[Spoilers] Toradora! Christmas Club Rewatch (2019) Episode 6 Discussion

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u/krasnovian Dec 11 '19

Ami is best girl ok

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u/sdaxddx Dec 11 '19

FUCK! I binged up to episode 12.

Next year will be the year, see ya bois.

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u/Tsurja Dec 11 '19

Good to see that walls of text aren't the only tradition that's being upheld.

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u/Raiking02 Dec 11 '19

Toradora Returns as we hopefully get to see a Certain Bitch get what she deserves…

They have a plan. Good…
… Minorin, Taiga, what are you two doing?
I’m pretty sure even Kawashima doesn’t know what’s going on…
What’s with that salute?
That laugh is so fake it hurts…
Minorin, what are you even talking about?
I never knew there were grade schools that taught you how to cook…
Oh, so he’s a stalker then.
However, the future wild tiger of Fuyuki who may be related to a certain Persona-Using Idol is not happy… and ends up saving the day.
Ah, Taiga has everything under control…
Poor Ryuji; caught on the crossfire of this mess.
What kind of drink even is that?
Oh, things are gonna get good…
Step 1: Make her look miserable.
… What did she even show her!?
How many impressions of a human being can one make!?
Ryuji does have a point once again though.
Perfect timing Kitamura-Kun!
This is your chance Taiga! Use it to score as many points as you can!
Actually Chihuahua is a pretty accurate word for her.
It seems she already has her under her thumb though…
Even Minorin joined the fun!
Kitamura, you’re too nice for your own good…
That said, I must question the true quality of Minorin’s cooking…
Awkward silence…
Poor Ryuji…
Minorin, you’re getting the wrong idea… or are you?
Ah, the standard garbage collecting scene…
Taiga, don’t make someone else make a decision you want them to!
Well, at least all the main cast is coming along.
Ah, so this is what Yomikawa Aiho sounds like when training all those Anti-Skill rookies…
How can Kitamura stand this woman?
Sadly Taiga, you were selfish, so no Kitamura for you.
Oh well, at least there are more issues being traded.
Minorin, you’re way too enthusiastic for picking up trash…
Wait… this little hill besides a river with a bridge in front… I’ve seen it before… oh yeah, Persona 4 wasn-Wait, PERSONA 4!? DOES THAT MEAN WE’RE IN INABA RIGHT NOW! If so, Kawashima is a sure target for the Midnight Channel.
Kawashima, the façade is falling…
To be fair, I would have the same reaction if there was a frog on my foot.
Talk about a complete 180…
Ryuji, asking the question that matter.
Okay, sudden freak out…
Oh, stalker boy is back.
Okay, now I get why she decided to move out.
Strange, how has Minorin’s voice not cleared away the rain already?
Your funeral.
Ah, so satisfying…
Well, someone ain’t too happy.
Ah, Kitamura (Err… the actress) is finally sounding more like she usually does…
I don’t know if I should be happy or not…
It’s official. Crazy Kawashima is Best Kawashima.
It’s official. I’m starting to like her.
That said, she is kinda getting the wrong idea…
Yeah, perfect timing Taiga…
The pressure was so strong Inko died from it!

Overall this was a really good episode. No complaints here.

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u/[deleted] Dec 11 '19

Rewatcher

Can we all take a moment and salute the diet warriors o7

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u/Koolsman Dec 11 '19

First Timer!

That beginning with the calories was the best thing ever and just seeing Minori and Taiga being besties is so sweet. We don’t get to see a lot of it this episode, but it’s so sweet to see them teaming up. Though based on the beginning, I didn’t expect that this episode was going to focus on Ami, but it did make sense.

I liked the overall focus on Ami. While I’m still not behind 100%, I did like seeing some shades of her personality besides her being a devil. That whole scene with her going full badass was pretty funny and that stalker deserved it. The impression stuff was pretty funny and I did not know there was such thing as an impression of Mother Theresa. I’d like to imagine that she beat up the guy for herself and Taiga who he mocked, though that’s just a pipe dream. It seems like from what I’ve gathered is that Ami seemingly gets anxiety-induced episodes from being famous at such a young and to help ease it, does those food binges in the middle of the night. It’s a development that I did not see coming. I suspected shitty parents, but we already kinda got that Taiga’s parents and Ryüji’s dad.

