Toradora – Episode 2

Toradora’s second episode is essentially one entirely self-contained love story, though its participants don’t really understand that. I wondered in my last writeup if my memories of Ryuji and Taiga’s rapport were a little rose-tinted, and whether Taiga’s tsundere schtick would get tiresome in the long run. Well, I am happy to report that that’s absolutely not the case – these two are still wonderful together, and through this episode, we see them essentially perform their first dates, first fight, and first reconciliation, ultimately arriving at a comfortable and engaging neutral. I’m always on the lookout for more romances about couples who are already in a relationship, and though Ryuji and Taiga would argue heatedly to the contrary, I’m now realizing that part of this show’s strength is that in many ways, it’s already there.

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Toradora – Episode 1

Hey everybody! Today we’re beginning a journey through a show I’ve actually been meaning to rewatch for a long, long time. The last time I watched Toradora was almost a decade ago now – in fact, it was possibly the first show I ever watched along with its active broadcast, back in my junior year of college. At the time, my overarching impression of the show was that it was essentially the adolescent romantic drama that all the other ones were trying to be – insightful, emotionally rich, solidly produced, consistently rewarding. That year was a very difficult time in my life, a time when my social life had just dissolved into painful, identity-shaking backbiting, and I mainly just distracted myself through lonely hours in my dorm room. Most of that year sucked, but Toradora was a very welcome comfort.

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Top 30 Anime Series of All Time

Yep, I’ve finally put together a top shows list. As I hopefully made clear in part one and part two of my critical biases post, this is obviously my list – it represents the things I think are most valuable in stories in the way I think they’ve best been articulated. It’s also just a list of shows I enjoy – there’s no hard criteria here, so I wouldn’t stress the numbers too much. Also, it’s a bit front-loaded – I only started watching anime seasonally about two years ago, so the last couple years are disproportionately represented. Incidentally, I’m not including movies here either – I think direct comparisons between shows and films are a bit of a stretch, but if they were included, this list would certainly be somewhat different. And finally, I’m absolutely (and thankfully) certain this list will change over time – there are still piles of widely beloved shows I’ve never seen, so I’m sure the current rankings will be filled out in the years to come. So with that all said, let’s get to the list – Bobduh’s Top 30 Anime of All Time.

-edit- I have now created a Top Shows Addendum for shows that have either fallen off or just barely missed this list. Please enjoy these additional almost-top shows!

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Craft and Romantic Comedy

Management: Finally posting the sequel to this piece, which focuses much more closely on four commercially successful romantic comedies: Sakurasou, Toradora, Clannad, and Chuunibyou.

Question:

I can see where you’re coming from when you talk of judging a show according to its goals, as well as your reservations regarding some goals. How would you apply these metrics to Sakurasou?

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Fall 2013 Pre-Pre-Season Preview

So! Fall season is nowhere near upon us, but that’s no reason not to get inordinately hyped about it! The full announced list is viewable here, but these are the ones I’m already kinda giddy about.

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