I’ll say it right up front, this Kitamura bitch angst arc fucking sucks. I hated it in the novels and I hate it now in the anime. Sometimes it’s really obvious that a woman wrote the source material. Anyways, I’ll flame on a bit here and make fun of he who lacks stones.

I always disliked Kitamura’s character, I found him rather irritating. However, that wasn’t a problem when he was just on the sidelines or letting his little soldier flap in the open air. It became a problem when his angst took up two full episodes. We all had disappointments in our high school love lives, but holy shit take it like a man. Get over it and move on. What did Masa-san teach us? A man only cries when his parents pass away.

Of course, instead of actually doing this he just went and had a fuzzy talk about his feelings. What he actually needed was yet another beating for being a stupid ass. I’m not big on beating children, but I don’t blame his father for being pissed. After all, I’m ready to kick his ass.

Oh a confession in front of the whole school! How romantic! Oh wait, I stopped giving a shit a long time ago. Plus he got rejected, that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Fansubbers certainly enjoy embellishing don’t they? The fight was probably the only amusing part about this arc, I do enjoy myself a good catfight. The crying and such afterwards? Not so enjoyable. I just couldn’t bring myself to care much about the aftermath. What happened to my comedy? What happened to my dear Ami? Will someone please deliver us from this hell!? Ami in a Santa costume from next week’s preview may help a great deal…

←[112] There’s this nice BGM piece we hear, I’m thinking specifically of ep. 15, around 14:27.

I tried to upload my favorite bleedy rhodes patch, but it got royally fluted via conversion, and has degraded into some cheesy as hell synth crap.

AND BEHOLD, A NICE PDF SCORE FOR U.

While Toradora’s composer is Yukari Hashimoto, this piece specifically resonates with a lot of the soft, solo piano OST pieces Yuzo Hayashi did for Honey and Clover, like Dramatic transcribed for piano, which was great.

Actually my favorite part of this piece is probably the first measure. The melody hits that lower f# to harmonize the nice emin9. It’s hard to describe the quality of minor ninth chords. They have a similar “suspended” quality like that of perfect fourths, though the only interval of a fourth is with the fifth, B. Hmmm…

The subtleties of this piece blended in with the scenery too, the high parts, twinkling, a lot like stars would, in a poetic sense. The higher register sounds delicate – it’s when Taiga let’s her shield down, she cries, the viewer is treated to her memories. Ryuuji is there, ubiquitous, the dog? The piece itself is sparse, not busy, not clustered, cold, the scene was too, we suppose, as MoritaRyuuji wraps HaguTaiga in a scarf. Nor is the piece resolved. It ends in an ambiguous arpeggio of fourths and fifths, a lack of finalized thirds to accompany the hazy stars that fade in and out of sight. I guess, for Taiga, tears obstructed their light.

After a week off Toradora is back! All around a pretty good episode with some comedy but mostly a large amount of character development as we do a post-op on the culture festival. I’m a day or two late…but who cares right? I had to get this entry in before the football playoff games that start later this afternoon!

A nose full of finger that early in the morning? I love these two.

Touching Taiga in exchange for your happiness seems like a rather dangerous method to follow. It’s like having a genie bottle on the other side of a bunch of spike traps. There’s a chance you might make it and get your wish, but your probably just going to sustain massive injuries. See the picture below…

Yeah, like this idiot

One of the things I like about this show is the lack of your stereotypical “fall in love at first sight” harem setups. If Ryuuji is going to attract the attentions of the three primary females in this show in the end, it’s a long term project. We are already 14 episodes in and we are still developing the relations between Ryuuji and Ami, Taiga, and Minori in that regard. I’d say Ami’s is probably the furthest along, as she continues to try and attract his attention but fails because he doesn’t really care.

Where is this picture dammit?!

I’m guessing Yu-Gi-Oh?

I still find her character difficult to read. Maybe she liked the picture because it showed close friendship with someone who wants to help her best friend or maybe she’s got a new tingling for Ryuuji. I certainly don’t know at this point, but like I said before it’s interesting to watch it develop.

