Saturday
Feb282009
Toradora 21 - I WAS KIDDING
Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 06:56PM
You may recall, when discussing the events of the last episode of Toradora, I made this comment regarding how the plot will progress.
I was so close.
No one actually dies, of course. But you'll have to wait before I reveal who's goggles those are (and I expect everyone reading this already knows) as I run down the main events from this episode. And a side note - for some reason, going through the episode a second time to get screenshots caused me to basically re-watch the episode, and a lot more stuff made sense the second time around. For example, the first significant reveal is this:
This actually is a call back to last episode, where Taiga ran into Kitamura at a temple. My interpretation of that is different thanks to this. I think rather than getting Kitamura to go along with her plan to isolate Ryuuji so Minori won't feel bad about hanging out with him (which really seems to have gone to hell, by the way) she realized she isn't all flustered anymore when dealing with him, indicating her affections have moved on.
Also a call back to last episode - I was right about this chick.
Still needs to DIAF
As the episode went on, I wasn't sure what the whole point of her is, unless it's to add to the already mounting tension in the room.
Speaking of room - has this ever happened to you?
Here's some advice - don't look in the closet!
This only happens in teen comedy animes
This is the perfect set-up for the guys (and Taiga) to overhear something they shouldn't. Something that leads to Ami and Minori shooting eye daggers at each other.
Grrrrrrrr
Initially I had to side with the moron below
Here is what I think is going on. Ami, being the only person who sees exactly what is going on, is finally getting fed up with everyone acting nice to each other and trying to maintain the status quo. She calls Minori out on that, and hits a nerve. I'm not exactly sure why she does this. Her excuse is that she's just annoyed with Miniori, but I think she sees the world of hurt all this denial is going to cause. How exposing it now rather than later helps anyone I'm not sure, but that seems to be Ami's plan.
The argument continues the next day, only a tad harsher.
Trying to think of a cat fight joke...
In the tussle, Minori looses the hair clip Taiga gave her, so Taiga slips off to find it. Unfortunately, her slipping skills are not up to snuff, and the group looses track of her.
Naturally, the Scooby gang heads out to look for her, which gives me the opportunity to point out that once again, a group of plucky teens manage to outwit a staff of trained professionals.
No one thought to look BEHIND them when she went missing?
Ryuuji heads down after her. I figured he'd stumble upon a lost and disoriented Taiga looking for the lodge, but instead he runs into this.
Kinda dark
No, she's not dead. Bump on the head and a bit disoriented. Enough so, in fact, that she's not even sure who is rescuing her.
So did I
Which is the perfect lead in for Taiga to accidentally confess to Ryuuji. And fade to black.
You can pretty much assume Taiga won't remember any of this, so the onus is on Ryuuji to decide what to do with this info. Let's see, there are potentially 5 more episodes, so my guess is he'll be a dork about it until Ami smacks him around.
And a quick note about Ami. I'm torn on this character. I thought she was suppose to be a dis-likable character, self-centered and smug about everything. But everything she's doing seems to be for the benefit of others, she's just expressing in a totally bitchy way. I'm really curious about her motivation. Is her affection for Ryuuji leading her to steer him down the right path, or does she just like to stir up trouble? Or does she have some evil plot to make everyone else implode so the leave Ryuuji for her? Somehow, I bet we never find out.
My main fear is that someone is going to have to suffer for this, but this has never been a show afraid to show the reality of the situation. My current guess - Minori dies.
I was so close.
No one actually dies, of course. But you'll have to wait before I reveal who's goggles those are (and I expect everyone reading this already knows) as I run down the main events from this episode. And a side note - for some reason, going through the episode a second time to get screenshots caused me to basically re-watch the episode, and a lot more stuff made sense the second time around. For example, the first significant reveal is this:
This actually is a call back to last episode, where Taiga ran into Kitamura at a temple. My interpretation of that is different thanks to this. I think rather than getting Kitamura to go along with her plan to isolate Ryuuji so Minori won't feel bad about hanging out with him (which really seems to have gone to hell, by the way) she realized she isn't all flustered anymore when dealing with him, indicating her affections have moved on.
Also a call back to last episode - I was right about this chick.
Still needs to DIAF
As the episode went on, I wasn't sure what the whole point of her is, unless it's to add to the already mounting tension in the room.
Speaking of room - has this ever happened to you?
Here's some advice - don't look in the closet!
This only happens in teen comedy animes
This is the perfect set-up for the guys (and Taiga) to overhear something they shouldn't. Something that leads to Ami and Minori shooting eye daggers at each other.
Grrrrrrrr
Initially I had to side with the moron below
Here is what I think is going on. Ami, being the only person who sees exactly what is going on, is finally getting fed up with everyone acting nice to each other and trying to maintain the status quo. She calls Minori out on that, and hits a nerve. I'm not exactly sure why she does this. Her excuse is that she's just annoyed with Miniori, but I think she sees the world of hurt all this denial is going to cause. How exposing it now rather than later helps anyone I'm not sure, but that seems to be Ami's plan.
The argument continues the next day, only a tad harsher.
Trying to think of a cat fight joke...
In the tussle, Minori looses the hair clip Taiga gave her, so Taiga slips off to find it. Unfortunately, her slipping skills are not up to snuff, and the group looses track of her.
Naturally, the Scooby gang heads out to look for her, which gives me the opportunity to point out that once again, a group of plucky teens manage to outwit a staff of trained professionals.
No one thought to look BEHIND them when she went missing?
Ryuuji heads down after her. I figured he'd stumble upon a lost and disoriented Taiga looking for the lodge, but instead he runs into this.
Kinda dark
No, she's not dead. Bump on the head and a bit disoriented. Enough so, in fact, that she's not even sure who is rescuing her.
So did I
Which is the perfect lead in for Taiga to accidentally confess to Ryuuji. And fade to black.
You can pretty much assume Taiga won't remember any of this, so the onus is on Ryuuji to decide what to do with this info. Let's see, there are potentially 5 more episodes, so my guess is he'll be a dork about it until Ami smacks him around.
And a quick note about Ami. I'm torn on this character. I thought she was suppose to be a dis-likable character, self-centered and smug about everything. But everything she's doing seems to be for the benefit of others, she's just expressing in a totally bitchy way. I'm really curious about her motivation. Is her affection for Ryuuji leading her to steer him down the right path, or does she just like to stir up trouble? Or does she have some evil plot to make everyone else implode so the leave Ryuuji for her? Somehow, I bet we never find out.
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