Anime Battle (Ao Haru Ride vs. Toradora)

Konnichiwa Minna-san and welcome to another World of Anime Girl blog post. Today's blog post will be just part 1. of a series of posts called "Anime Battle". As you can all guess from the name, I'll be picking a few points such as plot, story, moral, animation etc. and compare two anime that seem similar. By doing so, I will evaluate both anime and choose the better one in the end. I'll compare anime that are usually recommendations of each other and the first pair will be from the school/romance/drama genre. They are my absolute favorites in that genre and without further talk, let's get into the anime Ao Haru Ride (aka. Blue Spring Ride) and Toradora. Enjoy!

First and foremost, these anime are a common recommendation because of their genre and story that shares some common points. Both have a female main character and are about the usual problems that students encounter in their high school days. I personally liked them both because their stories are interesting, they are catchy, the characters are well developed and both animations are good. But let's get to the details.

PLOT and STORY

Which anime has a better plot, let's see? Ao Haru Ride is about Futaba, a girl that was popular in middle school among the boys but hated by the girls because of that. Now in high school, she changes completely and decides to give up on her feminine side and cuteness just to have some honest girl friends. And all went well until she met her middle school crush again, that now goes by the name Mabuchi Kou. Futaba soon realizes that he didin't just change the name but his personality too.

Toradora on the other hand, follows Aisaka Taiga and her neighbor Ryuuji. Being in love with the other's best friend they decide to be wingmen for each other. A hilarious, mix of usual high school problems, festival preparations an enormous plot twists that occur make up the usually simple Toradora plot.

When it comes to the stories they are both extremely interesting.  Ao Haru Ride tho has more depth in the story and deals with some serious problems regarding life and family. Toradora has that too but it's more kind of a side story and it actually concentrates more on the romance part rather than on drama. In addition to that, Toradora is a hilarious comedy anime that will definitely make you laugh, whereas Ao Haru Ride will probably make you cry. On the whole, Ao Haru Ride has a deeper and more complex story while Toradora is basically a romance-comedy. The winner of this part is Ao Haru Ride because its story caught me right from the beginning while Toradora became later on interesting and catchy.

CHARACTERS

When it comes to the characters I think that Ao Haru Ride did a better job again. Firstly, the main characters undergo a huge character development and you can clearly see that. In Toradora there is less character development but the main characters in both anime have some really complex personalities. Still there is a huge difference between the supporting characters. The side characters in Ao Haru Ride were more involved into the story and also had some really complex and unique personalities. Toradora's side characters were literary put aside and were totally neglected. Too bad, because they all had potential for their own character development. Still one thing has to be mentioned, Toradora's Aisaka Taiga is the one and only Queen of Tsundere and its characters are probably more known to the world. However, because I am evaluating the quality of the characters and not their popularity, Ao Haru Ride is again the front runner here, even tough Taiga is with great extend one of my favorite anime characters.

ANIMATION and STYLE

And here we are at the last category, the animation and the style. Now when talking about animation I would say that we have a tie here because both anime have amazing animations. The only difference tho exists in the style. Even tough Toradora had a uniquer character design, Ao Haru Ride had a distinctive style on the whole. I also remember it had a very interesting style when showing some background scenes. It was hard to decide who the winner is here, but I think I'd say Ao Haru Ride again. 

CONCLUSION

To conclude, Toradora is an anime that has both drama and comedy while Ao Haru Ride has more drama with a more serous topic. And even tough both stories are equally good Ao Haru Ride catches your attention right from the begining, while Toradora becomes more interesting later on. As for the characters, Ao Haru Ride definitelly did a better job there but it cannot be compared with Toradora character's popularity especially when it comes to Taiga. And for the animation, both producers did a great job but Ao Haru Ride has a pinch of uniqueness in its style that is really appealing. 

On the whole, I love both anime and I would recommend you to watch them, but I think we have a clear winner in this battle. AO HARU RIDE!!!