First Impressions / Toradora!

Summary:

Everyone is back in school, and the student council holds a meeting to discuss how the upcoming culture festival will only be one day. Sumire vows to make it exciting since it’s her last major school event as student council president. The festival is on the minds of the other students as well, and Haruta proposes to the guys in his class that they vote together to put on a maid cafe. The guys like the general idea, but they differ on how they want the girls to dress, so Yuusaku suggests just doing a cosplay cafe. Afterward, Taiga brings Ryuuji her gym pants which have a tear in them. She blames Ami for it, but Ryuuji breaks up the girls’ arguing and promises to sew up the tear. He then talks with Minori and brings up what she had said previously about UFOs, however she avoids the topic. Later that night, as Ryuuji is working on the pants, he notices Taiga’s cell phone ring, but she ignores it and doesn’t appreciate him bugging her about it. She reveals that the person calling is actually her father who had remarried and abandoned her, and she insists on referring to him as a shitty old man when Ryuuji tries to lecture her on family.

The next day, Haruta leads the official class discussion on what they should do for the festival and who they are entering into the school beauty contest. Haruta tries to get the latter out of the way first by nominating Ami, but it turns out that she can’t because she’s actually presiding over the ceremonies. Ami suggests Taiga instead, and although Taiga initially vehemently opposes the idea, Yuusaku supporting it renders her speechless. As for what the class is going to do as a whole for the festival, the guys suggest a cosplay cafe as planned. The girls don’t like that suggestion, and no one listens as Minori tries to suggest a haunted house. Ultimately, it’s their teacher Yuri who shoots down all the ideas and starts ranting, so Haruta has everyone just vote for what they want. The guys are confident that the girls are no match for their male voting alliance, but unfortunately for them, Haruta screws up and does a lottery selection out of the bag of votes instead of majority rule. Haruta doesn’t realize his mistake until after he reads the slip of paper he drew which says “Professional wrestling show.”

Taiga meanwhile remains pissed off at Ami, but that mood changes to surprise when she goes to the ATM for some money and sees that there’s nothing left in her account. She realizes that it’s because she’s been ignoring her father’s calls, and when he calls her again, she has no choice but to answer. This leads to her setting up a meeting with her father, but she doesn’t go herself and only sends Ryuuji. Taiga’s father is disappointed that his daughter didn’t come and ends up treating Ryuuji to lunch. As he gives Ryuuji an envelope with the money, he notes that he wanted to talk to his daughter. He reveals that he had remarried a young woman named Yuu who Taiga couldn’t get used to living with, and she had left home. What he had wanted to tell Taiga was that he’ll be separating from Yuu soon, and so he wants to live with Taiga again because he loves her. With this on his mind, Ryuuji returns home and tries to tell Taiga what her father had said, but she doesn’t want to hear it. When he mentions how bad he feels for her father who is depressed that she’s ignoring him, she feels that she’s the one who deserves pity and storms out.

The next day at school, Haruta gives everyone a script that he wrote for their professional wrestling show. In it, Ami gets to be the heroine while Taiga is the villain and Ryuuji is her underling. Their practice gets interrupted though when Yuusaku reveals that there’s going to be a competition between classes this year for the festival, and the winning class will receive a number of prizes, including refrigerator and air-conditioning privileges. Later that day, Taiga and Ryuuji return home and run into Taiga’s father who had been waiting. Taiga’s reaction is to kick her father in the crotch and call him a stalker before walking towards Ryuuji’s apartment. Ryuuji, however, thinks that she’s being stubborn and tries to stop her. This leads to her accusing him of being allied with her father, but Ryuuji claims that he’s doing this because he’s her ally. He tries to get her to talk with her father, but Taiga refuses to acknowledge her father as anything other than a stalker.

This angers Ryuuji, and he tries to get Taiga to be honest about wanting to go home, but she feels that he doesn’t understand her. She claims that she doesn’t need her father – who she refers to as trash – and that she had abandoned him, not the other way around. Ryuuji gets really angry with this, and it leads to him inadvertently mentioning how his own father won’t come back no matter how much he wishes. It is at this point that Ryuuji realizes that he’s not doing this for Taiga’s sake. He starts to apologize to her, but she stops him and agrees to do as he says because she doesn’t want him to make that sad face anymore. She doesn’t know whether it’s possible to think that this is a good thing, but because of what he said, she’ll think that way. With that, Taiga walks back to her father and lets him hug her. As he watches them, Ryuuji is glad for them, but there exists a bit of doubt in him.

