funny to watch as the stumble over their own feelings.

I definitely enjoyed it, but I should get back to just finishing it off now...

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