Ok ok. I just have to say a couple things first. The reason I’m putting these two against each other is because when I saw a preview image of a Toradora scene, the main female character looked very similar to the main female character in Oreimo. Now, after watching 10 seconds of Toradora, I found out that wasn’t true….at all. But, I was attached to the idea of putting two animes against each other instead of just writing a review for both. Another thing I want to say is that this article is just my personal opinion. I enjoyed both animes very much.
Let’s begin!
Theme Song Winner: Toradora
Oreimo’s theme wasn’t bad or anything, it’s just that Toradora’s was a lot better. It made me want to dance and it was just all around super adorable. It was also more fun to watch, Oreimo mostly had images of people walking/running in place.
Art Winner: Oreimo
COME ON! How adorable is Kirino? Toradora has good art as well, but there was just something about Oreimo that was a notch above for me. Also, for some reason it bothered me that in Toradora, the way some of the characters were drawn didn’t match the others.
Story Line Winner: Tie
I guess I should quickly explain what they both are about (for those of you that don’t know) before I explain anything:
Toradora Is about Taiga (a short fire cracker girl) and Ryuji (a nice guy with a mean face). They both have crushes on someone at school, and they both decide to help each other out to date said crushes.
Oreimo is about Kyosuke and his younger sister Kirino. Him and Kirino haven’t really gotten along in a while because Kirino is too busy being pretty and popular at school. Kyosuke randomly finds an anime DVD that belongs to his younger sister and finds out that she is a super otaku who loves anime and eroge. Kyosuke helps Kirino out by helping her make otaku friends, telling her parents and “cool” friends that she likes anime, and overall accepting herself.
So, in terms of actual story line, Toradora has more going on. The characters evolve and theres a lot of feelings passed around between the group of friends. Oreimo is more of a peak into someones everyday life, but it made me want to keep watching. There in lies the reason for the tie. Toradora has more going on, Oreimo made me actually want to watch.
Hilarity Winner: Oreimo
Don’t get me wrong. Toradora had it’s funny moments. (Especially when Minorin was involved) But Oreimo had me laughing almost every episode. The voice actors timing is perfect, and all the different types of characters made it interesting. My favorite parts are when you see Kirino playing little sister eroge. She get’s so into it and her commentary is hilarious.
Overall Winner: Oreimo
It’s hard for me to explain why, but I really just liked Oreimo overall more than Toradora. Oreimo had me interested from the get go, and made me want to keep watching when I finished the series. With Toradora, it took me a couple episodes to get committed, and then I didn’t like how some of the things came to pan out in the end. I highly suggest both though! Watch Oreimo if you’re looking for something funny and watch Toradora if you’re looking for a little romance with funny bits.