Summary:

Yuusaku has been acting weird lately, and it all comes to a head during the discussion about the upcoming student council president elections. Everyone thinks that Yuusaku is the top candidate and will win, but he shocks them all by refusing to run and declaring that he’s quitting the student council. Things get worse the next day when Yuusaku comes to school with dyed hair, but no one really understands why. When questioned, Sumire denies knowing anything and notes that since Yuusaku has quit the student council, what he does has nothing more to do with her. Ami suspects that Sumire herself might be the cause, and although Sumire admits the possibility, she feels that if that is indeed the case, then she’d be even more disappointed in Yuusaku. As everyone else remains concerned about Yuusaku, Ami takes the stance that he’s just looking for attention, and that angers Taiga. Despite this, Minori decides to pay a visit to Yuusaku’s house, and Ryuuji goes with her.

Along the way, the two start talking about Ami, and Minori actually thinks that she is quite worried. Minori sees Ami as someone who works in the world of adults, understands things better than they do, and has to patiently interact with children like them. She feels that Ami understanding is the last salvation for people like them who don’t understand because they’re immature. When Ryuuji then comments on how kind Minori is, she denies it and claims that she’s arrogant and dishonest. The two ultimately have no luck at Yuusaku’s house, but when Ryuuji returns home, he finds Yuusaku there. Yuusaku has run away from home and is going to be staying there for a while, so Ryuuji cooks dinner for them. Taiga insists on helping, and even though her fried eggs are burnt, Yuusaku happily eats them. After eating, Ryuuji finally asks about the dyed hair, so Yuusaku admits that he doesn’t want to be student council president, and the dyed hair makes it so that no one would expect it from him.

Ryuuji falls asleep while playing games with the other two, and when he wakes back up, Yuusaku has already gone to bed. Taiga wants to eat ice cream, so the two head to the store, but before they go, they check up on their friend. Taiga is shocked to see that he’s been crying in his sleep, and when she’s alone with Ryuuji again, she herself starts crying over how she didn’t notice any of Yuusaku’s pain. In response to this, Ryuuji turns Taiga’s attention to the stars, and Taiga observes that even though they seem so close, they’re actually really far away. Taiga compares this to herself and Yuusaku, so Ryuuji points out that she wants to understand him because she likes him and that she stretches out her hand to him so that they can get closer. The next morning, Ryuuji wakes up to find Yuusaku already up and energetic again. He and Taiga make so much noise that Yasuko kicks them out, so the three of them go to a batting cage.

Yuusaku’s prolonged session in the batting cage makes Ryuuji think that something is still wrong with him, but regardless, Taiga volunteers to go into the cage next and manages to hit all the balls, much to Yuusaku’s amazement. When they get home later that day, they find Yasuko waiting for them with a box of black hair coloring. Apparently Yuusaku’s father had been on the phone with her, and she wants to dye Yuusaku’s hair back before sending him home. Yasuko thinks that Yuusaku will be student council president, but he refuses and manages to escape. In the aftermath, Taiga is worried again and remembers how Minori had once claimed to hate horror even though she actually loved it. She applies this concept to how Yuusaku claims not to want to be student council president and implies that he actually wants to be. In order to make things better, Taiga decides to run for student council president as an evil candidate.

Preview

First things first, no new OP or ED this week.

As for the episode, my first reaction was that the Gatorade yellow hair just doesn’t work on Yuusaku. He doesn’t even look like a delinquent – just stupid. And despite his claim that he dyed it so that he doesn’t have to be student council president, there’s obviously something more to it involving Sumire. That’s why I don’t think Taiga’s plan of running for student council president is going to convince Yuusaku that he wants the position after all. It won’t happen without a Sumire solution in there, and that probably won’t make Taiga happy. Speaking of which, Sumire’s attitude is starting to piss me off. I don’t know what Yuusaku sees in her.

The other thing that occurred to me while watching this episode was that Minori’s respect for what she sees as Ami’s maturity plus her own self-disdain might mean that if push came to shove in a potential war for Ryuuji’s affection, then Minori would cede him to Ami. It seems like she doesn’t feel that she deserves anything good, and that could be a problem for Ryuuji.

On a different note, I finally got around to listening to the Toradora OST yesterday, and overall it wasn’t quite as good as I thought it’d be given my impression of the music from watching the series so far. There’s only a handful of songs that I really like – Startup, Lost my pieces, Sorairo no Houkago, and a couple of others – and my good impression from the anime is probably because they do a great job using those songs in key moments, like they did in this episode in the Minori scene and the stars scene.

47 Comments

  1. I’m severely disappointed that they removed so much Ami from the later parts of the episode. There was a good moment for some development at the batting cage scene in the book because Ami was there as well.

