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Vin_Howard2 said:
Well for the longest time it was "Angel Beats!" due to how much it touched me and reminded me that "Life is worth living." (which is kind of an ironic quote from a show taking place entirely in the afterlife :p )
But then I watched "Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor" and fell in love with how WONDERFULLY it did its characters. How real they felt and how much they developed. Not being the oversimplified or unreal characters 98% of shows have, but truly human characters.
But it still wasn't enough to topple "Angel Beats!" since DtB:GoM did not touch me like AB did.
But then I (by complete chance from the best misclick I have ever made in my life) found Toradora.
Quickly looking over the summary and using my knowledge of anime, I quickly figured it was going to go: "A like C; B likes D; A and B start helping each other get together with C and D, but in the processed, start falling in love with each other" and me being a sucker for a romance, jumped right on it.
I loved the series from the first instance. The animation, the characters, the pacing, all done PERFECTLY.
But as I watched more and more, the series started changing from the best romantic comedy about first love to something more complex (thou never to the point of putting a strain on the viewer) and with much more depth.
About halfway through, I drooped the idea that A and B would get together. Not because I saw evidence to the contradictory, but because I realized this was not a "perfect romance" but a real romance where anything was possible.
In addition, the characters felt real, surpassing even DtB. I know one of the characters I felt was too 2d compared to the rest of the main cast. But then there came episode 15+16 (though it felt more like 4+ episodes) which contained the best side-story I have ever seen in literature, all focusing on this character.
And then finally, I was foolish and read the comments on the youtube OST videos and saw a spoiler for the end, which indicated a sad ending.
So on the night I knew I was going to finish Toradora, I told myself "Tonight, I'm going to cry myself to sleep."
And I don't think I have ever cried that much before. I cried for much of the second to last, and for the entirety of the last episode. In fact, I remember crying during various parts of the main body of the anime (something I have NEVER done before, always saving my tears for the end). But at no point of the anime was I even CLOSE to being sad. For the first time I can remember, I had tears of happiness.
This anime covers young love, progressing into truer love, and then finally ends with the transition of child to adult. I have learned more from this anime then from any other anime.
And that is why Toradora is my fave anime.
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