ToraDora! #22 — Oedipal Complex

March 4th, 2009

 

I’m not judging you, Ryuuji.

Impressions:

A tremendously uneventful episode. Ryuuji thought about how great Taiga was and… that’s seriously about it. Ami and Minori hashed it out some more about doing things properly from here on out, but since both of them are all but out of the picture on that front, it holds about as much dramatic impact as… oh… I don’t know… Paris and Mercutio arguing over who gets Juliet. Yes, given that Taiga has gotten into more fights, she gets to be Romeo. Ryuuji’s practically a housewife anyway.

A lot of the episode was focused on Ryuuji being conflicted over what he’s going to do after high school and how it affects Yasuko, but considering that the show’s not going to make it that far, I have a hard time caring about that either. He could decide to become a Swiss Milkmaid in the Antarctic Circle in order to harvest delicious penguins and it wouldn’t have any significant impact on the core of the story here, except that it would make the inevitable Kitamura ending somewhat more fitting. 

I’d say that I’m disappointed in Taiga remembering her confession as a dream, but honestly, it’s better than the amnesia that I was expecting. I’ll take half the loaf over none at all. Minori teasing Ami was a little fun, but extremely out of character for Ami. I thought she was just screwing around with Minori as some sarcastic joke. I mean… seriously… the haunted vending machine corner? And from Minori? Why would she… no… why would anybody trust anything Minori’s got to say, especially when it comes to random rumors?

At any rate, we’re certainly past the honeymoon of the series and into the "stretch things along until the end" phase. Ryuuji was head over heels for Taiga during their entire interaction, and she’s well aware that she likes him back. Too bad there are still 3 episodes left because we could honestly wrap everything up at this point in one.

Preview:

Back to work.

Posted in ToraDora | 36 Comments »

36 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Rob says:
    March 4, 2009 at 4:59 pm

    I just can’t wait to see those two finally become a couple, I’m also kind of glad that Minorin and Ami are somewhat out of the way too

  • Jason says:
    March 4, 2009 at 5:48 pm

    I have to agree with you on most points. The tension is all gone after Taiga’s confession and now we’re just waiting for the inevitable reciprocity from Ryuuji. I was really hoping he’d go for either Ami or Minori but once again the tsundere heroine wins in the end. Not that I dislike Taiga. It’s just, how many times have we seen this story repackaged now? This series came so close to breaking the mold but ultimately fell into the same, predictable pattern.

  • Kaisos says:
    March 4, 2009 at 6:05 pm

    If you think this is just a repackaged Shana/ZnT, you’re wrong. That’s all I can say.

    I don’t get what the big deal is about “originality” and “breaking the mold”. It doesn’t -fucking- happen, especially in anime, which is inevitably built off of the same tropes again and again.

    It’s what a show DOES with the old, tired tropes that matters, and in this respect, Toradora succeeds.

    And if you ever though there’d be anything other than a Taiga end, either a) you haven’t been paying any attention at all, or b) you’re deliberately ignoring, I don’t know, the TITLE in order to bail the encroaching water out of your sinking ship.

    Man, I just wish people would WATCH THE SHOW instead of having unrealistic expectations for it.

  • Aroduc says:
    March 4, 2009 at 6:17 pm

    Pfft. Kitamura is his one true love and you all know it.

  • Ryutai says:
    March 4, 2009 at 6:19 pm

    OMG, almost every single romantic comedy is PREDICTABLE!
    Maison Ikkoku, Ranma 1/2, Nodame Cantabile, etc. I don’t understand why so many people thought that Toradora (where THE TITLE SAYS EVERYTHING) would have had an alternative ending…You can say since the FIRST EPISODE that the end will be TaigaxRyuuji, their initial monologue shows that!!!! This is the story of their love, how can somebody don’t get that? And Taiga is NOT TSUNDERE. She was aggressive because of her lonliness. Thanks to her closeness with Ryuuji, she changed.

  • Kaisos says:
    March 4, 2009 at 6:26 pm

    Wait, didn’t Ranma 1/2, like, not end?

    Taiga is tsundere to an extent, but not in the same way Shana and Louise are… She’s tsundere by the original definition of the word, which implied a dynamic character rather than the static character implied by the use of the word today.

  • Ryutai says:
    March 4, 2009 at 6:35 pm

    @Kaisos: Ranma 1/2 is ended, and you can say that Ranma and Akane are in love each other anyway, even if there isn’t a true confession.
    Taiga is tsundere just in the sense of “hard/cold outside, and fragile inside”, in the same way of many other characters (Ai Haibara in Detective Conan or Terence in Candy Candy are tsundere in that way) but not in the way of characters like Akane or Louise.

  • Lollerman says:
    March 4, 2009 at 7:26 pm

    Eh, I was pulling for the Ami ending, since she felt like the most thought out character, the most realistic of them all. No matter how I look at it, after taking care of someone the way that Ryuuji takes care of Taiga, the only way he should be realistically capable of feeling is like an older brother, not as a love interest.

