Hello…contrary to what a few(very few) people might believe,I’m not dead.While I am living a life close to that of a dead person,I should let it hinder my writing.See I even had time to fix up this cool picture from the ED single CD cover.Its MINE ALL MINE!!

Um,I guess I should start out with things I left off a few months ago:

Toradora

Apparently I’ve not talked about it for 3 months?In fact its been so long I don’t even know if I remember how to write a proper post.

Well,to say the least, its still one of my top picks for the fall season,though I really liked Michiko to Hatchin too,perhaps more so than Toradora now.

Taiga:

Up till now I don’t see much character development for taiga besides the fact that she’s still slow, klutzy,predictable,naive and a tsundere.The only perceivable change I sense is that she’s now more attached to Ryuji than ever and that she’s perhaps more open about her feelings.

Ami:

I like her the best so far,while she may come off as a shallow bitch early on she’s slowly coming to terms with who she really is and embracing that fact that she’s not a sweet bishoujo idol.But it doesn’t stop her from acting like one.And of course there’s her totally ambiguous relationship with Ryuji.She seems hesitant to take the initiative for fear of rejection or rather fear of being in a relationship.Might ruin her modeling career? Over time she’s become an entertaining one to watch besides the normal Minorin antics.

Minorin:

She’s a lesbo,end of discussion.jk

Ehh..I liked her in the beginning but hat soon faded into a well of mixed feelings.I have no idea what is going on in this crazy girl’s head.She seems easy to read enough,the bubbly girl next door type of character,probably with a secret crush on someone.But no,she’s started out energetic and lively >>>creepy and crazy>>somewhat deep >>>I don’t know anymore.I think I started to get her better when he made that UFO and ghosts speech to Ryuji but she’s been giving mixed signals ever since and her recent fight with Ryuji just adds more doubt to the role she plays here.When will we know more about her?We practically know at least the basic background of Taiga and Ami,but here we have zero info.She’s -> the girl who Ryuji likes ->has weird habits ->does tons of part time jobs -> likes horror->possibly a lesbo.

Ryuji:

The typical nice guy.Tries to fit in and be a good friend to everybody.Has a father complex.So far I still don’t think much of him though.I would rather end this with him just going for Ami if given a choice right now but people keep(spoiler alert) saying Taiga ends up with him(spoiler alert)

Ehh I don’t really like the rest of the cast that much to give them a mention but I do hate some of them

The parrot:

WTF is up with this freak of nature.Okay I don’t hate this thing…,but it is creepy.

Taiga’s dad:

Total asshole in my eyes.He probably lost his nuts in an accident and now needs Taiga to complete his new family with his new wife.

That guy Taiga has a crush on:

Screw him he’s gay.

Overall:

Up till episode 13,I guess it kinda did meet my expectations to a certain degree as what I’d expect from your typical romance comedy.My only regret was that there isn’t enough background story to envoke enough emotions for the supposedly emotional scenes.Hell,I spent last week watching some anime I havent watched in 7-8 years and I cried like a sissy boy at times.(You didn’t read that)WhenI rewatched this,not even a sob.Rewatched some Code Geass,a couple of sobs no tears.They just don’t make’em like they used to….

I guess the show’s saving grace would be the comedy during the episode usually spawned from some Minorin or Taiga influence.Otherwise it just barely holds up in terms of raw plot because love triangles,even pseudo love triangles don’t do much to impress me.

Now you would probably ask,why I said it was good in the first place.Well, its good compared to everything else out there at the moment that is.

A good 3.5/5 I’d say.

General Stuff:

Okay so putting that aside,this should run till the start of the Spring season,though I can’t give any guarantes I can even keep up with the bloging on the series because college life appaently sucks.Speaking of which,the main reason I went afk for 3 months was because of that very problem including the fact that my computer was broken for a few weeks now and I only discovered what the hell was wrong a couple of days ago.

