Toradora is a series that I began watching as it was first airing in Japan, I enjoyed episode 1 and when I tried to watch episode 2 I couldn’t find it subbed decently. So I decided to wait until the whole series aired and watch it marathon style. Now 2 years later I’ve finally sat down and watched the whole thing! One thing I will say right up front is that the opening really grew on me, I liked it a lot. If I had been watching this series alone I would have watched the opening at each episode, but my viewing partner is the type that watches an opening once and never again unless it’s the Lucky Star opening. In which case it’s watched at least once a day on You Tube for the next two months after we’ve completed the show.

Plot Summary
Both Ryuji and Taiga are constantly being misjudged by their looks. Ryuji has mean eyes and doesn’t easily smile, so even though he is a sweet guy he can scare most of the other students off in a single glance. Taiga is small and adorable but acts like a wild animal, as a result she earned the nickname “Toradora” or “Palmtop Tiger”. These two are drawn together because they both have crushes on the other person’s friend and they vow to help one another in their love interests.

Characters
I like the cast from this series, each one has quirky characteristics that make me smile. Ryuji won me over in the very first scene, to see him so enthusiastically scrubbing at the mold in the bathroom and practicing to look look approachable was adorable. I also liked the choice of his seiyu, it’s a voice I enjoyed hearing. Taiga is often irrational/temperamental but I hesitantly decided that I didn’t mind her. Minori’s cheerful attitude was nice, and I became curious about a lot of aspects of her life. But in the end I don’t feel like her character was explained as well as it should have been. Yusaku was just plain ridiculous, I loved that such a dorky acting (and looking) guy managed to be one of the more desirable guys at the school. Ami was my least favorite human character, I liked her when she was initially introduced but by the end I really didn’t understand her place in this series. She went from being ridiculously immature to the character that hands out advice like a wise old man far too quickly for me to swallow. For characters I probably enjoyed Ryuji’s mother the most, I think she was a wonderful character with just enough flaws to be believable. The parrot Inko-chan however…seemed like a pointless and unnecessary addition to Ryuji’s family, throughout the series there was a gag where Ryuji paused in anticipation hoping the parrot would finally say its name, and the focus of the whole show went to the parrot until it would eventually spout out a completely different word. This gag got old real quick.

In the first few episodes this series had me smiling quite a few times, but as time went on I feel like the humor dropped off too much. The series became extremely focused on all of the characters sorting out their feelings while poorly communicating with each other about those emotions. What the heck? Did I accidentally fall into a shoujo series? This wasn’t what I was looking for when I picked out Toradora BUT that’s my own fault for not researching this series better before I chose it. On Wikipedia Toradora is stated as being in the Drama/Romantic Comedy category. I wanted a series that had more of a focus on the comedy with a side of character development. OR if there was going to be such a focus on the characters and their drama I would have liked to have found out more about Minori and Yusaku’s situations. Minori especially seemed like she had unique circumstances that were hinted at, but never explained.

Toradora didn’t give me what I was looking for by the end. I wouldn’t say I completely regretted watching this series though, it’s a series that was a near hit. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be a show that others will love, quite a few fans out there like this series a lot. My review is probably inadequate at describing the pros and cons of the series, I found it difficult to describe what I liked and didn’t like about it. When I poked around for other reviews I found at least one other that felt similar to my experience.

“I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
“On average a good show, but it’s certainly making me feel my age. Good grief, kids today…”

~THEM anime review of Toradora!

Although THEM Reviews and I liked different aspects of the show, their quotes capture some of what I was feeling about Toradora pretty well.

