Toradora! - 02 October 8
OP Sequence
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OP: 「プレパレード 」 (Pre-Parade) by 釘宮理恵, 堀江由衣, 喜多村英梨 (Kugimiya Rie, Horie Yui, Kitamura Eri)
Watch the OP!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming
For a seiyuu group song, this isn’t bad, but I didn’t like it that much - certainly not as much as the ED. At least the visuals were pretty colorful.
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Summary:
Because of Ryuuji’s promise to help her, Taiga has started coming over to his house for breakfast and is having him make her lunches. They run into Minori on their way to school, and when Minori starts to misunderstand from seeing the two of them together, Taiga claims that they only met by coincidence. This leads Ryuuji to realize that in order to succeed with Minori, he’ll first have to get Taiga and Kitamura together. Their initial plan takes place during gym class: Ryuuji and Taiga pair up to toss a basketball around with the goal of Ryuuji throwing a basketball at Kitamura’s partner. He would then rush that person to the infirmary, allowing Taiga to re-pair up with Kitamura. Unfortunately, to complicate matters, Kitamura also partners up with a girl, and Taiga ends up getting distracted, so she doesn’t avoid the basketball in time and instead gets hit in the face. The next plan involves Taiga giving Kitamura some cookies she baked during home economics class, but Kitamura is in a rush, so Taiga has to chase him. In doing so, she accidentally slips on the stairs, and Ryuuji has to catch her, but her cookies go flying out the window. This latest failure depresses Taiga because she feels that she can’t succeed, so Ryuuji tries to make her feel better by eating all the ruined cookies and saying that they were delicious.
Unfortunately, a new obstacle soon develops for the two: because of how much they’re together, their class has started to believe that Taiga and Ryuuji are a couple. The rumors quickly spread to Minori, and she takes the two onto the rooftop so that she can formally ask Ryuuji to take care of Taiga. To make matters worse, Kitamura is there as well, and he also misunderstands. Both Taiga and Ryuuji are heavily depressed afterward, and Taiga even apologizes to Ryuuji because she feels responsible. She had been living alone because she had not gotten along with her own parents and had felt at home at his house. She feels that no one understands her, and she takes her frustrations out on a utility pole by kicking it. Ryuuji joins her, and their kicking eventually causes the pole to slant a little. This small victory causes Taiga to decide that she’ll confess her feelings to Kitamura, and she claims that Ryuuji can stop being her dog. Along those lines, she declares that, starting from tomorrow, the two of them will just be classmates who live next door to each other, and she then bids Ryuuji farewell, leaving behind her lunch box.
The next day, Taiga doesn’t come over for breakfast, and when Ryuuji sees her at school, she doesn’t speak with him. What Taiga does do though is to raise a huge commotion in the class so that everyone knows that she and Ryuuji aren’t a couple, and even Minori apologizes to Ryuuji for her misunderstanding. Taiga then calls Kitamura outside so that she can confess to him, and Ryuuji just happens to overhear it all because he’s on the stairwell. Before she can say that she likes him, Kitamura first asks if Taiga is going out with Ryuuji. Taiga responds by denying that she likes Ryuuji, but she also admits that she doesn’t hate him either, and she notes how he made her delicious fried rice, cheered her up, and stayed with her. It was because Ryuuji was with her that she is able finally confess her feelings to Kitamura now. Kitamura, however, misinterprets her confession to mean that she wants to be friends, and that leaves her in shocked silence. After Kitamura is gone, Ryuuji reveals himself and asks Taiga what she’s going to do. She’s ready to go home, so Ryuuji offers to make her dinner, but Taiga claims not to want his help anymore. Ryuuji, however, feels that he can’t leave her alone, and he decides that he’s not a dog - he’s a dragon. Since old times, dragons have ranked up with tigers, and so he’ll continue to be by her side as a dragon.
All this - including the fact that Ryuuji called her by her given name instead of by her family name - shocks Taiga, and the only way she can think of responding is by kicking him. She returns to her normal bossy self and starts ordering him around again, but she’s secretly happy that he called her Taiga.
Preview
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I’m a bit split about this episode. On one hand, it’s a bit worrisome that they went through a ton of material this episode - three and half chapters of the novels or eight chapters of the manga - and a lot of what was covered (the basketball scene, the confession scene) was condensed/abridged. On the other hand, I’m really beginning to like the anime adaptation’s chemistry between Taiga and Ryuuji, and the pole-kicking and confession scenes were pretty well done. A lot of that is because of the strong visuals and music - it’s not an amazing soundtrack on its own, but they’re choosing the right songs to convey the right feelings for the particular scenes. Overall, this a good episode, but I suspect a lot of manga or novel readers won’t be too pleased at the stuff cut out.