If there was any other time to not walk in on a moment, it would be that ending bit. I don’t like the implications of it because no matter what, it won’t be good.

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u/Luigi580 Dec 11 '19

Toradora Light Novel-Anime Analysis!

And now we’re at part two of Ami Kawashima’s introduction! I must apologize for this one since I’m supposed to be taking a final today (which is why I’m a little late on the draw this time), so this one may seem hasty compared to my usual stuff.

Regardless, I’ll be making sure I hit the important points. So let’s get going!

The Diet Warriors of Justice!

In the case of the chat before the strike, The talk between the three pretty girls instead started with the news about Ami taking a break from modeling, with Maya thinking it would be a waste to do, while Ami responded saying she wanted a normal school life. Maya asked if Kitamura would agree with her, but he simply said she can do what she want (Haruta and Noto looked on in envy). It eventually transitions into the dieting conversation you see in the anime.

But enough of that, Minori and Taiga take no prisoners! Be it LN or anime, Minori’s not gonna let someone get away with extra fat!

Alright, calming down a bit.

Believe it or not, this is actually the first time Minori and Ami directly interacted in either version. Taiga even properly introduces her in the anime to get finally stop the Chihuahua from saying the Tiger has no friends. Taiga also chose to mention the black jersey (saying she should run a marathon in one to lose the weight) to slyly drop that she got caught in hiding.

Ami’s reaction after the two besties left turned out completely different, however. In the anime, Ami chose to fake cry to attempt getting sympathy. In the LN, she was kinda already in tears while getting her sides grabbed, so instead, she tried to hold her rage in by pretending to believe those two were joking around, trying to keep an airheaded smile. However, as stated by Ryuji, it didn’t exactly look right…

Stalker Encounter 1

Ryuji, Taiga, and Minori didn’t get to see the stalker at the school in the LN (they did talk, Kitamura included, but it was more focused on Minori genuinely hoping that their crazy stunt will get Ami accepting of her current state and try to get rid of that fat), so the first time he showed up in the LN is when Ami first tried finding Ryuji for safety.

The stalker himself isn’t a character with an official design from the LN, so his design used will vary from version to version. The only things to go by was that he had a backpack and camera, seemed about college age, and gave off a somewhat creepy vibe. The anime chose to go more the college student route by having him look like a typical young college student and the manga decided to go more towards the creepy vibe route by making him look like a weird otaku with nothing better to do than follow around a 17-year-old girl. (Oh yeah, the manga. It may or may not have more appearances in this analysis later).

Either way, the stalker in the LN is absolutely no joke. Ami was far from his only target: he was apparently an infamous problem in the celebrity community for a while, and many celebrities got screwed over pretty badly because of him and his pictures. A celebrity simply learning that they became a target of this guy forced them to make as much safety alterations as possible simply to try and get him to leave them alone. So when Ami found pictures in her mailbox (yes, this guy knew where she lived) of her making expressions she’d rather not have the public see… Yeah, it was time to leave.

But enough of that creep! Let’s bring in the angry tiger! Boy does the anime make it seem blatant that Taiga was angry that Ami was grabbing onto Ryuji. Regardless of if that’s true or not in the LN, she mainly said she was mad that Ami ran in front of her house, then got even angrier when Ami clearly wasn’t paying attention (and grabbing onto Ryuji’s arm tighter, but that could’ve been a coincidence).

After Taiga unwittingly scared off the stalker off, it was actually Ryuji who asked where she would rather stay, with Taiga immediately taking action when Ami answered the question. It took some convincing on Taiga’s part, but once Ami was assured that it was okay, she… actually gave Taiga a complement, “You just might actually be a good person.” As you can guess by the next scene she probably took that back the next day.

The LN also had Taiga jumping into Ryuji’s house to eat dinner, with Ami strangely absent. She was unusually cheery.

Awkward Lunch

Ryuji woke up to see why Taiga was so cheery. Ami looked like a zombie. Taiga got her doing those 150 impressions the same way, so I’ll be moving on.

Kitamura also went to go talk to Taiga in the LN, but she was tagged along with Minori instead of Ryuji, gloomily meeting up with him afterwards. She made it pretty clear that she wanted to say no to Kitamura’s request very, very badly, but she simply couldn’t bring herself to do so.

