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とらドラ! [Toradora!] Light Novel #10
Toradora! (Light Novel) Vol. 10
ON THE RUN!
With both Ryuuji and Taiga's mothers seemingly determined to tear them apart, the newly minted teenage lovebirds hatch a dicey elopement plan that's going to depend on Minori, Ami, and Kitamura's help to succeed. Will their friends come through for them at the crucial moment? Or is happily-ever-after just a childish fantasy? Find out in this heart-stopping conclusion to the epic romcom!FINAL VOLUME
With both Ryuuji and Taiga's mothers seemingly determined to tear them apart, the newly minted teenage lovebirds hatch a dicey elopement plan that's going to depend on Minori, Ami, and Kitamura's help to succeed. Will their friends come through for them at the crucial moment? Or is happily-ever-after just a childish fantasy? Find out in this heart-stopping conclusion to the epic romcom!FINAL VOLUME
221 pages, Paperback
First published March 10, 2009
10 people are currently reading
256 people want to read
About the author
Yuyuko Takemiya
90 books156 followersYuyuko Takemiya (竹宮 ゆゆこ Takemiya Yuyuko) is a Japanese writer of light novels. Takemiya debuted in September 2004 with her light novel series Watashitachi no Tamura-kun (Our Tamura-kun) which first appeared in the autumn 2004 issue of Dengeki hp Special, a special edition version of Dengeki hp. That same month, Takemiya worked on the scenario for the bishōjo game Noel by FlyingShine (also known for creating Cross Channel).
Following the completion of Watashitachi no Tamura-kun, Takemiya began her best-known series, Toradora!, which she declared to be complete in April 2010 after ten volumes and three spin-off books. The first book of her next series, Golden Time, was Dengeki Bunko's 2000th published light novel. Takemiya launched the manga series Evergreen with artist Akira Kasukabe on July 19, 2011 in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Daioh Genesis quarterly magazine.
Following the completion of Watashitachi no Tamura-kun, Takemiya began her best-known series, Toradora!, which she declared to be complete in April 2010 after ten volumes and three spin-off books. The first book of her next series, Golden Time, was Dengeki Bunko's 2000th published light novel. Takemiya launched the manga series Evergreen with artist Akira Kasukabe on July 19, 2011 in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Daioh Genesis quarterly magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 1, 2011
(I've come to realize that reviewing all ten books of the Toradora! series would be way too much work, so I'm just going to do an overview of the entire series.)
First, note that these novels haven't been licensed in the US, so you have only two options for reading them -- (1) learn Japanese and import them from Amazon.co.jp, or (2) read the bootleg translations from Baka Tsuki. I opted for the latter, and while the translations are kinda rough in places ("Where's the delinquent Takasu!? Come and help us.") they're entirely readable, to the point that I managed to devour volumes 5 and 6 in a single day (roughly equivalent to reading a 500 page book in one sitting).
The plot is a straight-forward rom-com set-up: Taiga and Ryuuji are high school students in love with the other's best friend. Upon figuring this out, they decide to help each other out, but in the process end up falling in love with each other. There are lots of incidents along the way, most of them standard tropes for a Japanese school series (summer vacation, the class trip, the school festival).
But what elevates this series is the characters. Upon first introduction, everyone seems to fit into standard archetypes that should be familiar to anyone who's watched even a little anime: Ryuuji is the Ordinary High School Student; Kitamura the Class Representative; Taiga the tsundere[1]; Ami the Libby; Minori the Cloudcuckoolander. But Yuyuko Takemiya isn't content to let her characters languish as stock figures, but instead uses the story as a psychological study to examine what such characters would be like in real life.
Take Taiga. We first encounter her when she decks Ryuuji for simply bumping into her in the hallway. A little later she nearly beats him to death in order to retrieve a love letter she stuck in his backpack by mistake. Even once they become friends, she continually refers to him as a "dog" and slaps him around if he gets out of line. All of which is typical tsundere behavior, and most authors would treat it as simply humorous. And as with a tsundere, Takemiya slowly reveals that this attitude is armor that shields Taiga's soft, gooey interior, but she then proceeds to ask the question that other authors ignore -- what sort of screwed up circumstances would lead a girl to act this way.
The answer is that Taiga has severe abandonment issues: her father kicked her out of the house for not getting along with her step-mom and set her up in a luxury condominium with a large monthly stipend, and her natural mother wants nothing to do with her. When we finally meet Taiga's father, he turns out to be one of the few totally despicable characters in the series. His explanation for why he abandoned Taiga is absolutely gut-wrenching -- she's blood, so she has to love him whatever he does, while his wife requires effort to keep around. Can you blame her for being a bitch?
Ryuuji has the inverse problem. His mother ran away from home when she became pregnant with him in high school. She now works as a hostess in a businessmen's bar (i.e., she's paid to flirt with customers and get them to buy lots of drinks), and comes home every morning so drunk she's lucky if she makes it to her bed before passing out. All the burdens of taking care of her and maintaining the household -- cooking, cleaning, shopping -- fall upon Ryuuji. And he does it gladly, because he's a good boy. And when he sees the state in which Taiga lives, he instinctively begins taking care of her as well, going to extraordinary lengths to make her life better. Because he's a good boy. When he finds out Ami has a stalker, he immediately offers to help her. Because he's a good boy. When his friend Kitamura faces a personal crisis, Ryuuji tries to help him. Because he's a good boy. As the story progresses, Ryuuji takes on more and more burdens to help others, often at the cost of his own goals, until in the final three books the weight becomes too much and he begins cracking under all the pressure.
But by far the most fascinating character in the series is Ami, a famous teen model who's been forced to take a break from her career because of a stalker. Her genuine personality is acidic yet strangely likeable, but as a teenager working in a world of adults, she's cocooned herself with a fake persona, Ami-chan, a cute, sweet airhead. When she returns to the world of her peers, she no longer knows how to act, and for the first few books she's the closest thing the story has to an antagonist as she takes a dislike to Taiga and tries to get at her through Ryuuji (though it's never clear, even to her, whether she's doing it out of spite or if she has feelings for Ryuuji). But her real problem is, having spent so much time around adults, she understands nuances that the other characters are still discovering, giving her an uncanny ability to understand what's going on around her. Yet her attempts to warn Ryuuji are either ignored or end with someone getting hurt. The more she tries, the worse things get and the more she loathes herself.
Minori is an enigmatic character, seeming to be aloof and wacky, yet we get occasional glimpses of the depths she's hiding, such as in the fourth volume when Ryuuji finally gets up the nerve to ask if she has a boyfriend, and she replies with a seeming non-sequitur about ghosts and UFOs. But as she goes on for several pages on the subject, we begin to see that she's actually using a spectacularly extended metaphor to explain her feelings on love. But these revelations about Minori's inner mind are sporadic, and she remains a puzzle far longer than any other character. Even the ever-insightful Ami doesn't fully comprehend the extent of Minori's mask until the end of book 8, and when she finally figures it out she is astounded:
By contrast, Kitamura is a simple character. Although he too wears a mask (if you can't tell, the mask is a central theme to this series), it's more straightforward than the others -- at school, where he's the student council vice president, class representative, and captain of the softball team, he's serious and businesslike, but get him away and he becomes a wild-and-crazy guy with an penchant for exhibitionism. He does have a reason for this dichotomy, and once that reason is removed he relaxes his mask at school.
Honestly, these are some of my favorite characters in all literature. I would place Ryuuji, Minori and Kitamura at the same level as Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood, while Taiga and Ami come close to toppling Samwise Gamgee from the top spot.
The other thing I love about this series is that there are no significant villains. Sure, Ami's antagonistic when she first appears, but it's not because she's a bad person -- and in truth, it's Taiga who's the biggest obstacle to peace between them. There's also Ami's stalker, but he's little more than a plot device to bring the characters together. Even the one significant fight in the series, Taiga vs Kano Sumire, begins with Taiga thinking,
The only character who is an out-and-out bad guy is Taiga's father, and he only appears in a single book.
