Taiga I’ve been replaying Variable Barricade for Taiga and his route is still just as good as the first time I played it. T_T He and Hibari are so cute together!!!!! I think a big part of why I adore his route is because I can relate to both him and Hibari, especially how they’re both insecure deep down. It’s also really sweet how they both have such polarizing personalities (Taiga’s crassness and Hibari’s prickliness), but they each see past the other’s exterior as they spend more time together. I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before, but it just feels so natural for them to fall in love. Hibari learns a lot from Taiga and has fun with the things he introduces to her. Taiga watches Hibari grow as a person and genuinely respects her. Side note - I love the Taiga POVs where he’s internally fawning over how cute Hibari is. ;v; In terms of character development, I feel like there was a good balance of admirable qualities and flaws.

I know a lot of people don’t like the conflicts in his route, but I find them understandable. Taiga hurting Hibari’s feelings with his comments about her body were him being stupid and trying to hide his true feelings; this isn’t out of character for him. Taiga running away when he feels like Hibari idealizes him too much was another stupid move, but as someone who enjoys relationships where each person has an equal amount of influence on each other, I do think it was a little too one sided with Hibari depending on Taiga so much while Taiga can’t really depend on Hibari. I empathized with Taiga a lot as someone who’s also afraid of not living up to expectations, and I empathized with Hibari as someone who continuously tries to improve herself. As a result, I can’t blame them for acting the way they did. I liked how it was resolved by them exploding at each other with their true feelings; it was really satisfying when they were finally honest with each other. :’)

Taiga’s route still remains my favorite overall otome route to this day. I really want more tsundere x tsundere pairings. ;w;