    @link_soul
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Brizzle
  2. So a full chapter in 2 episodes ? Still its going to be hard to condense more than 3 chapters, important ones, in less than 9 episodes.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Daniel
  3. Man this show reminds me of Lovely Complex
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Jacksmom
  4. This episode was FAST as hell. If they keep this up, they can finish a whole vol in 2 eps. I thought the mess with the school fest was dragging its feet a little but this was nearly too fast too keep up with. However the speed of the episode itself even made it uber interesting for me. I’ve been yawning until now because of the silly novel.

    But this episode made me not really care about all those mid-range events that the novel dragged on with like the pact between Ryuuji’s & Yuusaku’s parents, the long-ass drawn out mess that happened in the office, & Yuusaku trying to run away from school several times b4 he was successful. They even switched up Ryuuji & Taiga when Yuusaku came to play with them. The original scene would have been funny as hell: Ryuuji got there first with Taiga second…busting in with her usual “I’M STARVING” bs. They made up for it with a few nice moments here & there.

    Sure it would have been nice to see all of that but they are running short on time as it is. If the next 2 to 3 episodes keep up this pace (or slow it down just a bit) then they should be able to get to vol 9 & the glorious anime original ending we’re all looking forward to.

    Megas
  5. *fan rant mode* They skipped Ami in the baseball cage part of the story… I’m MAD! (repeated infinity times)

    … Let’s just say, they left out Ami in most parts of the story in this episode.

    … Yasuko in this episode is win. :O

  6. This entire story arc (Vol 6) is among the better ones that Toradora! has. I’d hoping that the production staff can back it up in the animated form. And oh, Yasuko epic win in this one

    That being said…
    Show Spoiler ▼

  7. Ami’s character is basically already defined enough for them to end her friendless bid. If they would have left that stuff in there, she would have gotten on your nerves alot sooner than she needs to…

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Megas
  8. Megas:then they should be able to get to vol 9 & the glorious anime original ending we’re all looking forward to.

    This had better be sarcasm…

    @Daniel: I think it’s supposed to be subtle or something. I dunno, we’ll see.

    Kaisos
  9. Kaisos: I wish it was, the novels are in hiatus & the manga is dead. They have to end the crazy circumstances in the novel some kind of way. I just hope its funny because it got really serious right b4 then.

    Megas
  10. Vol 10 should be out in March (a day before this series ends if they don’t skip anymore weeks). So if the anime ending is crappy at least I’ll have a new vol of the novel to tide me over…hopefully the ending won’t be crappy.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Megas
  11. Vol. 10 is out on March 10th… I believe this series ends at the end of March…?

    It’s not like they can’t be working with the author to end it the same way as the books, especially since

    a) It means they’re ending it at the same time

    and b) The fact that they have a release date means the book is already written.

    Also, they’re supposed to get more serious. This was never a true comedy series.

    Kaisos
  12. Ugh…Hud, you rock!

    Kaisos: All this series ever did was downplay every serious moment to date…

    The other problem is the two pointless fillers they stuck in there. Of course the fillers were pure comedy and all but it caused hell for an episode like this. Even if you didn’t read the novel you could still tell that they was skipping around alot. I guess they could have the same ending but if this show isn’t a love comedy then what is it.

    However, it isn’t even close to getting as serious as it is going to be. I just hope they don’t try to downplay any of that with stupidity & tasteless slapstick humor.

    Megas
  13. After reading the novel, the ep felt rushed for me. A lot of key moments didn’t feel as powerful as they did in the book.

    Sincerely hope the rush in this ep, is to allow more time to do an excellent rendition of this arc’s resolution.

  14. Wow,at least something finally happened with Kitamura to call him a part of the mainc characters, but wtf? The guy went emo and turned into a Super Saiyan? What in the world did the president do to him. Is it really just because he was dumped?

    stephen007
  15. Kaisos: I really don’t consider (de)constructive criticism as hate. I never said I hate this series. There are several other things out there that I hate. I just have some expectations for this series & they are actually being met.

    I guess it does have a bit of drama in it, so much so that it sometimes override the comedy. The novel got so dramatic at times it made me sick.

    @stephen007: Show Spoiler ▼

    Megas
  16. @Megas
    I think you missed something.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Daniel
  17. lol, Daniel I don’t go that in-depth with spoilers…

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Megas
  18. Kitamura got a little fun from his life finally. Taiga running for president was like live action of the wrestling show story… (Why settle for bigger evil? get lost Cthulu partisans!)
    As long as we dont know what really happened between Kitamura and Sumire, we can’t really judge the situation. Similar case with Taiga’s father.

    ewok
  19. Well different persons different interpretations i guess. I would like to be able to say
    “i like to be able to fly in an airplane” but that just means i would like to be more “courageous” in that regard not that i like to travel by plane 😉

    Daniel
  20. “As for the episode, my first reaction was that the Gatorade yellow hair just doesn’t work on Yuusaku. He doesn’t even look like a delinquent – just stupid”

    That’s the point: it’s a lame attempt to look like a bad boy, but it just looks stupid. All the other characters think so, and you the viewer do too.

    willis drummond

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