Yuyuko 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.
The ski trip should be a time to let loose and have fun, but the simmering resentments and hurt feelings brewing between everybody threaten to derail a good time. Then a blizzard and a missing Taiga combine to give Ryuuji an opportunity to hear something he probably shouldn’t have, but there’s a lot of that going around…
The worst thing about the Toradora! manga is how slow it is to get compiled volumes, as it is being published monthly in Japan, which means the wait for something so good can be incredibly excruciating.
I absolutely love this series, what a hot take, but after a couple years churning through wannabes and not-quites, it isn’t hard to see why. Toradora! totally gets it right when it needs to get it right and has a cast of the most memorable characters I’ve seen in one place.
Even with the huge time gap and no cast page (a nigh-unforgivable sin most times), I was immediately swept up with the story and rather happy to realize that I recognized all the major players. What a concept!
It doesn’t hurt that, despite knowing the ending, I have not engaged with the other incarnations of this story in any other way ahead of time, so this is all fresh to me. And so relevant, despite its age (the nods to the current time are appreciated, like the Minecraft omake and the Taiga in a mask chapter opener).
There’s just something I find magical about this story and, on paper (so to speak), absolutely none of it should work. It’s high teenage drama, tsundere as hell, the ‘guy looks fierce but is soft’ cliche, ridiculous situations, silly crushes. High school as all get out, basically.
But it does work and it works so well. Taiga’s scene with Ryuuji during the blizzard is kind of amazing in its way, but also leads to a ton of heartbreak, and that’s only one way that various people are just getting their feelings stomped on throughout.
Ami also has a blowout for the ages which reveals so much more about her than she might be intending. The ongoing drama that is Kushieda and Ryuuji? It’s all so good - especially the shenanigans where the boys try and make things right and just make it all so much worse. There are few books these days that I have absolutely zero chill for, like, none, but this is one of them.
5 stars - what would I change about this story? I would have all remaining volumes drawn and in my hands right this second. That’s what I would change. I don’t think this is perfect, but, to me, it (paradoxically) absolutely is.
The volume releases are right up there with Yotsuba&! for how slowly each volume comes out. Does it have to do with adding exclamation marks to the title? Well, two years after reading volume 9, it took me a moment to remember where I left off...it's a cute series, but I'm glad it's probably wrapping up soon.
La storia non è finita, o almeno, si affaccia sulle prospettive future. L'anime ha una conclusione diversa. La neve ha provocato più danni del previsto e ora i pensieri sono confusi e mescolati. A quale risultato si arriverà? Vedremo...
It's been 4 years since I read the previous volume... so I really had no idea what was going on. And they still haven't told each other how they feel. The ramen stuff was funny!
The anime is great. The light novel has more scenes and details but the manga really is my favorite way of reading Toradora. I love the art so much. I just wish that the volumes would come out more quickly. This story is almost to conclusion but it has taken WAY too long to get here. We probably have two more volumes left? This volume ends off with Ryuuji and Taiga not having any idea of what they want to do in the future after high school. Ryyuji is tired of watching his mother struggle to pay for everything so he wants to work immediately and Taiga is too rich to care about her future apparently….