 
 
 

Well, the school festival stuff this episode was fairly standard fare, but I thought everything about Taiga and her father was quite good. The ending of the episode was an unexpectedly touching scene because I thought she’d resist until the end and that something what Ryuuji said wouldn’t have had an effect on her. It was also touching because the music made it feel that way, and I have to say again that Toradora’s background music is some of the best I’ve heard all year, ranking up there with Macross Frontier and true tears. The fact though that there are three parts to this story (along with the rest of the culture festival) makes me think that there’s a lot more to it than we’re being told.

So far it’s mostly been Taiga being stubborn, but I found it a little odd that her father separating with his new wife was part of the solution to get Taiga back. Either that means that he’s willing to give everything up to be back with his daughter – which doesn’t seem right considering his wife is someone he loved enough to marry – or that he’s mainly coming back to his daughter because things aren’t going well with his wife, and that makes me question his priorities. And what happened to Taiga’s real mother anyway? Unfortunately, the preview was only a single shot this week (which is why I included it with the regular set), so there weren’t any hints about what’s going to happen.

43 Comments

  5. Alenrion get over it…Ryuuji’s not going for Ami, she’s a headcase all to herself. They really did show Taiga’s father in a different light – maybe that was because of Ryuuji, I dunno. His methods to try to see his daughter was still messed up.

    Megas
    Reply

  13. I love fandom. I’ll even hold out hope for yall – too bad its not worth much. You guys takes things at face value WAY too much. Please consider Ami’s true motives. It appears that Ryuuji has already figured it out.

    Megas
    Reply

  14. Anyone that watches anime over a period of time can see a tiaga/ Ruuji pairing finale coming a mile away and I have never seen the manga. Even tho I so want Ruuji to get the girl he wants Im pretty sure he gonna end up with Tiaga.

    Splash
    Reply

  15. I agree with Megas.

    To Alenrion and Pidgin…actually Ami is a massive headcase. I love the girl but she’s got some serious issues she needs to work out on her own. The girl has split personality disorder and that’s really her problem. She’s snooty and princessy in her head with a really bad attitude but then she puts on a cover.

    In that regard Taiga is far from a headcase. She’ll tell you straight up how she feels and what’s going down. She doesn’t put on fronts for anyone. She’s someone who does issues, but their coming from her relationship with her parents and the fact that most people don’t know how to deal with blunt and up front people (like her). Hence in walks Ryuuji who’s also extremely misunderstood and on that level they are very alike.

    Ami is not misunderstood, Ami intentionally wants people to misunderstand who she really is and that makes her nutty. I love the girl and I understand where she’s coming from but she does have some serious issues. I don’t see her getting with Ryuuji, he seems to have problems with the fact she’s basically a fake, but tolerates her to probably liking her as a friend.

    Oh and to Alenrion about Taiga’s Dad, I thought I read that Taiga’s dad is already remarried, not that he was planning on remarrying. So I doubt Ryuuji’s mom is in the running.
    As for the ep, I can’t wait to see it. The review was great and I can’t wait for more. I would also like to know about Taiga’s mom and I’m just so bloody glad I get to see Ya-chan and Inko-chan. Seriously, I was not feeling episode 10 too much because I was on Ya-chan and Inko-chan withdrawals…those guys make me laugh just by being in the scene.

    vaberella
    Reply

  16. I’m supportive of Taiga/Ryuu and I agree it’s kind of a given that they might get together. However, I’m so against Minori and Ryuu. I’d sooner see him with Ami, since I like her character. Between Minori and Ami I don’t know which is more of a headcase.

    vaberella
    Reply

  17. vaberella:

    i agree with your analysis of ami, but disagree with your synopsis of taiga. she is actually quite a bit the opposite of one who is “straight-forward”, she’s a scared little girl. she is not strong, she has no confidence, and is completely unable to express her feelings. she acts in the way she does because she actually wants to be hated. if you are hated, then you never have to form a true relationship where your true self might be seen. ryuuji snuck into her life, and before she was able to get rid of him, the little girl in her latched on to him. in short, she’s a standard tsundere. come on, look who is voicing her 😛

    saxdemigod
    Reply

  18. It looks like Ryuuji mom and Taiga dad will be crossing ^^

    I hope no, coz it will close Taiga x Ryuuji.

