For Ryuji Takasu, life in high school is always one misunderstanding involving his appearance after another. He looks like a hooligan, but is actually very shy and friendly. As is the way of high school comedies, Ryuji has the clandestine encounter with Taiga Aisaka, one of the more violent-tempered females at his school. Soon it’s discovered that they each like the other person’s best friends—Taiga has a crush on Ryuji’s friend Yusaku and Ryuji likes Taiga’s friend Minori. Thus, the two set about formulating plans to help Taiga get close to Yusaku and confess and, in exchange, she’ll let Ryuji near Minori. Wouldn’t it be great if things could really be that simple? But no, this is a high school comedy anime, and the formula simply doesn’t allow for that.
In volume two of ToraDora (the second half of the series), the snow ball gains speed. Everything gets even more complicated (if you can imagine that) after the school festival. Clean-cut Yusaku dyes his hair blonde. Taiga dukes it out with the class rep, Sumire, because of Yusaku’s interest in her and the ultimate confession of his feelings for her (Sumire). It’s definitely not a girl fight to miss as both combatants come away bloodied. And, holy cow, a slew of other secondary characters come into play such as Sakura (Sumire’s sister) and Kota, the boy who likes her. In an unrelated note, those two play bigger parts in the “ToraDora Spinoff!” light novels. Ryuji’s mom keeps welcoming his friends into her home as family, which probably makes for awkward Thanksgivings. And, yes, as the series gets closer and closer to the end, Ryuji and Taiga start to see what everyone else has already known in their friendship. It may be a predictable formula, but it’s a fun ride in getting to the end result!
Not only is the series itself enjoyable, but NIS America has been both generous and ingenious in terms of extra content and packaging. It’s notable right off the bat that the box of the two-disc set is vertical-oriented which allows for striking pin-up art for the front and back of the box and the DVD cases stack inside alongside the included episode/fan guide. The actual DVD extras are simply clean opening and closing animations, with episodes three and four of “Hurray for Gourmands”—the omake anime shorts of the characters done in chibi style. Those are funny little side shots to the anime, to be sure, but the best of the extra content is the episode guide. It’s hardcover, full color and contains way more than brief episode summaries. There are interviews with the cast, screenshots and character art galore, and key notes and amusing pages littered throughout. It goes above and beyond the definition of “episode guide” and enters fan book territory, which is entirely awesome for loyal fans of the series.
There is the drawback that the series is available in subtitles only. This may be a turn-off to viewers who are a bit newer to anime or who are pretty adamant in their stance in the eternal “subs vs. dubs” debate. But it doesn’t detract from the show as a whole at all. In fact, it may even aid it because there’s not much lost in translation as the subtitle is fairly accurately scripted. I could be a complete cynical jerk and extol on imperfection after imperfection of the show, but that would also make me a liar. ToraDora is anime at a quality that doesn’t reach our shores as much anymore in this age of Naruto and relentless guerilla DBZ re-releasing. It does follow a general formula for high school comedies, but it does so with complete flare and charm. You don’t watch it feeling it was contrived or forced, and are pulled along in a fun right of clearly emotionally imbalanced teenagers trying to figure things out. With this much entertainment value, it’s an absolute must-have for any collection.