Plot Summary
Shinichi is in high school and is already a renowned genuis detective. One day he takes his childhood friend (Ran) to the amusement park to celebrate her winning her Karate competition and a murder occurs on one of the rides. Shinichi solves the case in front of everyone but is suspicious of two men dressed in black with murderous eyes that also happened to be on the ride. Later he follows them and watches one of them involved in the middle of a dirty deal. However, the other man sneaks up from behind and knocks him out. Since they recognize him as the detective from before they attempt to dispose of him by giving him a new experimental poison that doesn’t leave any traces of the body. However, instead of dying Shinichi’s body is shrunk to the point where he looks like a kid. Shinichi plans to get close to those men and their organization so that he can get a sample of that poison to make an antidote. In order to do so he goes to live with Ran and her father disguised as a relative of one of their friends. Ran’s father is also a detective, and if Shinichi sticks close to him and improves his reputation there is a chance he may get a case that relates to those men and their organization. He has to keep his identity a secret because the organization will surely try to hunt him down and silence him.

Lately when I’m not working or doing homework I’m watching Detective Conan. I realized the huge commitment I was taking on when I started episode 1, but I hadn’t anticipated me craving only this show every night after a hard day’s work! As a result I’m pretty much in hibernation when it comes to taking on new anime series and am determined to plow through this series until the end. When I finish this series I can’t wait to go back and look at episode 1 and just be prepared to be blown away about how the graphics of this series improved, the quality difference between episode 1 and 100 is already extremely noticeable. But as for the graphics in the first 100 episodes, they’re (of course) outdated by today’s standards. But seeing this type of animation/music/openings has me nostalgic for anime series of the past so the graphics don’t bother me one bit.

Shinichi/Conan

The plot summary pretty much says it all. But Shinichi also has a crush on Ran and finds out (in the form of Conan) just how much she cares about him too. Shinichi has an inventor neighbor that he reveals his identity to that makes him gadgets that he uses to solve cases throughout the series. The most important ones being shoes that when turned on allow him to give a super powerful kick, and a bow tie voice changer that allows him to imitate anyone’s voice.

Kogoro Mouri

Ran’s father and a failure of a detective, prior to Shinichi’s accident he didn’t get much work. But now with Conan at his side he is steadily becoming a nationally recognized detective. Mouri is a womanizing, smoking, alcohol loving character that is extremely simple to manipulate. His incredible ego is what keeps the entire situation with Conan putting him to sleep and solving the cases for him while imitating his voice ongoing. His laugh is pretty ridiculous, I smile every time he laughs.

Ran Mouri

A girl that can kick major ass and is a beautiful tomboy…of course I’m on board! Ran is a wonderful character that doesn’t annoy me in the slightest (too many heroines end up being annoying for me in anime). Her interactions with Conan (Shinichi) are adorable. Ran often leaps into the situations and becomes Conan’s physical strength.

Many of the characters in this series are hopelessly dense, if they were otherwise though then Shinichi’s situation would be discovered and they would run out of main plot too quickly. In order to enjoy this series you need to overlook the obvious fact that Shinichi should have been caught as something more then an ordinary kid a long time ago. This might bother some but I don’t mind because I kind of recognize it as a necessary aspect of the series to keep this unusual situation prolonged just so we can see more mysteries. The cases are the entire point of the series, more-so than Shinichi’s unusual situation. Although I do admit I get a little frustrated when Ran is within an inch of realizing that Conan is Shinichi and then just pulls back completely and thinks she is wrong.

I get a HUGE kick out of guessing who did it and how, I just love a good puzzle/mystery. My boyfriend I kind of make it into a game, we each take a guess at who and how almost every episode. Although I have to admit lately we’ve both gotten a lot better at correctly guessing the ending, I’m not sure if it’s just because we’ve seen so many or the mysteries are getting a little easier. I have no idea how Detective Conan compares to the other mystery anime series out there because it’s my first series like this. I plan on experiencing many more though.

Attempt this series if you dare, but I imagine most would prefer to watch 22 different series at 25 episodes each then a single 550+ episode series. Cartoon Network attempted a dub that was cancelled after 50 episode due to low ratings. BUT this is a well loved and cherished series in Japan, government agencies even have used these characters to promote policies. As you may have read Doraemon is the mascot of the nation’s first “anime ambassador” if that’s the case I’d consider Conan his rival for representing Japan.

