First Impressions / Toradora!

「大橋高校文化祭 （中編）」 (Oohashi Koukou Bunkasai (Chuuhen))
“Ohashi High School Culture Festival (Middle Chapter)”

Episode at a Glance:
With preparations for the culture festival well underway, Taiga gives Ami a box of Macarons as a sign of good faith so that she’ll let her play the lead part in their pro wrestling show when her father comes by to watch. Minori on the other hand isn’t fond of Taiga getting back on good terms with her father, and gets into an argument about it with Ryuuji. After getting comforted unexpectedly by Ami, Ryuuji goes home and finds out that Taiga’s moving in with her father. On the day of the festival, things go surprisingly well for the pro wrestling show aside from a brief interruption from Koigakuba-sensei and Taiga fumbling one of her lines. Afterwards, Ryuuji is wondering when Taiga’s father’s going to come by and watch one of their shows where Taiga takes the lead role. However, Taiga tells him to be more concerned about his situation with Minori, suggesting that he hurry up and apologize to her. By the end of the day though, Taiga’s father never comes by and she never gets a chance to take the lead role in their show.

 

Next Episode:
「大橋高校文化祭 （後編）」 (Oohashi Koukou Bunkasai (Kouhen))
“Ohashi High School Culture Festival (End Chapter)”

Impressions:
Fairly straightforward episode this week, but it did reveal that things might not be so great between Taiga and her father after all. Since Minori’s so adamant against the two of them getting along again, there’s evidently a side to their history that neither Ryuuji nor us (as the viewers) are aware of yet. The preview seems to indicate that Ryuuji’s starting to learn about Minori’s take on Taiga’s situation, but I get the feeling things won’t be resolved completely yet since Taiga’s father doesn’t seem to make an appearance. The next episode will be the last chapter of this three-part mini arc involving the culture festival though, so perhaps Ryuuji and Minori will see eye-to-eye again at least. As things stand now, his chances with Minori are only getting slimmer and slimmer while he focuses on helping Taiga so much. From the onset in the series, it was kind of expected things would go this way, but it looks like we’re finally getting to some problems that aren’t caused by Ami for a change. As for their class’ pro wrestling show itself, it was as random as you’d probably expect but I did find their rehearsal for it (bibibi… bibibi) quite silly, and even more so in the actual show. Also, I don’t think I’ve heard Tanaka Rie (Koigakuba Yuri sensei) scream this hysterically in a show before.

While I’m filling in for Omni this week, I plan to keep my summaries quite brief and just focus on the gist of each episode, as seen above. Time-wise, this is all I can afford to write up, but I hope some people will appreciate the conciseness of it. In my opinion, it makes for a nice and quick read until you get to watch the episode yourself.

-divine
…feels weird getting back into the blogging swing of things all of a sudden.

55 Comments

  5. Ugh…I was looking forward to see how they would portray Ruuji for this arc & it waas just as expected. I hope Ruuji doesn’t beat his own ass as much as he did in the manga when he finds out what really happened between Taiga & her pop.

    I still go by my previous ruling of death for the bastard. I can’t help but hate sick guys like that…& they just had to go the route of making him seem like a nice guy. (to Taiga’s father: PLEASE DIE) I’ve heard of fathers not understanding their daughters (or uber young wives), but that’s pure overkill. I know I’m completely biased when it comes to that sort of stuff but I have my own personal reasons for that 😉

    Megas
    Reply

  19. Nice to see you again, Divine 😀

    It seems to be a Toradora!’s nice episode again ^.^
    How many episodes will be aired? 2×13(12?); 1X25 or 1×13?
    I’ve read lots of rumors about it, so i’m a little bit lost at this point :/

    (sorry for my bad english)

    Mabo
    Reply

  21. ya vi el cap…esta muy weno pero aun no se is la serie va tener 25 caps o menos…please somebody tell me??
    otra cosa no ver ningun avance entre ryuji y taiga cada vez dudo mas en que ellos vayan a quedarse juntos al final…aunke guardo la esperanza!
    ^^

    (sorry for my bad english and my bad spanish)

    estefania!
    Reply

  28. Holy, I was so busy reading the summary I didn’t notice it was Divine that’s writing it until I read his impression. (Impersonates deadpan tone of Agent Smith in Matrix: Revolutions) Welcome back, Mr Divine! We… missed you.

    This show continues to deliver so far, for non-novel readers, the bust-up between Ryuji and Minori must have been a shocker. I was stunned when I read that part as well.

    And one cannot argue that Taiga is just too adorable in a ponytail. It’s probably as good as official: Ponytails trail only behind overknee socks in moe-killing power. That was why Kyonko was so damn popular.

    Hud
    Reply

  29. I’m assuming this Hud above is the “other” Hud and not the trolling Hud. I don’t know who you really are, but you probably used your “wrong” username. If you know what I meant. 😉

    Anyway, gotta agree with this Hud that Taiga is absolutely moe in a ponytail.

    Oh and welcome back, Divine. It’s been a while, isn’t it?

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

  32. They seem to be going by the novel but they’re definitely retooling it a bit. There was the episode about Taiga’s photo antics which made me wonder just how sickening they was going to make her character. Then there’s this mess between Ruuji & Minori, not to mention Taiga’s father being shown to be a good guy at first.

    I guess they had to spice things up for the anime cause the novel certainly got repetitive at times. But it still hasn’t got to the point where we don’t know what will happen next. Can we all get together & kill Taiga’s father, please…just this once 😀

    Megas
    Reply

  35. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I’m so glad this shitty show ends next week.

    Hudson
    Reply

  40. Once again, I apologize for talking incoherently as I jack off at Taiga in her absolutely gorgeous ponytail.

    I’m so sad I won’t be able to jack off further when this great show ends next week.

    Hudson
    Reply

  42. @jajaja: click if you dare…

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Megas
    Reply

  44. In the coming episode:

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Seeing how the story doesn’t quite end straight away, I don’t think they’ll be able to fit everything into next week’s episode. They might probably end up changing parts of the scene, in order to wrap things up (which I hope they won’t).

    (^3^)v

    Nalface
    Reply

  46. It looks like episode 14 will be Show Spoiler ▼

    Anyway Ryuuji is a super masochist. Show Spoiler ▼

    I can’t begin to understand masochists for the life of me but to each his/her own. I’m starting to love how this show is turning serious matters into comedic situation w/o them going into riot-mode.

    Too bad I can’t laugh at that stupid stuff. I could never laugh at any kind of pointless violence – whether it be male-male, male-female, female-male, female-female, person-thing, or what-have-you. I know I’m weird like that but its just preference or the lack of it.

    Megas
    Reply

  48. Welcome back Devine! Show’s building some depth but I still get chills every time Taiga smacks Ryuuji. I can’t see anyone taking that abuse without a single complaint. Minori seemed a bit over the top but Ryuugi seems equally blind. I’m a bit surprised we didn’t get some closure with MinorixRyuuji.

    Ami was the winner this week. At least she shows some honest feelings while everyone else seems to be in denial.

    Irie
    Reply

  50. I would agree, Ami came off better than the others this episode. She actually acted like a decent human being. That could mean that her major involvment is over or she has turned a new leaf and may actualy give Taiga a run for her money over Ryuuji (which I doubt).

    Spoilers, give me more spoilers. I guess I could go and read the translated novels….

    draksig
    Reply

  51. draksig, I posted spoilers in the episode 10 thread.

    Everyone came off better in this episode, not just Ami. Taiga is calmed down, Minori is becoming more serious, and Ami is as friendly as ever. Actually, Ryuuji is coming off as harsh for a change.

    Sammy
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *