The TORADORA Effect

by Jec Chua

Fine, I'm 23, and it's quite childish to drool over a TV show, made out of pencil and crayons. But this anime is different, at least for me it is. TORADORA a Japanese light novel series by Yuyuko Takemiya, is a perfect mirror of a typical life of teeners as they journey to the bitter-sweet road of life. It's a feel-good series that will make you laugh, cry, and be surprised. It's like a convenient store that offers almost everything for you, open to touch everyone's imagination and emotions, just like mine. This show reminded me of the best times of my life, -those I spent in school.

The story is simple. The whole twist and turns branched out from the simple incident of mistakenly putting the love confession letter of the lead female -Taiga to the wrong bag, that by fate the owner happens to be Takasu, the closest friend of Kitamura -the object of Taiga's affection. And for Taiga to avoid the complicacies of exposing her secret love to Kitamura, she invaded the quiet private life of Takasu and threatened him not to reveal her secret. The story became more interesting when Taiga happens to discover Takasu's hidden desire for her best friend Minori. The story of their deep-incomparable friendship, began when the two agreed to help each other win the hearts of the one they love, Kitamura's heart for Taiga, and Minori's for Takasu, that at the end making them realize that they won, more than what they originally aimed for, -each other.

The characters in the story are the type whom most of us can truly identify with, though there are exaggerations injected to the personalities of the main cast that is really a common characteristic of Japanese made animations.

The CAST

Ryugi Takasu, is a tough-mean-looking young man, often mistaken as a bully, though in reality he is a soft, timid, family centered guy, who claims sewing, dishwashing, house cleaning and cooking as his hobbies. He lives with his Mom, who happens to still be very young, working in a night club who is still passionately in love with Takasu's Dad who just disappeared and left the two alone.

Taiga Aisaka, is sweet-looking petite girl, that is really violent, dominating, and so out-spoken that most of the time she's insensitive to the feelings the other people around her. Despite the high spirit she fronts to the whole school, she is a very lonely girl, who lives alone in a fancy apartment comparable to a doll house with no one to depend on except her self because she was abandoned by her own father.

Minori Kushieda, Takasu's love interest, who also happens to be Taiga's best friend, is a funny, witty, idealistic, happy go lucky girl, who is very hard working and has aknack for sports that was evidently shown as she served as the Captain of their school's women's softball team. Minori is good friend to Taiga that is proven as the story builds up.

Kitamura Yusaku, the boy-next door type of guy who happens to be loved by almost everyone in school -being a top caliber baseball varsity, a student council officer, and one of the smartest pupils in class. He already confessed his feelings to Taiga at the very beginning however he was rejected by Taiga who was confused that time who happens to realized that she also feels the same, but it was too late for them to start their romance for a lot of complications has built between the two of them.

Kawashima Ami, the gorgeous, model transfer student who happens to be the anti-hero in the story but turned out to be the one who happens to understand everything that is happening around her. She is also secretly inlove to Takasu, but opted to keep her feelings to her self.

Loving somebody, goes beyond the aspect of wanting to be with the one you truly desire and collect millions of happy memories with him/her. With Loving comes learning to accept all the other circumstances that comes along with it such as loving selflessly and learning the art of letting go and be genuinely happy with it. Toradora, is the perfect example of all kinds of love, all of us would feel. Our love for our family, for our friends or for that special someone, narrated the way the watchers would enjoy while learning the morale of the story. =)

Toradora, is a must see, worth your precious time.