    Ah well, I can dream, or try and produce a badly written fanfic to settle my woes.

    BTW Aroduc, excellent use of Shakespeare. Very erudite of you to compare this to one of English’s most tragic dramas.

  • Ryutai says:
    March 4, 2009 at 7:34 pm

    @Lollerman: Ryuuji never liked Ami. So, how could an Ami end make sense? He always have had an unconscious attraction for Taiga…since the moment he told that he was the dragon, the only person who could be with the tiger.

  • navi410 says:
    March 4, 2009 at 7:45 pm

    Started watching this show for my tsundare fix but the problem with Taiga she’s too much cookie cutter. If this was an RPG the person putting stat points on Taiga is following some faq on a tsundare build. Most tsundare have a uniqueness in them that makes them stand out above the rest. Shana, Nagi, Kagami, Tama, Rei it’s like when your watching them you discover another side of them that you like but Taiga’s tsundareness(this even a word?) is soooooo predictable that you have her pegged at episode one. The reason I’m still watching this is actually because of Minorin. 21 episodes and I still can’t read her. Is she Emo or Genki? Is she straight or Gay? Does she like Ryuji or does she like Taiga? Even Ami who pretty much knows what everyone in the anime is thinking can’t read Minorin. Don’t really care about Ryuji the guys a loser. Looks Garrr but actually purepure boy(meh). I actually want an AmiXMinorin ending. Now that would be a twist.

  • Honoo says:
    March 4, 2009 at 7:46 pm

    @ Ryutai: Then someone will say “It’s Ryuuji’s fault for not reciprocating Ami’s feelings.”

    Not me though. I like the idea of RyuujiXAmi (in fact I like it the most), but I don’t mind Taiga. Well, considering the fact that I already “approved” RyuujiXTaiga for a year before the anime came out…

  • Mike says:
    March 4, 2009 at 8:53 pm

    @navi410

    You serious? you can’t peg Minorin? you still don’t know if she likes Ryuji? have you been watching the show? About the only way they can make that more obvious would be having a plane flying around in the background with the banner “Minorin Likes Ryuji” every time she’s on screen.

    I agree 100% with what Kaiso said. Originality and breaking the mold is nice, but not at the expense of sacrificing the story. Like others have said, it’s rather obvious from day 1 that it’s a Taiga x Ryuji end, it’s how they get there that’s important. I mean, would a WW2 story automatically be bad because the Germans and Japanese always lose in the end?

  • redlupine says:
    March 4, 2009 at 9:02 pm

    “Ryutai Says:
    OMG, almost every single romantic comedy is PREDICTABLE!”

    I wish more romantic comedies would surprise us with the outcome

    Shuffle! is the only one I’ve seen where the result was not one of the 3 main girls but a random background one. Just wish it had actually been good.

  • Aroduc says:
    March 4, 2009 at 9:03 pm

    You know… ‘pegging Minori’ sounds all sorts of wrong. ^^

  • Peanutbutter003 says:
    March 4, 2009 at 9:15 pm

    Haruta scores first!?!? Wow, that’s a twist I didn’t expect.

  • sage says:
    March 4, 2009 at 9:19 pm

    Too bad there are still 3 episodes left because we could honestly wrap everything up at this point in one.

    Dude I don’t want to part from Yasuko’s rack so soon.

  • navi410 says:
    March 4, 2009 at 9:31 pm

    @Mike
    Really? she likes Ryuji? I didn’t notice that. That flew right over me. But seriously, it’s played that she likes Ryuji but she is actually setting up a lot of Yuri flags. At first it was barely noticeable but too many flags that it’s making my yuri-dar tingle. Also she never admit she likes Ryuji even to herself when she’s alone. Ami, the most perceptive person in the anime even admitted that she can’t figure out what Minorin is thinking. It’s not just who she likes. Her genki to Emo in Sixty Seconds bother me. A lot of people are saying her genkiness is only a facade of hers to hide an underlying trauma. But when tells Ryuji about her family it seems to be normal. My theory is her brother is dead her parents won’t accept it that is why she is into softball because she wants to be her brother. Feel like Minorin will actually go yandere and smash Ryuji’s head with a baseballbat as an ending.

  • Mike says:
    March 4, 2009 at 10:05 pm

    Wow, you read way too much into something that’s not there. TBH, it’s quite obvious in that beach episode when Minorin and Ryuuji talked about UFO/ghost that she’s got feelings for him. Blatantly obvious metaphors are obvious :P

    And just because Ami can’t figure it out doesn’t mean the viewer/readers can’t figure it out, it really isn’t that deep of a show ^-^;; and you might want to re-tune your yuri-dar there, the only yuri in this series are in the fanfic section :P

  • Yue says:
    March 4, 2009 at 10:46 pm

    [Sips coffee] Ahhh… brewed.

