First part of my 2009 in Review article. Only shows I’ve completed watching are in this list, divided in to four tiers of descending “accumulative entertainment value”.

GOD Tier

Bakemonogatari

Senjougahara-fascination in full swing.

Toradora

Poor Ami~n :(

Maria+Holic

“o..o..o..o..onii-sama no. IJIMEKKOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Ristorante Paradiso

Almost made me gay for megane-jiisan’s

Eden of the East

Mass Naked NEET Event.

Seitokai no Ichizon

I’m still rooting for Key-kun’s Harem End.

Awesome Tier

Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo

Epic space colony battles. Badass Asimo deserved more screentime.

Saki

Rin Shan Kai Hou is rather cheating.

Kanamemo

Lolicon Hocchan and musical episode made my Season.

GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class

Most educational anime I’ve watched this year.

Sora no Otoshimono

Flying panties are awesome.

Kuchuu Buranko

Second most educational anime I’ve watched this year.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei

Resolves a lot of questions for the series + lots of focus on Rika.

Okay Tier

CLANNAD After Story: KEY should stop using those deus ex machina devices so much.
Zoku Natsume Yuujin-chou: Needs more youkai.
Denpateki na Kanojo: The fastest way to happiness is to look awak from reality.
Asu no Yoichi: Better than I thought.
Hayate no Gotoku 2nd Season: J.C. Staff redeemed themselves.
Fight! Ippatsu Juuden-chan: Would’ve been Awesome tier if they didn’t overuse the urination trope.
Taisho Yakyuu Musume: Would’ve been Awesome tier if they won the last match.
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0: Did KEY had a hand in writing the last few episodes for this?
Ontama: Short and (bitter)sweet.
Darker than Black Ryuusei no Gemini: Didn’t learn from its predecessor.
Aoi Bungaku: Batshit insane Nana Mizuki was the highlight.
Kanokon OVA: Rather iyashii-kei, surprisingly.
Nyan Koi!: Just barely in here.
Suzumiya Haruhi II: Not counting Endless Eight that is!

Shit Tier

Kurogane no Linebarrels: Only watched it for the name similarity.
Asura Cryin’: Causality loops are mindfucking.
CANAAN: SUGOI SUGOI SUGOI SUGOI
Chrome-Shelled Regios: Felli was in the wrong show.
Tales of the Abyss: Even gg didn’t finish subbing this shit.
To Aru Majutsu no Index: Adaptation Decay.
Gundam 00 2nd Season: The Innovator’s names.
WHITE ALBUM: Give me back my boyfriend.
Tower of Druaga The Sword of Uruk: Needed more Ropers.
Munto TV: Pretentious as fuck.
K-ON!: A music anime with sucky music.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni: DEEN Adaptation.
Princess Lover!: Took itself as a joke.
Kampfer: Ode to Joy.
The Sacred Blacksmith: Cecily is annoying.
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza: WHITE ALBUM wannabe.
11eyes: The sex in the penultimate episode was just a vision? GODDAMNIT.

In total, 43 shows completed this year. I’m surprised at how much I managed to watch despite thinking about how slow this year was. Then again, I never did keep track of the number of shows I watched for the last few years…..

Part 2, which consists of other miscanellous accolades, should be up tomorrow!

©2012 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

After half a year, it’s time to bid the cast of Toradora! farewell.

But before that, time to go through the final episode.

Wow, Ryuji’s grandfather (Yasuko’s father) looks exactly like Ryuji. Looks like it wasn’t just his father’s fault.

“Don’t worry, you haven’t failed. You raised me up all by yourself all this while, didn’t you? Look, I’m already taller than you now.” BAWWWWWWWWW so heart-touching.

Ahhh Toradorable!

The moment we’ve been waiting for! The Kiss!

“Mou ichido…” :O

“Mou ichido…..” :O :O :O

Unfortunately, the drama doesn’t end there as Taiga withdraws from school after they return home. Which prompts…

… Minorin to go slap Ryuuji. WTF Minorin. Seriously! Don’t jump to conclusions so fast!!!

Thank god Ami and Kitamura show up to pacify Minorin.

The mystery of the second picture that Taiga ordered during the Bunkasai is revealed! It’s been a picture of her and Ryuji all this while! Oh that was so touching.. ;_;

The picture that Taiga sends out to everyone after she left school. Minorin explains that it’s the night sky, with a single star shining in it, which symbolizes that she’s trying hard like the single star shining light in a sea of darkness, to become more and more brighter.

And Ami~n’s interjection is so ♥.

Ah. Ryuji and Ami~n in the storage room again. This time, Ami~n reveals that she was jealous of Taiga being able to be herself yet be loved by others. She used to hate herself who used to act like adult, but she realized after meeting Taiga that it’s alright to have even one person that understands the real her, even if it’s not love. I love how it closes Ami~n’s feelings so nicely. May she achieve her own happiness too ♥.

Fail smile is fail.

“So let us put a real smile on your face!” says both Minorin and Ami~n.

Dear god… Kitamura. Why are you so “WTFRANDOM”? Sigh. And that is 2-C’s reply to Taiga’s earlier photo.