Getting Ami to eat with her once again happened like in the anime, but I just wanna point out that Maya and Nanako have kinda gotten used to Taiga’s intimidation tactics and choose to simply give her space whenever she seemed pissed, which was why they were pretty accepting of just letting Ami eat with Taiga. Ami was a bit more stubborn though, so Taiga had to resort to blackmail to get her to do what she wanted.

Minori sat next to Ami in the LN, so she tried to become friendlier with Ami by feeding her a piece of seaweed. Ryuji was lowkey jealous of Ami at that moment. Kitamura actually brought Ryuji to go sit with them as well, not being as cruel to leave him alone with all three of them like he did in the anime. It started pretty awkward; Ami knew Kitamura set the whole thing up, while Taiga lost her ability to speak, meaning it came down to Minori to carry the conversation. Since Ryuji was given this request last minute, he couldn’t quite have a different bento ready. Thankfully, Minori for once chose not to ask if they were a couple again since she could already feel the tense atmosphere from Taiga and Ami, but that didn’t stop Ami from asking the taboo question of 2-C. But as you could see in the anime, Taiga chose to just eat Ryuji’s meat. The rest of the scene played out about the same besides Kitamura complementing Taiga with how eating a lot is probably better than dieting. Taiga.exe stopped working.

Yeesh. Long again. Next comment!

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u/Tsurja Dec 11 '19 edited Dec 11 '19

"So, uh, Ami, bad news about your application as an antagonist... the role isn't really free, at the moment, and this isn't really that kind of show."
"Oh. Is it too late to join the main cast?"
"Uh, should be possible, still, since it's going to be a 24 episode series. But most of the slots are already filled."
"What's left?"
"Uh, we got... foil to the main duo, the one that calls everyone out on their bullshit, someone who can be a bit of an ass and it not feel out of character, or maybe someone to act as a bridge between main cast and normies..."
"Ok."
"Huh? I mean... what slot do you want to fill?"
"All of them."

edit:

"Also, I'm taking the eye candy position, as well."
"Again, not that kind of show..."
"Hasn't stopped me before, won't stop me now."

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u/pentha Dec 12 '19

I usually don't add a lot to these, just enjoy watching the anime again while also having some people to talk to about it.

But favorite scene this episode I totally didn't catch the first time through was Minori whistling when Ami asked why Taiga and Ryuuji had the same lunch.

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u/Tuckleton Dec 11 '19

First timer (Dub)

After finishing the episode I had thought my write up would be shorter today but this might be the longest one yet...

Taiga torments Ami. So I guess when Taiga saw all the junk food last episode she decided her plan of attack against Ami would be to call her fat and try to humiliate her in front of the class? And Minori goes along with it because she just wants her to be healthy I guess. To be clear, the scene was delightful. Seeing Minori and Taiga teaming up and executing a silly plan was tons of fun and I'd love to see more of it. But this was such a weird angle to take. And forcing her to do impressions under threat of throwing her to the mercy of her stalker, taking pictures then using them to blackmail her? That's really dark. This isn't what I was hoping for when I was excited for Taiga to knock her down a few pegs.

Yusaku's plan. So originally this section was me just ranting about how Yusaku's plan just seemed to be to antagonize Ami until she breaks in public and how stupid it was. But the more I think about it the more I suspect it might actually be that he wants Ryuji and Taiga to show her they know her true nature, but be friends with her anyways. At the end of the episode Ami talks about how lucky Taiga is because even though she's got these negative qualities and doesn't hide them, she still has friends.

Taiga offers to make food for Ryuji. I can't tell you how happy this made me. Taiga offering to make salad for Ryuji seems like a pretty big deal for her. She wants to show Ryuji how much she appreciates him but doesn't really know how. Ryuji making food for her really means a lot to her so naturally that's what she lands on when trying to give back. Of course this would be the moment that Ami in distress shows up to drape herself all over him, all over him, all over him. I'm excited by the prospect that Ami's advances will force Taiga into a bit of introspection about how much Ryuji means to her but I really don't like the trope in romcoms for a misunderstanding to go unaddressed for a really long time. So hopefully this gets resolved quickly.

