PshycoNinja
Member
Man, I almost missed this. Glad I went back and looked for it.
So I can completely understand why you didn't care for the ending. But let me at least try to explain what the ending was going for so maybe you won't think it's "philosophical crap". Maybe.
The whole theme of the show is "running away from your problems". We see it right at the beginning with Ryuji trying to change his appearance in order to "run away" from his father's legacy. Ami transfers to Ryuji's school and stops modeling in order to run away from a creepy stalker. Taiga lives on her own in a trashed (until Ryuji cleans it up, at least) apartment because she can't stand living with either of her parents. Kitamura runs away from home and drops out of the student council so he won't have to face his feelings for President whatever her name is. Everyone in Toradora is running away from something. And at the end of the show, Taiga finally realizes that she can't keep running from her problems with her parents. Her relationship with her father is already broken beyond repair, due to him being a horrible person and all. But she can at least salvage her relationship with her mother. Hence why she leaves Ryuji and the rest to go live with her.
Now, do I think the show handled this perfectly? Noooooo, not at all. Like I said before, the LN handled this much better, only having Taiga go away for three months instead of over a year. It's a little unrealistic to think that two people as in love as Ryuji and Taiga were would go an entire year apart without seeing each other once. Granted, the show didn't explicitly say this, but it's fair to assume that in that year, they didn't see each other or even talk very much. Which is kinda silly and makes less and less sense the more you think about it. But whatever, anime drama.
My point here is that while I can totally understand why someone wouldn't care for the ending, at least try to understand what the author was going for. A message about why you shouldn't run away from your problems.
Oh I totally get that. I mean that's what most anime sets out to do. Teach a lesson or send a message. And Toradora really puts a lot of effort in making sure it's audience understands it's message. Just like how From the New World sets out to be a reflection on our society. Or how Clannad's message of family, forgiveness and hope were it's message.
There's a way to do it where the viewership can be left satisfied or even walk away with a powerful feeling of having the message received. Toradora could've just done a better job with it at the end.
And thanks for reading the review. I was starting to worry that you missed it since you were one of the posters that really wanted to watch it. ;P
Still love the show to death and that's why I am so hard on that ending is because everything else was almost flawless.