Time jumps a year later, at everyone’s third year graduation ceremony. Ryuji spots a familiar looking silhouette in the classroom and rushes towards it…

Oh, Taiga hiding in the broom closet was so Toradorable!

And Ryuji finally says “suki da” to Taiga… didn’t they get all the procedures reversed?

Oh god Toradorabl..

Ouch. Yet still Toradorable!

The End!

Thoughts on it: As I said earlier, it was a nice ending. In fact, I can safely say it’s one of the best and most satisfying happy ending in a romantic drama anime. Instead of copping out at the usual “suki da” -> kiss kinda “happy ending”, Toradora took one more episode to fully tie up all the loose threads surrounding the main characters, leading in to “True End”-type end.

I loved how they got Yasuko to reconcile with her parents and later Taiga taking the drastic decision to leave school and go live with her mother, only coming back a year later to reunite with Ryuji. The timeframe that they are apart in the anime is much more longer than the novels, but it also makes it more meaningful too.

Ami~n’s heartfelt confession to Ryuji in the gym storage room, yet again, was a very nice closure for Ami~n’s feelings as well as her character as a whole. It truly signifies that she’s given up on whatever “deeper” feelings that she might have held for Ryuji earlier and now she’s comfortable to have him as a true friend, who understands herself. It’s funny that she says she hated acting as a adult, but after she drops that act, she truly becomes one of the most mature characters in the series, in contrast to when she first appeared.

Minorin… eh, I still can’t believe she slapped Ryuji in the episode. I guess that’s a tribute to her “kinniku onna” label? But well, I’ve just noticed that she didn’t really get a proper closure, or perhaps it’s just me not noticing, but whatever. At least Kitamura is going to chase after Sumire and depart for America as well. Wonder how it’ll go for the both of them.

And finally, it’s been a truly enjoyable show, Toradora. I’m really impressed with the director for managing to put in 10 volumes of novels in to a mere 25 episode series and making it so engrossing. I can’t really say the same for a lot of other shows done by J.C. Staff *coughShanaIndexcough*…. but it’s great that Toradora had such a good production team. Truly one of the best romance drama anime made and definitely worth the time. Now I’m just going to wait for a proper sub group to finish the show so I can rewatch this again. So long and farewell!

P.S. /r/ animation of Toradora Spin-off.

©2012 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

To the novel readers: was it exactly like in the novel? Or were there differences?

©2012 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Finally, the two admit their feelings for each other. GJ, Ryuji!

But their trials aren’t over yet, as parental problem comes up. Yasuko discovers that Ryuji is working part-time, despite her ban on it, and Ryuji explodes when she insists that he should be studying seriously. On Taiga’s side, her father’s business failed, so her mom wants to take her back in, but Taiga refuses since her mother has already remarried with someone, and is even expecting a baby too.

This leads to both of them deciding to elope, hiding out for two months until Ryuji turns 18 and he can legally take Taiga in as his wife. Kitamura and the rest help out too. However, things take a turn when Ryuji returns home to a message from Yasuko, telling him to go find his grandparents to understand things and Ryuji decides to go find them and really discover what happened and not “run away” again.

Finally the love-triangle drama is over and Toradora moves to tie up all the other loose ends. It’s great that the show just doesn’t suddenly end with Taiga and Ryuji finally admitting their real feelings for each other and pull a “happily ever after” end, instead going to resolve the family problems that Taiga and Ryuji has had always have.

On the other hand, Minorin was really great in this week’s episode. I’d expected her to break down during the health room scene at the beginning after Ryuji leaves to go find Taiga, but in the end, she broke down after Taiga and Ryuji leave Ami’s house. And Ami~n is really strong too, since I’d expect both of them to start bawling or something, but in the end, she didn’t.

Anyways, one more episode left! Let’s see how things will be resolved.

©2012 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Oh wow, that was an awesome ending. I salute the way the director has been crafting this episode to spring on us. The confrontation and explosion in the computer lab was just so awesomely done. Now, if bloody Ryuji can stop being so undecided and go after Taiga…. especially after Minorin’s relinquishment.

Anyways, Taiga in twin-tails and meido-fuku was kinda refreshing to see…

Oh god, I can’t believe that idiot Haruta actually got himself a girlfriend already!

Despite how they started out, Taiga and Ami sure are best of friends now. In fact, I’d actually think that Ami’s more closer to Taiga than Minorin is.

And of course, Bro-Ami was magnificent this episode. This show might be titled “Toradora!”, but my real heroine will always be Ami.

©2012 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

A sorta “break” episode from the events of last week.

Minorin attempts to reconcile with Ami~n, pretending their argument never happened in the first place. Meanwhile Taiga takes an extended break to meet her mother after she hears about her accident.

Taking advantage of her prolonged absence, Ryuji asks Kitamura to pretend that he was the one saving Taiga instead of him, and to deny of Taiga speaking anything in her half-conscious state. Kitamura begrudgingly accepts it. Taiga comes back nearing the end of the episode, and Ryuji acts as normal as he can be around her. When she mentions about her mumblings, he denies it of course.