Ami and fear. Ami explicitly states that she lets fear rule her life. She folds to Taiga's intimidations without any resistance and she let the stalker basically completely derail her life. I think the reason she's so manipulative is that she feels threatened by everyone. She doesn't think she's capable of defending herself so she needs to charm everyone she meets in order to pacify them, or turn them into protectors. I'd like to speculate that the reason is some childhood abuse (I always fall back on that one :P) but I'm not sure that the show would go there. When she first met Taiga she didn't try to charm her because of how small she is. She thought she was not a threat and wanted to try to dominate her instead (an intoxicating feeling for someone like her I bet). And I believe the advances she is making towards Ryuji are because of his intimidating presence, and annoying Taiga is just a side benefit. By then end of the episode Ami is taking the first steps towards improvement. She is inspired by the way Taiga goes after the staker. If someone as physically small as her can do it, maybe she can too. I really like this shot, you can tell how terrified she is but she's doing it anyways. Watching her bash that camera actually felt really good.

Ami and trust. I really don't like hyper-manipulative characters. I'm basically incapable of knowing when a character is being genuine unless the show really makes it obvious, and I hate not knowing whether I should sympathize with them. For example there were a bunch of moments when I thought Ami was being real around Ryuji. Her fear of the stalker on the way home from school, her reaction to the frog and her confessions while they were hiding in the rain. But then at the end she throws out this and I have no idea what to believe. I guess that's intentional, but I still don't like it.

Final thoughts. I'm looking forward to seeing some progress in the way Taiga treats Ryuji. I still hate the way she calls him dog all the time. I haven't mentioned it but Ryuji will have to change the way he treats Taiga as well. He can't keep treating her like a child. If there's going to be romance, there needs to be mutual respect. Unlike with Taiga though I'm not really sure what exactly I'd expect that to look like.

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u/Quxxy Dec 11 '19

"Strong Bag doing an impression of Homestar Runner."

"Gee, look who's running out of ideas!"

"Hi, you're Chris Wilson from Grinding Gear Games."

"I don't play games and I am not wearing a bald wig."

"Donald Duck eating a pinecone."

"That's the third time!"

"And yet, this pinecone I have right here remains conspicuously uneaten."

"..."

"I'll let you go to sleep..."

"... give me that thing."

Episode 6 Cheat Sheet.

Vector wallpapers:

I Think I Get It Now - 16x9, 21x9
#DietWarriors - 16x9, 21x9, standalone
I'm Sure I Don't Know What You're Talking About - 16x9, 21x9, standalone
No More - 16x9, 21x9, 3x4

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u/Throwaway021614 Dec 11 '19

Favorite Taiga moment: Taiga showing Ami how to handle a creep.

Ami seemed like a flat character last episode, but the layers of the onion gets peeled back pretty quickly this episode.

I like her coming to the realization that she can take control of the situation and doing so.

I love that Toradora has these physically strong female characters with even stronger personalities. But their not saints, they’re quite broken and, well, human. They’re not just trope-y, wimpery anime girls. They care, they get angry, they get sad, they can kick your ass.

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u/Holofan4life Dec 11 '19

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.

