Toradora! Manga Volume 01 Review

とらドラ！

Toradora! Vol. 01 (manga)   --> BUY FROM RIGHTSTUF!
                                              --> BUY FROM BARNES & NOBLE!
                                              --> BUY FROM BUY.COM!

*SPOILERS!*

As a big fan of the Toradora! anime series, I'd love to be able to read the source light novel series. Unfortunately, those aren't licensed and aren't likely to be licensed.  Even if they were, most companies probably wouldn't do them in a way I would find acceptable so why bother? *_*  So, even though I don't normally go for manga adaptations of light novels and anime titles, I decided that in this one instance, I'd give Seven Seas some love and pick this up. 

The story, in brief, features high school student TAKASU Ryuuji, who is a really nice guy though he looks like a yakuza thug.  Ryuuji's single mother, Yasuko, aka: "Ya-chan," works at a hostess club and so is out most of the night and sleeps during the day while Ryuuji is at school.  Ryuuji has a crush on KUSHIEDA Minori, but can't act on it. Also in his class is AISAKA Taiga, who's a short but pretty girl who's known as the Palmtop Tiger, who's just as feared as Ryuuji is. When Ryuuji accidentally bumps into her, they immediately clash. However, when Taiga accidentally puts a love letter in Ryuuji's bag and breaks into his house to get it back, the two start an unusual partnership.

Taiga has a crush on Ryuuji's best friend, KITAMURA Yuusaku. Taiga's best friend is Minori. Thus, Taiga and Ryuuji agree to help each other hook up with their crushes and begin a series of plans to accomplish this.  At the same time, Taiga, who's living alone in the luxury apartment tower next to Ryuuji's house, starts spending more time with Ryuuji and Yasuko, eating meals with them and even sleeping over sometimes. Ryuuji even begins making her bento lunches for school. Their first plans don't go according to plan, but the way Ryuuji and Taiga are acting together, combined with being seen together outside of school, rumors start swirling about the two.

As I said earlier, I don't normally do these kinds of adaptations.  When I saw that Takemiya-sensei, who wrote the original light novel series, also wrote the manga, I felt that this would be as close to the original light novels as we are likely to come in English, even if there are some differences according to the manga's artist Zekkyo-sensei.  Well, that's not a problem because Takemiya-sensei may decide to tweak things that may not have been quite up to her specks in the light novel, or she may have decided to try out some new things. Either way, I'm good.

Zekkyo-sensei's character designs took a bit to get used to since I'm so attached with the anime character designs. However, they grew on me over time, which is a good thing.

This volume of the manga covered the first six chapters of manga as well as an omake chapter featuring "Ya-chan" and how she spends her day and night. 

As to the story, I have to admit that I enjoyed getting back into the world of Toradora! even though I know how it will all end and the medium from which I'm re-entering that world is different.  Well, a really good story will do that for you and make each return visit a pleasure.  That's the main reason to buy anime or manga, in my opinion.  So, now I'll have a manga with which to get a Toradora! fix when I can't rewatch the anime. ^_^

The light novels series ran for ten volumes with a three volume spinoff addition (which I found no information regarding content).  The manga is an ongoing, monthly publication in Japan.  However, the manga may not get published every month because as I look, the manga gets one volume released per year, meaning that volume 5 in Japan won't be published until the first of next year (2012). So, providing folks don't mind such a slow release schedule, we could be getting this in drips and drabs for years to come, assuming Seven Seas keeps the license or is still in business then (not that I'm suggesting anything, but we all know that a lot can happen over the course of a year).

Speaking of Seven Seas, they've long gotten a "thumbs-up" from me for doing manga (and even light novels) in an ANB-approved form, meaning Japanese honorifics are retained. Seven Seas goes a step beyond by keeping the names in their proper Japanese form, which I approve of completely. ^_^  Seven Seas also had a few translator notes, and I'm always supportive of them.

Sadly, I realize my blog hasn't given Seven Seas a lot of love, but I plan to add Toradora! to the manga blogging list and at least make it up a tiny bit to them. ^_^