Hegel once observed that the truest form of tragedy is when two equally correct but mutually exclusive ideals come into conflict. Though this series isn't tragic, Takemiya takes a similar approach to create a situation where no matter what anyone does, someone will get hurt. What keeps the story going is that these characters are all good people, and when they're presented with the choice of hurting someone else or getting hurt, they choose to take the pain upon themselves. The whole series could've ended by book 7 if even one character decided to act selfishly.
But despite the lack of villains, Takemiya still finds a way to end each book with a cathartic climax (except #4, which is a quiet character study with an insignificant climax followed by a satisfying denouement). Most of these are major heart-breakers, such as the revelation of how big a jerk Taiga's father is in book 5, Taiga deciding to take down Kano Sumire in book 6, and her near-death experience in book 8. But the best of them is book 7, which is like getting kicked in the gut repeatedly by Malcolm McDowell. The anime adaptation is on a level with the dog episode of Futurama and that's heavily watered down compared to the novel.
And speaking of the anime, if you enjoyed it you should definitely read the books. The series did a good job of showing all the main points in the story, but there are lots of great details that had to be discarded, such as Minori teaching Ryuuji to ski, or the full extent of Taiga's plan to win the swimming contest. The worst is the treatment of Koigakubo-sensei -- in the novels, she's an unbelievably excellent teacher who just happens to have a horrible social life, while the anime turns her into a complete butt-monkey whose entire raison d'etre is to find a man and get married. Ami suffers to a lesser extent in the last third of the series as the last part of her character arc (in which she comes to hate Ryuuji and herself for the trouble they've caused) is abandoned in favor of making her another harem girl. (Although I do have to credit the anime writers for giving her the best line of the series: "Talking to you is like having my period.")
The anime does improve on one thing from the novels -- Taiga's delirious speech at the end of book 8 rambles on far too long after revealing the key piece of information, while the anime boils it down to the simple but effective declaration
None of this should be taken as a slam against the anime -- it truly is one of the best series ever done, it just isn't as good as the novels, which deserve proper American releases with a good marketing department behind them so they're read by people besides geeks.
[1] Tsundere is a Japanese term that can be roughly translated as "bitch bitch, lovey dovey" -- basically a character that behaves like Princess Leia does around Han Solo.
First, note that these novels haven't been licensed in the US, so you have only two options for reading them -- (1) learn Japanese and import them from Amazon.co.jp, or (2) read the bootleg translations from Baka Tsuki. I opted for the latter, and while the translations are kinda rough in places ("Where's the delinquent Takasu!? Come and help us.") they're entirely readable, to the point that I managed to devour volumes 5 and 6 in a single day (roughly equivalent to reading a 500 page book in one sitting).
The plot is a straight-forward rom-com set-up: Taiga and Ryuuji are high school students in love with the other's best friend. Upon figuring this out, they decide to help each other out, but in the process end up falling in love with each other. There are lots of incidents along the way, most of them standard tropes for a Japanese school series (summer vacation, the class trip, the school festival).
But what elevates this series is the characters. Upon first introduction, everyone seems to fit into standard archetypes that should be familiar to anyone who's watched even a little anime: Ryuuji is the Ordinary High School Student; Kitamura the Class Representative; Taiga the tsundere[1]; Ami the Libby; Minori the Cloudcuckoolander. But Yuyuko Takemiya isn't content to let her characters languish as stock figures, but instead uses the story as a psychological study to examine what such characters would be like in real life.
Take Taiga. We first encounter her when she decks Ryuuji for simply bumping into her in the hallway. A little later she nearly beats him to death in order to retrieve a love letter she stuck in his backpack by mistake. Even once they become friends, she continually refers to him as a "dog" and slaps him around if he gets out of line. All of which is typical tsundere behavior, and most authors would treat it as simply humorous. And as with a tsundere, Takemiya slowly reveals that this attitude is armor that shields Taiga's soft, gooey interior, but she then proceeds to ask the question that other authors ignore -- what sort of screwed up circumstances would lead a girl to act this way.
