I’ve written before about the “joy of enlightenment,” the mysterious thrill your brain gets when it solves a puzzle or gains some new insight. Being a student of Japan means having many opportunities to overcome large and small linguistic and cultural hurdles, and it’s one reason I encourage people to take an interest in studying the Japanese language. After writing about how Japanese often show affection for famous stars, TV shows etc. by reducing their names into abbreviated versions like the anime series Kare-Kano (His and Her Circumstances) and Puri-Kyua (Pretty Cure), I realized that the currently popular show Toradora followed this naming system, and wondered what it could possibly stand for. I searched my memory for several minutes until the answer suddenly popped into my head: the female lead character is Taiga (tiger), which is tora in Japanese, while the guy she’s maybe kinda sorta attracted to is Ryuji, written with the kanji ryu for dragon (dora). The satisfaction of having perceived the answer was great, not unlike the (incredibly rare) times when my wife has trouble remembering how to write a certain kanji character, and I’m able to produce it for her.
Taiga and Ryuji make a great couple.
