(For more love-remembering et al. in the 12 Days project, see: otou-san, schneider, doctordazza, Gargron, Scamp, zaon47, kevo, rabbitpoets, drmchsr0, Pontifus, ghostlightning, 53RG10, Vii, Seinime, _ETERNAL, FuyuMaiden, Eater-of-All, Shinmaru, calaggie, yumeka, Nazarielle, Cuchlann, Jinx, Janette, stringedsonata, animewriter, and probably more in the days to come~)

Someday, like how I normally would, I’ll tell you “I love you.”

Maybe today will be that day, Toradora?

12 Memories of Anime 2009
#09: Toradora!
(this probably spoils the show in some way, shape or form, by the way.)

Dear Toradora,

Hi, do you remember me? I’m that one blogger – y’know, CCY, the one in your romance studies class – and … how I put it? I think you’re really cute.

I mean, I’ve been watching you for a long time, and I was smitten at second sight, and, and – oh, sorry, that might be a bit awkward. It’s not like I’m a stalker or anything.

I mean, it’s just that you’re so cute, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside whenever I see you … it’s kinda like that way how you treat all your characters with kindness, and how you’re so much more developed – emotionally, I mean! – than all those other romance-comedy anime. It’s like, you’re not all melodramatic all the time – well I guess you are a little, but it’s OK because it’s a kind of cute melodramatic because of the cute little spin you put on it and everything you do -

Ah! I ranted on. I’m sorry I’m a bit nervous because this is my first time writing something like this and -

Yeah, enough of that.

Toradora didn’t stoop that much as to be horribly cliched, so why should I?

Possibly because I have yet more finals to whine about like the spoiled college student I am, and possibly because otou-san did an excellent job saying what I wanted or probably will want to say in short fashion.

But I’ll say it again, Toradora was pretty much worth it from every perspective.

From the perspective of someone looking for a good laugh, Toradora keeps you on its toes with its ability to go ever-so-slightly over the top, thanks to the characters, most of which are either extreme balls of energy, wits, and ocassionally, nerves, and the remainder who serve as walls for these balls to bounce off of.

From the perspective of an emotion-seeker looking for some fuzzy feelings, Toradora throws down the gauntlet early and throws it often, bringing dark sides, bright sides, and murky sides of characters to light. No one is exactly the person they seem to be, and very often they aren’t the person they want to be. (This does lead to a bit of angst, but I consider the ending of it all very much redeeming.)

From the perspective of the rabid shipper, the appeal of all the characters, whether you’re enjoying their personality, sympathizing with their struggles, or just liking the way their hair looks today, makes it easy to find a couple to root for within the series – and yet, if you’re a person like me, you’ll find the conclusion of Toradora worthwhile enough to accept the final choice that Ryuuji makes.

I’m beginning to think that this sort of versatility in an anime is something that at least I prize a lot, given that I’ve given lip service the last four posts to an anime being ‘balanced’ in some way, shape, or form. Either that, or ‘balanced’ is the new catchphrase I get to throw around here.

Perhaps I am also using it as a synonym for ‘a show that does things differently’, setting up your expectations and smashing them. Such a thing is always pleasant, to the point where I think I’ve liked shows that had mediocre or bad starts (hello, H2O) disproportionally more than I should have.

And to that regard then, Toradora is so awesome, that it did that twice.

“Mou ichidou,” it was, wasn’t it?

In the 12-odd episodes covered in 2009, there were plenty of climactic moments; the cultural festival, the ski trip, and the one that stands out to me the most, the short-lived adventure of the two runaways in the last two episodes.

Not just for the moments where Ryuuji promised the sky and the stars (and much more than many men would), for when Taiga leapt off the bridge, for the aborted kisses, failed kisses, repeated kisses … but for that extra experience that Ryuuji and Taiga gained, both in learning about themselves, their families, and each other.

It’s been said that Toradora isn’t just about the romance, about getting the girl (or guy), but also about the maturity. In the same sense, yet slightly different, as the Hatsukoi Limited and the KimiKiss I’ve heaped praise on before, Toradora is also a little bit about the world as it appears to a bunch of immature teenagers – something that a lot of us can sympathize with (or look back on) fondly.

It’s how everyone, from Ryuuji to Taiga to Minori and probably all the way down to Yasuko and even Inko, grew up a little over the course of 25 episodes. It’s not just character development, but character maturation. Yeah, only some of them ended up fulfilling their romantic goals in the end (although, how many of those goals were set from episode 1, I ask you), but all of them gained that little bit in their heart.

And I don’t know if I matured watching Toradora, but I know that I shed that tear at least watching someone else (many someone elses, even) become, perhaps, what you could really call a man.

(Certainly, Ryuuji’s expert cooking and cleaning abilities also earned him a bit of my awe and envy.)

-CCY