Omni put up that “Vote for the best anime this year” thingy apparently again.I didn’t vote for Code Geass or Macross Frontier or whatever because I’m weird.*psst* Vote for Wagaya no Oinari-sama*cough*

Cheers & Happy 2009,I know I won’t be.

This episode featured Kushieda Minori,the hyperactive teen who has apparently been living her life a little too positively(Zetsobu sensei reference wtf?).Speaking of which,Zetsobu sensei was a real funky title to digest for me though.Ryuji spent most of the episode drooling over Kushieda.It seems like Kushieda is somewhat of a weirdo in all aspects.Loud,bursting with life,vivacious,and perhaps a little too much of that for your average teen with a disgustingly positive outlook on life.I was not convinced though.I’ll talk about that later.

Take two!!

So Kushieda apparently is really active in terms of her social life.Softball team captain,holding multiple jobs at once.Pseudo maid girl,karaoke slut,you name it.Ryuji is of course blabbering nonsense about how “キラ~キラ”(sparkling/radiant) she is while getting his ass kicked by Taiga.Unconscious jealousy?Perhaps.The was a side plot developing with Kitamura and Taiga,when they met by chance when Taiga was delivering goods at her forced job.I’m now convinced that the animators intend to save the spoilers about what happened between Kitamura and Taiga last year a secret and unfolding it as we go along,which would mean we did not completely ditch the novel’s original storyline with them just skipping that part.By the way….Taiga can’t ride a bike.Awww…

Dogs have very distinct markings on hem.Some at birth,some induced.Take “Pochi” here for instance.

Meanwhile Ryuji is doing ecchi things with Minori while they accidentally got locked in a storage room.NOT.Well he should have.Instead he sings songs and plays baseball.But its here where I saw another side of Kushieda.Mainly her soft side.I had a sneaking feeling that Minori is just puting on a mask with all this insanity.Working 10 jobs at once?Insanely positive outlook on life? When your trembling in a dank storeroom with Ryuji,I can see that there is more to that than a personality disorder.

“Okay so do I jump on her directly or from behind?” —Ryuji’s inner mind

My hypothesis is that she’s hiding some secret etc from everyone.I believe that Ryuji was only attracted to her in the first place because of that fake front she was putting up.Smiling all the time,having the confidence to do anything.The total opposite of himself.Someone to look up to.Reminds me of the weirdo girl from NHK in Yokoso’s case.Though I hope I’m wrong….
But Taiga rescues them in the end…err sort of.

Owners tend to have great emotional bonds to their pets.Take for instance how the owner punishes “Pochi” for its misbehavior,all out of love.

So…besides the fact that some people commented about the drop in production quality,it was OK.Yes the quality dropped,I noticed it too but what the heck,we can blame that on the economy.

Random shit:

Besides that,I’m pondering on whether to buy Claymore or Ouran,(by Funmation).I saw the shit they did with Ouran when they streamed the stuff for free and I’m not impressed.Its those stupid voice actors again.Can’t be helped since voice acting isn’t actually a lucrative job market out there….

I’m getting mixed responses from lots of people with obviously very conflicting opinions about the anime so far.Especially the handling of episode 2.It is claimed that the light novel was “better” in that it included more material particularly those which build on Taiga and Ryuji’s relationship or friendship at this point.I would assume that this is the “romance” aspect in this romance comedy.Yea,plenty of comedy but not enough romance?

For me I do appreciate the aesthetics of romantic relationship between characters, however lets not forget that this is potentially a 13 episode series thus not alot can be done in that time frame.We can’t be idling in the first volume of the novel for the first 5 episodes now can we?Do we just prioritize satisfying the minority of fans who actually read the light novel?In a fan’s point of view,we’ll say “YEAH”.But from a business point of view particularly with the world’s pathetic situation as of now,its suicide.Let it be known that a substantial amount of anime fans are not the patient type.Thus to cater to the needs of the whole,some compromise is needed.In that sense it would seem fair even to me.