After I finish this series, sometime in the near future I plan on going through Lupin the Third as well.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been absolutely thrilled with a series and thought “there is no way this can go wrong” and then it does…it goes very very wrong. You’d think by now I should know I’m heading for heartbreak because anime is such a fickle form or entertainment. Why is it fickle?

Warning…Soul Eater ANIME spoilers beyond this point!

(I’ve read a few books on Japan and I think I read this in one of those books, but I can’t recall which one right now and they’re still packed up. So if I what I’m about to say is wrong, please correct me.)

Anime (in Japan) is seen as a commercial, companies PAY to have their shows aired on certain channels at certain times. That’s pretty much the opposite of how (I believe) things go down in the US where channels buy shows and make money off the commercials. They do things like this in Japan because the anime is supposed to promote the sales of merchandise associated with the anime/manga. I feel like that mindset makes it alright to make something incomplete, by getting people to watch the series you’ve already generated enough interest to make the investment worthwhile. It also might explain why it seems shonen/seinen manga seem to be animated far more then shoujo/josei titles. There is more sellable merchandise associated with shonen type shows.

What inspired this post? I finally finished up Soul Eater after writing such a positive review of it in the beginning, and I almost shrieked in agony at the ending. I was so happy a Shonen series had a female protagonist…and then she defeated the end boss in such a WEAK NONSENSICAL WAY! She scared him by overcoming her own fears and punched him in the face? ARRGGHHHHHHH! He was a GOD! A GOD! Darn it! Fine it worked because he was SO mentally unstable, but it still doesn’t make enough sense to satisfy me. Also it seems that characters like shinigami-sama that were built up as “so strong” went down too easily, it didn’t fit the image of strength the series was building up around them. I feel the 3 protagonists got power ups beyond their abilities at that point in time at the final battle too. I’m grateful this series was made into an anime still, but I hate that ending! Other examples of series I felt this way about are FullMetal Alchemist and Claymore. FullMetal Alchemist was probably the biggest disappointment of my entire anime watching career! Luckily I found the manga and saw the light.

I would PREFER an anime series to end on an incomplete note then to have an ending that gives closure…but is terrible. I may be sad I don’t get an ending, but its better then the anime series I loved becoming tainted to me. But at the same time, I’ve had series where I felt the animators’ ending was better then the manga, in which case I’m actually happy. I thought the Magic Knight Rayearth and Pretear endings were better then their original manga counterpart.

Do you prefer the animators take creative liberties with the ending? Will you put up with filler episodes to get to that real ending? Or just end the series on a cliffhanger?

On a side note…I’ve just read the weirdest manga series I’ve ever encountered, After School Nightmare. Will do a review with covered spoilers at the end. My jaw just dropped at how weird this series is, and how weird I am for reading it by the end.

What are your anime and manga series that have completely consumed your attention and thoughts? When a series takes me over I can’t help but think of it at least several times a day. I’m the type that easily gets lost in my imagination so I can spend a long time thinking about lots of different scenarios in a series. Maybe even imagine myself as a badass character in that series if it’s a Shonen. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to figure out what kind of a pirate I would be on One Piece! Although when you’re as weak as myself, it’s hard to even imagine yourself being of any use when in reality you need to use the leg of your pants just to open twistable beer/soda bottles! Oddly enough I never imagine myself as being part of any shoujo series I like, I’m romantic enough to thoroughly enjoy these series watching other people. But not nearly romantic enough to place myself in the heroine’s shoes, or even sneaking away with the heroine’s good looking leftover men.

In the early days of anime the anime didn’t have to be anything special for me to follow it…it just had to be anime. These days I’m a lot less apt to be completely obsessed with a series. Also series that are incomplete when I go into them are the ones that usually raise the bar to obsession. If I’m kept in the midst of not knowing what happens next I go bonkers over the series.

