Young Underpaid Professionals

Posted by Rio S.

Caveat: I tried to write this article with restraint (and coherence), and failed miserably. I’d advise you to run while you still can.

Amidst the tolling of deadline bells, I managed to watch the final episode of Toradora! and felt compelled to write another article about it since honestly, the first one just didn’t do it enough justice. Plus, if I don’t release all this pent up schoolgirl gush, I’m afraid I might implode.

First things first. I like slice of life anime shows, simply because they are light, don’t require me to know the basics of quantum physics, mostly feel-good, and summons the repressed high school girl in me. Yes, that squealing, giggling, lovesick girl exists in me, even when I never did outwardly show her during my teens (or ever) in an attempt to look cool.

In all my years of watching anime (more or less, 17 years), I still can’t honestly say that I’ve seen everything – but I did fervently hope that the power of love would fail in some shows. Shows these days, especially those that cater to the teen bracket, follow a tried and tested formula to pull at the audience’ heartstrings. It might be fun for a while, but most of the time, I like to be surprised.

Toradora! definitely surprised me, not by throwing in implausible circumstances (fine, anime is fiction, but fiction usually follow certain rules in their respective universes) or killing somebody off or having all the characters part their hair to one side. Toradora! managed to surprise me by throwing in interesting, lovable and complex characters.

In some of the anime I’ve seen, “complex characters” meant all the characters had complexes. In Toradora!, the characters didn’t necessarily have nasty childhoods (i.e. dead bestfriends, dead parents, dead pets…); they are relatively normal people. Also, the creators of the series – God bless them – didn’t play on the easy laughs.

It would’ve easy for them to play on Ryuuji Takasu’s scary looks and domestic demeanor to smithereens, and it would also have been easy for them to play on Taiga “Palmtop Tiger” Aisaka’s clumsiness.

The other main characters can launch ships of their own. Minori Kushieda may look a little bit air headed and is definitely quirky, but she is also capable of amazingly spot-on insight. Yuusaku Kitamura’s straight A student personality belies his otherwise weird tendencies; he is also known to make the most flamboyant confessions. Ami Kawashima isn’t just the bitch playing nice, she has a genuine “good” side.

Along with interesting and associable (is that a word) characters, Toradora! threw in something extra. I was perfectly happy with its romantic comedy angle then it goes ahead and does something I didn’t expect. It mixed coming of age themes to a simple love story (I like them simple and sweet).

Admittedly, Toradora! looks like a complicated love story. Boy/Dragon meets Girl/Tiger, Tiger attempts to kill Boy when Boy discovers that Tiger likes his best friend, Boy survives and admits his love for Tiger’s best friend, Tiger and Boy agree to work together to get their respective loved ones. Eventually, the viewer realizes that this is a typical plot in romantic comedies set in high school: the “They Fall In Love With Each Other” ploy.

Now, I have nothing against those who expected different pairings; I found the possibilities quite interesting, but those possibilities may only be open for fan fiction writers. This is not a harem anime, folks (read: I hate to break this to you, but you’re watching the wrong series).

Knowing what ploy was summoned up didn’t make Toradora! less interesting for me. I usually find that it isn’t the general they-end-up-together that interests me, it’s the how-they-end-up-together that I find compelling to watch. (On the other hand, I find who-ends-up-together stories a bit… something.)

Anyway, after watching the final episode of the series, I felt a. depressed (later, later), b. gushy, and c. sated. B was mostly because of the fun way the story ended, and C was mainly because it was the perfect ending. The characters grew up through the course of the series and you find yourself being happy for fictional characters. I wouldn’t mind an OVA or five though.

Reaction A is why I have a “Watch Unless You Want to Kill Yourself Afterwards” list. It’s a list of feel good shows actually. They’re so feel good, I end up feeling envious. In case you’re curious, the list contains fun and sappy stuff like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, My Sassy Girl, and Dekichatta Kekkon (Shotgun Wedding), among others. Toradora! will definitely be staying high up on that list for an indefinite amount of time.

It’s fairly easy to dismiss Toradora! as another one of those high school romantic comedies, and with the quality of the stuff out there, I can’t blame you. Anime is an acquired taste, and something that might appeal to me might not appeal to you, but I would (strongly, highly, exceedingly) recommend you watch it one lazy Saturday afternoon. Hopefully, you’d like it as much as I did.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and watch it again (then troll for the manga).