It’s shockingly easy to confuse infatuation and love. Despite one being a feeling that inspires people to ask a stranger to a high school dance or to go out for drinks and the other being an emotion that drives people to spend their lives together, when emotions are involved the brain can be incredibly stupid. The distinction between the two is what lies at the core of Toradora and is what makes the show so special: this is the story of two people falling in love with each other and realizing the difference between a fleeting crush and something more permanent.

The basic premise of Toradora is a pretty standard “high school romantic comedy meets coming of age” story. The narrative is centered around Ryuuji Takasu and Taiga Aisaka, the latter of whom happens to have a crush on Ryuuji’s friend Yuusaku Kitamura. As fate would have it, Ryuuji also has a crush on Taiga’s friend Minori Kushieda and the two find out about the fortuitous circumstances. Although ostensibly this story is about Ryuuji and Taiga working together to help one another get a date with their respective crushes, after the introduction of Ami Kawashima a few episodes in it becomes clear that, while the two may be struggling to land their supposed dream partners, they are starting to fall for each other.

While the overall premise of Toradora may be standard, the execution is anything but. The show adopts the pretty common technique of building up to multiple emotional setpieces over the course of the story, and it’s honestly really where the series shines. When Toradora is at a climax, emotions are running so wild it’s incredibly easy to just get swept away by the show and what’s happening on screen. Now, it is worth mentioning that there are some moments in the show that feel fairly contrived in order to reach these climaxes, some minor moments that just seem very coincidental. Here’s the thing though: I’m willing to overlook a few coincidences happening in the plot. This is a romantic comedy, not a realistic depiction of an average high school romance. Toradora is trying to tell the story of two people stumbling through love with each other for the first time in their lives, and in that regard the show does a great job.

Basically every character in Toradora exists on a scale between “somewhat quirky” and “incredibly quirky”: Ryuuji and Taiga both probably fall somewhere closer to “incredibly quirky”. In his free time Ryuuji cooks and cleans so much one might think he’s training for some kind of “Japan’s Next Top Housewife” contest, but because he happens to look like a delinquent everyone assumes that he is one. Taiga, on the other hand, is basically the prototypical “short tsundere” who dials up the tsundere part to eleven. Earlier I mentioned that at its core Toradora explores the difference between a crush and genuine love – this is the relationship that is supposed to represent what genuine love looks like. At first, however, it might not seem that way. Taiga regards Ryuuji essentially as property (or a dog, if that’s slightly better?), and Ryuuji essentially accepts this treatment as a means to an end regarding Minori. But as the series progresses the viewer gets to see their relationship grow from “acquaintance” to “ally” to “best friend” and eventually to “partner”, and seeing that growth is what makes these characters so great. Ryuuji and Taiga are nothing alike and are both quirky; Toradora hyperbolizes these quirks to show that love isn’t supposed to be easy. It’s messy, the person you fall in love with won’t be perfect, and that doesn’t mean you should overlook their flaws, but instead face them together and balance the worst qualities of each other out.

Contrasting this, Kitamura and Minori get placed on a pedestal from essentially the start. Kitamura is the vice president of the student council, incredibly popular with the ladies, and just an all-around overachiever. Minori, like Kitamura, is also an overachiever who juggles being the captain of the softball team and working seemingly dozens of jobs. Exactly like how an average person will overlook glaring flaws their crushes have, Kitamura and Minori are idealized to the point where they seem perfect. In order for Ryuuji and Taiga to come together, these versions of Kitamura and Minori need to be deconstructed. Ryuuji and Taiga, as well as the audience, need to be shown that they were infatuated with an idealized version of these characters, and over the course of Toradora that is what happens. The perfect versions of Kitamura and Minori are broken down in individual arcs to show their more flawed, human side. While I think Kitamura’s arc was brilliant in basically every way, culminated with the best moment in the entire series and helped Taiga realize that she and Kitamura weren't right for each other, I will say I have a slight problem with Minori’s. I can’t shake the feeling that it was lackluster; it failed to show why Minori and Ryuuji weren’t compatible, instead using Minori to form a love triangle and create tension that I really don’t think needed to exist in the first place. I liked Minori as a character, but I can’t help but feel that a lot of what she did felt like it was done because the narrative demanded it, not because it was the organic thing for the character to do.

The character that really ties Toradora together for me, however, isn’t one of the four romantically involved leads, but instead is Ami Kawashima. When the character was first introduced as a gorgeous model who happened to be a childhood friend of Kitamura, as well as essentially being a sociopath, I was a little disappointed. My expectation was that she would be used in a “mean girl”-esque role – essentially she would hook up with either Ryuuji or Kitamura and cause some kind of drama with Taiga. I’m really happy to say that my initial impression was totally off. First of all, Ami is very well-realized as a character in her own right, and fits with the core themes of Toradora. She has a lot of internal conflict revolving around how the world perceives her based on this perfect “teenage model” image she maintains versus her own self-image and how she really is. If Kitamura and Minori were being idealized on a micro level, she’s being idealized on a macro level, with everyone thinking she really is the immaculate, mature person she has to be in public when in reality she’s a flawed teenager who is dealing with her own issues. Where Ami really comes through, however, is in her role as a sort of big sister/relationship guru to the rest of the cast. As the only lead with no real emotional skin in the game, she’s distant enough to realize early on that Ryuuji and Taiga have a thing for each other. Over the course of the series, she works to create (oftentimes uncomfortable) situations that force the two to confront their feelings for each other, and is a large part of why the show works as well as it does.

As far as production values go, Toradora is all around solid. From a visual perspective there are two noteworthy factors. The first is that the characters are incredibly expressive, and most of that stems from the focus on the face. The oversized eyes amplify the slightest change in facial expression, letting the audience know in real time exactly what the characters are thinking without anything needing to be said. The second thing of note is the framing in the series. In many series it's not uncommon for framing to essentially be “if the characters are talking then they’re in the shot” and leave it at that. Toradora eschews that idea, instead focusing the shot on exactly what the director wants the audience to see and nothing more. Oftentimes the camera will be fixed in place around one focal point, and characters will be talking or moving around offscreen with the audience not seeing them unless it’s needed.

In terms of audio related production, I thought all of the voice acting of Toradora was great; I understand that some people find Taiga’s voice to be grating, however I felt Rie Kugimiya was fantastic in the role and really made it her own. While I did think the music as a whole was fitting, with the first opening “Pre-Parade” in particular standing out, I was not a big fan of “Silky Heart”, the second opening. I can't really pin down why I felt that way, maybe it's just too different than what I usually listen to, but I think I just felt like it didn't fit.

Toradora is fond of subverting expectations: at the start you feel like Ryuuji and Taiga are just too incompatible, that Kitamura and Minori are perfect, that Ami is nothing but a sociopath, and that the series is nothing special. And over the course of 25 episodes, all of those initial assumptions get turned on their heads. The series is funny when it wants to be, dramatic when it needs to be, and touching throughout. Toradora is a story about infatuation vs love, idealization vs reality, and while it may not be perfect its best moments will stick with me for a long time.