Sailor Moon (5 years)
I don’t think I’ll ever again be even half as obssessed with any series as I was with Sailor Moon. This series was my first exposure to anime and I loved how gorgeous the female warriors were, I didn’t really experience any other anime series at the time so I was obsessed with this one for YEARS! I would have my aunt tape every single episode that aired everyday on TV (because she had satellite TV). I really need to find a way to repay her someday, she would visit and I would just steal my VHS tapes and run up to the TV room to start my Sailor Moon marathon. If you collected the Sailor Moon manga as it was released you can re-sell those babies for quite a nice profit these days. Since I saw the majority of Sailor Moon dubbed and heavily censored I’ve been watching it subbed lately.

Cardcaptor Sakura (2 years)
Different outfits…all those adorable outfits really thrilled me, I instantly loved the series just for that! I also adored little Syaoran, he was a darn cutie about how he went about having a crush. This series had a lot of bittersweet stories in it but I liked that regardless of how sad past experiences were everyone were still cheerful characters. I’m not much into shoujo-ai but Tomoyo’s unrequited love for Sakura was really beautiful. Watching a bit of Cardcaptor Sakura still cheers me up and makes me feel nostalgic.

Fruits Basket (3 years)
I bought the DVDs of the complete set on a whim after reading a paragraph description, at the time I was naive and didn’t realize what I had bought were bootlegs. This was quite a while before the anime or manga were licensed. When that anime series ended I almost exploded over what would happen next! I had convinced myself (without any proof) there would be another season…someday. When Tokyopop licensed this series I was INCREDIBLY happy. I actually just collected the last official volume of the manga a few months ago. I love the anime the best though and still wish it had continued, the jokes were a lot funnier animated.

Naruto (1 year)
SHUT UP! At least I admitted it! The obsession Naruto once held over me has almost evaporated. Unlike with my other obsession series I look back on Naruto and raise my eyebrow a bit. Truthfully I feel a bit hollow and sad when I watch the newest episodes because the love I felt for this series isn’t there anymore. But once upon a time I was cheering on that little guy with all my heart, the fight between Naruto and Sasuke had me INCREDIBLY excited! Naruto was the final straw that inspired me to give up World of Warcraft. I would have to stop watching it to Raid and one day I just didn’t want to stop watching. That’s right I liked it THAT MUCH at one point! But these days I kind of watch it out of mild curiosity and habit.

Lucky Star (1 year +)
I find I can re-watch the anime series quite often and each time I see an episode it cheers me up. I’m on my 4th re-watch right now (up to episode 14) and at work I’ll occasionally watch a little on You Tube. As a result I’m a complete sucker for any and all Lucky Star figures too, just seeing their silly little faces looking at me makes my day better.

One Piece (2 years +)
I had found that the pleasures of Bleach and Naruto didn’t last as long as the shonen series itself, so I embarked on One Piece skeptical and sure I would be bored of this series far before episode 300. Nope this series is great, this series is my ideal Shonen series. I laugh out loud at least a few times per episode and each character has a well crafted past. They even squeezed some tears out of me on Nami’s background story arc. I still get that amazingly pumped feeling in all their fights, the series actually recently reached an interesting crossroads and I can’t wait to see the power of the characters after they get through it.

Skip Beat! (2 years + )
I’m currently under the Skip Beat! spell pretty strongly and have been trapped for at least 2 years now. It’s painful…I’ve caught up to Japan in the manga and I don’t just casually check the normal web sites for the newest scanlations every few months. I foam at the mouth in anticipation and know the exact day that the next chapter will be coming out in Japan. The chapter is then released in Japan and I pull my hair until some wonderful person scanlates the chapter and posts it. The most recent chapter took a week and a half to go up…I almost didn’t make it I was going NUTS! This is the best shoujo I’ve ever read, all characters are well made and none annoy me. The main character (Kyoko) is probably my all time favorite female character. It’s rare for the heroine of a Shoujo series to actually be someone this likable. They usually have at least one crippling flaw with their personality that makes them at least a bit annoying.

