Toradora: Distractions and Similarities!

October 10, 2008 by Toonleap
Filed under Anime

I just watched TORADORA and as you know, the main female seiyuu for the series is Rie Kugimiya. She is famous for some anime roles, especially the tsunderes-loli ones. It does not bother me at all the fact that lately she has been doing this roles, sometimes I am afraid she has been typecasted by anime studios to perform this roles.

I am enjoying TORADORA but there are some elements that really are distracting me when I watch the show as I (and many others as well) catched some similarities and I am not talking only for the voice of Kugimiya Rie. Below is a list of the similarities from her other roles and other anime series.

TORADORA - SHAKUGAN NO SHANA
1- The male character of Shakugan no Shana and Toradora. Their names sounds
pretty similar and when Rie Kugimiya say his name, it rings some bells.
Yuji (Shana) - Ryūji (Toradora)
2- Rie Kugimiya says “URUSAI, URUSAI, URUSAI” in both series.

TORADORA - ZERO NO TSUKAIMA
1- Louise and Taiga call his male counterpart…an “inu” or dog!
2- It seems the relationship in ZnT and Toradora is girl - servant (INU SAITO!!)
2- Well, Louise and Taiga kick the poor guy´s intimate parts in the anime series as you can see in the pictures. (Well, that kick happens in many anime series anyway)

TORADORA - MIDORI NO HIBI
1- Ryūji is not a Yanki but because of his eyes and the way others see him as a Yanki, he reminded me of Sawamura Seiji from MnH.

ZERO NO TSUKAIMA - SHAKUGAN NO SHANA
1- The main characters shares the same voice seiyuus for both series. (Satoshi Hino and Rie Kugimiya). I think it is obvious.

Well, this are just my thoughts. Even if Toradora shares many similarities with the other series I mentioned and that are really distracting me, TORADORA is an enjoyable series. I think many people will enjoy again the role of Kugimiya Rie as a tsundere loli. I just hope this dont end like the rest of the other series that share similarities (A cliche ending, or no resolution at all as it happens always). At least in Midori no Hibi there was some resolution at the end. I want something cool and original in the final episode! If you know of other similarities, feel free to post them.