The answer is that Taiga has severe abandonment issues: her father kicked her out of the house for not getting along with her step-mom and set her up in a luxury condominium with a large monthly stipend, and her natural mother wants nothing to do with her. When we finally meet Taiga's father, he turns out to be one of the few totally despicable characters in the series. His explanation for why he abandoned Taiga is absolutely gut-wrenching -- she's blood, so she has to love him whatever he does, while his wife requires effort to keep around. Can you blame her for being a bitch?
Ryuuji has the inverse problem. His mother ran away from home when she became pregnant with him in high school. She now works as a hostess in a businessmen's bar (i.e., she's paid to flirt with customers and get them to buy lots of drinks), and comes home every morning so drunk she's lucky if she makes it to her bed before passing out. All the burdens of taking care of her and maintaining the household -- cooking, cleaning, shopping -- fall upon Ryuuji. And he does it gladly, because he's a good boy. And when he sees the state in which Taiga lives, he instinctively begins taking care of her as well, going to extraordinary lengths to make her life better. Because he's a good boy. When he finds out Ami has a stalker, he immediately offers to help her. Because he's a good boy. When his friend Kitamura faces a personal crisis, Ryuuji tries to help him. Because he's a good boy. As the story progresses, Ryuuji takes on more and more burdens to help others, often at the cost of his own goals, until in the final three books the weight becomes too much and he begins cracking under all the pressure.
But by far the most fascinating character in the series is Ami, a famous teen model who's been forced to take a break from her career because of a stalker. Her genuine personality is acidic yet strangely likeable, but as a teenager working in a world of adults, she's cocooned herself with a fake persona, Ami-chan, a cute, sweet airhead. When she returns to the world of her peers, she no longer knows how to act, and for the first few books she's the closest thing the story has to an antagonist as she takes a dislike to Taiga and tries to get at her through Ryuuji (though it's never clear, even to her, whether she's doing it out of spite or if she has feelings for Ryuuji). But her real problem is, having spent so much time around adults, she understands nuances that the other characters are still discovering, giving her an uncanny ability to understand what's going on around her. Yet her attempts to warn Ryuuji are either ignored or end with someone getting hurt. The more she tries, the worse things get and the more she loathes herself.
Minori is an enigmatic character, seeming to be aloof and wacky, yet we get occasional glimpses of the depths she's hiding, such as in the fourth volume when Ryuuji finally gets up the nerve to ask if she has a boyfriend, and she replies with a seeming non-sequitur about ghosts and UFOs. But as she goes on for several pages on the subject, we begin to see that she's actually using a spectacularly extended metaphor to explain her feelings on love. But these revelations about Minori's inner mind are sporadic, and she remains a puzzle far longer than any other character. Even the ever-insightful Ami doesn't fully comprehend the extent of Minori's mask until the end of book 8, and when she finally figures it out she is astounded:
"Amin, why are you mentioning this?"
Hearing this question, Ami's response was: "Because you've always been playing dumb. I. Think. You. Are. Truly. Amazing. You can just pretend as though nothing has happened, say whatever suits you just to get through the occasion.... You really know how to act like a goody-goody."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I wonder, what was that supposed to mean?"
By contrast, Kitamura is a simple character. Although he too wears a mask (if you can't tell, the mask is a central theme to this series), it's more straightforward than the others -- at school, where he's the student council vice president, class representative, and captain of the softball team, he's serious and businesslike, but get him away and he becomes a wild-and-crazy guy with an penchant for exhibitionism. He does have a reason for this dichotomy, and once that reason is removed he relaxes his mask at school.
Honestly, these are some of my favorite characters in all literature. I would place Ryuuji, Minori and Kitamura at the same level as Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood, while Taiga and Ami come close to toppling Samwise Gamgee from the top spot.
