Toradora 05 – 08 ~My Favorite Anime This Season??!?~

.

I have been expecting Toradora to be one of those shows that I may find cute in the beginning but exasperation will make me grow tired of it. I mean, what else should I be expecting with a violent loli tsun-tsun show, which is the bulk of the thing I know about the show because I never read the manga and read enough about it. But this is actually turning out to be my favorite show of the season. The themes of friendships and accepting people despite their differences and bad qualities (that you can never change) is certainly something new that I’ve never seen in a long time.

While most shows would have totally unlikable characters would be either isolated or changed (or in some cases, killed off), I like how this show promotes simple acceptance. Period. Nothing else follows. ~Actually I’m lying and there are some things that follows after the jump.

.

Episode 5 ~Kawashima Ami~

.

.

It’s no secret that girls go to the bathroom together to gossip, but should be more suspicious when guys go to the bathroom together???

.

Prior to transferring to school, Taiga and Ryuuji met Kitamura’s childhood friend, Ami who ends up being quite a nasty bitch to certain people. Kitamura, who she hides her split personality from, apparently knows about her true nature, but took advantage of bumping into Ryuuji and Taiga at Jonny’s. At first Ami is really nice and sweet to both of them but when Kita mura (and Ryuuji) gone, she started acting like a mean-spirited bitch towards Taiga. So towards the end, she ends up trying to butter Ryuuji up because she suspected that Taiga would have told him what really happened (which she did). Ami still continues to torment Taiga with everything from her looks to the fact that Kitamura may hate her because of what she did at Jonny’s. When she didn’t show up for dinner that evening, his mother encouraged Ryuuji to just bring dinner to him where he comforted her that Kitamura knows everything about Ami and that he would never be the type to believe the bad things that Ami may have said about her. When they passed by a convenience store after that, they found Ami heading home in disguise with a bagful of junk food.

.

Yay! Bitch slap cheer /

.

Ami really has it good. She’s one of those people who still have people like Kitamura who still look after her despite everything her schizophrenia. Personally, I wouldn’t have the energy to keep up with such people. I really hope she burns in hell.

.

Episode 6 ~True Self~

.

I’m not really sure, but I don’t think this should be the look on your fact when you face your one true love.

.

One afternoon after school, she bumped into Ryuuji and Taiga to avert some guy with a camera that’s been following her around. Ami explains that it was a stalker and Taiga volunteered her place. The next day at school Kitamura approaches Taiga and Ryuuji to try to get along with Ami because he fears that if her attitude continues, she will end up without any real friends. And after some city clean-up Taiga volunteered for (because it was the request of Kitamura) and Ryuuji (who was forced in by Taiga) came around with them. In the rain, Ami & Ryuuji and Taiga & Minorin split up to cover more ground and Ami Ryuuji admitted to her that he knows everything about her real personality and told her that she should just be herself. And when they witnessed Taiga confront the stalker (because he found her chibi size adorable), she wonders how she can just easily confront someone who’s obviously a pervert. She gains courage and chased after the stalker and beat the crap out of the camera and him. His stalker gave up because she was nothing like the angel he thought her to be. Ryuuji caught up with her and took her home to dry up after the rain where she tried to tease him, where they were found by Taiga.

.

Stalker Pervs should be dealt with accordingly.

.

Yeah, I thought this would be the big reveal where Ami would have an epiphany about her having a change of heart about her bitchiness, but she apparently turned out worse because she realized that thee are people ho don’t care whether she’s the devil incarnate or not.

.

Episode 7 ~Pool Opening~

.

I caught my best friend with the biggest two-faced witch in the world, I would throw her slutty ass out posthaste.

.