Other Series I’ve often found myself thinking about:
Black Lagoon
Mezzo
Kino’s Journey
Samurai Champloo
Soul Eater
Saikano
Bleach
Pet Shop of Horrors
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Death Note (the first half)
Ghost Hunt (this series isn’t that great but I really loved the haunted mansion chapter)

So heres to the series that are the whole reason why I watch anime! When you find a series like this it’s the most blissful drug to take you away from reality…that is until you catch up to Japan if the series isn’t complete yet. Then you go into withdrawal…*shiver*

Since I’ve already done a review of Skip Beat! the manga I’m just going to talk about how the anime compares to the manga in this review. If you’d like the plot summary and character descriptions go here for my manga review. I’d feel too cheap copying the same summary and such in the anime review too. But I would like to mention how Skip Beat! is often called the anti-shoujo because when the heroine (Kyoko) was betrayed by the boy/man (Sho) she dedicated her life to, rather then get sad she laughed in his face and swore revenge! She is going to dedicate her life to Sho in a completely different way! To become a star and overtake him in the entertainment industry. I love a good tale of female vengeance!

The animation art perfectly represents the characters, although I must admit in the anime I felt that Kyoko’s cat-like yellow eyes look better with her original dark hair then with her fun/light color. The only character that feels a bit off in appearances in the anime is Shoko (Sho’s Manager below) because for some reason I pictured her as a beautiful blond and I’m not as happy with her darker hair, she looks much more plain that way.

Another great part of the animation is that it captured the humor from the manga well, the jokes and silly facial expressions are all there. It’s pretty much exactly like watching the manga in motion, and I consider that a great compliment. I adore the manga and if it strayed far from the manga I’d hate this series, but so far I have no issues with it. If I didn’t like it I’d be like those annoying people at movies that are mumbling about “how the book was way better” after the credits, or describing the differences between the book and the movie DURING the movie! *remembers several total strangers that I’ve wanted to strangle in theaters*.

Both openings are ‘meh’, they’re below average openings in terms of being entertaining and having a catchy song. I watched them each once and then never again. Each episode covers approximately 1 chapter of the manga at the beginning, some consider that pace too slow but I think that it’s appropriate. Any faster and the development of all the characters will seem too quick, the only people that probably feel the anime is going too slow are people that adore the manga and couldn’t wait for their favorite scenes. The anime skips side stories for now (ex: Moko/Hio) and I’m kind of glad it did because as good as all the side stories are, the best part of Skip Beat! is all the interactions between Kyoko/Sho/Tsuruya.

I love the voice acting, everyone suits their voices quite well. Plus the voice actors (seiyu) happen to be ones I adore. I’m not sure how many of you are fans of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann but Kyoko is the seiyu for Yoko and Ren is the seiyu for Kamina, aawwwww <3, learning that pulled a few special heartstrings for me. Sho is the seiyu of Death the Kidd from Soul Eater, I was pretty happy to hear his voice in another series but it always feels a bit weird for me when the voices of men from my shonen series suddenly appear in my shoujo series. I remember I almost choked on my drink when I heard Renji’s (from Bleach) extremely manly voice in Tale of Saiunkoku.

Basically if you’re a fan of the manga I see no reason for you to dislike the anime. If you’re someone that just loves a good shoujo anime then this is a great series for you too! If you ask me there are far too many poorly done shoujo anime series out there. Shoujo/drama just doesn’t always transition well into anime in my eyes, and is often just best kept in its original manga form. I was pleasantly surprised that Skip Beat! made a smooth transition onto the TV screen.

I was amused to see a Harry Potter advertisement in the background of one of my favorite anime series (see below). I’m a big Harry Potter fan so I got a kick out of that. I wonder if they paid advertisment fees to have Harry Potter shown in the background?

Anyway the last episode [no spoilers don't worry] seems to heavily indicate that a 2nd season is possible, if not already in the making. It stops right before one of the better story arcs in the manga series and it flashes over a lot of the characters in scenes that are about to come. Basically they didn’t “create” an anime ending and wrap up the series in a cheap bow. So I’m very hopeful for a 2nd season!