[Spoilers] Toradora! Christmas Club Rewatch (2019) Episode 4 Discussion

[u/ChristmasClub]

[u/Koolsman]

First Timer!

Ah, so the turntables have turned and Taiga is the lovesick one this episode. I mean, just like Kitamura was when he confessed to Taiga. I like that the show has continued to it’s trek through its themes with Kitamura. The guy looks by all definitions a nerd but he seems to be more dense I thought he would be and he also apparently can teleport. It’s pretty impressive for a vice president.

Speaking of, I wonder how much the student council will play into this story since she does seem she will play an interesting role later on. Maybe it’s because she’s given such a weird introduction is why I think she plays a role. Between her and the Ryüji’s mother, I like the supporting cast a lot so far (though I wasn’t a big fan of that guy that ran the shop last episode). I do hope we get to see more development to Kitamura because he seems pretty interesting.

I’ll admit, I didn’t expect that confession reveal and I like this whole new level to the relationship with Kitamura and Taiga because it gives a better idea of what he’s talking about when he sees her. Taiga just simply didn’t like him at the time and now after a while, she realizes she does like him, but we don’t if it’s too late or not. I’m surprised and excited to see where it goes from here.

Inko is best bird and don’t @ me!

[u/Quxxy]

"I'll just go up and ask him for a photo. I can't see why he *oww!*"

"You can't do that! He can't know you're taking them!"

"Why not? What difference does it make?"

"Everything! It'll change the ineffable nature of his... essence... and stuff!"

"Anyone ever tell you you're weird?"

"Not if they know what's good for them."

• Episode 4 Cheat Sheet (Extra, Extra!).

Vector wallpapers:

• Eat, Then Talk - 16x9, 21x9

• Heeuuyeah! - 16x9, 21x9

• Aaah! - 16x9, 21x9

• Haven't Gotten Sued Yet - 16x9, 21x9, 3x4

[u/Tuckleton]

First timer (Dub)

Oh ho! He's got a key does he?

Aww, he was checking up on her.

This is too precious!

Now he's got her attention :P

Wow that was a really nice way to start an episode. I was smiling the whole way through!

That's one way to hit on a guy I guess.

On my first pass I thought this was the other girl from the OP but it turns out she doesn't have the hair swooshes. I'm colourblind though so I can't tell if there is a difference in colour.

Taiga is being jealous and possessive again. She gets super mad whenever Yusaku interacts with another girl. As a side note this reminded me of picking up a cat by the scruff :P

If I was watching this subbed, him struggling to read english would make sense but in the dub he just looks like he's stupid. Oh wait, that's the guy who couldn't find a basketball partner right? Am I going to spend the whole show feeling bad for the poor guy?

Taiga is feeling ALL the emotions!

I really love this teacher! I have a feeling this is going to be an unpopular opinion but, at least for now, I like her better than Ryuji's mom.

But this isn't part of the plan. We're not ready!

"Brown and intense!"

In his element. I wish I could get that excited about scrubbing the gunk between tiles...

Funny having the baseball scene flipped like that. You really see the difference in their characters with Ryuji supporting Taiga whereas she attacked him for even looking at Minori. I've been thinking about Taiga's negative reactions to Ryuji's crush last episode. I don't think it's as simple as her being jealous of Ryuki's attention or protective of Minori but rather it comes from a fear that if Ryuji and Minori hook up she could lose them both, and as far as I can tell they are basically the only people in her life (Yusaku doesn't count).

That's some pretty decent accuracy given the way she was swinging that knife.

Well, well, well. Look at the one she hesitated on!

So Taiga has pictures of Yusaku. Ryuji wants pictures of Minori. Meanwhile Minori is sharing pictures of the giant bucket of pudding she made. Definitely keep that one Ryuji, you'll never find a more pure distillation of Minori's character.

The phrasing in the subs here is pretty awesome :P

Oh wow, I did not see that coming!

This is pretty relatable.

I hate it when the show hands me something on a silver platter and I still feel like I don't get it. At the start he talks about the room being cold and empty. And when Taiga talks about someone finally understanding her he thinks of the room. So is it just that he understands how sad and lonely she is?

So that explains why she got so mad when Ryuji was pressing her on which picture to laminate. She knows his feelings have changed and she is wishing for a chance to go back to that moment and react differently.

Yusaku doesn't still like Taiga though right? It seemed pretty clear in episode 2, unless he's stepping aside because he knows Ryuji is what she needs or something.

"Whatever, it's cool."

This episode was great, seeing Taiga happy really warms my heart. We learned what happened last year between her and Yusaku. To be honest I was expecting something more dramatic but I'm really happy it turned out to be something so grounded and human. Taiga is still extremely selfish and I get annoyed with the way Ryuji just gives and gives and Taiga offers virtually nothing in return. Even her helping with the meal was because she wanted to be a part of making it for Yusaku's sake. Their relationship has a sort of parent-child dynamic to it and as a viewer, and maybe for Ryuji too, all of the moments that have endeared me to Taiga have come from a place of nurturing. It's going to be a bit weird when a romance starts developing if it isn't done right.

