| Taigā Aisaka | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Japanese Name | 逢坂大河 |
| Romaji Translation | Aisaka Taiga |
| Debut (Anime) | Toradora! Episode 01 |
| Appears in | Light Novel, Manga, Anime, Video game |
| Voice Actor (Japanese) | Rie Kugimiya |
| Voice Actor (English) | Cassandra Lee Morris |
| Personal Info | |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | 16 |
| Height | 143.6 cm (4'8½") |
| Eyes Color | Brown |
| Hair Color | Golden Orange |
| Title | "Palmtop Tiger" "The Palmtop Tiger of Happiness" |
| Status | Active |
Taigā is a girl in Ryūji's class. She falls in love with Ryuuji and got married with him.
Appearence[]
She has a well-regulated and beautiful appearance with a light brown hair and hazel-coloured eyes.
Personality[]
Despite her well-regulated and beautiful appearence, she is unable to stomach company from others. Due to her often snapping at others in brutal ways and her short stature, she is given the nickname "Palmtop Tiger" (手乗りタイガー, Te Nori Taigā). Her under-developed body and the added nickname has given her a complex which in turn serves to give her a negative attitude and facial expression.
Background[]
Family Background Arc[]
Despite coming from a well-to-do family, her life with them is very difficult because of various problems. Her father's business went bankrupt and he ran away, leaving Taiga in the care of her mother who was already married and had a new family of her own. Taiga has difficulty getting along with her step-father and half-sibling and since then, she has taken to living on her own.
Love Letter Arc[]
After accidentally giving Ryuji an evelope that contained a love letter that was meant to be for Yusaku Kitamura, she breaks into his home in an attempt to reclaim the letter and wipe out Ryuji's memory of ever reading the letter. But when Ryuji tells her that the envelope was empty she stops and collapes from exhaustion and hunger.
Taiga strikes with fury and shame.
After feeding Taiga, Ryuji shows Taiga his collection of love letters, music, and other ideas of how his first date is going to be like but since he can't manage to let his feelings out he can only simulate what he's going to do. After reading one of his love letters in one of his notebooks, Taiga finds out that Ryuji has a crush on her best friend Kushieda Minori, after noticing how late it was, Ryuji made a promise to Taiga that he would help her win Yusaku Kitamura's heart if she left right at that moment so they could both have enough sleep for school in the morning.
Ryuji and Taiga's Plan Arc[]
Since she came from a privileged household, she does not know how to do any domestic chores. After she met Ryūji and learns of his domestic talents, she ends up relying on Ryūji to clean up after her. Aside from sleeping in her own house, and going to school, she spends most of her time at Ryūji's house; so much so that she is almost considered a member of his family. At the beginning of the story, she is infatuated with his best friend Yūsaku Kitamura and gets nervous every time he appears around her. Due to this, Taiga and Ryūji team up to help each other get into a relationship with each other's best friend. To get closer to Yūsaku, Ryūji and Taiga formulate several plans that end in failure.
During basketball shooting practice, Taiga and Ryūji plan to knock out Yūsaku's partner with a basketball so that Taiga can be Yūsaku's partner. However, Taiga ends up being knocked out instead. She makes some cookies and plans to give them to Yūsaku; unfortunately, she falls off the stairs, throwing them out of the window in the process. Ryūji breaks her fall. Calling herself clumsy and feeling depressed, Ryūji eats her cookies and says they are great (despite tasting horrible), encouraging her to try making cookies again. Since Ryūji and Taiga are often together, a misunderstanding begins among their classmates that Ryūji and Taiga are going out. This causes Taiga to rage and wreak havoc in the classroom. Taiga sets the record straight the next day, and confesses her love to Yūsaku. However, he wants to continue being friends.
First Time Meeting Ami Arc[]
After accidently spilling Ryūji's drink on herself, Ryūji offered to clean her dress if they went to the restaurant where Minori worked at, but when they get there they find out that she had her day off that day. As they are looking at fashion magazine, Taiga notices that the girl coming into the resturant is the also the same model from the magazine named Kawashima Ami. To their surprise Yūsaku is also there with her, he tells them that they are childhood friends and she's come to visit for a while. Ami acts innocent, kind, polite, and is a self-proclaimed airhead but she acts that way to get what she wants. Ami begins taunting Taiga to the point that she slaps her and brushes it off saying that there was a bug on her cheek. Seeing Yūsaku and Ryūji coming she starts crying. Yūsaku apologizes for what happens and takes Ami home. The next day they find out that Ami will be in the same school and the same class that they in.
With Aisaka's habit of referring to different people diminutively as dogs, Ami soon earns the nickname "Stupid Chihuahua".
Christmas Eve Party Arc[]
After Ryūji tells Taiga that his relationship with Minori has not progressed, Taiga declares the need to play Cupid for him, since she wants to be good for Santa. At school the next morning, Kitamura announces that the student council will organize a Christmas Eve party to boost romantic feelings among students. Taiga and Ryūji ask Minori to go to the party with them, but she vehemently declines. This causes Taiga and Ryuji to worry about Minori.
As Christmas approaches, everyone is helping with the Christmas party and helps put together an artificial Christmas tree topped with a glass star that she brought, which she says is her most valuable Christmas ornament. Everyone is pleased with their efforts and awed by the site of the tree lit up. However, a stray softball crashes through the gym window and knocks over the tree, smashing the star. The baseball club apologizes and Minori leaves, still declining Ryūji's offer of going to the party as she feels she would not be welcome after the accident. Despite hearing that, Ryūji promises her that he will wait for her.