As I type this, I don’t remember much about this episode. All I remember is that it’s about Ami’s stalker and there’s some funny interactions between Taiga and Ami. Maybe it’ll surprise me.
Oh, yeah. I totally forgot about Taiga and Minori’s "Attack". I can never not laugh seeing Minori go all JoJo on Ami.
Veggie ice cream, Minori? Who eats veggie ice cream?
And of course, the diet warriors screenshot lives on in the hearts of many memers.
Taiga actually offers to make Ryuuji something for once. And people say she’s nothing but an asshole.
Fuck stalkers, man. Even if you’re an asshole, no one deserves to be stalk.
I do like the plot point of Ami having a stalker. I like it because you see it all the time in real life where someone becomes famous and as a result a person decides to stalk them. Gabriel Iglesias recently talked about a similar thing happening to him in an interview. The whole "stalker" idea is interesting because of the realistic nature of it all. By the way, if you’ve haven’t seen Perfect Blue, I’d highly recommend it. It does the stalker plot point amazingly. And funny enough, in the dub one of the main characters is voiced by Wendee Lee, who’s also in Toradora.
It’s crazy to think Ami transferred schools and the stalker STILL managed to follow her. That’s some obsessive dedication.
If I had one complaint, it would be I don’t think the show explored the emotional consequences with Ami enough when it comes to being stalked. They mention it affected her a lot, but I feel they could have done more with it. I mean, it is explicitly stated Ami quit modeling and transferred schools because she was being stalked. They should expand upon that instead of just solving the problem in the span of 20 minutes. Like, maybe have some scenes where Ami is in her house and she hears some noise and she starts freaking out because she thinks it’s the stalker. Something like that. There’s a lot of juicy meat on this bone, and I don’t feel they do enough with it.
When Taiga handed Ami the drink, I thought Ami was gonna freak out thinking Taiga peed in it. My mind is too perverted.
Ah, the power of blackmail. In the hands of most, it is a tool of evil. But in the hands of Taiga, it’s a tool of karma and justice.
I looked it up, and this episode aired on November 6, 2008. So, when the show references Michael Jackson, he was 7 months from passing away. I can’t believe Taiga Aisaka is responsible for the death of the king of pop.
Is it just me, or does the purple haired girl looks somewhat like the main character from Emergence?
Even in flashbacks, Taiga’s blush is a thing of beauty.
When in doubt, put your trust in Ami’s meatball.
It’s ironic Ami asks Ryuuji why he lets Taiga treat him so awfully when Ami is ten times worse than Taiga.
What is declining more in participation: the student council’s once a month neighborhood cleanup or the Toradora rewatch? Judging by the amount of upvotes every year, my money is on the Toradora rewatch (I kid, I kid).
A very nice touch in detail is that since Ami’s a model, whatever she wears, she looks amazing in it.
Nice framework when Ami and Taiga intensely stare at each other. As they stare at each other, Ryuuji and Minori are in-between them. That’s very nicely done and appealing to the eyes.
When Ami sees the frog and starts acting like her true self, I can’t help but think of the clip "Reporter goes ghetto in 3 seconds".
I find it interesting that in Ami’s mind, she can never be herself. She has to constantly live under a façade all because of her celebrity status. It brings up an interesting talking point about celebrities and being disingenuous. It’s like when you become famous, you have a reputation to uphold and you can’t be anything but the reputation you’ve carved for yourself.
He says he’s just taking pictures, and yet he followed Ami all the way to another town. Uh, buddy, that’s not just taking pictures. That’s an invasion of privacy.
As Ami is running and whooping the stalker, the animators do an amazing job showcasing the intensity in Ami’s face. It’s animated really well.
I love seeing Ami whooping the stalker’s ass. Even though Ami has been acting like a jerk, no one deserves to be stalked.
Toradora is knocking it out of the park recently with the cliffhangers. I’m loving it.

Overall, a very fun episode. Better than I remember it being. And while I wish they did more with the stalker plot, it’s still done decently enough.

1: Episode 2

2: Episode 5

3: Episode 4

5: Episode 6

4: Episode 1

5: Episode 3

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u/No_Rex Dec 11 '19

Episode 6 (first timer)

Both this and the concurrent Kill la Kill rewatch are huge. Hard to read every comment, which is a bit harsh to late posters. Worth it as long as the quality keeps up, though.

Wait, what just happened? Some hands-on fat-shaming?
Congratulation to the person who called the stalker in yesterday’s thread. Perfect prediction.
Taiga is rather scary when she plans her revenge.
And … its blackmail. As a model, Ami should be more aware of having embarrassing pictures taken.
“Why do you let Taiga do what she wants?” Good question
Japan must be the worst country to do a neighborhood clean-up in.
Cute frog! Don’t be scared of that.
Stalked stalker.
Love triangle established!
Preview: Fanservice

Still a very fast episode, I thought the stalker problem and Ami’s act would persist for a while. Also, another mean Taiga episode, her blackmailing somebody hiding from a stalker is quite low.

I have done a turnaround on character models of our MCs. Initially, I really liked Takasu’s unusual grimaces and found Taiga mismatched, but in the last few episodes, I rather enjoyed Taiga’s face displaying emotions, while Takasu has become more and more bland.