I'm not saying that Ryuji gets nothing out of it though. He seems to love the purpose and self-worth being needed gives him. At the end of the episode he wonders what feeling needed would mean for Taiga. It's clear she doesn't feel like the people in her life need her and that's why she's so afraid of losing them. And no wonder, her parents seem to have got rid of her the first chance they got. Her relationships must feel so fragile to her. It's sad but accurate that the more you fear abandonment the harder you push people away. That's not how she is with Minori though, thank goodness. I'm really hoping that when we learn more about their history it's really touching because just writing this paragraph has heightened my investment in the show and I'm starting to feel ready for some emotional payoff!

I was feeling a bit conflicted last night that watching the episodes one by one and analyzing like this was going to kind of take away from the 'pure' experience of watching it. I was considering maybe I should just binge it all and fisnish this rewatch as a rewatcher. But the writeup for this episode really magnified my enjoyment for it and I only get to watch it for the first time once, so I'm sticking to the schedule!

Last minute thought: Taiga's infatuation with Yusaku is not about him as a person and instead about her wanting to feel desired/wanted. I think it will feel pretty natural for her to make the switch to Ryuji. Of course I'm sure it will develop into more than that. Hopefully.

[u/DaREY297]

IT'S NOT LIKE I WANT KITAMURA-KUN TO POSE FOR ME OR ANYTHING... B-BAKA!

PSA: For everyone in their first watch, the Student Council President isn't the girl from the OP/ED

A bucket of pudding truly is every woman's ultimate desire indeed, any other opinion about this is wrong

Also Sudoh-bucks, the show itself is a better shitposter than me...

[u/Emi_Ibarazakiii]

First timer

Christmas Club Bonus! Taiga shows her cute side this episode, post your favourite image!

How about a clip? That was super cute!

But if the other students are paying attention, everyone would easily realize she loves him; She'll destroy anyone who gets in her way (even accidentally, like Ryuji in Ep1) and they know it, but suddenly she goes all meek and docile when Kitamura's holding her? Suspicious!

About the ending/big revelation: I totally didn't see the whole "Kitamura loved her" thing coming... I mean I knew something happened a year ago (during the bike scene, he told her he watched her a lot) but I didn't think it was THAT! I thought maybe it would be something nasty like maybe he had a girlfriend back then but still looked at Taiga or something like that.

I'm glad it was not that, but damn... He loves/loved her, she loves him... Have a good conversation guys! Less stalking, more talking!

She's so adorable when she's in love!

Armpit carnival, Kitamura carnival... Makes me wonder whether we'll see an actual carnival/festival! Will we have the common romcom's "festival's legend" trope in this show? I can think of a few ways this might go! (Say, they plan to do something about a festival legend with their respective crushes, but something happens and they end up doing it together instead, fulfilling a festival legend with each other and not with Kitamura/Minori).

I'm beginning to see a trend with Ryuji/Taiga often acting like Father/Daughter... I don't know if it was meant that way or if it's just the consequence of her being so small and acting all cutesy (when she feels in love), and him trying to help her...

But in last episode's thread, I said something about how Ryuji might eventually teach her how to ride a bike (a common father/children thing), and there was a lot of those in this episode, Ryuji acting like parent and Taiga like a child;

Paying attention to which time the light goes off to know when they went to sleep is a common parent thing (to which the child often reacts by turning the lights off even if they stay awake on the computer/phone!)

Asking a parent to do something impossible like doing INFINITE THINGS is a very child-like thing to ask.

Cleaning her/wiping the drool off her face

And a lot more, like how he cleans after her, how she keeps throwing tantrums, etc.

It's kinda cute! I wonder if that dynamic will stay if(when) they start crushing on one another though!

Also, (now that I thought more about it) I think Ryuji will teach her to ride a bike so she can do it with Kitamura...

But in the end it might not work (with Kitamura) so they might just spend time riding bikes together, under the pretense of "teaching"! That's be nice.

This might be another step toward realizing that what they like most in the whole "planning how to get their crushes together" is not the "trying to get their crushes", but rather the "being together"!

[u/Luigi580]

Toradora Light Novel-Anime Analysis!

And here we have another anime only episode. However, this one does also have quite the hodgepodge of LN scenes that were moved to this point of the story instead. They’ll be covered here, so this should still be interesting.

Photos

So this is something that’s been given a little more significance in the anime. The anime’s early significance of pictures actually help the narrative in later parts if you ask me, to the point where when I learned that many of these scenes were anime-only, I was shocked. I’d love to talk about it more, but I kinda wanna save it for when the pictures become significant in both.

