I've known about this anime for years but never actually decided to watch it until now. Everyone I'd seen talk about it described it as a normal romance anime with nothing special about it so it was never high priority on my planning list. That was until I, a 5 foot girl, was being made fun of online, being compared to Taiga. Of course I did the sensible thing in this situation -- instead of writing comments back, I decided to watch the entire show just to see if that was an insult or not.

And to my surprise, I found myself loving Taiga's character arc. In fact, I thought it was so well-written that I wouldn't even put this anime with other rom-coms. In my opinion there were other themes that were more prevalent, like coming-of-age and dealing with loneliness.

Plot

Ryuji, a high school boy with a face that looks like a delinquent but really has a kind heart, lives next door to Taiga, a short and easily frustrated girl whose famous for being the "Palmtop Tiger" of the school, and they try to help each other get their crushes. But as you can probably guess they perhaps...end up falling in love with each other...

The plot sounds kind of basic, I know, but what makes this show different to many other anime like this is that it's written in a convincing way. I don't care how basic the plot looks on paper if I can forget about that while watching the show because it makes everything believable. The thing I didn't like about the plot, though, is that there wasn't many references to Ryuji's delinquent face later on in the anime. Loads of girls had a crush on him so I guess they just forgot about that?

Characters

THIS is where the anime really shines to me. Skimming through the other reviews I can already tell a lot of people don't like this show because they thought the characters were cookie-cutters. I, however, strongly disagree (apart from with Ryuji but I'll get to that later) but I can see why people would think that.

Taiga is a classic tsundere, right? Everything she does is typical of what any anime tsundere would do. But, going back to my point on how this anime makes (nearly) every typical plot point believable and realistic, I wasn't thinking of Taiga as a "typical tsundere". First of all, isn't she one of the classic examples everyone thinks of when they think of a tsundere? Then surely that means she was one of the original tsunderes (alongside Asuka from Evangelion) that is what influenced the unoriginal tsunderes of today. It was more original at the time.

Secondly, her character really makes sense for her backstory and her situation, and she goes through an incredible emotional arc because of it. She looks like a kid and is therefore most likely treated like one so of course she is going to be angry and will always try to prove people wrong. What's worse is that she lives alone without her parents so she has no-one to look after her (until she meets Ryuji), and deep down she feels the need for validation like anyone does. But at the start she hasn't come to terms with this and thinks she can do everything by herself. This sets her up for a beautiful character arc.

Now for Ami: having had experiences with girls like her in school, I was on Taiga's side and hated her at the start. As the anime progressed, however, she developed into more and more of a fleshed out character in my head and I was able to sympathise with her. (Sidenote: this type of "pick me girl" character is what made me know this show was written by a woman because as a girl who also likes creating stories, my main project has this type of character too lol. Because of this it means that girls can also love this show despite it having a male protagonist and female love interests because the writer can empathise a lot with us and put in situations we've all experienced xD)

I loved Minori's character because although she is a tomboy she still has feminine qualities about her. Kitamura's character is a bit confusing though because I thought the episode where he bleached his hair was sort of out of character. Everything eventually made sense though but I don't want to spoil too much if you haven't seen it.

Although I said that I think Taiga's character made perfect sense, I think that Ryuji's, on the other hand, doesn't really. Yes, he's a nice person that loves helping others, but in real life, that isn't what makes three girls have a crush on you at the same time. As a girl that annoyed me so much, but I guess if you're a guy you may not have an issue with that.

Sound

The openings and endings are so catchy, especially Vanilla Salt. I enjoyed the cute Christmas insert song too. The voice acting was also great and convincing, especially Taiga. Yeah I never know what else to say for this section of my reviews.

Animation and Character Design

There was nothing wrong with the animation that I could tell. I am a big fan of Taiga's design because despite just being a normal high school student she has a recognisable silhouette and her hair is kind of similar to the colour of a tiger, keeping with the theme. None of the designs are too out there yet they still convey enough information needed for each character.

Conclusion

Although there are a few flaws in this anime, the pros massively outweigh the cons. The characters and plot sound typical but if you really start to analyse it, you'll find that a lot more thought was put into this story than it seems. It's not just a random rom-com anime, but also a story about a misunderstood girl coming to terms with the fact she needs to rely on someone and that's not always a bad thing. Since that will be the thing I remember most about this show, I give it an 8.5/10.