In somewhat of a classic head-aching, soul-sucking moment yesterday evening, as I wasn't feeling in the mood to do anything of value, I ended up rotting on my bed, browsing for doujinshi on my tablet — something I don't do that often, but that probably should become part of my routine some day, as the treasures this activity can give are invaluable. That's exactly the time that, looking for something Toradora-related, I found a (safe-for-work) manga that seemed interesting to say the least, promisingly titled "Taiga no Pantsu".

This somewhat abiguous name hides a story that's short, but really intense, about Taiga Aisaka and her underwear; or, rather, lackthereof following a simple devastating accident culminating in an action-filled finale (all because of her, obviously). Indeed, while the title simply means "Taiga's panties" in Japanese, I can't stop thinking at the fact that maybe, just maybe, the author made it so that it can be read in English too, literally as "Tiger no pants". And trust me: she's maybe even worse than usual without those on.

The Story

The story starts with Taiga and Ryuji going to school as usual, with the girl being clumsy as usual... and sliding straight into a pool of mud. Wearing just the classic skirt, she obviously gets her underwear all covered in the sticky substance. Here she already goes crazy enough, but the best of her is really seen after a few minutes, when they get at school and go to try and wash the cursed indument, in which the worst happens in just a few panels: Taiga gets angry at the fact that her panties don't get any cleaner, Takasu tells her she needs to be more careful with such a delicate garment, at which point she gets angrier at him too, and she strokes the panty so furiously that it obviously breaks.

At this point, Taiga really gives up on calming down and reasoning and, feeling as always too proud to admit any defeat, just throws away in the air the half-ripped panties when Ryuji, after hearing a clear noise of ripped fabric, tries to get cose to her to help. So, after a random guy on the street somewhere gets hit by the fallen muddy panties, Taiga finally realizes (...but still never admits) how stupid she is, and that karma eventually always hits back: she thought she had backup underwear in her locker, but that obviously wasn't the case, so she now has to spend the entire first half of the school day without any on — "going commando", as the youngsters say.

While only she is the one who caused this entire turn of events — from the falling, to the throwing — the Palmtop Tiger is devastated to say the least from the situation, and while people around her luckily don't happen to get looks at her underskirt, the aura she emanates is definitely not calm... or even just common for her already hot standards. In any case, she is forced to just try and avoid high-stress events until lunch break, where the plan is to quickly go back home and get a replacement... which includes avoiding her friend Kushieda and her crush Kitamura, despite the hardships of everything.

When the time to fly off finally comes, however, the Tiger and Dog duo encounters another inconvenience on the road: a pervert runs into them, with a bag full of panties for some reason, seemingly running away from an old man. He obviously bumps into Taiga in his running, which makes her go furious as always, which almost makes her start to chase him down, but she has to renounce the moment she remembers she is hopelessly insecure without underwear. And that's exactly the instant in which Minori appears out of nowhere like she usually does, ready to help her friend in the most naturally easy, if inappropriate, way imaginable... she lends Taiga her panties on the fly, so that a new legend of the tiger can immediately be written into history.

This is exactly what happens, then. While Ryuji collapses from seeing Kushieda, his crush, just take off her underwear right then and there — and Minori herself somehow faints too just by doing that — Taiga finds the energy to go, just run and reach that criminal, which she ends with a single exploding kick to his head. That man falls to the floor, foaming at the mouth, while the unavoidable Aisaka finally lets off some steam. At least, that's until the day ends, where she discovers that her enemy Ami Kawashima saw her earlier in the day from up a window somewhere [page 14], and thus smugly spread the rumor about the Tiger having been pantyless around the school the entire morning... and she inevitably gets furious again.

My Review

With just 20 pages of manga, it's a really short story, so I don't really know what to say for a personal review. It obviously confirms as the pretty deranged piece of fiction that it promised to be from the start, and so I have nothing bad to say about it. In fact, for such a stupid doujinshi, it's honestly well made. The drawings are relatively simple, but they're clear and expressive. I also liked the extra illustrations and notes at the start and end of the manga, which include a few character sketches and a Characters Relationship Chart which, having watched the Toradora anime, can confirm is pretty accurate.

The characters in general, by the way, are pretty accurately portrayed in this self-publication, relative to the official works: Taiga is uncontrollably clueless as always, Ryuji is constantly caught in her iron grip of tantrums, all the while Minorin takes her positive personality to the highest extreme. The situation narrated in this extremely specific slice of their life is clearly more absurd than any reasonable person could have ever imagined, but that's what makes this book truly funny, and a refreshing throwback into the relatively forgotten world of Toradora.

If you have a short break to spare, and you're a Toradora fan who's still tremendously hurt that the manga for this absolute piece of a series is still incomplete after almost 15 years, maybe give this reading a try to distract yourself: https://mangapark.net/title/87910-en-toradora-tiger-no-pants-doujinshi. Don't get muddy down there, though!