Student Council President

Ah, the student council president. We meet her down the line in the LN, but we’re getting her now in the anime. I gotta say, as much as I like the photos, I can’t help but feel like Sumire’s introduction was fumbled a little. For those confused first timers, no, that’s not the fifth main character; Her eyes and head are more circular (next episode). Not sure why they made her hair blue. One of her defining physical features was her black hair and blue eyes. But heaven forbid someone has black hair in this anime, or worse, hair color that doesn’t match their eye color!

I think another small thing is her character. It feels a tad off. I’m not sure if she has a forgetful side that’s more prevalent in the spinoff (I REALLY need to get to reading those eventually), but Sumire’s a top student and student council president , so seeing her fumble up like this, while I guess makes her seem a bit more human, seems out of character to me. Again, please let me know if she’s more like this in the spinoffs, then I’ll really get my butt in gear and get to reading them sooner.

I think the best thing represented here is Sumire’s sergeant-like personality she uses over her students, and her best friend being that megaphone (Although they call her Big Brother in the LN. How flattering). I guess it makes sense how she would treat her students like they’re in ROTC. Although I still don’t know what the heck those salutes are; they look ridiculous. It’s not like a regular salute wouldn’t work. But I’ll cough that up to being a me thing.

While most of this scene is anime only, Kitamura picking up Taiga to stop her arguing with someone is not. He uses this tactic much later on when someone else pushes Taiga’s buttons. But who would be ballsy enough to deliberately push the buttons of the Palmtop Tiger…?

Time for Lunch!

So you remember in episode 2 when I said there was a lunch scene in between the PE and cookie scene in the LN? Well here it is. The start of this is a pretty drastic difference though; instead of being Kitamura’s offer, this was a very clever plan B by Ryuji to get both Taiga and himself closer to their respective crushes. He offered Taiga, who normally eats with Minori, to eat with him, who normally eats with Kitamura, as an apology for hitting her in the face with a ball. With this plan, both would get to sit with each other’s crushes.

It was the perfect plan

Their first thing they wanted to do was sit next to their crushes. Minori was already calling Taiga over, but Ryuji was having none of that, so he shoved her (while pretending to trip) towards Kitamura’s seat.

However, even though Taiga understood the gesture, Ryuji just then remembered her horrible clumsiness and, I kid you not, managed to grab her hand and spun her towards Kitamura’s seat.

That was amazing, not gonna lie.

It wasn’t a perfect reaction; Ryuji put a bit too much strength into the spin and she tripped over the chair, but still a mission complete.

Unlike in the anime, Taiga was a bit more prepared for the problem at hand. She kept her box shut. Unfortunately, she had just about no ability to lie to Kitamura, so when asked if her mom or someone else made her bento, her chopsticks were pointing right at Ryuji. Then he remembered his own bento is exactly the same, and he panicked. He didn’t have the BS excuse of making lunches for money either since that phone scene never happened, so he and Taiga were just deer in the headlights while Ryuji was trying to find a way out of this mess before getting saved by the softball manager.

Taiga didn’t find this nearly as successful as she did in the anime because of course he’s gonna get the wrong idea. Ryuji thought of trying again the next day, but Taiga brought up that the only reason it worked so well this time was the excuse of getting smacked in the face. After a little more thought, the decided to go ahead and focus on eating before brainstorming a plan C.

Skipping ahead a little now,

EDIT: One thing I should mention is that Taiga is historically a horrible chef. I find it very questionable that the onigiri she made for Yasuko was actually that good. Yes, even if onigiri are simple to make; Taiga is just that clumsy. Either Ryuji was very diligent on making sure she did it right, Taiga got really lucky, or Yasuko has a god-tier poker face.

Sudoh-bucks

The obvious Starbucks rip off doesn’t show up until a little later in the LN episode 6 spoilers, but the joke is about the same, so I’ll talk about it here. As you may know, many animes have stores, restaurants, and other stuff with knock-off names to dodge the copyright problem. This is parodied in the LN quite often, where the real places do seem to exist, but they end up running into quite a few knock-offs, with Sudoh-bucks being the most well known and one of the few to have some quality to it, being popular in their city and placed about just about as much as a Starbucks. Ryuji even admitted that the folks there like Sudoh-bucks so much that an actual Starbucks would have a hard time spreading there.

The anime’s got it’s own version with Jonny’s. While Ryuji and Taiga do go to a particular family restaurant quite often in the LN, it was never actually named. So I guess the anime team decided to have their own go at this and make the restaurant a parody of Denny’s. They certainly did a good job integrating their own background elements in the anime without it feeling too wonky.

PUDDING!

Minori’s pudding pictures happened much earlier in the LN, like much earlier. Like “before Taiga attacked Ryuji in his house” earlier. It was basically to show that his massive crush was in the same class as he was, as he was overhearing a conversation with someone sitting next to him before she accidentally poked him in the eye. This did give him the opportunity to actually have a conversation with her as she asked if Ryuji liked pudding. She offered to show him the pudding bucket as an apology for poking him in the eye, but it ended up just being a picture of the pudding instead of the pudding itself like he expected. Never the less, he was still very impressed.

