Toradora! 18 Baby Taiga saw Santa Claus! Her existential philosophy is really quite beautiful - in a world without God (and in her case, without parents) she needs to imagine someone is watching her, to give her life meaning. For Taiga, that somebody is “Santa”. This theme is echoed in Ami’s sentiment that the person each of us knows least is ourself. It’s a fascinating idea that we can only define ourselves under the gaze of the other - and very poignant to the situation of Taiga and Ryuuji, who have really established their senses of selfhood through their relationship with each other. Of course, Ami aptly points out that this relationship is inherently flawed and incomplete, foreshadowing the maelstrom ahead as much as Minorin’s breaking of Taiga’s Christmas ornament does - they’ve all just been playing house and nothing can stay the same. This episode had me thinking that it would have been better if the airing of this show had shifted two months earlier, so we could have had the Christmas arc over Christmas, and the Valentines Day arc right now! (Although that wouldn’t work because the final novel which happens right after Valentines doesn’t come out until March, around the time the anime will end. Hooray for a synchronous ending though!) Not much else to say - all talk no rock this episode since we were mostly just setting things up for the Christmas party next week. I’m so excited about the inclusion of certain scenes in the preview that I can’t say anything at all - my blog will remain spoiler free! I’m shutting up now!
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