15 best anime on Netflix to kickstart your obsession

Best Anime on Netflix: Toradora!

Back at it with the slice-of-life anime, Toradora! is a refreshing addition to this list of best anime on Netflix to kickstart your obsession as it’s deeply rooted in humor and packed full of attention-grabbing lovers quarrels. While some viewers dig for more serious anime, others are only in it for the slapstick humor and over-the-top expressions that serve as honest representations of the emotions we’ve all gone through at least once in our lives.

The story centers around Ryuji Takasu, a kind-hearted high school student frustrated by his naturally menacing looks that make other students frightened of him, often referring to Takasu as a delinquent. This, of course, makes it impossible for him to approach his long-time crush Minori Kushieda. But an opportunistic, albeit volatile, door opens to Takasu when he meets the hot-tempered, small-statured Taiga Aisaka who isn’t at all intimidated by Takasu’s looks and also happens to be Kushieda’s best friend. Aisaka agrees to help Takasu win over Kushieda’s heart in exchange for Takasu helping Aisaka, who is in love with Takasu’s best friend Yusaku Kitamura.

As Takasu and Aisaka hatch their schemes to get noticed by their love interests, it becomes more and more apparent to their friends and classmates that the two are perfect for each other. But, as Takasu and Aisaka become better and better friends, they also become the people in their lives they are most afraid to lose, making their love lives even more complicated than before.

Directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai, based on the light novel by Yuyuko Takemiya, Toradora! is a uniquely comical romance story, showcasing the honest struggles of falling in love as awkward teens who know as little about themselves as they do about the world. But the anime is also special in how it plays out the relationship between the two main characters, who are apprehensive to take the plunge with each other due to both their friendship and well as their friendships with others. Peer pressure can be tough, especially when it’s all in your own head, and Toradora! is a fun, sweetly sincere take on young love and sacrifice.