Toradora!

[Ryllharu]

Based off the light novel series.

Toradora!'s story begins with the male protagonist Ryuuji Takasu who is frustrated at trying to look his best as he enters his second year of high school. Despite his gentle personality, he has a natural outer-appearance which makes him look like an intimidating delinquent so he is utterly hopeless about his chances of getting a girlfriend anytime soon, and does not have many close friends either.

After being greeted by his hungover mother in the morning, Ryuuji goes to school and is happy to find that he gets to be in the same class as his best friend, Yūsaku Kitamura, and crush, Minori Kushieda. However, it is then that he unexpectedly knocks into "the school's most dangerous animal of the highest risk level" — Taiga Aisaka — who just happens to also be in his class.
[description courtesy of mangaupdates]

The series stars, surprise, Rie Kugimiya (Shana, ZnT, FMA) as Taiga and Junji Mjima (Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, Goshūshō-sama Ninomiya-kun) as Ryuuji. It also features Yui Horie, Ai Nonaka, Rie Tanaka, Eri Kitamura (Blood+, Minami-ke), Sayaka Ohara (Geass, ARIA), and Hirofumi Nojima (RahXephon, ARIA).

First episode out by gg:
Toradora! 01 [gg] (h264)


EDIT:

Content aside, while I enjoyed the slightly more evil version of Rie Kugimiya characters, what I really liked was the surprise (to me) appearance of Rie Tanaka as their teacher. Her fearful, high-speed monologue about it not being her place to tell Ryuuji what do with his life or even give him advice has me greatly amused. That and the disgusting bird.

[oyabun]

Yes! Here's the start of the new anime season. thanks!

[animus]

I have to say I'm not used to Kugimiya Rie's non-loli voice.

I read the chapters awhile back and it reminded me of the Angel Densetsu manga (Ryuuji's scary eyes->scary face).

[oyabun]

She's still loli to me hehe. Her voice kinda gets tiring though, Shana, Louise and now this. But I like how the characters are slightly different. Usually the Protagonist crush aside from the main girl is timid, shy and boring, now we get an outgoing one.

[David75]

She's still loli to me hehe. Her voice kinda gets tiring though, Shana, Louise and now this. But I like how the characters are slightly different. Usually the Protagonist crush aside from the main girl is timid, shy and boring, now we get an outgoing one.

Exactly, a lot of the basic script is identical to Zero no Tsukaïma I hope it get interresting in the next episodes.

[Yukimura]

Pretty funny first episode, I'm not used to seeing wrathful loli's cold cocking people for the egregious crime of bumping into them in a crowded hallway. But hearing the Louise-voice say Baka and Inu reminds me strongly of ZnT which I would rather just forget at this point.

Anyway, I've heard some scattered reports (from light novel readers with loose tounges) that it doesn't quite go in the same direction as ZnT does in terms of character development. They do both like other people starting out so I'm hoping this means the story tries something different and actually lets the leads pursue their original love interests instead of falling for each other and turning into a Tsundere and man-bitch.

[animus]

I doubt it'd turn out that way. The name of the anime is Toradora. Tora (Tiger) and Dora (Doragon, their engrish way of saying Dragon). Which means it's highly highly likely they end up with each other.

[Yukimura]

All that the name actually implies is that the main characters (Tora and Dora) are going to interact on some level. The only thing supporting the notion that they'll end up abandoning their pre-established crushes and falling in love with one another is the fact that it's happened so much in previous stories.

If it does happen in this series then it'll be nothing but a Lovely Complex rip off replacing abnormal height with abnormal intimidation ability as the gimmick linking the protagonists. I'd like to keep hoping that we can expect more from series in this genre than a rehash of the same old story with different characters.

[Kraco]

I'd like to keep hoping that we can expect more from series in this genre than a rehash of the same old story with different characters.

That's a bold hope...

I wish the dude actually was a bit more of a badass, and didn't only look like one. It'd be sad if he becomes completely subjugated by the Palm Tiger.

[Ryllharu]

From the looks of things, while Taiga certainly ordered him around in this episode, it looks like she's completely incompetent at her attempts to confess her love. It's possible that with his self-proclaimed experience of making mix tapes and other creepy things one does to attract a girl during the 1980s, that he'll be the one ordering around the extremely nervous Taiga in matters of love.