The other thing I love about this series is that there are no significant villains. Sure, Ami's antagonistic when she first appears, but it's not because she's a bad person -- and in truth, it's Taiga who's the biggest obstacle to peace between them. There's also Ami's stalker, but he's little more than a plot device to bring the characters together. Even the one significant fight in the series, Taiga vs Kano Sumire, begins with Taiga thinking,
Was this the wrong thing to do? It could be the wrong thing to do, but Taiga didn't know.
She only knew that she wouldn't stop.
She was already unable to stop.
The only character who is an out-and-out bad guy is Taiga's father, and he only appears in a single book.
Hegel once observed that the truest form of tragedy is when two equally correct but mutually exclusive ideals come into conflict. Though this series isn't tragic, Takemiya takes a similar approach to create a situation where no matter what anyone does, someone will get hurt. What keeps the story going is that these characters are all good people, and when they're presented with the choice of hurting someone else or getting hurt, they choose to take the pain upon themselves. The whole series could've ended by book 7 if even one character decided to act selfishly.
But despite the lack of villains, Takemiya still finds a way to end each book with a cathartic climax (except #4, which is a quiet character study with an insignificant climax followed by a satisfying denouement). Most of these are major heart-breakers, such as the revelation of how big a jerk Taiga's father is in book 5, Taiga deciding to take down Kano Sumire in book 6, and her near-death experience in book 8. But the best of them is book 7, which is like getting kicked in the gut repeatedly by Malcolm McDowell. The anime adaptation is on a level with the dog episode of Futurama and that's heavily watered down compared to the novel.
And speaking of the anime, if you enjoyed it you should definitely read the books. The series did a good job of showing all the main points in the story, but there are lots of great details that had to be discarded, such as Minori teaching Ryuuji to ski, or the full extent of Taiga's plan to win the swimming contest. The worst is the treatment of Koigakubo-sensei -- in the novels, she's an unbelievably excellent teacher who just happens to have a horrible social life, while the anime turns her into a complete butt-monkey whose entire raison d'etre is to find a man and get married. Ami suffers to a lesser extent in the last third of the series as the last part of her character arc (in which she comes to hate Ryuuji and herself for the trouble they've caused) is abandoned in favor of making her another harem girl. (Although I do have to credit the anime writers for giving her the best line of the series: "Talking to you is like having my period.")
The anime does improve on one thing from the novels -- Taiga's delirious speech at the end of book 8 rambles on far too long after revealing the key piece of information, while the anime boils it down to the simple but effective declaration
None of this should be taken as a slam against the anime -- it truly is one of the best series ever done, it just isn't as good as the novels, which deserve proper American releases with a good marketing department behind them so they're read by people besides geeks.
[1] Tsundere is a Japanese term that can be roughly translated as "bitch bitch, lovey dovey" -- basically a character that behaves like Princess Leia does around Han Solo.
July 18, 2016
¿Qué puedo decir? Un final precioso, emotivo, cargado de momentos memorables, tanto alegres como tristes. La satisfacción de ver a dos personajes muy queridos, siendo felices, me hace creer en la humanidad.
A veces es necesario dejarte ir, y en palabras de un personaje que admiro mucho: aunque nuestros seres queridos muchas veces no puedan estar físicamente con nosotros, no significa que no nos quieran o que no nos apoyen; ellos siempre cuidarán de nosotros. Claro que mientras uno crece se va a topar con momentos llenos de confusión y asfixia, sin embargo, tendremos amigos y familia que estarán a nuestro lado, impulsándonos a seguir adelante.
De eso se trata este último volumen de Toradora! y vaya... no podría pedir algo más hermoso.
Gracias a Yuyuko Takemiya por crear a una de mis parejas favoritas desde siempre, y gracias a la traducción por darnos la oportunidad de leer los diez volúmenes en español.
Totalmente recomendable.
A veces es necesario dejarte ir, y en palabras de un personaje que admiro mucho: aunque nuestros seres queridos muchas veces no puedan estar físicamente con nosotros, no significa que no nos quieran o que no nos apoyen; ellos siempre cuidarán de nosotros. Claro que mientras uno crece se va a topar con momentos llenos de confusión y asfixia, sin embargo, tendremos amigos y familia que estarán a nuestro lado, impulsándonos a seguir adelante.
