>>8761Ok if you're interested, but warning I'm being thorough, so TL;DR: Taiga is an annoying bint in a realistic setting that doesn't fit in the setting itself but is accepted as normal. She gets together with the main character despite there being no real chemistry between them. The show itself is as narratively inconsistent and inane as the characters. It's like a ridiculously unrealistic soap opera but taking itself completely seriously.
A major aspect of the show is the main heroine Taiga or Palm-Top Tiger. She is supposed to be Tsundere but honestly comes off as a neurotic violent psycho, beating up people. Why is this a problem? Because the setting is attempting to be grounded in reality and so this means that this kind of shit is absurd in a realistic setting.
Compare this to a similarly violent Tsundere - Louise Valliere from Zero no Tsukaima. Louise is similarly violent and mean but mostly towards Saito who is her familiar and according to the medieval mindset she grew up with, he's not technically human until he proves otherwise, her behaviour is explained by the setting of the show and the show itself is a literal fantasy, so unrealistic elements can be disregarded. On top of that her insecurities and pressure by society and her family make her actions relatable to an extent. Even with all this explanation, Louise can be quite annoying at times.
Now compare this to another Tsundere in a show that has interactions grounded in realism - Asuka. She's violent and angry but isn't waving around swords at students or having crazily animated fights, she's haughty and will lash out but not in ridiculous fashion. Her motivation for this is also relatable; the trauma of her mother's madness and suicide ingrained a need to be independent and "grown up" ironically behaving even more childishly for it. We understand that such an abrasive person would be hell to deal with but also sympathize as she spirals into depression.
Back to Toradora, Taiga doesn't work in either context - she's far too volatile to fit a realistic setting and the setting lacks the fantastical elements needed to allow for more ridiculous tsundere antics. Her motivations are generic parent-trouble, but since she's not a ghetto kid whose dad walked out for cigarettes 10 years ago, she has no reason to act like she does. Moreover Her attitude is like a switch, jumping from one thing to another. She knocked the main character out on the first encounter, showed a really short temper and aggressive nature throughout the beginning of the series, tried to "kill" the protagonist with no signs of holding back with her (wooden) sword (which can maim a person according to personal experience). And after all he does by taking care of her, cleaning her place, making her food, helping her out with her love life she still calls him a useless dog on every occasion.
I dislike how overblown she is and how she wins over Ryuuji (Protagonist) in the end. I don't see how Ryuuji would come to view Taiga as the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with. She never gives him a reason to see her as anything other the abrasive, critical, violent girl who beats him up far too often for a story that tries to take itself seriously. She spends the entire series depending on him while giving little in return. He cooks her meals, does her laundry, and makes several attempts to help her win over Kitamura (Love interest friend 1), and she does… almost squat in comparison. She does make a couple attempts to help him win over Minorin (Love interest friend 2), but that's over the course of several months. While I can see why Taiga would eventually fall for Ryuuji, the reverse I cannot. He might see her as an object of pity after learning more about her past, but desire? Nope. Ryuuji is interesting enough as a character with his apathetic personality and obsession with cleaning, but never gives a convincing reason why he would put up with the mountain of crap Taiga gives him. And then in the final arc he's willing to go to insane lengths to be with Taiga… just because. What part of her did he fall in love with? What factor of her personality was appealing to him? Who knows, the anime sure isn't going to give you any hints. Taiga may come to love Ryuuji after he sticks with her through thick and thin, but WHY does Ryuuji stick with her and what does he suddenly find desirable?
Overall the show has 3 main problems outside the characters themselves
- It flip-flops between an attempt at a realistic portrayal of young love and an idealized one. Are these high-schoolers with no emotional maturity, or 30 year olds who know they can talk about their problems? We run into forced drama because no one discusses their feelings, to literally locking people up so they will, and then back again to create some tension for the ending sequence.
- Interesting characters become little more than plot devices to get the main couple together at the end. I knew from the title who ends up with who, I came to watch how. Ryuuji devolving into a generic dense MC, Minori and Kitamura realizing they're actually parents rather than high schoolers, and 16 year olds spending their life savings to NTR themselves wasn't what I had hoped for.
Seriously I had more fun watching Inuyasha's romance plot than this, and that was a fucking drag