Thanks to Ryuji spending so much time with Taiga, he also begins to grow closer to Minori. Minori is known as being the only student able to interact with and calm down Taiga when she’s on a rampage, proving that she’s a true friend of the Palmtop Tiger. Throughout the course of the volume we also discover that Ryuji has a crush on Taiga’s best friend, Minori Kushieda. Thus begins an unlikely friendship between the two perceived troublemakers of the school! As it turns out, it’s not just Taiga who’s having troubles with her love interest.

He also begins to feed her and clean up her apartment as Ryuji can’t bear to see how hopeless Taiga is. In exchange for discovering Taiga’s feelings for Kitamura, Ryuji promises to help her find a way to interact with her love interest and hopefully confess her feelings.

This all comes to an anti-climactic end when Taiga faints from hunger and Ryuji ends up feeding her – discovering in the process that Taiga lives on her own in the fancy apartment complex next door and doesn’t know how to fend for herself. This is both to take back the letter and to brutally assault Ryuji until he forgets everything he’s seen. However, Taiga accidentally places it in Ryuji’s bag instead and this mixup results in Taiga invading Ryuji’s house. Taiga has a crush on Ryuji’s best friend, Yusaku Kitamura, and attempts to slip a love letter into Kitamura’s bag. His appearance leads many students to believe he’s actually a delinquent! As he begins his second year, Ryuji wishes for nothing more than to clear up the misconceptions about him, however when he gets involved with “Palmtop Tiger”, Taiga Aisaka, Ryuji’s wish is likely to never be granted… Taiga is known as the most fearsome girl in the whole school, but under that tough exterior is a cute, shy and clumsy girl. Toradora! follows the story of Ryuji Takasu, who despite having a gentle personality is known for his intimidating eyes. Thanks to popular demand, Seven Seas Entertainment have now brought the original light novel series to the west, and today I’m here to see how the first volume shapes up! Both the anime adaption and manga have already been brought to the UK, which leads us to our latest release. The franchise, which began as a 10 volume light novel series, is one of the most successful titles of the genre in the last decade, spawning multiple media projects such as anime, manga and a game (in Japan only). If you’re a fan of romantic comedies then you’ll no doubt have heard of Toradora! at some point.

Toradora light novel vol 1