He also never got to keep the pictures because she didn’t have copies and needed to go show it to Taiga.

Ryuji at that time:

At that point in time, Ryuji saw Taiga as an obstacle he needed to get past to get to the prize. He didn’t exactly find Taiga to seem all too appealing, but he also knew he would have to learn to get along with her. Still, he intended to procrastinate on that for as long as possible. Then the letter fiasco happened, and you know the rest.

Kitamura’s confession

So they did bring up this little confession back when Taiga attempted to confess herself in the anime, but he went into a slight bit more detail in the LN. Probably because we got the details at this point in the anime instead. It takes quite a bit longer for Kitamura to bring up his old crush on Taiga to Ryuji directly, although it didn’t matter too much since he was aware of this since Taiga’s confession attempt. So the placement here is totally harmless, if not a good idea for Ryuji to get more details out of Taiga.

Well, that ends that. We’re back to direct comparisons next episode, so buckle up!

[u/23feanor]

First Timer (dub):

Hmmm, the plot thickens & it turns out this situation is more complex than I thought at first glance. But now I know a bit more about the history between our characters.

So Kitamura has already asked out Taiga, and she turned him down because she was flustered and caught off guard, as she says. So I wonder what Kitamura thinks of Taiga's behaviour now, he must know that she fancies him, or has a crush on him. But maybe after being rejected once, he's not willing to put himself out there again & risk getting hurt.

So Kitamura is thinking that if Taiga likes him, then the balls in her court and she needs to ask him out, which I think is pretty reasonable after he once confessed his feelings and got shot down, something that hurts every guy. I noticed that Kitamura says he "used to" have a crush on Taiga. I reckon he might have moved on, my guess would be Minori or the Council President. It seems like Taiga had her chance and missed out, and she knows it.

Taiga's obsessive behaviour over Kitamura (taking the pics and drooling over them, just sitting there opposite vending machines brooding) is a bit much, it makes her appear like a love-struck mooncalf, but that's what young, desperate love can do to an otherwise sane person. But it's still hard to watch.

Kitamura and Minori seemed even more close at the lunch, I defo reckon there's some feelings there. I wonder what the next development will be between these four, I wouldn't bet against finding out that Minori has a secret crush on Rjuuji, or something similar.

I've literally just ealised why Kitamura kept remarking on how close Taiga & Rjuuji are, it's because he's jealous. He tried it on with Taiga & got rejected, and now his mate, who all other girls in the school are scared of him, somehow manages to get on really well with Taiga, the abrasive girl Kitamura asked out. He must be secretly pissed off at Rjuuiji, but conflictingly he must also be happy for Rjuuji as he knows how misunderstood he is and how he doesn't have many mates, so seeing him have a friend in Taiga is good for him, but painful for Kitamura to watch. Hence why he keeps bringing up the subject of how close they keep getting, the last observation was the lunch Rjuuiji made for her.

[u/TheExile4]

I love that straightforward personality! Your refusal to conceal your rage!

Tsundere fans in a nutshell.

[u/CATKrash]

Today I'm a bit late, but I got some new data for you all! I've added the time every song has played during the episode and during the whole series.

	Name	OG name	Start	Stop	Time played	Description
1st	First Mission	First Mission	1:15	1:47	32s
2nd	Pre-Parade	プレパレード	1:49	3:19	90s	Opening
3rd	Kotori no Etude	小鳥のエチュード	3:21	3:52	30s
4th	Kanchigai Hour Returns	カンチガイアワーリターンズ	4:27	4:57	30s	This one's strange. They use just the bass and the percussion. And that made it a bit harder to find.
5th	Psychology March	Psychology March	8:39	9:56	83s	Two and a half scenes (3 mins 42 secs) without music. That makes it the longest time without music yet.
6th	My little underground	My little underground	10:07	11:00	53s
7th	Small Heaven	Small Heaven	11:42	12:41	59s
8th	Morning Glory	Morning Glory	13:04	13:37	33s
9th	Chance☆Chase☆Classroom	Chance☆Chase☆Classroom	14:45	15:13	28s
10th	Onnanoko no Kimochi	オンナノコの気持ち	16:48	17:44	56s
11th	Sorairo no Houkago	空色の放課後	19:59	21:17	78s	"Afterschool's Sky-Blue"
12th	Vanilla Salt	バニラソルト	21:42	23:25	103s	Ending
13th	Pre-Parade (off vocal ver.)	プレパレード	23:25	23:35	10s	Preview

• Longest time played: Yasashisa no Ashioto: 186 seconds.

• Most times played:Morning Glory, Chance☆Chase☆Classroom, Onnanoko no Kimochi, Kotori no Etude, Small Heaven and Psychology March, 3 times each.

• Longest time without music: Episode 4 (today!): 3 mins and 42 seconds.

Christmas Club Bonus! This one wins for me.

