Episode 19 is kind of a pivot episode for a lot of people, an iconic and emotional one that, as I wrote, was Toradora!‘s defining moment for me. But because that episode was such an emotional [...]
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とらドラ���Episode 20SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: The winter break is almost over with Ryuuji recovering from and illness and Taiga deciding to stay away with the new year's start. Ryuuji and Taiga discuss this late one evening across the alley below them. Taiga feels that Minori rejected Ryuuji because Taiga is always at Ryuuji's house and Ryuuji is always doing things for Taiga. Therefore, Taiga will
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Toradora! 20 With her struggling off-camera for most of the past few episodes, I’d almost forgotten how much I like Minori. Sure, she’s not the strongest or most straight-forward person (is anyone in this show?) but her quirky, boyish weirdness is totally endearing. The conversation between Minori and Ryuuji walking to school holding Taiga’s bag between them (OMG SYMBOLISM) was my favourite part of the episode. I only got the gist of the stuff about her little brother going to Koshien when I watched the raw, so waiting for subs was worth the wait to fully understand her “Mr. Lady” anecdote. It was rad to see that eccentric individualism again (she wants to cut her bangs so short that berries grow on them? WTF) as well as some of the largely unspoken ambition that defines her identity (manifested in the slight jealousy of her brother). I heart Minorin again! The chemistry between her and Ryuuji is great to watch too. However, maybe it’s my bias as an official-couple shipper but Ryuuji’s reasons for wanting to find out how Minori truly feels about him seemed to be all messed up and backward this episode. His crush on her is still huge, but the thought of Taiga surviving on cup ramen for his sake, Taiga learning to separate her trash and Taiga believing in him as a match for Minori came up again and again as the reasons he had to “gambaru!”, rather than the expected motivation of actually wanting to be with the girl he’s had a crush on all this time. I found this as stupid as Ami did.
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Friday night is always Toradora! night for me, and what better way to kick off the weekend? Episode twenty, of course, brings us to the fallout from the end of the last episode, albeit via fast forwarding a little to the New Year, with Ryuuji laid up in bed with the 'flu for that intervening period.Despite being rejected by Minori on Christmas Eve, and more importantly despite her own feelings
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Falling sick is the perfect excuse to remove a crestfallen person from the plot for a limited time. Ryuuji picked himself up pretty quickly from the ordeal he faced. I’d assume he was bedridden for 5-days after the rejection. Thankfully he did not take the rejection negatively and start slashing his wrists. Things are looking good [...]
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Though not at first, Ryuji opens up to speaking with Minori and they actually start to hit it off. Taiga forces herself out of relying on Ryuji. She does a great job of it too. She even does housekeeping, down to sorting the trash. Ami is still calling him and idiot so I don’t think [...]
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Nearly half a year ago, I would have never expected this level of empathy from this show. Just goes to show that the old adage, “books should not be judged by their cover” really does work for anime too. After the heartbreaking episode of nineteen last week, 20 continues on from where we left. Taiga [...]
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“Hey, Taiga. Say this.” Summary: Yusaku meets Taiga at the nearby shrine at the start of the new year, surprised to see that she isn’t with Ryuji. Taiga explains that Ryuji had fallen ill with the flu, but despite Yusaku’s almost leaving in response, Taiga stops him with a bow and what seems to be [...]
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