De eso se trata este último volumen de Toradora! y vaya... no podría pedir algo más hermoso.
Gracias a Yuyuko Takemiya por crear a una de mis parejas favoritas desde siempre, y gracias a la traducción por darnos la oportunidad de leer los diez volúmenes en español.
Totalmente recomendable.
August 15, 2020
The series is complete. The finale was good, but felt a little thin. I think the author could have fleshed it out a little more, but I still love all the characters!
February 28, 2021
Great finish to an amazing series. I will also say that, being a huge fan of the anime, this volume caught me off guard and it was like experiencing a new story.
October 19, 2015
Fue hermoso, incluso mejor que el anime, en general, me ha gustado más la forma en que llevan la trama.
Fuera de eso, la autora no me descepciona como nunca lo ha hecho, y logró un final digno de tan preciosa historia. No creí poder leer todos los vols en menos de un mes, pero lo logré, ¡Yay!
Normalmente me aburro de leer más de dos libros de una misma saga de forma consecutiva, pero esta historia lo hizo, porque engancha y está muy linda, además de sus reflexiones sobre el amor y la madurez que nos deja.
Cómico a ratos, otros emotivo, recomendado totalmente. ¿A qué esperais?
Obvio 5/5
Gracias, Takemiya-san, por darnos tan preciosa saga.
Fuera de eso, la autora no me descepciona como nunca lo ha hecho, y logró un final digno de tan preciosa historia. No creí poder leer todos los vols en menos de un mes, pero lo logré, ¡Yay!
Normalmente me aburro de leer más de dos libros de una misma saga de forma consecutiva, pero esta historia lo hizo, porque engancha y está muy linda, además de sus reflexiones sobre el amor y la madurez que nos deja.
Cómico a ratos, otros emotivo, recomendado totalmente. ¿A qué esperais?
Obvio 5/5
Gracias, Takemiya-san, por darnos tan preciosa saga.
April 8, 2021
Such a sweet ending to a beautiful series. I could really feel the love between Ryuuji and Taiga. I’m glad they finally realized how much they meant to one another.
I loved this series as a whole. It made me laugh. It made me happy and it definitely made me cry. The characters and storyline were interesting and relatable. I definitely had flashbacks to my own high school days! I definitely recommend this light novel series.
It was truly an honor to watch the tiger and dragon find their way to each other... like how it’s meant to be.
I loved this series as a whole. It made me laugh. It made me happy and it definitely made me cry. The characters and storyline were interesting and relatable. I definitely had flashbacks to my own high school days! I definitely recommend this light novel series.
It was truly an honor to watch the tiger and dragon find their way to each other... like how it’s meant to be.
July 22, 2024
Toradora! Vol. 10
Rating: 10/10
In this world, there's something that no one has ever seen.
"I'm a dragon. You're a tiger. Since forever, the only creature strong enough to stand by a tiger has been the dragon. Because of that, I'll become Ryu-a dragon-and I'll keep on standing by your side."
Something gentle and oh-so-sweet.
"What... What is that?! Who actually knows what I think of you?! Who's supposed to know?! No one should know because I haven't told anyone! Because I don't know either!"
If anyone ever saw it, they'd surely want it for themselves.
"Minori-chan is the sun. If you're by her, you'll burn up and disappear, I think. If you just yearn for her, you'll never be equal. But you could become equal with someone-someone like me."
But that's precisely why no one's ever seen it.
"...I think it would be nice if you saw a ghost someday," he finally managed. "I hope you'll want to see one. It might be mean to say this, since you get scared easily, but I think that there is a ghost in this world that wants you to see it...or something."
In order to keep it safe, the world hid it away.
"While she was alive, she would probably always be alone. Like she had been until then, forever from there on out, she would probably be alone. It was her fate for being born to her parents. There wasn't anything she could do about it."
But someday, someone will find it.
