Toradora – Episode 1

I am so horribly late with all of my reviews. Gah! My life is just getting ridiculous lately. Anywho! The first episode of Toradora! is out! I’m a happy otaku! XD

Summary

The episode begins with a somewhat poetic narration by Ryuji and Taiga. While that’s going on Ryuji is trying to fix his hair so his eyes look less scary and Taiga wakes up from sleeping and has a sneezing attack. Ryuji gets annoyed when he has to clean up more mold in his bathroom. After thats finished, he goes around picking up the house, trying to drag his hungover mother out of her stupor. She wakes up and has a conversation with Ryuji, telling him how he is so much like his father, which is the last thing Ryuji wanted to hear. Ryuji leaves for the first day of the new semester.

On the way, he gets bumped into by a couple guys. When the guys see his scary face, they give him their wallets, which he turns into the lost and found. He goes to check what class he’s going to be in, and everyone backs away from him, scared of his face. He doesn’t really know what to do, but then his best friend, Kitamura, shows up and they walk away together. While walking they get stopped by Minori, whom Ryuji has a crush on. He gets nervous and doesn’t know how to talk to her. She asks if he remembers her and he says he does, which was about all he could manage to say at the time.

Minori finishes the conversation and walks away. Ryuji is flustered and sets out to go to the bathroom but bumps into something. He looks around but doesn’t see anything, then he looks down and sees that he bumped into the short and wonderful Taiga. People around them mumble about how the two scariest people in school are about to face off. Taige seems to be in a daze, but comes out of it and gets angry. Ryuji thinks about how Taiga looks like a doll…(lol). Two girls mention that Taiga is called the “Palmtop Tiger” and Ryuji understands a bit. He then gets punched by Taiga.

Everyone goes to class, and people start to understand that just because Ryuji’s face is scary, doesn’t mean he is. Taiga shows her affection toward Kitamura by gazing at him completely lovestruck. The teacher tells Ryuji to come see her after class because he didn’t fill out his “Future Career” worksheet. He goes to see her and she talks to him about. He attempt to explain, but the teacher freaks out and starts apologizing, thinking he’s gonna hurt her.

Ryuji finishes up with the teacher and runs back to the classroom to get his bag. When he opens the door he sees all of the desks go flying. There’s a loud crash and the locker in the room falls and out of it rolls Taiga. He asks if she’s ok, and then goes to get his bag. She freaks out and tries to grab his bag first, and then they play tug of war with it, but Taiga sneezes and ends up letting go. Ryuji goes flying and Taiga walks out of the room, calling him an idiot. He stays and moves all of the desks back to where they were.

Ryuji goes home and is studying. He reaches in his bag for something and pulls out a love letter to Kitamura from Taiga. He then does a little play of how he’d give the letter back to her when it comes open. He freaks out and closes it again but realizes as he holds it up to the light, that the letter isn’t inside of the envelope. He goes to bed, but gets woken up later by a noise. He looks at the clock and realizes it’s to early for his mom to be home, but goes to check anyhow. He notices the window is open and then sees someone sneaking up on him in the reflection. He turns around and blocks an attack with a kendo stick. He dodges a few more attacks, until his attacker sneezes and falls down.

Ryuji runs and switches on the light, only to find out that it’s Taiga. Taiga wipes her nose on his shirt and then throws it at him as a distraction so she can attack him again. He dodges her attacks. She says that since he saw the letter, she must die. He asks why she’s trying to kill him then, and she says since she obviously can’t die he has too. She goes to deliver a finishing blow, but Ryuji manages to get out that the letter was empty. She stops and looks at him. He says it’s a good thing she didn’t give it to Kitamura, because she would have embarrassed herself. She then passes out due to hunger.

Ryuji makes her something to eat, and she says that she’s embarrassed. In an effort to cheer her up, he tells her that’s not embarrassing at all. Then he brings out the box full of things he would give to his girlfriend if he had one, mixed tapes and such. Taiga opens a notebook and sees Minori’s name. Ryuji gets embarrassed at someone finding out his crush. Then he notices it’s 4 A.M. and that his mom will be home soon. He tries to get Taiga to leave, but she won’t. In an effort to make her leave, he promises to be her dog and follow everything she says. Content with that, she leaves.

The next morning Ryuji is making breakfast and gets a phone call from Taiga. She tells him to go to the veranda, and he asks why. She yells at him to just come already, so he walks out on the veranda and finds himself face to face with Taiga. She tells him to come over and he says to give him ten minutes so he can finish cooking, and her stomach growls. He decides to bring some food for her.

He goes to her apartment and knocks, but she doesn’t answer, so he lets himself in. He is horrified at the disgustingly messy state of Taiga’s house and runs around frantically looking for her to get permission to clean it. When he busts into her room he sees her sleeping again and stares at her thinking about how she really looks like a doll and that she’s even kind of cute when she sleeps. He cleans her kitchen and sets out food for her. She wakes up and is astonished her house is clean. He says he cleaned it for her and gets a rude retort. He goes to yell back at her but stops when she sits down to eat. His expression softens and they argue a little more, then the episode ends! ^.^

Opinions

I’m so happy that this is out now! I loved it! The animation is good and it followed the Light Novels! Happy~!

Taiga~!! Gah, I just love her character so frickin’ much! So short and fierce! XD

Ryuji’s eyes aren’t really that scary. They remind me of Kenta’s from Karin. Though he’d be much more bishie like with larger eyes, I like him just the way he is! ^.^

Oh come on! Seriously?! They just hand over there wallets cause his face looks scary. He didn’t even try to do anything to them! Gah!

SERIOUSLY?!?! Did they really have to back away from him?! He wasn’t even doing anything! Gah! Makes me mad! But…if he didn’t look scary I suppose the main plot would be lost. Scary looking guy who’s really gentle, gentle looking girl who’s really violent…I just love that!

Obligatory shot of Ryuji’s crush Minori. I don’t like her! She’s going to spend the next few episodes getting in the way of Taiga/Ryuji love!!

ROFLMAO! When Taiga rolled out of the locker I was laughing so hard I couldn’t stop! Just too funny! XD

Taiga~! I love cute things, and I love strong willed girls. I get two in one with Taiga, so I’m just one happy fan at the moment!

Who could deny that cute face?! Gah! OMOSHIKAIRII! (I probably spelled that wrong, lol)

Ok, so they’re face to face and can have a conversation. Are the cellphones really necessary? That really just bugged me!

That is Taiga’s sink?! RUN THE HELL AWAY! I can’t believe Ryuji asked to clean that…I’d be afraid it was going to come alive and eat me. O.O

Cute cute cute!! TAIGA! Ok, she’s officially one of my favorite anime girls as of now. I just love her and her frisky attitude…I can see people getting really sick of me talking about her cuteness in the future!

So all in all, I’m rather content with the first episode. ^.^ It was even slightly better than I expected! Happy~! So far all the anime I’ve seen has been good! I’m so glad it’s the fall season!