Cover art of the first DVD compilation released by King Records, featuring main characters Ryūji Takasu and Taiga Aisaka (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As I’ve alluded to on Twitter, I’ll readily admit that the character Aisaka Taiga of
Toradora! is a terrible person but she’s also fascinating because of how twisted she is; I realized probably why I like her as much as I do is she shares at least a few traits with my ex-wife, who, like Aisaka, had a terrible temper, was bipolar,
and had a reputation for shooting down almost every guy that approached her wanting to go out with her. When I met her friends, and she awkwardly introduced me saying this is “my boyfriend”, she did so slowly with rising intonation and a confused look including
scrunched up nose, as if she could scarcely believe what she was saying. All of her friends looked at me as something approaching awe, that somehow I had “tamed” this vicious tiger. Even she marveled at times how I’d somehow gotten past her defenses when
so many others had failed.
At least my ex-wife was not physically abusive and violent the way Aisaka Taiga is; but she was just as psychologically abusive as Taiga. Taiga is a type of character, a person consumed with anger and rage at the world generally. She
burns white hot. She’s an extreme Tsundere bordering on Yandere. She’s also flawed in that she’s not very introspective; she doesn’t spend a lot of time reflecting on her feelings, why she feels as she does. Therefore she’s not especially even all that
honest with herself about her conflicted feelings. She’s also profoundly lonely & depressed, though she’d never admit this to anyone. She’s a stereotypical “poor little rich girl”. She starts to fall for Ryuji because he pays attention to her and dotes
on her. He cleans her messy apartment, makes sure she gets up on time and eats a more regular, balanced diet. She wants to maintain an aloof Master-servant relationship with Ryuji but Taiga in her heart is far too passionate to be cool and aloof. Because
she’s not terribly introspective, she doesn’t even understand her own swirling emotions, which then proceed to make her more angry and confused.
Taiga’s ostensible love interest, Kitamura, is actually someone Taiga rejected in the recent past; She didn’t even know he existed when he confessed his love for her out of the blue. She rejected him as a matter of course but his confession
puts Kitamura on Taiga’s radar. She starts paying attention to him and starts falling for him, or at least, falling for the idea of him; driven, I suspect by her crippling inner loneliness. Her obsession with Kitamura borders on creepy stalker-y. She maintains
a brave façade but on the inside she’s dying. But in the real world it is Ryuji who is actually meeting Taiga’s needs, materially and emotionally. Kitamura can see this, Taiga can’t. It’s only when Taiga nearly loses Ryuji by a near drowning that her raw,
buried emotions are forced to the surface. It’s a very emotional scene that moved me to tears. It’s social outcast Ryuji who can best empathize with much feared Aisaka Taiga much more so than the ever popular, easy-going Kitamura (and Kitamura is well aware
of this fact as well). Once Ryuji is safe, Taiga can return to her fantasy infatuations with Kitamura and go back to denying her genuine feelings for Ryuji as anything more than a simple Master-Servant relationship. She goes back to being horrible to keep
Ryuji at arms length, but he continues to “kill with kindness”. Ryuji similarly indulges in his own fantasies about Minorin, who shows no interest in him (or any other guy, for that matter) beyond that of platonic friendship. He’s also directly confronted
by flirtatious and vivacious Ami, which sends Taiga into fits of jealous rage. Again, because Taiga doesn’t do introspection very well, she doesn’t reflect on why she’s feeling such intensely painful jealousy and possessiveness towards Ryuji. He means the
world to her but she just refuses to see it until she’s forced to by Ami or dire circumstances. Lesson learned: failure to be introspective and take a self-inventory only leads to greater emotional suffering. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to understanding
one’s own emotions. I’ll write more about Ami later as I see more of her character expanded, though for right now I don’t trust her. She’s two-faced and manipulative. But she also suffers in her own way and thanks to Taiga’s example, overcomes some of her
fears and insecurities. She is growing as a character, and I’m curious to see how it turns out for her.