"I just like Ryuuji, no matter what I do... I want thinks to work out for him with Minorin... It's so hard. It's just so hard, everything is so hard... I can't..."
Only the one who was meant to have it will find it, in the end.
"I can't bear to see you dealing with anything that makes you sad. I don't want to suffer anymore, either, but if all of that sad stuff and hard stuff and unbearable stuff brought us here-if it brought me to you, if it made you come to me, then it's all precious to me. The effect your existence has on my whole world-" ...is what was keeping me together, I think.
That's how it's meant to be.
Both moving at one, they grabbed each other's hand and turned their face to each other and smiled. Their new days start once more from here
Rating: 10/10
In this world, there's something that no one has ever seen.
"I'm a dragon. You're a tiger. Since forever, the only creature strong enough to stand by a tiger has been the dragon. Because of that, I'll become Ryu-a dragon-and I'll keep on standing by your side."
Something gentle and oh-so-sweet.
"What... What is that?! Who actually knows what I think of you?! Who's supposed to know?! No one should know because I haven't told anyone! Because I don't know either!"
If anyone ever saw it, they'd surely want it for themselves.
"Minori-chan is the sun. If you're by her, you'll burn up and disappear, I think. If you just yearn for her, you'll never be equal. But you could become equal with someone-someone like me."
But that's precisely why no one's ever seen it.
"...I think it would be nice if you saw a ghost someday," he finally managed. "I hope you'll want to see one. It might be mean to say this, since you get scared easily, but I think that there is a ghost in this world that wants you to see it...or something."
In order to keep it safe, the world hid it away.
"While she was alive, she would probably always be alone. Like she had been until then, forever from there on out, she would probably be alone. It was her fate for being born to her parents. There wasn't anything she could do about it."
But someday, someone will find it.
"I just like Ryuuji, no matter what I do... I want thinks to work out for him with Minorin... It's so hard. It's just so hard, everything is so hard... I can't..."
Only the one who was meant to have it will find it, in the end.
"I can't bear to see you dealing with anything that makes you sad. I don't want to suffer anymore, either, but if all of that sad stuff and hard stuff and unbearable stuff brought us here-if it brought me to you, if it made you come to me, then it's all precious to me. The effect your existence has on my whole world-" ...is what was keeping me together, I think.
That's how it's meant to be.
Both moving at one, they grabbed each other's hand and turned their face to each other and smiled. Their new days start once more from here
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 20, 2022
👏👏
Easily better than the anime. The basic plot of the ending here is the same, but some subtle differences make all the difference. The confession is different (and more powerful); the withdrawal from school is different (both its presentation and its timing); the final scene in particular is very different (and much better IMO). Taiga ends up getting to stay enrolled at Ryuuji's school for their senior year, illustrating that truism of "If you love something, set it free; if it comes back, it was meant to be." In addition to these differences, Ryuuji and Taiga's actions make more sense with the inner monologue we get in the print medium.
Despite already knowing the basic plot from the show, reading the books was a totally fresh experience. Getting to watch these characters fall in love all over again was heartwarming, to say the least. But beyond that, getting to watch them grow--specifically by giving themselves permission to want things, to strive for loving and being loved--gave that needed catharsis which, I must admit, felt rushed/undernourished in the anime adaptation.
Bravo!
Easily better than the anime. The basic plot of the ending here is the same, but some subtle differences make all the difference. The confession is different (and more powerful); the withdrawal from school is different (both its presentation and its timing); the final scene in particular is very different (and much better IMO). Taiga ends up getting to stay enrolled at Ryuuji's school for their senior year, illustrating that truism of "If you love something, set it free; if it comes back, it was meant to be." In addition to these differences, Ryuuji and Taiga's actions make more sense with the inner monologue we get in the print medium.
Despite already knowing the basic plot from the show, reading the books was a totally fresh experience. Getting to watch these characters fall in love all over again was heartwarming, to say the least. But beyond that, getting to watch them grow--specifically by giving themselves permission to want things, to strive for loving and being loved--gave that needed catharsis which, I must admit, felt rushed/undernourished in the anime adaptation.
