I’m going to start this review off with a deep, (semi-)sincere apology for not actually typing this up until about a month after the actual show ended. I would like to say that life got in the way, but I do think that if I had put out a little more effort, this would have appeared on the site a lot sooner. In any case, here is the review….better late than never, right?
Let’s start off with the good. This episode was absolutely cute. It pushed pretty much all of my “aww” buttons. We finally get to see a side of the Ryuuji and Taiga relationship that we didn’t get to see in pretty much all of the first season. You know, the side where Taiga isn’t beating Ryuuji up and forcing him to be her bitch? The part at the end where he instinctively knew she was in the locker was amusing. And my favorite part in the whole episode was when Taiga tells Ryuuji, “Your eyes are red. Your breathing is all weird. Your lips are cracked. It’ll hurt if we kiss,” and he only hesitates for a moment before kissing her anyway. I guess I just find couples absolutely adorable.
Heh look! They're never going to work out. Look how far she has to stretch for them to make out.
Taiga transferring out of the high school in order to repair her relationship with her mother (thus leaving Ryuuji alone for a year and making the viewers go “Awww how sad”) was actually very predictable. But it was also the logical and neccessary next step in her development, and it shows us how much she’s grown.
And the bad part? Well, I guess I can’t really officially complain about it here, since I knew this was coming four episodes ago. But in the back of my head, I was a huge Ryuuji x Minori fan…not necessarily because I thought they would be a good couple, but because I thought it would be interesting to see Ryuuji and Taiga end up as close friends who actually view each other as close friends (none of this “friendzone” business where one secretly likes the other). But as it turned out, Ryuuji decides that he likes Taiga better…and yet doesn’t do anything about it until the very end, making the last three episodes extremely, extremely, extremely rushed. So in this episode, when they’re finally officially together, it all just seems kind of surreal. From a plot point of view, everything just seems too rushed.
But Ryuuji x Taiga is so cute that all is forgiven.
I’m also glad to see that none of the comedy or art suffered on the very last episode.
Episode Rating: 9/10 (Wrapped things up in a decently satisfying way; continued to deliver comedy, drama and art)
~eNamorD (with happy endings. Because couples are just so cute *jealous*)
(Season Review should be hopefully up tomorrow. I know tekky has quite a few things to say about this show.)
Psychedelic SoulJam 
BEST. KISS SCENE. EVAR!
That said, I did feel that the ending was rushed, but in the wake of the Soul Eater finale, Toradora! seemed to have a better ending than I originally thought. The fact that Amin demanded closure from Ryuuji made me forgive everything else. The star thing was a little lame, and I would have liked Taiga to have told Ryuuji straight up what was happening, instead of disappearing on him (maybe she didn’t trust him to understand that it was best for her? Silly girl), but the fact that she returned on graduation to receive Ryuuji’s vocal affirmation shows that her head was ultimately in the right place.
I think all in all, the series frustrated me with its honesty. Here were high school kids acting like it. The drama was trivial and silly, but so is high school. It was also very real and vital to the characters in the series. It’ll probably be a little time before I watch another drama series–even one with as good a sense of comedy is this one–but I enjoyed Toradora!. Now, if only there were some cute Aisaka figurines available (Amin was the best character, Minori was the most fun, but Taiga consistently looked the best throughout the series–in an artwork appreciation way! I don’t know what you were thinking!).
“I thought it would be interesting to see Ryuuji and Taiga end up as close friends who actually view each other as close friends (none of this “friendzone” business where one secretly likes the other).”
See, this is honestly how they looked to me throughout the series – like family, despite the little possessive and tender moments. So the transition to LUVARS, especially from Ryuuji’s end, was way too sudden for me. But again, this is the pacing’s fault. I can accept them as a couple, but OMG SUDDENLY WE ARE GETTING MARRIED EVEN THOUGH WE HAVEN’T EVEN SAID WE LIKE EACH OTHER felt completely bizarre.
I Agree with just about everything you said here the episodes were rushed from Ryuuji being her “bitch” and them making out (and possibly having sex but they don’t seem like they did but you never know what J.C Staff likes to make people think.) To be honest i don’t think Ryuuji was over worked to much in the anime i think she was a little mean about it but hes a good guy and most of them time he doesn’t have a pissed face at her.
The Kiss Scene (BEST EVER) was just the most touching thing iv ever seen in all of the Billion and one animes iv seen, i couldn’t get over it i just watched it over and over and over it was brilliant! Marriage : I thought that was Cool (of course rushed) but generally it was touching also. My rating 9.9/10 (i don’t care for the rushness it was to cute for me to go any lower)!!
Oh, This is just about the 3rd anime series of its type produced by the same company (J.C. Staff)
All of them involved a girl that ordern a guy around
All of them had a “special” guy and all of them fell in love (i think)
All 3 of these animes had Taiga’s voice Actress as the girl
Thee Animes :
Toradora!
Shana no shana no shakugan
zero no tsukaima
I tried to watch Zero no Tsukaima and didn’t really like it. If you wanna see a STRANGE anime involving Rie Kugimiya, check out Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan. It is both odd and hilarious (also, extremely violent).
I tried to watch Dokuro-chan once… I don’t know when i’ll try again *shudders*