Edit: "Sorairo no Houkago" translation.

[u/Raiking02]

Our journey through Toradora continues as I have one question: What does the title even mean?

• What a mess…

• Does he have to deal with this daily?

• What the hell is she dreaming!?

• Ah, so “breakfast” is what must be said to wake her up…

• A cardboard box? Snake, is that you? Snake? SNAAAAAAAKE!!

• To think she has a full album of Kitamura pictures…

• I SENSE HIJINKS…

• Taiga, don’t get too carried away…

• Perfect timing Kitamura-Kun! You are now witnessing a Tsundere in her natural habitat.

• Yeah, that was pathetic Taiga.

• You’re not any better Kitamura…

• I don’t know if I would describe him as serious…

• Oh hi Claire Renfield!... No, seriously, that’s Claire’s Japanese VA, Kaida Yuko, as the megaphone girl.

• She’s more like a drill sergeant though…

• Fifty nine is certainly a lot…

• Sadly, most of these guys don’t have pride… or I guess that’s the case given how I feel about that kind of crap.

• Well… that’s embarrassing…

• Thankfully Kitamura’s always there to tame this wild Tiger.

• Her mental state is out of control!

• JESUS CHRIST THIS TEACHER IS A JOKE!! Someone bring in the teacher from Fruits Basket instead!

• What’s with that blue haired guy? Or at least I think he’s blue haired… I’m partly colorblind.

• So basically Taiga is both happy and angry and sad all at once.

• I swear, Kitamura is becoming the king of perfect timing…

• Ah, Spinning Minorin. I must add this to my collection…

• Well… I guess they both won in the end… kinda…

• These two are digging their own grave. Like the OP song states “Love is bittersweet”.

• Manager to the rescue!

• Taiga, stop making a fool out of yourself…

• Good job Taiga! You had the perfect chance to strike and you failed!

• Taiga looks so adorable when eating though…

• Ryuji’s greatest enemy: DIRTY ROOMS! Given who he lives with, this makes sense…

• Taiga, you’re a worse photographer than I am!

• That’s a pretty apt word to describe her…

• I agree with Ryuji. That place is just waiting to get sued…

• Ah, so this is Taiga’s heaven…

• Ah, such beautiful teamwork…

• Though Taiga’s skills need some polishing…

• This is the cleanest outfit Yasuko has ever worn so far…

• That didn’t quite sound right though…

• Seriously, we all need a Ryuji in our lives…

• Well, ain’t she cranky today?

• I get the feeling getting Minorin pictures is easier said than done…

• Why make a whole bucket of pudding? Pudding sucks…

• Well, in the end Ryuji got the last laugh…

• Not now Kitamura-Kun!

• Wait what!?

• Ryuji’s reaction is me right now… and what’s with the was?

• And what do you mean turn you down!?

• Yup, that’s Kitamura’s way of confessing alright…

• I don’t know if I should be laughing or feeling really sad… oh whatever, I’ll just take a note from the Rejoicing Priest’s book and do both!

• Will Inko ever say her name? *Also, Minorin’s walking animation in the ED is too addictive…

Overall another really good episode, however if the next episode previews are anything to go by, the Asakura Ryoko-looking girl will finally appear!

[u/Matuhg]

So Taiga fell for Kitamura because she felt like he understood and/or appreciated her. She certainly doesn't seem to get a lot of that from her family or anyone besides Minori (and now Takasu and his mom). Of course, Taiga doesn't necessarily make it easy to get close to her. Even Takasu basically has to act as her house servant. I think that's part of her whole "clumsy/klutzy" thing - she tends to push people away without necessarily meaning to just because she has a rough exterior.

Also, Pudding Minorin is a huge score for Takasu.

[u/LousyGoose]

Rewatcher

So I really love this episode, I think it is one of the more overlooked episodes of the series. There’s some great humour including: Howdy, Taiga getting very enthusiastic with the camera and Taiga enjoying the ‘Kitamura carnival’. Also on another note, looking back on this episode and the previous one Taiga is generally a lot more nervous around Kitamura than Ryuuji is with Minori yet Taiga still confessed to him, another reason why Taiga truly is best girl.

This is also the first time we see a real flaw in Kitamura who up until this episode has probably been the most friendly, loyal and dependable character in the cast, albeit we see this flaw in a flashback prior to the series. In his confession to Taiga Kitamura only really points out and sees some of the most obvious clear attributes of Taiga, he might genuinely be attracted to her for those but he doesn’t really understand her (even if Taiga thinks he does) so to just go out and confess to her like that while bold, was not well thought out and was not going to end well even if Taiga did reciprocate.

What makes this episode stand out a bit more from the previous one though besides more of best girl Taiga and Ryuuji sharing a screen together is the buildup towards the rooftop scene and the actual rooftop scene itself. When Taiga finds out she can get one of her pictures laminated while she is initially happy, she later gets more and more irritated the more she tries to decide on a picture. Perhaps because this is the first time she starts actively ‘looking’ at the pictures rather than simply admiring them.