Bravo!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 12, 2023
I'm so not ready to finish with this story.
I can't think of anything review-wise about the story itself, because basically all the stuff in my head right now are about comparing it to the anime.
The adaptation changed A LOT from the source material and I think they did it a disservice. The characters actions make much more sense in the novel, and there were so many scenes that I would have loved to watch but they were either changed or completely cut out (Haruta's masterful distraction, Yuri putting her career on the line for Ryuuji and Taiga, Ryuuji's punishment coming back to bite the teachers in the ass).
There are few things the anime did do better though, like providing explanations to some plotlines that were seemingly dropped in the novel (e.g. which was the second photo in Taiga's book, Kitamura's plan to go to America). I also love the scene where Taiga's mom gradually loses her shit over several voicemails and I'm kinda bummed that wasn't in the actual novel because the description would have been *chef's kiss*.
IDK if I should move on to the manga now or do an immediate reread of the light novels
I can't think of anything review-wise about the story itself, because basically all the stuff in my head right now are about comparing it to the anime.
The adaptation changed A LOT from the source material and I think they did it a disservice. The characters actions make much more sense in the novel, and there were so many scenes that I would have loved to watch but they were either changed or completely cut out (Haruta's masterful distraction, Yuri putting her career on the line for Ryuuji and Taiga, Ryuuji's punishment coming back to bite the teachers in the ass).
There are few things the anime did do better though, like providing explanations to some plotlines that were seemingly dropped in the novel (e.g. which was the second photo in Taiga's book, Kitamura's plan to go to America). I also love the scene where Taiga's mom gradually loses her shit over several voicemails and I'm kinda bummed that wasn't in the actual novel because the description would have been *chef's kiss*.
IDK if I should move on to the manga now or do an immediate reread of the light novels
March 14, 2022
Running away without much of a plan after a fight in the middle of winter is never a good idea. It also does not solve the underlying issues much. It takes a bit of time and struggle, but Ryuuji and Taiga realize as much and try to find a more permanent solution.
The conclusion to the series is a bit of an emotional roller-coaster about family and friendship, quiet well-written and a solid ending. It does overshadow some of the regular absurd over-the-top humorous situations that is also part of this volume. Personally I prefer the absurd situations to the drama, but I am glad I finished the series and ultimately really enjoyed it.
The conclusion to the series is a bit of an emotional roller-coaster about family and friendship, quiet well-written and a solid ending. It does overshadow some of the regular absurd over-the-top humorous situations that is also part of this volume. Personally I prefer the absurd situations to the drama, but I am glad I finished the series and ultimately really enjoyed it.
January 7, 2026
my only complaint about my experience reading the light novels would be the fact that the veiled kiss didn’t happen in this volume :/
anyhow i’ve seriously had the time of my life reading the light novels. it’s taken so much time and patience and now it’s over and ahhhh i feel so empty. toradora was my companion for so long i feel so hungover like wtf i MISS TORADORA. and rereading or rewatching just won’t be the same i need MORE. sobbing rn. 🥺💘
in conclusion: yuyuko yakemiya could write romeo and juliet but shakespeare could NEVER write the finale of toradora. i am never recovering emotionally.
anyhow i’ve seriously had the time of my life reading the light novels. it’s taken so much time and patience and now it’s over and ahhhh i feel so empty. toradora was my companion for so long i feel so hungover like wtf i MISS TORADORA. and rereading or rewatching just won’t be the same i need MORE. sobbing rn. 🥺💘
in conclusion: yuyuko yakemiya could write romeo and juliet but shakespeare could NEVER write the finale of toradora. i am never recovering emotionally.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 15, 2021
A very good finale to a good series. The end felt a bit short - not rushed, but I would have liked to know more about Taiga's situation and feelings. But overall the book had very good, emotional scenes that concluded this romcom in a very good way.
March 1, 2022
Review to come!!
December 31, 2025
Read/rated in grade school.
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