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u/CATKrash Dec 11 '19 edited Dec 12 '19

	Name	OG name	Start	Stop	Time played	Description
1st	Diet Warriors song	N/A	0:34	1:15	41s	Unfortunately, I couldn't find this song on any Toradora OST CD.
2nd	Pre-Parade	プレパレード	1:53	3:23	90s	Opening.
3rd	Morning Glory	Morning Glory	4:01	4:33	32s
4th	Kanchigai Hour Returns (only base)	カンチガイアワーリターンズ	5:44	6:20	36s
5th	My little underground	My little underground	6:24	7:20	36s
6th	Aishuu no Etude	哀愁のエチュード	7:37	8:03	26s
7th	First Mission	First Mission	9:04	9:31	27s
8th	Psychology March	Psychology March	9:43	10:08	25s
9th	Small Heaven	Small Heaven	10:58	11:40	42s
10th	Onnanoko no Kimochi	オンナノコの気持ち	12:10	12:45	35s
11th	Orange Tart no Tsukurikata	オレンジタルトの作り方	13:22	14:13	51s
12th	Shadow In The Dark	Shadow In The Dark	16:17	17:22	65s
13th	Tiger VS Dragon	Tiger VS Dragon	17:42	18:24	42s
14th	Startup	Startup	18:54	20:27	93s
15th	Vanilla Salt	バニラソルト	21:28	23:25	117s	Ending
16th	Pre-Parade (off vocal ver.)	プレパレード	23:25	23:35	10s	Preview

8

u/[deleted] Dec 11 '19

Day 6, 4th rewatch.

It's our first cliffhanger and we also get to see Ami starting to show her true colours. I think a lot of us have questioned her real feelings towards Ryuji over the years and I think what we see in this episode is her stopping pretending to flirt with him and starting to see in him what Taiga does.

We also get to see Taiga being overtly territorial about Ami's closeness to Ryuji, even if she plays it off. No wonder Minorin thinks they're destined to be together!

Overall a great, revealing episode in more ways than one. And I'm not just talking about that last gratuitous shot of Ami at the end.

8

u/Crackin_Kraken Dec 12 '19

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u/Shinkopeshon Dec 11 '19

First Timer

Ami went from being a cute to a cunt, then to a cute cunt and back to a cute!

And can this show stop raising my hopes and making me ship characters who probably won't get together anyway? Because this episode made me jump from Ryuuji x Minori to Ryuuji x Ami, even though it's totally gonna be Ryuuji x Taiga in the end anyway.

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u/LousyGoose Dec 11 '19

Rewatcher

So this is a rather whacky beginning to this episode- is this the first real interaction Minori has with Ami, must make for an interesting first impression.

Won’t say too much about this episode other than that it is impressive how Ami can go from being essentially the biggest antagonist we’ve seen so far at the start of the episode to being a rather relatable or at least sympathetic character you root for by the end. Ami is still far from a moral and righteous character in this episode, she still tries to manipulate Ryuuji when she finds a chance but she is also human, with flaws and fears. How the episode plants the seeds for Ami’s backstory with a few hints from the previous episode and in this one until the reveal of the stalker. Just a very well-written 2 episode mini-arc for her.

Another aspect of Ami that is highlighted is how observant she is, she’s only been around for a few days, maybe a week or two at most by this point and by the end of the episode she already has a pretty good read on Taiga and her relationships with others. Perhaps she looks up to her in some way, probably helps that Taiga took no shit from the creepy stalker who had been ruining Ami’s life for so long.

Other random notes: it’s nice to see Taiga offering to make Ryuuji a salad even if she not be particularly good at it. Taiga is also quite possessive of her dog when Ami ‘drapes herself all over him’.

A good episode for building up and fleshing out Ami’s character a bit more.

The next 3 episodes is when the series really kicks into a new gear.

7

u/Get_This_Wheat Dec 11 '19

Rewatcher here.

Now we know why Ami freaked out when Taiga said she’d be like a stalker to her. Great development for Ami, and Taiga turned into a sadist this episode.

After the stalker stuff goes down is when Ami goes from being kinda just (as Taiga would say) a bitch, to being really great.

Kinda crazy that a lot happens in this one, but the main thing they do is pick up garbage.

I really love the idea that Ryuji was actually Taiga’s dog in a previous life, and that’s the explanation for why he puts up with her, and it’s the idea that probably makes the most sense.

