

I only know about the anime, so I'm basing this question on that. Toradora's
anime aired in 2009. In 2011, a side story OVA was released with the Bluray
collection of the series, titled "The True Meaning of Bento" ( _Bento no
Gokui_ ).

This side story has little to do with the main plot, so in principle it can
probably go in a lot of places in the story. However, I'm wondering if there's
a canonical answer for when these events occured (or if they are intended to
be canon at all). I don't know if anything similar happens in the light novels
or if there has been official commentary on where it falls (preliminary
searches all didn't turn anything up), but either of those would be sufficient
for this question.

**Is this OVA canon, and if so, when in the story does it occur?**

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/r7r1hm.jpg)


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2013-12-24T10:15:36.233
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toradora
Does the Toradora OVA fit canonically in the main storyline?


I haven't read the light novels, but the last one that came out is titled,
"Toradora Spinoff 3! Ore no Bentou Mite Kure". (Roughly translated as 'Behold
my Bento')

I don't know if this book, being a spinoff, specifically takes place anywhere
in the story, but I think it would somewhere between the first and last
episodes. I say this because Ryuuji is making Taiga lunch (which must be after
the first episode) and because they are in school for most of the ova (which
must be before Taiga leaves in the last episode). However, the last scene
seems to fit better after the final episode, as feeding food to someone is a
very 'couple' thing to do.


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2014-02-18T04:36:29.650
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I haven't read the light novel, but I think the OVA is seen as a flashback
that happens between the 4th and last episode (since near the end Taiga says
he taught her how to cook and it shows a scene from episode 4). So it begins
with Taiga cooking (for the picnic), cuts to the flashback, and ends with them
having the picnic, which I think is set after the events of the anime, because
of how Taiga is shown feeding Ryuuji.


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2014-10-24T05:43:13.323
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Based off my observations of the Anime i believe that the OVA is set between
the end of the Culture Festival as Taiga is acting normal around Kitamura
which only occurs after the culture festival, and before the student council
election as not only is Minori not awkward around Ryuji or spacing out because
of what Ami said to her after Taiga and Sumire's fought one another but also
the end of the anime series occurs around winter and right after the elections
is Christmas which in Japan is in winter.

> Also it's evident it's still winter when Ryuji and Taiga elope and Taiga
> moves schools after that

This is also strengthened by the fact that the first OP was used and after the
elections is when the second OP started to be used

Given that I would say the OVA occurs between the end of Episode 13 and the
start of Episode 15 (as am accounting the possibility that the OVA is an event
that occurred between Episode 14 and 15).

My assumtion is almost spot-on as in art book which came with the limited
edition of the series from NISA there is a point at the bottom of page 5
talking about the OVA

> this is the first episode done for "Toradora!" in over 3 years, **and the
> story takes place between episodes 13 and 14 of the TV Series**. this
> episode has a comical bento battle and a heartfelt development, striking a
> delicious balance between the laughter and drama that "Toradora!" Is best
> known for.

Bellow is a photo i took of the relevant section, up the top slightly cut off
is the same image as what is posted in the question

![Artbook Page 5 Point](https://i.stack.imgur.com/XTnbG.png)


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2014-11-16T01:04:53.673
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This takes place after the original storyline. If you watched past the
credits, you will see that Taiga returns.


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2016-06-04T13:19:32.450
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Thought i'd throw in my two cents based on a previous answer that a poster
gave stating that the OVA takes place between episodes 13 & 14, I wanted to
add that there is further evidence to support this just by looking at their
uniforms. Recalling back to episode 13, that was the last episode they wore
their summer uniforms, and episode 14 was the first episode back in their
winter uniforms. Now i'm not entirely sure though about the picnic part at the
very end of the episode. It does seem plausible that most of the episode could
be a flashback and the ending taking place after episode 25 given the way
Taiga feeds Ryuuji ^-^


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2016-07-11T00:14:16.973
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