Taiga Aisaga is the main female character in the anime, manga, and light novel series Toradora; she's the love interest of Ryuugi Takasu, and the former potential love interest of Yusaku Kitamura.
Appearance
Even though Taiga is a teenager, her very short height makes her look like a younger child. Ami frequently teases her about this. Taiga has long, curly orange-gold hair (inherited from her mother) that falls past her waist in waves, with large, dark amber eyes which are inherited from her father. She is "flat-chested" and is very ashamed about it, but often she makes up for this fact by her typically constant glare or menacing words.
Taiga is usually seen wearing the school uniform, or long dresses, when outside. She wears long coats on top of dresses and is seen wearing a pair of stockings under long coats. She is a very well-dressed girl, coming from a rich family, and even her pajamas are elegant.
Personality
Despite Taiga's cute and delicate appearance, she is a sarcastic, cynical and prideful girl who is easily made angry or upset. She hates when people point out her height or call her the Palmtop Tiger, a nickname she earned because of her petite size and tendency to snap at people. Her broken family has made her act this way. Despite her tendency to be aggressive, she is actually a kind person, especially to people she trusts, like Minori Kushieda. She is extremely loyal, too, as she is willing to fight tooth and nail to protect her loved ones. She is not afraid to speak her mind and is often considered foul-mouthed because of her somewhat rude attitude toward people and lack of social skills. Taiga gets many love confessions from guys but turns them down since she's afraid to love someone after her issues with her parents. At first, she had a crush on Yusaku Kitamura, but she acts clumsy and flustered around him all the time due to shyness. Because she is often misunderstood and judged, people don't see her kind and loyal personality. Taiga wants to treat everyone kindly, but due to her broken family and lack of parenting, she has a hard time coping with reality. She apologizes to her friends if she accidentally snaps at them.
Relationships
Ryuuji Takasu
Ryuuji met Taiga after they bumped into each other making Taiga punch him because of her bad mood and attitude.[9]They eventually became good friends because of the controversial love letter that made Ryuuji know that Taiga was planning on confessing her love for Yusaku Kitamura (Ryuuji's best friend) which made him show Taiga everything about his crush from love letters, music and others since he can't let his feelings out. After understanding everything that Ryuuji had said, Taiga "accidentally" read one of his love letters, making her know that Ryuuji has a crush on Minori Kushieda (Taiga's best friend).
Ryuuji suggests that they cooperate to win the objects of their affections. Taiga exploits the fact that Ryuuji will do anything to get closer to Minori. She makes him her personal servant, getting him to do all her household chores (cooking and cleaning). Taiga spends a lot of her time over at his house, so much that she could almost be considered a member of his family. The more they spend time together, the more things they undergo together. Ryuuji constantly helps Taiga out, 24/7, and, although this isn't visible unless you look closely, Taiga is "always there" for Ryuuji. Although their initial relationship extends to nothing more then what Taiga would see as a "slave and master" sort of service, Taiga eventually grows to care an enormous deal about him. This is shown prominently when Taiga screams at everybody for not saving Ryuuji when he is knocked unconscious and later shouts, "Don't touch him... He's mine!" (Although, she later states that it was only because Ryuuji was the only dog to her). Their relationship is rocky because Taiga can occasionally throw fits for no apparent reason, shown when she furiously screams after Ryuuji helps her learn how to swim, after their conversation slowly builds up, but Ryuuji is often there to help her and is unbelievably patient with her. Taiga acknowledges the fact that Ryuuji would definitely help her in a time of need, and Ryuuji comes to realize that Taiga has always been there for him.
Since Ryuuji spends a lot of time with Taiga, he has opened up to her world and to a side of her that most people do not see. The two also try to help each other improve the way people view them. However, people they know from school start to become curious about their strange relationship and rumors begin to spread about them behind their backs Ryuuji and Taiga start getting along more as things progress with the relationships between the characters and eventually confess their true feelings of love towards each other.
Yusaku Kitamura
Yusaku confessed to Taiga, saying that he liked her for her short temper and unique personality, but was bluntly rejected by Taiga a year ago before the start of the series because it was very unexpected, so Taiga acted on reflex and rejected him. Yusaku was really broken-hearted when Taiga rejected him, but Sumire Kano invited him to join the Student Council to forget about his rejection. However, after Taiga's rejection on Yusaku's confession, she cannot stop thinking about him and realized that she likes Yusaku too, especially because Yusaku was the only boy who had ever liked her because of who she was, not because of her appearance or rich family, in which Taiga regrets rejecting Yusaku. When Taiga is around Yusaku, she instantly blushes or becomes nervous when he talks to her, although Yusaku is easygoing, casual and nice towards her, just like he is towards everybody else. Taiga's attraction towards him gradually stops when Yusaku confessed to Sumire in front of the whole school. At that point, Taiga realized she was in love with Ryuuji, not Yusaku as she sees him as just a very good friend.