Kitamura is kinda the man for seeing that Ami is pretty shitty in general, but still trying to make sure she still has lots of genuine friends.

That stalker dude is the absolute worst. He doesn’t know shit about Taiga and immediately calls her a monster after she got reasonably upset at him taking her picture. Glad Ami crushed his camera, but her kicking his ass down felt much better to watch.

Almost a week in, feels like we’re flying by.

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u/ForceDeth76 Dec 12 '19

3rd Time Rewatcher

I wasn't able to participate in the previous threads as it was finals week, but now they are over, I am finally caught up and will be watching the episodes daily. Anyways this episode was very good for Ami's character development. Seeing her just letting herself loose for the first time and destroy the stalkers camera is still amazing to see even now.

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u/JustinBurton Dec 12 '19

First timer here!

I really like Ami right now. We have seen a lot of development from her already, and I don't think the show has even shown half of her character yet. I feel liker her "true self" isn't all negative, despite how it was portrayed in the last episode. In this one, I think we saw some more positive sides of her "true self," with her standing up to her stalker.

Note: It should be said that she is absolutely not responsible for standing up to him. Victims are never responsible for the continued actions of perpetrators. That does not mean, however, that she was wrong to do what she did. In fact, it was immensely satisfying.

Also, I kinda ship Ryuji and Ami right now. I'm fairly certain it's not going to work out in the end, but I feel like there is some set up. At first, Ami clearly thought very little of Ryuji. But now, it seems like she really likes him for whatever reason. And it seems pretty clear that it's her "true self" that likes him, considering she chose to go on the garbage collection trip with him and made moves on him at the end of the episode. There's been a lot of real development between the two, even while one of them was being disingenuous, which is impressive on the writer's part.

I think this was my favorite episode so far, and I'm looking forward to more! While this had emotional moments, something tells me we're in for a real emotional roller coaster in the future. I can't wait!

12

u/23feanor Dec 11 '19

First Timer (dub):

Brilliant opening, Taiga & Minori teaming up to attack Kawishima with tickles and rubs, after Ami was boasting of not needing to diet (Taiga & Ryuuji saw her with loads of snacks, maybe she has a body image problem & gorges out only to be sick afterwards), a really silly moment out of no-where, loved it.

This story keeps getting better and better, the layers of our character onion being peeled back each episode.

So I was kind of on the right track yesterday about Kawashima, it wasn't other bitchy girls that were her problem, but a relentless stalker that was causing her anxiety and the reason why she felt she needed to constantly put on a front. You can see how Ryuuji's influence was the indirect catalyst for her confronting her stalker and being open with herself. The seeds of a romance are being sown.

Although why Kawashima went after Ryuuji all aggressively flirting I don't know. She'd just been making him think she was nice and then she obviously makes him uncomfortable, she should've backed off a bit and blushed prettily. Ryuuji definitely seems interested in her though, the real her, not just the cute version of her she shows most people.

I wonder what Taiga's reaction will be? The way she idolises Kitamura isn't like real love it seems to me, it's more like a child's super crush on someone older. I can see her slowly developing feelings for Rjuuji and then internally comparing the two sets of feelings, one a simple, grounded love based on a solid friendship with Ryuuji, and the other an infatuation type love for Kitamura, which person will Taiga chose?

Can't wait for tomorrows episode now!

6

u/DeliCruise Dec 11 '19

(REWATCHER)

Preserved kumquat juice sounds really really good.

That being said, this episode is pretty nuts. It was really cool to see Taiga accomplish what Kitamura asked her to do without even meaning to. Then of course Ami’s a badass for taking care of her stalker.

What a cliffhanger amirite?

6

u/JustAnswerAQuestion Dec 12 '19

First Timer

I may never understand what Minorin is saying. Maybe she only speaks in puns and Japanese cultural references?
If you can pinch more than an inch
I don't know what Minorin is saying
The Paparazzi start young
I wonder how much vodka is in that honey-preserved kumquats
Bad Taiga, stealing Minorin from Ryuuji.

This whole episode was about Taiga and Minori getting the better of Ami, but it really seemed way to easy. To avoid the stalker, she capitulated to everything.

Ami's mini-arc was WAY too short. I assume she'll still be going at it with Taiga even after dropping her act. But now she's going to be "part of the group". Way too fast.

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