Now the ball’s fully in Ryuji’s court to pick either his crush on Minorin or to acknowledge and accept Taiga’s feelings. Next episode should be more exciting than this one…

©2012 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Ami finally explodes on Minorin. I certainly didn’t expect her to lose her calm, but the buildup of the tension was nicely done, I’ll have to say.

On the other hand, Taiga (inadvertently) confesses her feelings to Ryuji. How will Ryuji respond to that?

And I have gotta say, the winter-wear in this episode looks really fugly.

©2012 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Nearly half a year ago, I would have never expected this level of empathy from this show. Just goes to show that the old adage, “books should not be judged by their cover” really does work for anime too.

After the heartbreaking episode of nineteen last week, 20 continues on from where we left. Taiga has decided to keep her distance from Ryuji (despite her own true feelings) and goes fully in to supporting him and Minorin together, trying, almost too hard, her best to create chances for them to be together.

It’s really drama at its best and oh god, this episode reminds me of how painful “love” can sometimes be. One thing I am liking about Toradora is how the show is not trying to paint anyone in the wrong here, somehow a very hard thing to pull off in most anime that has a romantic relationship between three characters or more. The portrayals and performance of each character are really very good now in Toradora.

While Ryuji is indecisive, it’s not as if he is actively trying to hurt someone plus he does have feelings for Minorin. The love tug-of-war between Minorin and Taiga is really a bit painful to see though. Especially Taiga, seeing her trying her best to push those two together, while Minorin still thinks that she should be letting him go to Taiga instead.

The problem here is that Taiga’s trying too hard herself, and Minorin sees that, which results in a catch-22 situation between them as one tries her best while the other seeing that effort, wants even more to do the opposite of the former’s intentions. Now the only way out of the deadlock, as I see it, is for Ryuji to firmly make a stand on who he’ll choose and stick to it.

My personal opinion (as well as the camp I’m in now) would be for Ryuji to get over his puppy-love crush towards Minorin (in my point-of-view that is) and go for Taiga instead. The major obstacle here would be his lack of realization of Taiga’s feelings towards him and conversely his own feelings towards Taiga as well. What we need now would be some event happening that leads to a change of his perception towards Taiga, so the next arc about the snow mountain trip probably will have something decisive that will determine the course of the love triangle after that.

While the main drama is now squarely in the hands of those three, Ami remains the best character of the show, with her hints towards Takasu. The part where she says, “If you’re the only one who was hurt badly, that would be the best…” to Takasu was probably one of the most brilliantly timed lines by her. If only Ryuji actually understands her hints…

I really wish we could get more of her ;_;.

©2012 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

It’s a night of heartbreaks all around. Ami~n’s words last week are beginning to come true.

At the least Minorin’s rejected Ryuji, so we’ll have to see what direction the show will move in to next week. But 19 is definitely a very emotional episode. I’m at a loss of words to talk about it, so just watch the episode yourself.

One thing’s for sure, Taiga ;_;.

P.S. Taiga all dolled up kinda resembles Hagu a bit, don’tcha think?

©2012 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

From now on, anyone who pigeonholes Taiga with Shana and Louise ought to be shot.

Taiga’s character continues to develop in a way that endears me more and more to her. Revealing that she had studied in a Catholic elementary school, she used to do volunteer work and it was there she met the unfortunate. That experience, plus a chance meeting with Santa-san when she was young, has somehow led her to realize something and now she continues to send presents to the unfortunate, to send a message “I am watching over you.”

It’s something that really seems out of character for her, but it’s not as outlandish as you think it is. Her earlier excitement about Christmas coming really nicely ties in to this and shows that despite a rude outlook, Taiga possess a heart of gold. I am really seeing her in a totally new light now. It’s just totally rude to classify her in the same category as Shana and Louise now.

The “Ami moment” in this episode sees Ami weakening more in her stance of putting a strong face in front of Ryuji. Commenting on the weird relationship of Ryuji and Taiga, akin to playing ‘house’ with Ryuji as the ‘parent’ and Taiga as the ‘daughter’. She tells Ryuji to stop doing that, before all of them suffer from the awkwardness of the relationship, telling him to start over with Taiga, and in a moment of weakness, with her as well. I guess Ami’s realizing that if she doesn’t act now, she’ll slowly lose Ryuji to Minorin or Taiga.

As for Minorin, she continues to distance herself from Ryuji, but an accident causes her to break a decorative star that’s precious to Taiga. She inevitably gets stuck with Ryuji in an effort to fix it back. The fixing of the star starts them both on a conversation where Minorin is scared of breaking things, as she doesn’t know if it’ll be able to fixed back. Despite that, Ryuji declares that it’s possible for things to be healed, even if it might not be the same as before. As usual, Ryuji’s conversations with Minorin are always chockful of symbolism. It’s this quality of dialogue that truly sets Toradora a cut above the rest.

Also this is first episode I can remember of seeing Yuri-chan-sensei act like a real teacher, hahaha.

©2012 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.