Toradora! 1: Tiger And Dragon

Whoa! Was that too early for you? We just stopped around a few days after the past season, and we’re rolling again! I feel like I can get up on a pace, so let’s mosey!

Toradora is my number two pick for fall season anime, and I think that it’s doing well enough for my span of interest. We start off as Taiga and Ryuji go to school on their own accord, the former trying to get a hold of herself, and the other starting off early. Now, everything seems to be fine for them. Oh really? I don’t think so, though. And so we’re introduced with Ryuji’s everyday problem.

Trust me, that’s his normal smile, I swear.

Welcome to Ryuji Takasu’s life: Having a biological inheritance of fierce dragon eyes from his yakuza father, everybody thinks he’s a bad, angry delinquent. Well, that’s harsh of everybody to presume. I mean, the weak bastard can’t even hit a soul, and yet all the students in his school think he’s bad, bad, bad! What’s with all the people getting scared of that? And his hobbies are housekeeping writing poems, collecting songs and some more boring shit? How good a guy can you get for someone who’s got eyes of a dragon?

RAWR!

This all changes when Ryuji meets (or rather, gets punched by) Taiga Aisaka, A.K.A. “The Palmtop Tiger”. With her doll-like looks and petite but cute figure, she’s got a record of confessions. However, try going for a simple bump or nudge on her and you’ll probably have something similar to a berserk Wolverine doing Berserker Barrage to anything that comes along.

The Empty Love Letter Mishap was actually top class slapstick. I mean, I can’t complain! Taiga was stalking Ryuji’s bestfriend Yusaku Kitamura, but ended up meeting Ryuji instead, who found out that her plan was to put a love letter in Yusaku’s bag. Instead, she put it in Ryuji’s. And to make things worse, it’s EMPTY. How sloppy can you get? But screw that! GO DO A TAIGA ROLL, YOU BITCHES!

STOP! TAIGA ROLL TIEM!

After a foiled plan, Taiga retreats, leaving the items to Ryuji. However, she hasn’t given up on the fact that Ryuji has to die for knowing the fact about the love letter. So she sneaks to his house, and tries to plant a bokken on the poor lad’s head. So much for your amnesia tactics, Taiga. That oughta be a shock. Then again, after knowing the the envelope’s empty, she’s found out how pitiful a person she is for making such an obvious mistake.

Try that on my sliding door, and I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU, BITCH.

So, suddenly, everything clears up over a dinner meal. It seems that after hearing all of her plan’s mistakes, she tries to recruit Ryuji into helping her get close to Yusaku. Blackmail ensues when Taiga finds out that Ryuji has a crush on Minori Kushieda, a busbody gal that’s on their class. The back-alley alliance was officially founded when the dragon, out of sheer desperation of driving her off, pledged his freedom by being chained to his master’s fate like a dog.

Inko-chan disapproves it though. Seriously, what in the fucking world is this shit?!

My say for this ep is that it’s good enough for a start. There’s the storyline laid open, there’s the characters up close, and then the slapstick and moe. I feel satisfied watching TAIGA ROLL for like NNNNNth times, and I still can’t get enough of it. I just can’t get a grip on Hocchan’s voicing on Minorin. It’s like a variation of her usual tone, with a twist of ups and downs, which wasn’t bad, but wasn’t really good either. Junji Majima is also doing a good job at voicing Ryuji. No complaints for that.

A daruma in every corner.

The preview seems to tackle around five chapters worth of the manga. Starting from the Basketball Passing Plan to the Straight Confession Event. As for the details, it was vaguely show, though the important points were shown (such as Minori and Yusaku telling Ryuji and Taiga to be a good couple after rumors about them being lovers were spreading). Well, to squeeze this into an episode means they’ll be making good use of the air time. I’ll see how this turns out then.