On the night of the party, she brings over a suit for Ryūji to wear while he still attempts to convince Minori to come. The party begins with a special Christmas song performed by Ami and her. Following the song, she decides left the party to go home in order to wait for Santa Clausand stopping by Minori's house on the way to convince her to go to the party. Ryūji goes to Taiga's apartment dressed up as a 'Bear Santa Claus' in order to help her to realize that she is not alone. Afterwards, she tells Ryūji to go back and wait for Minori and he leave despite initially resisting. Taiga begins crying uncontrollably, thinking that with Ryūji together with Minori, Ryūji and herself can no longer stay together. Taiga rushes after Ryūji, calling for him, but he is already gone. Minori, who was heading to the party, witnesses this.
Ski Field Trip Arc[]
Later in the year, their class is scheduled to have a ski field trip. She points out to Ryūji that this would be his last chance to confirm Minori's feelings before classes are rearranged. She provides an opportunity for Ryūji and Minori who is still a bit disheartened from Christmas to start talking again. Later, Ryūji, Minori, Yūsaku, Ami and the other students go to her apartment to discuss plans for the trip.
Later, when Yūsaku, Hisamitsu, and Haruta investigate the girl's room in order to find out the true reason behind Minori's rejection, Taiga was taken by them to hide in a closet when Ami, Minori, Maya, and Nanako come in. Ami brings up the topic of Ryūji's rejection by Minori, and the two get angry at each other. Minori tells Ami that she shouldn't judge her because the other couldn't see or read her heart and Ami tells Minori that she was really good at faking.
The next day, Taiga and Minori accidentally run into Ami on their sled. Ami feels that they did it on purpose because of last night's argument and engages in a physical fight with Minori. Minori drops her hairpin on a nearby slope and Taiga goes to search for it by herself, but ends up falling down without the others noticing. Yūsaku, Minori, and Ryūji search for her when she was found missing. Ryūji contemplates his feelings for Taiga as he realizes he left her alone again and found her at the bottom of a hill, bleeding and covered in snow. As Ryūji carries her back, she barely conscious thinking that he is Yūsaku, apologizes and confesses that she cannot stop loving Ryūji.
Valentine's Day Arc[]
As Valentine's Day approaches, she decides to make everyone some chocolate as thanks for the things they have done for her. However, when Minori notices that she believed Yūsaku rescued her from the ski trip instead of Ryūji, she becomes angry. She was confronted by Minori, with Ami and Yūsaku blocking the exits, trying to get her to show her true feelings. Taiga says she only wanted Minori to be happy, but Minori says that happiness is something only she can decide for herself. Taiga runs off and Minori decides to go after her, asking Ryūji if he will go after her too.
Taiga, confess!!!
When she is leaving school, she heard Minori shouting that she has always liked Ryūji but held back because of her friendship with her and she needed him more than Minori herself did. She also says that she has to obtain her own happiness as well. Later at work, she finds Ryūji is waiting for her and agrees to talk to him after the shift. However after work, Ryūji and Taiga's mothers confront their children and the two fled. They stop at a bridge to talk about their situations. After she told Ryūji that he has to live on, accidentally pushes him into the river. Ryūji yells to Taiga his plan of running away and marrying her. She also jumps into the river and wants to confess her love using her own way.
Before they could confess, Yūsaku calls up and asks them to go to Ami's house. Minori, Ami, and Yūsaku do not agree with their plans but decide to support them. Minori ends up lending all her life savings to the two. Later, they went to Ryūji grandparents' house to attempt into tricking her mother to go meet with them.
Later, when she returns to her apartment and hear her mother's voice mail for her, she decided to break the promise to Ryuji earlier on and go to live with her mother and her stepfather. She also left Ryuji a note on the table saying that she doesn't want to run away from her family problems. Taiga sends everyone a mail with a picture of the night sky and a single star. Minori states that this is supposed to encourage them to do their best. Everyone gets together to send a group picture to her with the artfical star that she left for the Christmas Eve Party.
Ryuji's Graduation Arc[]
Later on, she returns to her old school with another school uniform to see Ryuji while her old classmates are graduating. Ryuji sees her and chases her into a classrom.
Taiga blushes.
She is then found by Ryuji to be hiding in the closet before he reaches the classroom in order to give Ryuji a surprise. He mentions that she has grown taller and she answers by saying that she hasn't grown taller, not even a centimeter. Later, she hit's Ryuji with a headbutt after she blushed when Ryuji confess his love for her. She also say that he confesses his love towards her too early in the morning.
Trivia[]
- She has a large resemblance with Louise Francois le Blanc de la Valliere (of Zero no Tsukaima) as she shares the same appearance and attitude with her. They also call their male partners (Ryuji Takasu and Saito Hiraga) a nickname "dog". They also have the same seiyuu.
- Despite Taiga's rude behavior, she finally gets a chance to make out with Ryuji around the end of the series. During Taiga's ending on the PSP, she marries Ryuji and gets pregnant.
- When angered, Taiga often shouts a call that sounds like 'ora' but she rolls her 'r' so it resembles a tiger's growl.
Gallery[]