    For me the best would be:

    1. Ami x Ryuuji (coz damn i like the evil one, so bad that Ryuuji dont wanna be a badass xD )
    2. Taiga x Ryuuji ( But it’ll be too predictive… And I wanna some shock!)
    3. Minori x Ryuuji (Hmm… like sun and moon… i somewhat dont like Minori)
    4. Yuusaku x Ryuuji ( Damn. it would be a shock! xD joke… i wont even consider this :P)

    So ill be satisfied if it would finish with Ami/Taiga x Ryuuji harem combo!

    And Yuusaku x Minori (so everyone will be happy)

    jcop
    Reply

  21. well..
    i still think that ami hate being alone and she take a liking to ryuuji
    taiga now is confused on who she really like.. *hoho*
    and we still know..
    ryuuji like minorin.. and she got notice on that..
    now …
    “CHANCES OF WINNING”
    no one…
    maybe they just put the ending like maybe ryuuji and the girl still friends
    and not going far on to a relationship…

    Darkniter
    Reply

  22. By Yuusaku i meant Kitamura. (meaby i writed wrong)

    I dont like shounen-ai :p I would say i hate it. And if Toradora have ended with Kitamura x Ryuuji it would fell from (my note) 8+/10 to 2/10.

    jcop
    Reply

  23. That’s right, there’s no other way round. I think everyone would know without watching the show ¬_¬ its one of them show, nothing serious like some romance show, which I perfer. This show is just passing sometime and put my mind at different place to relax, that’s all. Great blog!
    Thanks

    Taiga x Ryuuji
    Reply

  26. Geez, I wish I could “unsee: some earlier comments especially Alenrion’s.

    I know I’m an AmiRyuuji fan, but this is not a visual novel we are talking about, guys, else we could debate a lot about “Who’s gonna end up with who?”. It’s a freaking novel which should explain the oh-so-obvious ending, I don’t know whether J.C. Staff will make their own twist and give us some fan service by making our wanted ending, but that would beat the purpose of naming the series Toradora!.

    But talking about “Who likes who?” is possible although they might not be able to get their girl/guy at the end.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Besides, if Taiga goes totally deredere on Ryuuji (which she will do later, obviously), I won’t mind the obvious pairing anyway, or let’s say I’ll be forgiving her rudeness towards Ryuuji to compensate for that.

    Back to the episode: I still facepalm hard to how the other classmates view Ami as, and Ryuuji and Taiga as, even if it’s just a play, or even if it’s just a metaphor. I’d be (murderously) angry if I am to know how they (Ami, Ryuuji, and Taiga) are really like and people do that.

    And looks like Taiga’s dad somehow had Ryuuji stamped with his seal of approval (now that would be funny).

    Shiro
    Reply

  27. I hope they don’t go that “Wait…your dads my moms husband…and my mom if you dads wife? WE’RE SIBLINGS?!?!?” route.

    From what Ryuuji said, is it safe to assume that his father is dead? Since he said that no matter how much he wishes for it his father will never come back.

    ROFLWAFFLELAWL
    Reply

  28. OI ppl, Taiga’s father ~IS ALREADY REMARRIED~

    BTW, I wouldn’t mind Ryuuji x Yuusaku. That would be my LMAO of the month. Forget it. I’m evil, but even that is out of range for me. On a lighter note Taiga’s deredere side is ridiculous, she’ll end up being a completely different person from when she’s trying to beat the keem out of Ryuuji or curling up like a ball & wanting to die in front of Yuusaku. I can’t wait for them to animate that. I hope Kugimiya Rie doesn’t get sick while voicing all that crap 😀

    Megas
    Reply

  29. People who are analyzing Ami (as far as i’ve seen from the first page) are not really realizing the overall theme of this show here >.>

    Theme: Finding Love
    Taiga – Love’s the wrong person
    Kushieda – Is loved by someone but leaves it unrequited (so far)
    Ami – *Acts adorable and uses her pretty face because she’s lonely******
    And Kitamura is a masochist, he confessed to Taiga, likes Ami’s mean personality, and it’s obvious he totally diggs the Dictatorial School Council President

    Pikow
    Reply

  30. Id like to see Ami’s character open up a little more, I still dont think weve seen the real her, she opened up a little in episode 10 in the cave, but id like to see what shes like for real, right now ami’s one of my favorite characters just because I dont know what shes really like yet.