In any case, I’m not completely sold on the series yet, so I’m not going to hold off from committing to blogging it until I watch the premiere of Michiko to Hatchin next week.
happyhippo at 8:59 pm on October 8th, 2008
OMG YES!
Gabe at 9:00 pm on October 8th, 2008
Haha, I love this show, after reading the light novels I fell and the manga I was so psyched to hear they made this into an anime xD AND the voice of Shana PLAYS THE PALMTOP TIGER w00t!
Meido-san at 9:03 pm on October 8th, 2008
I think they’ve covered too much too fast. D:
Adam at 9:05 pm on October 8th, 2008
I’ve never read the manga or the novels myself so this story is completely new to me. I’ve had the pleasure of watching two episodes now, and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen so far. It would be a shame if you didn’t blog this further, but then I can understand your reasons for not doing so. That being said, I shall continue watching this while the story appeals to me.
MooMooCow at 9:09 pm on October 8th, 2008
So much skipping…..
Haesslich at 9:13 pm on October 8th, 2008
Well, it’s not an utter massacre yet, but at the same time they lost some of the subtext which established that those two (Ryuuji and Taiga) don’t see one another in a romantic way, but at the same time are practically joined at the hip because they understand and accept one another; which is more than their respective crushes tend to do. Kitamura accepts everything, while Minorin doesn’t really understand Taiga. Plus, Aisaka does appreciate the attention and the almost-family thing she has with Ryuuji and his mother, which is something she’s not had from her own family.
Chimasternmay at 9:20 pm on October 8th, 2008
this was a funny episode…
@Meido-san
I dont think so, well if u look at it in terms of the manga then yes they basically covered the first 2 volumes already and i think there are only 2 volumes so far…
but since this is a novel adaptation(right- i think so) i think its a good pace, now they can bring the other characters in and let all the interactions occur.
well lets just see it through and see if this makes us happy happy or just happy.
Hei at 9:27 pm on October 8th, 2008
Unhappy customer :[
Hei at 9:30 pm on October 8th, 2008
Oh on another note Michiko to Hatchin looks pretty….unique? interesting? decent to say the least looks like a cross between samurai champloo and early dragonball but bulma and goku switched spots……
I was also wondering if your not going to blog Ef this time around
Dragoneye at 9:37 pm on October 8th, 2008
come on you have to keep this one for wednesday time slot
ruffles at 9:45 pm on October 8th, 2008
they cut a hell of a lot of material. They wrapped up a whole book in 2 episodes. I’m guessing they’ll slow the pace from here on, but if they don’t we could be in for a zero no tsukaima style massacring of the story.
Chicle at 9:50 pm on October 8th, 2008
Ami next episode, I bet. This is going by so fast.
Opening is trippy and catchy, at least.
Lyi at 10:54 pm on October 8th, 2008
I’m actually glad they decided to fast forward to the pole-kicking scene. To me that was the pivotal scene in the manga that changed my opinion of the series for the better because it provided me with a much better understanding of Taiga’s character. I was actually hoping they wouldn’t spend too much time on the stuff that came before.
Casanova at 10:56 pm on October 8th, 2008
cant wait. lots of casanovas lol
Exia at 11:00 pm on October 8th, 2008
the op is alright. ed is more catchy tho.
Exia at 11:03 pm on October 8th, 2008
fyi some pics when clicked to enlarge go to other pics instead. no need to change it tho.
cy-kun at 11:09 pm on October 8th, 2008
There wasn’t a classroom wreckage by Taiga scene?????
~~~
keralie at 11:23 pm on October 8th, 2008
there was, cy-kun
cy-kun at 11:40 pm on October 8th, 2008
err… there was… but it finished the first novel in two episodes??? my sister is going keel over….
cy-kun at 11:49 pm on October 8th, 2008
~~~~~~uuuuuuwwwwaaaaaaahh(finished watching)…………… be still my heart….I’m still waiting for the 3rd novel translation to be finished…….
I’ll end with this: quite creepy but err…
http://randomc.maximum7.net/image/Toradora!/Toradora!%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2015.jpg