Taiga and Minorin came to Ryuuji’s place to look if they’re there, but after finding them like that, Taiga said that they weren’t there. Anyway, it was pool day and the students were not so enthused about it but they really were. Taiga was the least happy. She eventually admits to Ryuuji that it was because she can’t swim and that she everyone teased her behind her back about her flat-chestedness. To help her, Ryuuji agreed to put together breast pads for her, which she liked. It was freetime in the pool so everyone were just horsing around and Ami threw Taiga into the center of the pool where she came close to drowning. Ryuuji was the first one to get to her but one of the Breast pads fell out and he ended up pulling her under the water to put it back, much to her embarrassment. Ami tried to apologize but Minorin just got between them and told them that the only way that they can get over it is with a showdown.

.

God… I hate outdoor gym class. I hate gym class. Period.

.

This is the gratuitous fanservice episode I usually enjoy for the comedy, but after much watching of many fanservice-friendly anime, I kinda got tired of it. The only reason why I didn’t swear off this episode is that it’s genuinely entertaining. Also there is also the presence of the great friendships elements that made this anime so appealing to me. Considering that Ami was a result of horseplay (and accidents always happen with horseplay), I really couldn’t figure out if her apology to Taiga in the end was genuine or not.

.

Episode 8 ~For Whose Sake~

.

Maybe it’s just me. Doesn’t the freestyle require the use of arms???

.

Based on the lottery, Ami and Taiga showdown will be decided by a 50-meter freestyle swimming contest. Prize will be Ryuuji. Ryuuji spends time teaching Taiga how to swim before the day of the showdown. On the day of their showdown, Ryuuji tried to save Aisaka when she got a cramp and said that he should be grateful that a dog like him had a master that will fight for him. Ryuuji just let her go and some guys who were trying to see Ami will win on top of him and knocked him causing him to lost consciousness as he drowned. The only one who jumped in to save him was Taiga who started shouting how everyone were idiots not to notice Ryuuji was drowning and he belongs to her. In the end, the three with Kitamura and Minorin decided to go to Ami’s villas together for summer vacation.

.

I cannot troll this scene even if I’m tempted to. I just can’t.

.

I cried buckets on this episode. This has got to be Toradora’s best episode yet. At least there is really concrete evidence that Taiga treasures the friendship that she has with Ryuuji and it’s not just the random realization where she would take back whatever and does something to appease her bad attitude towards the scenario.

.

Thoughts:

Episode 5-7 just made me so frickin’ annoyed at that blue-haired bitch. Episode 8 made me cry a lot starting from the part where his mom said that if Taiga really hated Ryuuji, she will never eat from the same plate as he did up to the part where Taiga saved Ryuuji from drowning and she started crying that no one even noticed Ryuuji because they were too busy looking at the baka-bikini.

.

As individuals, I’ve always like Ryuuji since the first episode, while I found Taiga to be the typical weh. But as a pair, their friendship is something specially sweet. I love how Ryuuji will always back Taiga up, always believing that Taiga is a lot of things, but liar is not one of them. While Taiga can be an annoying, temperamental tsun-tsun, she really treasures the friendship that she had with Ryuuji. At this point, I really don’t mind whether a platonic friendship or a romantic ending will be the result of all this.

.

I’m actually astounded that people like Ami exist and yet… not. What really astounds me is how she is able to pull it off. I know there are people who live life behaving certain ways in certain environments. But yeah, her annoying level tips the scales and I often wonder why she didn’t she just go back from wherever the hell she came from where she worked as a model when she was finally able to stand up to her stalker. It seems that her mean-spiritedness would be the platform for a lot of the scenarios in following episodes. But her motives make me wonder if she’s just really attracted to Ryuuji or she’s using him for something (getting back at Taiga maybe?).

.

And I’m wondering what it is about Kitamura. Sure, he’s a nice and stable guy, but he seems to be making his friends into experiments. I found him to be the type who likes to watch his friends while getting his full support, I find him a really strange character.

.

Minorin is… Minorin. I can’t really say anything bad about her. I just don’t like her character that much. Sorry Minorin fan boys. Just too much of a busybody for my taste, but she has awesome special abilities like fake breasts detection.

This is the second anime I’ve ever seen that I enjoy with the themes of friendship. The first one was Ouran. Like I said, the plain treasuring of friendships between characters makes the show, not the potential pairings or the moe or anything.