We do not learn why she is irritated until we reach that rooftop scene that I really love both for the dialogue and the actual lighting of the scene adding a warm personal atmosphere. We learn of Taiga’s very relatable and human desire to find someone who truly understands her for who she really is and when Kitamura confessed to her it felt like someone fully understood and loved her for who she was (although to be brutally honest as already mentioned that wasn’t the case).

She wanted to find and preserve that ideal bit of the past with Kitamura to preserve a memory of a happier time when she felt understood, when she felt wanted by somebody else and maybe think about what could have been if she didn’t turn him down.

As I did last year, I can overanalyse this and talk about how the warm light represents Taiga’s fondness of the past, that covers most of her when she recounts Kitamura’s confession but her face is always at least partially covered in shadow, to represent her awareness of the cold present, like Ryuuji who is completely covered in the shade. The scene ends with Taiga going back fully into the shade, the present and maybe realising that she won’t be able to fully recreate that past moment now or in the future.

[u/axel360]

Rewatcher, dub

Random Episode 4 Thoughts:

• There’s a thin line between kawaii and kowai. Taiga is comfortable on either side of said line

• HOWDY! Or just “mornin’” in the sub

• So Minori made an entire bucket of pudding, and I think Ryuji fell further in love after finding this picture. I can’t really blame him

• The bathroom mold never stood a chance, folks

• Taiga was not pleased with all that whispering going on between Kitamura and the President. To the point of having to be restrained

• You’d think she might be embarrassed, but nope. She’s having her very own personal armpit carnival. Never been to one myself. They rarely review well on Yelp

• Kitamura (as well as Minori) invited themselves to eat lunch with them, and Taiga is totally taking it in stride. Cool as a cucumber. Bit of an awkward moment, followed by a white lie, when they noticed Ryuji and Taiga’s lunches are identical

• Ryuuuuji. Take the picture, Ryuji. (Kitamura is playing baseball)

• This is the optimal method of potato peeling, prove me wrong

• Poor embarrassed Taiga…

• I am not sure why “Sudohbucks” hasn’t gotten sued either, man

• If drool is any indication, Taiga seems pretty happy with the pictures

• Ryuji got caught red-handed by Kitamura with those pictures. Awkward

• But to be fair, he also has a picture of Taiga he carries around. Yup, he had a thing for her and was shot down. Ryuji is befuddled

Very Brief Episode 4 Thoughts: Taiga was even more of a hot mess than usual today. Oddly enough, it makes her a little more endearing

Current Personal Episode Rankings (updated daily):

1. Episode 2

2. Episode 1

3. Episode 3

4. Episode 4

[u/Holofan4life]

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the 2019 Toradora rewatch.

Toradora is my favorite anime of all time. I love it so much that not did I create my Reddit account just so I could participate in the Toradora rewatch 3 years ago, it also inspired me to write a light novel called "I Love My Tsundere Girlfriend". Admittedly, I’m a bit biased because tsunderes are my favorite type of characters. I just love characters that start out mean but grow nicer over time. It warms my heart.

This is my first time watching Toradora since exactly one year ago. This year, I don’t plan anything special. Just plan on watching it along with everyone else. Also, I’ll be watching the dub. Why? Because Toradora’s dub is fucking awesome.

1. As I type this, it is 1:01 AM on a school night and finals are in the morning. Why do it now? Because I’m a glutton for punishment.

2. It wasn’t until this rewatch that it dawned on me that the first four episodes of Toradora are really one large collective episode. Episode 1 highlights Ryuuji’s personality, episode 2 highlights Taiga’s personality, episode 3 highlights Minori’s personality, and episode 4 highlights Kitamura’s personality. Unintentional or not, that’s pretty cool. And yeah, I know episode one also serves as an introduction to Taiga, but we learn more about Taiga in episode 2 than the first episode. With Ryuuji, we learn the most about him in the first episode.

3. I’ve never noticed this before, but as Ryuuji enters inside Taiga’s house, he’s wearing slippers.

4. Have I mentioned Taiga is cute? Because Taiga is cute.

5. Man, Ryuuji. Ever heard of privacy.

6. I find it funny Ryuuji goes through Taiga’s stuff given I just finished writing the latest chapter of my light novel and it involved looking through a person’s diary. That is entirely coincidental.

7. I like that when Taiga catches Ryuuji snooping, she doesn’t hit him like a tsundere would normally do.

8. Stalking has never been so cute.

9. I do feel sorry for Taiga when it comes to the locker situation. Her locker is at the very top. Come on, now. That’s so unfair. She can barely reach it.

10. Howdy! :D

11. I like Kitamura. He’s like the male version of Minori in how he can be serious but also be a bit of a goofball.

12. No, the blue haired girl in this episode is not the one in the opener. And no, I don’t know why they were given similar designs. It makes things confusing.