The series will probably end up some really confusing mix of our standard Rie Kugimiya tsundere series and something like a reverse Koukou Debut. I think calling it a rehash of Lovely Complex is a bit premature, though I understand where that view might stem from.

[narutosharingan]

There is also a sub by Mayu-Genjo. Are they any good?

[KrayZ33]

That's a bold hope...

I wish the dude actually was a bit more of a badass, and didn't only look like one. It'd be sad if he becomes completely subjugated by the Palm Tiger.

well actually he is a bit of a badass...at least he doesn't lose to the Palm Tiger when it comes to bare strength (see the fight with the sword etc ^^), If

I like that guy alot and I hope he will envolve a strong personality and not someone who is acting like a slave later and keeps getting hit by the girl... he reminds me a bit of Kyon from Melancholy of Haruhi, nice to the girl, yet totally annoyed by her and he is acting very mature for his age (it looks like he is taking care of everything in the house and could live on his own without a problem). Again... like Kyon. In the moment I think it is a lot like Melancholy of Haruhi just with a bigger "love-complex"

first episode was very funny and since I haven't seen ZnT yet I can't compare it to that like you guys, but I wouldn't mind seeing the 2 fall for each other in the end
I actually prefer it if it ends a bit like in KimiKiss Pure Rouge (or Melancholy of Haruhi)

[Death BOO Z]

It seemed kinda nice, I like it.
decent characters personalities, some romance, some slice of life, doesn't shove the humor too much.

and I can understand the feeling of having a scary face

but this better not turn into a ZnT clone.

[KrayZ33]

Hmmm I actually wonder if it really is a romance-comedy anime or more of a slice of life comedy like Minami-ke now after I rewatched the first episode.

I can't imagine Taiga standing next to someone out of her class.... the difference in their height is really huge... it's not only because she is small, but she is _extremely_ small.
I doubt that it can get a bit more serious, even if they wanted to (for example during a confession scene or something like that)

[Marik]

Episode 2

gg - http://ggkthx.org/Torrents/%5Bgg%5D_...5D.mkv.torrent

Also a message from gg.

Translation Notes.

Toradora episode 2 has proven that J.C.Staff is able to channel the works of Yuyuko Takemiya properly. We didn’t want to spam the episode with text, so here’s me trying to explain:

Kitamura is being called Maruo by his classmates. This is because he really looks like Suneo Maruo from Chibi Maruko-chan, a typical nice-guy class leader type of person. You can hear Kihara (orange-haired girl) be all giddy about it, even when Kitamura wants them to stop calling him it. I think Yuyuko really likes Maruko-chan.

Minorin is tossing the basketball with 8 fingers, no thumbs, for some odd reason. While researching this I came over the character Satonaka Satoru from the anime and manga Dokaben. He has this pitch he does where he doesn’t use his thumb… and this in baseball. Minoris obsession with baseball blends in here as she’s trying to emulate the Satoru-ball, as it is called, with a basketball. And failed at it, too.

[animus]

Link's dead for me.

[Marik]

Their site seems to be down, it's not loading at all. I downloaded the ep last night, so it wa s there.

[KrayZ33]

Haha... I like the OP and that techno music during the "chase"

but for some reason everything happened a bit to fast imho and I'm confused about why the confession failed?
What wasn't clear for him when she said she loves him!? Even after she said that she and Ryuji are not together.
It's actually very hard to find out the characters feelings at the moment and everything looked a bit like

to me

I can see that Taiga and Ryuji have similiar problems because they are always so misunderstood by their classmates but I'd never thought that they develop such a good freindship so fast.

[David75]

gg's site is down as of yet.
Alternative source from mininova:
[gg] Toradora - 02 [0F4618AB] mkv 209Mb @ Mininova

[Ryllharu]

They really went through a lot of material, stupid stunts, confessions, misunderstandings, etc. Still, frankly, this episode was quite slow. I found myself getting a little bit bored at the end. The episode was kind of unfocused. I can't really think of all that much to really say about this episode.

I do like that the OP is different from the usual jpop we get in most series like this.