“The generic pie in the face with a twist”

Besides…google said there was 8 volumes so far so there’s plenty of room for a season 2.Ahem…now lets backtrack to the anime itself.Needless to say,if the anime was a disappointment,then the novel must be one heck of a read.Yes I did notice the rushed turn of events but the light humor partially helped to offset the potential confusion.

Now she switches to Honey & Clover’s Hagu?

Taiga now freeloads of Ryuji(particularly his food) and his mom doesn’t mind.They proceed to their evil plots to realize each others dream of getting each other’s best friend,at the expense of whom ever that may stand in the way,with Taiga at the helm.Naturally they tend to fail due to Taiga’s apparent klutzy nature.Ryuji though, always stands by Taiga,since “he can’t abandon her” for some reason.I can’t either frankly.Just looking at her would compel any cold hearted bastard to help her out,much less some guy like Ryuji.I was told that the lamp pole attacking incident was an important turning point in the novel.Needless to say,it did seem out of place and needed alot of imagination as to the symbolism behind the act as well as the apparent absence of most of Ryuji’s inner thoughts.A scenario we always see with Honey and Clover,where these monologues play a vital role in developing each individual character.While I did enjoy H&C I was never actually convinced that it was a “huge” success.Hey,ask enough people and you learn that its hardly popular with the guys while the girls were too obsessed with CLAMP pretty boys or any other bishounen,such as those in the form of “Shugo Chara” <—-I enjoyed Pokemon better than that.

In the end Taiga gathers the courage to confess to Kitamura,but I doubt he actually got the message.Before that,Taiga had to clear up the misunderstandings due to her being closer to Ryuji these past few days.THe lamp pole incident handed an ultimatum to Ryuji,that they’ll only be friends after she confesses.Ryuji,insists to stay by Taiga’s side like a “dragon” and Taiga vows to try harder next time.

So my thoughts about this anime from the impressions I made last time were largely accurate.However,I’m basically against anymore of this breakneck plot progression speed.If its only to speed up the intro then I guess thats OK?

Opps I almost forgot to say a word of praise about the wacky OP.Techno loli? =3

Tigers are my second favourite animal,my favourite is the cat girl.

Its another manga adaption and nope I didn’t read this one yet…Why?Thats a tough one.I just skipped over this since the summary didn’t get my attention lol.But the anime did however.It seems that many liken this to Zero no Tsukaima and such but I don’t give a damn frankly.”Toradora” or “Tiger Doll” is,for me,a real fun ride.I was impressed with what I saw from the first 5 minutes.Strange characters everywhere.Well queer as in less stereotypical than your usual bread and butter shounen anime.

Its good to see hard working parents.Just look at that dedication for her kid.

The first episode gave me the impression that the story will revolve mostly around the daily interactions between Ryuji and Taiga.Sounds bland?Well at least it takes up a smaller bit of my already limited attention span as well as I can sort of have the option to follow the raw version if I choose to =| .

RAWR!!

So the story is basically about this guy named Ryuji who has a scary look on his face all the time,apparently he inherited it from his dad.His mom is a….slut?And his dad is a mafia ring leader?Whatever.But it sets things up nicely for the meeting between the Tiger and the Dragon.Taiga beats the shit out of Ryuji though and the story progresses from there.Somehow they find out that they both have crushes on each other’s best friend.So Taiga sorta turns Ryuji into her slave boy and to give her some help in pursuit of love..

Kyaaa~~

It was a barrel of laughs to say the least.Apparently its better than the manga equivalent version.However,I would just like to emphasize that the comedy genre is largely influenced by the animation studio’s craft and cunning.A good script can be a bad one if the director is an idiot.So far, the guy isn’t an idiot as far as I’m concerned.Also,lets not forget that Taiga is just so damn cute.Loli + Tsundere.As Borat would say, “WAWAWEWA verie nice”.

No OP sequence this week…but the ED was great,I have to get my hands on the mp3 =].Anyway I dunno if anybody else at Yukan wants to blog this but whatever.Its just my impressions of the show.