Needless to say, Toradora has kept things interesting. Some say there have been lulls in the plot. Others have said that it has been entertaining throughout. I place my self squarely in the latter. Of the shows that I’m following, it is still the only one that I eagerly await and watch as soon as I have time. And, time, is one of my more precious commodities these days.

Toradora keeps on doing exactly what I expect but in ways that are very interesting to me. I’ve found it interesting that Ryuji has remained ignorant for so long. In other stories, his character would have already been slightly, if not wholly, aware of his romantic feelings toward the main female character. For their part, the other girls are completely aware of their feelings.  They seem to plainly accept it while grappling with the results and the conflicts they present.

However, our beloved Taiga is the exception.  I believe this is the reason so many of us have grown attached to her character. She’s unique in this story not because she isn’t aware of what she feels nor is it that she hides her emotions. If anything, it’s more along the lines of willfully giving into those emotions while denying the benefit.

If there is one common vein in the connections between characters in Toradora, it is that the characters were fixed in a direction and they continue in that direction no matter the results. Taiga chases Kitamura. Ryuji chases Minori. Kitamura had already set his eyes on someone other than Taiga. Minori altruistically attempts to ignore her feelings for Taiga’s sake. Ami, for her part, seems to want a rescue. From what? Her, adult life, more than likely.

What does this all lead to? Why is it important? What has kept my gaze fixed on this story for so long?

There are a lot of answers for those questions, but the one that comes to mind first has to do with why and what we feel (if you didn’t see that coming, you haven’t been reading my blog very long ).  I can sit and think. I can reason. I can do any number of things that any other person can do. I have some amount of control over my actions. The problem lies in the extent of control that I possess. No matter what I believe or how hard I try there will always be aspects of my self that are outside of my control. There are things that will freeze my heart and those that will warm it through and through. Some things that will cause joy and other things that will cause great sorrow. I live with the realization that I have no ability to control what I feel, only how I respond to it.

The way we feel, the thoughts and emotions that bubble up from events in our lives are often out of our control. Emotion is to reason, as Chaos is to mathematics. They are seemingly random and fierce, but there is a type of order and beauty to them. Yet, they have a butterfly effect of their own. Why is it that the smallest things sometimes stir the greatest of passions. It’s just a bit odd.

If you really want to understand what I am talking about. Think about this: Have you ever reasoned an emotion, or have you emotioned a reason? Logically, we can reason why we would feel a certain way. That doesn’t occur the other way around. In fact, it doesn’t even make sense reversed. Emotion is a stimulus response. When it isn’t, it is considered a disorder.  I find it very intriguing, these things that we call feelings. They exist with all the substance of the reaction of flesh to flame, but they are intimately part of our being.

How very odd, indeed.

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