Minto no Ie

Oh wow, Ami is an awesome character. I’m happy that they finally brought something extremely new to this show, because it was starting to get dragging. A lot of character development in this episode, and what I find strange is that I’m really liking all the characters as episodes go by. I remember being extremely irritated at Minori and Kitamura (I think?) but now, they’re pretty cool. Especially Minori, who put one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever seen in Toradora! Seriously, I rewinded that part a couple of times.

Ami enters the show as a bubbly person who describes herself as an airhead. She happens to be Kitamura’s childhood friend, and Kitamura introduces her to Ryuuji and Taiga. Ryuuji is quickly taken by her looks, but excuses himself for the bathroom after Kitamura does the very same thing. This is when Kitamura shows Ryuuji the true colors of Ami, who turns out to be a snotty princess who just so happens to be giving Taiga some nasty words. Taiga is completely ignoring her, until she insults her height, and that’s when Taiga slaps her across the face.

The next day, it turns out that she’s actually a new student who’s in the same class as they are. Taiga is extremely pissed at this. Ami also acts out her airhead persona and quickly gets on everybody’s good side. Minori is also wondering why her ‘pretty girl radar’ isn’t working on someone like Ami. Kitamura explains to Ryuuji that he doesn’t hate Ami’s real personality, but at the same time he wishes that Ami would be honest with herself. Later, when Ryuuji goes out of the classroom to get a drink, Ami follows him and starts lying about what had happened the day before. She says it was her fault because she probably annoyed Taiga for being such an airhead. Back in class, Taiga asks Ryuuji what the two of them were doing through a note, which Ryuuji simply throws away. Minori also sends him a note telling him not to upset Taiga, and Ryuuji responds by asking her what she thinks of a person who calls herself an airhead. Minori stands up with a sweet smile on her face and an ‘approved’ signal, but she quickly changes it to ‘disapproved!’ with a devastated expression.

Later, Ami finds Taiga waiting in an empty classroom for Ryuuji. She insults Taiga but goes nowhere until she mentions that Kitamura hates her, which is the only thing which affects Taiga. Ryuuji wonders why Taiga doesn’t come over for dinner, and finds her in her room, incredibly depressed. Ryuuji tells her that Kitamura already nows about Ami’s real personality. The two of them then go buy some sauce for dinner, and they find a disguised Ami who’s bringing around grocery bags. At that moment, Taiga realizes something.

Impressions: Honestly, the thing that confuses me about this episode is Minori’s response to Ryuuji’s question. It could have been “I approve… NOT!” or, “That person would be someone good… NOT!”. Either way, Minori’s probably a lot smarter than she acts and looks just from that hilarious answer of hers and her “Something is not right about Ami!” radar. I would have actually thought she would be the last person to notice that someone was being fake, but I’ve come to terms that Minori isn’t incredibly stupid - just incredibly bubbly. Hah, go, me, for that pathetic epiphany.

I was also surprised with Kitamura’s revelation that he didn’t hate Ami’s true personality. Of course, he doesn’t look like the kind of person who would hate Ami for something like that, but I didn’t think he would like it, either. His words were good though, the “I wish she could just be honest with herself”.

Also looking forward to the Taiga vs. Ami battles. I really think that what this show needed was some conflict to make it interesting, and here we have it. I’m kinda annoyed at the cliffhanger at the ending of this episode though, because I really want to know what Taiga realized - and I’m using all my willpower to not search it on google.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 at 5:32 am and is filed under Toradora!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.