Recently, the popular romance franchise of “Toradora!” became a trend on social networks in Japan, but not because fans are waiting for new content, but because a debate was reopened about a detail in the final episode that is still being analyzed. In the scene where Taiga and Ryuji travel by train after a touching scene between them the night before, you can notice that Taiga makes a movement with her legs while sitting.
You can notice this movement at the 00:22 second of the following video (it doesn’t matter that it is not subtitled, the dialogue is not being analyzed in this debate):
『とらドラ！』最終回の制作秘話。
電車のシーンで大河が脚をモジモジさせる
演出は、キャラクターデザインの田中将賀氏が「（昨夜セックスしたのが）
きっと痛かったからに違いない」
「あんなシチュエーションで
やらないはずがない！」と力強く主張し、事後表現として付け加えた。 pic.twitter.com/Cf09ZUHIhe
— てとら🐯@釘宮病 (@TetoraRide) January 14, 2024
It was Twitter user “てとら🐯@釘宮病 (@TetoraRide)” who revived the debate, writing: «A secret story behind the production of “Toradora!”, specifically the final episode. Directed by character designer Masayoshi Tanaka, the scene shows Taiga moving her legs in the train scene. “It must have been because he still hurts (he had sex the night before). It is impossible that he would not do it in a situation like this! “He commented and added the detail as an after-the-fact expression.».
This theory will probably seem completely crazy to you, but you will be surprised to know that it is not a theory, it is reality. In an interview included in Monthly Anime Style magazine, in the issue published on June 25, 2011, the main production staff of “Toradora!” on different topics. At one point, one of the members mentions that the original plan included a vague and unclear scene about Taiga and Ryuji consummating their love (having sex, then).
Although this scene did not occur in the end, the screenwriter Mari Okada intervenes and mentions: «Well there’s still the train scene». The interviewer gets confused and asks what they mean, so the director replies: “I don’t want to delve too much into things that ended up not being done, but in the scene that follows, on the train, Taiga was going to mention that the reason she moves her legs is because they hurt (implying that they had sex).».
And of course, this did not happen without comments:
- «But what the hell?».
- «That’s right, that’s why after the final episode, I switched to Ami-chan’s side».
- «If you want to go around leaving clues that no one understands, you better do the damn sex scene and that’s it.».
- «Well, it really sounds like something Mari Okada-sensei would do.».
- «What a disappointment, I’ll go over to Minori-chan’s side».
- «Shinzo Abe will be proud of this type of development».
- «There’s no reason to believe the two didn’t have sex that same night.».
- «Is it okay for an animator, not the original author of the franchise, to do something like this based on their own interpretation?».
- «In visual novels of that time, there was always the tendency to impregnate all the available girls».
- «Toradora! It’s interesting, but seeing Taiga cry made me feel so sorry for the terrible development they gave Minori-chan».
- «People who continue to deny this fact are very idiots. Unlike live-action, the movements of the characters in anime are not derived from the actor, but from the writer himself, who leaves the instructions to the animators. There is no movement in anime that does not have an intention behind it».
Fountain: Otakomu