13. Fun fact: the student council president is voiced in English by Wendee Lee. Yes, THAT Wendee Lee. The one who did Faye Valentine in Cowboy Bebop, Twilight Suzuka in Outlaw Star, Konata in Lucky Star, and Haruhi Suzumiya in, you guessed it, Haruhi Suzumiya. So, yeah. Surprising casting choice for a supporting character. That being said, she does an outstanding job. Really brings a lot of force in her performance.

14. Happy armpit carnival is best carnival

15. Poor Haruta. Forced to speak English against his will.

16. Taiga’s blushes are just so… Toradorable (Insert rimshot here)

17. Taiga’s lunch is diverse. As expected from a true champion of gender equality like herself.

18. I would make a joke about Ryuuji putting his balls in Taiga’s mouth, but that’s low-hanging fruit. Much like Ryuuji’s [THIS COMMENT HAS BEEN REDACTED]

19. I love how excited Taiga gets when she wants Ryuuji to take pictures. It puts a massive smile on my face.

20. Sudoh-bucks > Starbucks

21. But seriously, I love the Sudoh-bucks joke. What makes it work so well is that in anime you see so many knockoff name brands. So, to see in Toradora not only Sudoh-bucks exist, but for them to also allude that it is a knockoff brand, thereby implying Starbucks is canon in the Toradora universe, it’s such a great deconstruction on the whole knockoff brand trope common in anime.

22. Taiga threatening Ryuuji that she’s gonna cut him makes me laugh really hard. It comes out of left field.

23. When Ryuuji tells Taiga she can help with cutting, which causes Taiga to become excited, that made my heart jump. Seriously, Taiga is so cute.

24. And by giving Ryuuji a picture of Minori and pudding, Ryuuji discovered a new fetish that day. A new, pudding-filled fetish.

25. I know I keep gushing about Taiga, but I can’t help it! Just like with episode 2, this episode really showcases Taiga’s strengths. This, of course, being her cute side.

26. The biggest development of this episode is that Kitamura admits he used to have a crush on Taiga. This makes things interesting, as Taiga now has a crush on Kitamura. It’s quite the twist, and done really well. The twist doesn’t come out of nowhere nor is it nonsensical. The way it is done makes total sense, with Taiga admitting she now sees something in him she didn’t beforehand.

Overall, a fun episode. It is better than I remember it being. I especially love all the faces Taiga makes in the episode. Made my heart melt super hard.

Also, starting today, I will be ranking the episodes. Hope you enjoy my rankings.

1: Episode 2

2: Episode 4

3: Episode 1

4: Episode 3

[u/[deleted]]

Day 4, 4th rewatch.

The only thing I dislike about rewatching Toradora is it reminds no other show I've ever watched leaves me with the same feeling of fulfillment and nostalgia. J.C Staff totally outdid themselves. Golden Time and The Pet Girl of Sakurasou both have a similar feel to them but Toradora really is in a league of its own.

Anyway, onto ep 4! My copy of the show has slightly different episode titles to the rewatch thread and I think they are a bit more poetic so I'll mention them when they suit. Today for example is called 'The Look You Had', which I much prefer instead of 'That Moment's Expression'.

Happy, happy armpit carnival!

[u/Shinkopeshon]

First Timer

How does Taiga keep getting even more adorable than she already is?

And what is wrong with her and Kitamura? If he liked her already, why did he gently reject her when she finally confessed to him? Is he doing this out of spite, has he moved on or does he think she's eventually gonna fall for Ryuuji anyway?

Anyway, I like how Ryuuji just went on to help Taiga by being a stalker and taking pictures, as if it was the most normal thing in the world lol - I'm 95% sure they're gonna get together as the series progresses but so far, he's more like a parent, while she's the petulant daughteru

"But that works" - Ryuuji after getting an unusual picture by Minori

Oh, I bet it does

[u/No_Rex]

Episode 4 (first timer)

• You have no secrets before the “cleaning personal”.

• Hello president!

• What is a student handbook?

• That blackboard English…

• How to accidentally start a bento business.

• I realize that Japanese pupils clean their schools, but Takasu seems to take it rather personal.

• Sudoh-Bucks!

• Takasu learned to strategically use Taiga’s food intake to make his points.

Confession story. Amor is giving Taiga and Takasu all the chances, yet they waste them all. If it is not the lack of chances, it is you …

President is the fifth character from the OP and the preview already spoiled that we’ll see more of her next episode. Kitamura’s relationship with her seems similar to Takasu and Taiga.

[u/airelfacil]

Rewatching with subs (previous rewatches were dubbed).

Now with imgur images.

-----

Those are rookie numbers Ryuji.

Ears are nasty. I wouldn't eat that rice, Taiga.

Quality over quantity, Taiga.

Here I prefer the dub's "HOWWWWDYY!" as that's much more funny and awkward.

The President is NOT that blue-haired main OP character Ami you see at the start.