    MC
    Reply

  31. Minori is cute, lovable and a bundle of positive energy. While Ryuuji really likes her, they just don’t seem to be a match. Kitamura seems to be a good match for Minori and they really get along together. Even Taiga seems to have realized in the last episode that her and Ryuuji are a good match, she just won’t admit it yet. I just don’t like her personality.

    draksig
    Reply

  34. I agree with some here, it looks like Minori and Kitamura will end up together. 🙂 That’s one way of making Taiga and Ryuuji to notice each other more. ^^ … Though I feel sorry for Ami, even though she’s annoying most of the time.

    Acylia
    Reply

  35. Just why do yall think Minori & Yuusaku will get together. Is that just hopeful thinking? Both of them are goofy weirdos. Their super-positive natures will clash like hell. Besides Yuusaku is going to hang off the SC-Pres. Minori & Ami stays in the ryu-harem until Ryuuji & Taiga finally start to fool around (more than usual). I thought that was already made clear. BTW, Minori isn’t officially in it yet but she will be very soon.

    Also if it wasn’t too darn apparent, the crap that happened at the end of this episode will backfire like hell. You just gotta love Ryuuji’s big mouth. I just wonder why they made Taiga’s father seem like a good guy. I just can’t figure that one out.

    Megas
    Reply

  40. @Megas

    Yeah i pretty much agree with that, Minori & Yuusaku together (considering their personalities) will probably result in a bad way. Yuusaku’s probably got the hots for the President of the SC. Aww i still cant decide if i will route for Minori or Ami for Ryuji. But i think there is a possibility for Ryuji’s mom and Taiga’s dad to hook up. Correct me if im wrong but from what i remember, Taiga’s father remarried and caused Taiga to leave their house and live by herslef(Taiga and her Stepmom obviously dont mix), but now her dad decided that he wants to live with Taiga again and break up with his wife.<I pretty much remember reading the word breakup from her Dad’s dialogue.

    stephen007
    Reply

  43. 1. Nice psychological breakdowns of the characters, guys. No offense to anyone, but it’s nice to see some actual thoughts on the show besides “*boy character*+*girl character*! squeeeee-” or “character a is cool because character b is ghey!” Oh, and whomever said that Taiga’s overall surlyness was a defense mechanism so people won’t get close and Ryuuji got past it so she latched on? Right on the money.

    2. Ryuuji’s dad HAS to be dead. It’s the only reason Ryuuji would get so defensive about someone not loving their dad without knowing the whole story! “My dad is NEVER coming back!”

    3. I get the feeling that Minorin either doesn’t like Ryuuji like that or doesn’t want to step on Taiga’s toes. She does the avoidance thing with him waaaay too fast and often.

    4. Amazingly enough, despite her shortcomings(I couldn’t STAND her at first!), Ami is the only emotionally honest person on this show. Well… honest about the way she feels about other people, anyway. How she feels about herself? uuuhhhhh….

    5. The only reason I can think of for Taiga’s attitude, her feelings toward her dad and how things went between her and her new stepmom is Taiga’s dad being pervy with Taiga. I’m hoping that isn’t the case, though. If I need that kind of angst, I’ll read Bitter Virgin.

    6. I erhh…. don’t read Bitter Virgin, I don’t know what it’s about and I’ve never even heard of the manga. Yeah. Never heard of it.

    7. This show CONSTANTLY throws me off with the incredibly tender and out of place scenes between Taiga and Ryuuji. I should know better. The background music stops? Time for an “awwww” moment! This is STILL my favorite anime of the new season.

    8. Where’s that dude that runs in here every week moanzing about “omg this anime sucks the manga is SOO much better!” It just doesn’t seem the same without him around…. T_T

    Devilot
    Reply

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