  • Haesslich says:
    March 4, 2009 at 11:20 pm

    Let me ask who that girl in the last screenshot of the preview is? She looks like Mika from Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu…

  • Rachel says:
    March 4, 2009 at 11:52 pm

    @Haesslich:

    … That’s taiga

  • TJ says:
    March 5, 2009 at 12:43 am

    Kind of a boring episode, but then again we can’t have bombshells every week right?

    @Sage
    Yeah, Yasuko is such a good mother in addition to her assets lol.

  • Reki says:
    March 5, 2009 at 12:52 am

    I really like the human emotions in this! While I think too much, I agree that Minorin is the most interesting character, and there’s certainly some trauma in her background (although I doubt it’s so profound as her brother dying). As a viewer, I *really* want to know what makes her tick. And Ami is totally understandable in my experience – she exemplifies the difference between reading about bicycle riding, and actually riding a bike. I think it’s Ami that I feel saddest for, in the whole series. She has a superficial understanding of peoples’ emotions, but has never lived through them. Still, if I had to, I’d choose Minorin!

  • Haesslich says:
    March 5, 2009 at 3:11 am

    … Taiga looks like Mika? Wow.

  • Vhfris says:
    March 5, 2009 at 3:28 am

    Im still hoping ami will be victorious nd theres still a chance because her feelings are the only ones left unrequited thus far

  • Yue says:
    March 5, 2009 at 4:04 am

    @Haesslich
    she’s cosplaying Kuroko Shirai from Index. ^_^

  • Ryutai says:
    March 5, 2009 at 9:35 am

    People who hate RyuxTaiga can stop to watch this show.
    Anyway, probably there will be some spin off…maybe Ami and Minorin will find their perfect guy in one of them. Ryuuji simply wasn’t suitable for them.I’m sure you will enjoy better a story with your favorite girl (Ami or Minorin) together with an other male lead.

  • poploku32 says:
    March 5, 2009 at 1:18 pm

    ami is a bich and minorin is kind of a lesbian lol,even tho ami is mature than taiga and minorin,she deserves better than ryuji,minorin shes all into girls,she ve been saying that a lot of times maybe she ends up with ami lol, kitamura who care about that geek lol. i hope toradora has a good ending and its a fact that ryuji and taiga will end up together i knew from the beggining when they both were talking about that sweet thing everyone is looking for but no one seems to see or find its both talking about her love life and how they met….is a guessing by the way,a 90% accurate guessing xD for those who dont like the anime just stop watching it and maybe u can find better story in naruto lol.peace toradora fans……

  • Hibiki says:
    March 6, 2009 at 3:48 am

    How many people think Taiga will still be with Ryuuji 10 years after their high school year aka anime ending…

  • Kaisos says:
    March 6, 2009 at 11:15 am

    Not much is going to keep those two apart…

  • iloveseiran says:
    March 6, 2009 at 11:43 am

    Oh wow… I have to say there are a lot of people out there who are seriously deluding themselves about the ending.

    Um… the title is Toradora right? So how anyone can think that the anime will end without them getting together is… well, pretty loopy if you ask me. lol!

    As far as predictable endings go, well, it was there from episode 1! How could you think otherwise?

    Anyway, I still love this show. I’ve watched ep. 21 twice and it still made me teary-eyed! lol!

    Why? Because it’s real. You nay think it’s sappy– the whole TaigaxRyuuji thing but I think it’s kinda sweet… how at the end of the day, some people actually realize that chasing after the ideal often blinds you to what you already have.

    Despite this ep. not really packing as much punch as the previous one, I have to say that Ryuuji thinking that “As I thought, being with Taiga really is the best” was pure win in my book. :)

  • Slizer says:
    March 7, 2009 at 12:50 pm

    I`m disappointed….
    Yeah you could see the TaigaxRyuuji thing ever since the first episode but until now I was hoping for a different ending or well…different ending then this!
    I hate that Taiga will end up(prolly will) with Ryuuji cause that is just clich’e.
    But owh well…I will still keep cheering for my Minorin…and HOPEFULLY the anime will NOT disappoint me :)
    I also know there are a lot more Taiga fans then Minorin but…woulden`t you like a different ending then all the past animes? I mean…Taiga is just a brat who wants everything to be done for her… -.-

    Well..peace out to all Minorin fans!

  • Kaisos says:
    March 7, 2009 at 4:53 pm

    Okay. See.

    Toradora is nothing like the anime you people keep comparing it to.

    It’s more like Honey and Clover than anything else…

  • Aroduc says:
    March 7, 2009 at 5:30 pm

    Toradora is like Toradora.

    Zen.

  • bloonsterific says:
    July 10, 2009 at 8:37 am

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  • Tim says:
    July 13, 2009 at 5:36 pm

    If you don’t like cliche, then don’t watch a show that forecasts its final coupling before it’s even begun.