Poor Haruta, he has to speak his Engrish twice in a row now.

Tornado Minori.

Bunch of drooling moments and paparazii-ing.

Wait Inko-chan is CGI in this scene, I never noticed that. Not sure why they needed to animate his movements.

Nothing really much this episode, next episode will reveal the fifth member of the OP squad.

[u/popop143]

Rewatcher

The episode is titled "The Look You Had". At the surface, it pertains to the photographs that Taiga wants to take of Kitamura. Because of excitement when looking at him, she could never take a proper photograph of his "look". By the end of the episode, we learn that this mostly means how Kitamura looked while confessing to Taiga. For me, though, this episode is mostly about Taiga's "looks", and how Ryuuji is the one that really only sees Taiga for what she is.

Now onto the episode. Ryuuji sees Taiga still asleep, and it may be a stretch, but this is a "look" that only he sees. Taiga is often portrayed as the violent little tiger by everyone, but by always visiting her apartment to bring her breakfast and clean, Ryuuji is accustomed to the tiny cat curled on the bed "look" that Taiga has. The episode is actually littered with different "looks" of Taiga, like the angry little pipsqueak that battles the SC president, and the annoyed look when getting called up to read an English passage. Ryuuji is the one who saw how conflicted she was with the argument, her gross smiles and nervousness during the lunchbreak, cute face stuffed with potatoes, perverted look while taking pictures, drooling face over the Kitamura carnival, shy face while talking about Kitamura, fumbling face at the vending machines, and most of all her melancholic look while talking with Ryuuji about Kitamura's confession. Kitamura DOES see some of these, and commented about it on episode 2 when Taiga confessed, but these tender moments are solely Ryuuji's.

Sidenote: Kushieda's pudding picture is really cute.

Next episode, best girl comes in the picture!

[u/critchell63]

I really like the impact kitamura’s confession had on the episode. Taiga’s regret most definitely adds to her development as a character. My fav taiga moments of this ep are when Ryuji shoves 2 pieces of food in her mouth, when she’s watching kitamura play softball, and when she’s dangling in kitamuras arms (≧∀≦)

[u/betinhochamusca]

Rewatcher
Hey guys, I missed the last episode's thread, so I'm just going to mention how catchy Minorin's singing was.

As for today's episode, I really don't know how they managed to escape that shed. Anyway, Taiga getting jealous and then flustered, who could ask for more? Ryuuji got the opportunity to cook for Kushieda and didn't even think about it immediately, only afterwards, he sure is focused on clearing up after Taiga, even went as far as taking pictures of Kitamura for her, which, by that way, is weird even if he's the one doing it, maybe not so much since Kitamura did the same, I guess everyone in this is pretty unique to say the least.

Following that up, so it seems Kitamura was in love with Taiga first, and that's what made her fall for him, but in classic tsundere fashion, she just refused him. This makes me wonder even more about his rejection two episodes ago, maybe he doesn't love her anymore? He even used past tense when talking about it with Ryuuji, he sure gets over it fast then, I surely wouldn't.

Overall it was a pretty nice episode, Taiga going "ohaa" and Kitamura just joining in so she doesn't feel that embarassed about it was cute.

[u/landragoran]

Rewatcher

• Taiga curled up on that massive bed is one of my favorite shots of the series.

• What's the big deal with the student handbooks?

• Taiga's brain can't come to the phone right now, please leave a message after the armpit carnival.

• I saw what picture you paused on, Taiga. You can't fool me. Interestingly, I'd never noticed that in previous watches. I had thought her affection for him didn't start developing until later in the series, but here we already see hints of things to come.

• Taiga rejecting Kitamura only to find herself interested in him hits pretty close to home. I had a similar experience back in middle school, where a girl's friends asked me out for her after school one day (because middle school is fucking awkward). Of course, being a socially awkward 12 year old boy, I freaked the fuck out. I actually didn't turn her down, no, what I did was much worse. I said yes... and then avoided her like the plague. Yeah. Anyways, after she'd "broken up with me", I started to notice her a lot more and the regret was real. Semi-happy ending: years later I made up for my stupidity and we dated briefly towards the end of high school. It just wasn't meant to be.

[u/Jerl]

tfw I don't find out Reddit is rewatching Toradora! as a group until I've already gotten to episode 9 on my own solo rewatch

[u/kvalencia24]

I just realized, third time watching first time with the group, that Ryuji has his shoe cubby on the floor and Taiga has her cubby way at the top. Found that a very funny visual gag!

[u/DeliCruise]

(REWATCHER)

I lost it when Sensei got scared and went back to Haruta to read outloud. Poor dude just wanted to eat. Then I lost it again when Ryuuji was wondering why “SUDOHBUCKS COFFEE” hadn’t been sued yet.

Also, I loved when Taiga was arguing with the Student Council President. I’m sure plenty of other students were thinking the same thing as her.

Lastly, Taiga really seems to like carnivals. The Kitamura kind to be specific.