One of the strongest suits of Toradora! is its ability to tell an incredibly heart-wrenching story with characters that are so realistically written. They're impossible to fully understand after only a single watch, which is always extra appreciated by fans who love re-watching their favorite shows again and again. Since the characters inhabiting the series' universe are fully realized instead of one-note stereotypes, it isn't always possible for viewers to understand why a character would act in certain ways.
On the other hand, there are some moments that solidify characters as fan-favorites for an incredibly long time to come because of just how human they come across. That wonderfully frustrating duality is what keeps fans coming back, yearning for the entire experience once again, with all of the bliss and pain that comes with it.
10 Related To: Lack Of A Clear Future
Thankfully, as viewers blossom into adulthood and have more time to experience various facets of life, somewhat of a clear vision starts to form and the unknown starts seeming less, well, terrifying.
However, viewers tend to try to place themselves into the minds of the main characters in these sorts of shows. Picture being around Taiga's age, close to graduating with no one close to truly help guide her through such a scary and transformative time. It's hard not to feel sympathetic for her, even if one can't directly relate to her entire situation.
9 Didn't Get: Blaming Ryuuji For Her Shortcomings
Taiga isn't the most well-adjusted when it comes to her social skills, which can clearly be seen in many of her interactions involving her longtime crush, Kitamura. Ryuuji helps set up quite a few opportunities for the two to be alone together, but Taiga - getting unbearably flustered at the thought - aggressively and immediately shuts these ideas down every time.
If it just ended there, it'd be understandable, but she then always goes the extra mile to get upset with Ryuuji as if it was his fault she can't hold a conversation with her crush.
8 Related To: Grudge Against Her Father
It's hard not to feel bad for Taiga upon learning that whenever she expressed her feelings of being unable to live with her father's new wife, she got dumped into a giant apartment by herself with no knowledge of how to properly care for herself. Taiga was only given funds each month as if she was just another expense to her father. When he did bother popping into Taiga's life, it would only suit him, and he'd flake out to any promises he might make her.
So it's completely understandable that Taiga wants nothing to do with the man, even when he acts like he's trying to make amends.
7 Didn't Get: Attacking Ryuuji
In the first episode, Taiga confuses Ryuuji's bag for her crush Kitamura's, and the former ends up with a love letter that wasn't meant for him. Taiga shows up at his apartment that night wielding an imitation sword (with surprising skill, considering her status as a clutz) and says that since she didn't want to end her own life for mixing up their bags, she would just have to end his instead.
Naturally, this doesn't make a single lick of sense, and it's just a very good thing that Ryuuji had a defense - that Taiga forgot to put the love letter in the envelope.
6 Related To: Frustration Over Other's Perception
Viewers are immediately introduced to Taiga as the nickname others had given her around campus - the Palmtop Tiger. It is hard for both viewers and other characters in the series to separate her from this label at times due to how she acts.
This is all a front to hide Taiga's true feelings, though, and she gets incredibly frustrated when others act like they are experts on the stuff going on inside her head. Everyone can relate to that.
5 Didn't Get: Turning Down Kitamura
With how much effort Taiga put into confessing her feelings to Kitamura, though it's in her own special way, it's easy to forget that she actually turned him down the year prior.
Taiga was shocked by his sudden confession and immediately turned him down. No matter how put-off she was by the sudden nature of Kitamura's methods, to go as far as to flat-out reject him just doesn't make a lot of sense given how head-over-heels she is for him.
4 Related To: Her Eating Habits
Taiga's eating habits - especially when she had no idea how to cook or even clean up after herself - can be painfully relatable for some viewers, at least whenever they were going through the same period of their lives.
It's quite easy to fall into the trap of eating instant convenience store food over taking the time to learn how to cook for oneself. Taiga eventually begins skipping meals because she gets sick of eating such unhealthy food all the time. This is a surprisingly realistic addition to the series, as typically characters can eat unhealthy without consequence.
3 Didn't Get: Shoving Aside Her Feelings
For most of the series, Taiga is quick to deny any hints that she might have feelings for Ryuuji. This is shown to be false at the end of the ski trip when she confesses to who she thinks is Kitamura that she can't stop loving Ryuuji.
What doesn't make sense is how Taiga tries even more persistently than ever to shove Ryuuji and Minori together after this, even when he's showing clear signs of infatuation for her. It almost becomes too irritating to re-watch.
2 Related To: Insistence On Independence
It's no secret that Taiga is an absolute hopeless clutz and is prone to injure herself if left alone, as Ryuuji is quick to point out rather soon after meeting her.
Despite this, Taiga rejects any and all help that's offered to her, and she constantly insists that she's absolutely fine even when it's clear she's anything but. The decision to hide one's emotional vulnerabilities for fear of only getting hurt further is something that almost everyone has experienced, even if it isn't healthy.
1 Didn't Get: Sudden Disappearance
It's hard to argue against Toradora!'s final scene, when Taiga reunites with Ryuuji, being one of the cutest in the entire show, but her actions proceeding this are less than ideal. It makes perfect sense for Taiga to want to spend time in a new environment improving herself, but leaving for an entire school year without sending anything to her loved ones but a vague picture of the stars is just cruel.
It makes even less sense when it's shown that other versions of the story have Taiga only leave for a month, which at least makes her lack of communication a little more excusable.