Toradora is a 2008 drama/romance anime set in a highschool. It’s sweet and funny, with surprisingly well-written characters and excellent visuals. There are countless anime series that fall into the school/drama category, and normally, I don’t like them. Toradora is an exception to the rule for two main reasons. For starters, it was one of the first school anime that I ever watched, so I wasn’t yet disillusioned with the genre or tired of the tropes. The second reason is that I found myself genuinely interested in the characters in Toradora. Even now, I occasionally like to go back and re-watch the series.

The question I’m addressing today is whether or not this is ok. Can an old fan still enjoy Toradora? But before we dive right into that, I want to discuss my history with Toradora, some of the general problems with the series, and the some reasons why it might be strange for an older fan to still like Toradora. Sections will be divided into headers for convenience.

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~History with Toradora~

I don’t precisely remember when I first started watching Toradora, but I think I saw parts of it in 2010 or 2011, when I was first getting into anime. I didn’t invest in the series or complete it until, I believe, summer 2012. My first reaction was to absolutely love Taiga. There was a lot of myself in her, and I could understand her well. I wasn’t very mature as a young adult, but prone to anger and other emotional outbursts due to onset of various psychological issues. Additionally, like Taiga, I had a deep need to be seen as tough and independent. I often acted aggressive toward others at college. To top it off, I’m quite a short AFAB person. Taiga was my older, immature self in anime form.

Besides my attachment to Taiga, I also liked the general spirit of Toradora. I wasn’t sick of all the tropes, as I mentioned in the introduction, so watching it felt fresh. The real deal surrounding my enjoyment of this anime is related to my upbringing. Going into much detail would be superfluous, but I grew up homeschooled, emotionally oppressed, and severely unsocialized. So even though I was college-aged when watching Toradora, I was mentally and socially on the level of a young high-schooler. As such, I was interested in the drama, relationships, environments, and activities shown in Toradora.

It’s been a long time since college, but I still watch Toradora every few years. With each watch, however, I became more aware of potential issues. The anime simply wasn’t as good as I remembered. Plus, I started to wonder if it was alright for me to continue to enjoy a highschool drama. Let’s go over these concerns in order. First, we’ll look at some criticisms of Toradora.

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~Criticisms of Toradora~

As I’ve alluded to a few times now, Toradora is a trope-filled anime. Pretty much any anime teen romance trope you can think of happens in this show. If you’ve seen a handful of series like this already, it may be difficult to enjoy Toradora’s tropey misadventures. Examples of tropes include two people getting locked in a storage shed together, an adventure in a spooky ocean cave, wardrobe malfunctions, typical beach and pool episodes, overused character archetypes, and in general, love polygons. There’s no shortage of events and details that have been done a hundred times over. Toradora lacks originality in some important ways.

One interesting criticism of Toradora is the idea that it depicts a toxic relationship. And indeed, it’s true– Taiga and Ryuuji make one of my favorite anime couples, but I can only appreciate their relationship in a strictly fictional sense. A real relationship with that many problems would be toxic. Ryuuji is codependent and does everything for Taiga, who rarely contributes or takes good care of herself. He should stand up for his own boundaries and give her the chance to be independent. And as for Taiga, she sometimes hits or insults Ryuuji. This is mainly done as a comedic thing in the anime, but if you think about it in reality, it would be physical and emotional abuse. The idea that Ryuuji and Taiga have a toxic relationship is not far-fetched.

There’s another frequent criticism of Toradora to mention, but compared to the last two, this one is more personal and subjective. Some people dislike certain characters immensely. This isn’t a problem for me, as I can appreciate all the Toradora characters on some level. By far the main culprit of the character hate is Ami Kawashima, the “idol” with an extremely flawed and difficult personality. While I acknowledge that she’s a bitch, I think her character is important to the story. Furthermore, she does start to care about others and experience personal growth as the show continues. I believe the characters in Toradora are reasonably well-written and largely very likeable, but not everyone agrees.

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~Problems with Adults Enjoying Toradora?~

Perhaps you think, right off the bat, it’s weird for a middle-aged person to still appreciate something like Toradora. But what makes it “weird,” and is it really a bad thing? Well, it can potentially be a bad thing, but I like to think my justifications are good. Now, let’s look at some reasons for why it would be strange or problematic for a grown adult to enjoy Toradora. I’m not going to include the pathetic “reasoning” that says something is bad or gross because it’s unusual. Are there other reasons besides just an aversion to what’s uncommon?

Some might say that it’s a sign of immaturity if a full-fledged adult still enjoys a teenage drama show. It could be a sign that the person never matured emotionally or mentally. That’s one possibility. My response is that it’s ok if someone is less mature; that’s no reason to judge them. Everyone is at a different place in life. Personally, I don’t really care if people see me as somewhat immature. If I cared about that, I probably wouldn’t still be obsessed with anime and writing weird blog posts about it. So, as you can see, the first reason falls apart.

One reason that doesn’t fall apart as easily is the idea that some unsavory adults will inevitably sexualize teenage characters. This is really the only reason I can think of for why it could be a bad sign for an adult to like a teen drama. Needless to say, fantasizing about the teenage characters and their bodies is not the reason I appreciate Toradora. I don’t do that. But the unfortunate reality is that there are plenty of adults who do this. Some will say that things like age and consent might not truly matter when fantasizing about a 2D fictional character. I somewhat disagree, since the premise of liking young anime characters still makes me uneasy. I’m not going to insult someone or jump to conclusions over something like this, but I still see it as a potential problem.

On this topic in particular, there is another layer that deepens it. Despite the fact that Taiga is canonically in highschool, her character design looks distinctly younger, and very childlike. This suggests that the creators of the show/manga might have been trying to appeal to lolicons and pedophiles. It’s also possible that the author simply wanted a story about a girl who is made fun of and/or disadvantaged because of her size. Knowing anime’s huge and pervasive problem with pedophilia, however, this answer seems naïve. We now have quite a strong reason for objecting to Toradora, especially for older teens and adults.

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~Why I Can Still Enjoy Toradora~

We’ve been over some reasons for why it might be problematic for someone of my age to enjoy an anime like Toradora. Some of the reasons were easy to knock down. I can still enjoy Toradora because I don’t sexualize the characters, I don’t mind others thinking I’m a little immature, and I don’t mind being seen as unusual. However, the strongest reason remains standing. How can I let myself enjoy a show that could very well be part of anime’s lolicon/pedophilia problem?

The simple answer is that, as long as one is aware of problematic elements and can mentally compartmentalize things, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a production that has serious issues. If it doesn’t make you uncomfortable, there is no harm in it that I can see. Additionally, if you’re worried about supporting a bad creator, you can opt out of paying for the production. This is especially easy with anime. Just open up a free streaming site. You won’t be giving a cent to anyone.

To restate, while it’s not ideal to like something with problematic elements, you can still enjoy it as long as you’re aware of the issues, and as long as the issues themselves aren’t what you’re after. It’s even better if you can be aware of the problems AND spread information and education about it. That’s my take.

There is a lot that I enjoy in Toradora, and I think I’m allowed to do that without guilt or shame. I will always love Taiga, even if she represents the worst parts of my younger self. I do think there are redemptive things about her character, and I like having a feisty female protagonist. I appreciate most of the characters and their interactions. Watching Toradora gives me a sense of nostalgia and a sense of wanting to have fun. It’s also great to see Taiga and Ryuuji as a couple toward the end. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. I just love Toradora!

Thanks for reading~

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PATREON