Ami-chan blushing? Hohoho, that’s pretty moe right there. Ah, it’s always delicious when they’ve been aloof for so long and they finally bring out the dere. She’s getting all rabu rabu for the only guy out there who doesn’t think of her as a mature adult. He realizes that she has a kid side to her, which is perfectly reasonable for someone in high school. Too bad we aren’t going to get an Ami x Ryuuji end.

Ah, love is aflutter and she doesn’t want to go back home! And it is true she has made real friends, and I’m not talking about the stupid Maruo girls either. Out of all of the characters she has definitely developed the most, becoming more comfortable around her close friends with her real personality. And even that personality has normalized somewhat, getting rid of a lot of it’s toxicity but leaving enough for amusing fights between her and Taiga.

Merry Day After Christmas, Happy Boxing Day, etc. I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays, I certainly have been. It’s nice to have the time off to relax, play some games, watch a bit of anime. And regarding anime, let’s talk about the last two episodes of Toradora.

As frequent readers of my work may have surmised, I am not a fan of drama in my comedies. So I generally frown on such developments and may on occasion skip covering an episode because of that. This was one of those episodes unfortunately. It would have taken some amazingly written drama to get me to care a whole lot about it.

Sad and angry Minori is no fun

I do like the changed Ami though, because she got rid of some of the bitchiness and traded it for some maturity. However, she can still keep a wonderfully violent and nasty sparring with Taiga going without missing a beat. We love you Ami.

Nope, she looks better with her hair down, sorry

I may just have to convert to masochism, whoa there Ami.

Overly dramatic music, an extremely cheesy plot, and overflowing emoness…this was somewhat painful to watch at times. I’ve seen worse though, at least I actually watched the whole sequence this time. One hopes they get back to the funny next episode because I could do without this.

I can only wish, and wish for doujins of the same. It is unfortunate that Japan does not produce yuri doujins with the same enthusiasm that they do yaoi. That has not stopped me from compiling a multi-gig collection of said doujins, but still…I could have more.

It turns out we will have a 2 season showing of this show, which is both surprising and awesome. These days its very rare to see a lovecom of this nature get more than one, but I’m pretty glad. I look forward to continuing coverage of it as much as I can as well as *gasp* perhaps picking up Maria Holic. Now if only I could find the keyboard shortcut to making the cross to go in between the words in the title…

Hohoho, four finals down, one to go ladies and gentlemen. But before that we have this week’s episode of Toradora. I’d sure like to see Ami in a maid outfit, that’s for damn sure. At least we get to find out who that weird looking guy was from last week’s episode preview.

Frankly, I’d rather see you in the pants. That PE uniform is just stupidly ugly, even worse so with the shorts. I was rather saddened they didn’t show the scene where Taiga pulled Ami’s pants down on accident, a tear nearly formed in my eye.

The class idiot appears

The animated tiger was a nice touch

He really is an idiot. With a united front of men sure to capture at least a plurality of votes he picks it randomly. Although a pro wrestling show sounds like a rather fun idea. I’d love to see more of Taiga and Ami wrestling…hot.

Quite accurate imo

Now that’s what I’m talking about, only it should be naked wrestling obviously

He is quite often the nagging housewife this Ryuuji. It always irritates me when people just assume they know about family relationships just by being briefly exposed to it. Yes, I understand they tried to say at the end that he was just trying to force his own issues on her, but still. People are often too quick to judge before they know all the facts. And they wrapped up that storyline way too quick, I guess they really want to speed through all the novel material. It’s rather jarring that Taiga all of a sudden decides to make up with him, regardless of what Ryuuji says.

Well, since I was busy as of late and Crusader’s post was a pretty comprehensive Ami love entry on episodes 8 and 9, let’s just skip to episode 10 shall we? Another solidly entertaining episode with a handful of facepalming laughs at Kitamura’s expense, coupled with plenty of fanservice since it’s a beach episode. Plus Ami, lots of Ami.

WONDERFUL. So was that jiggle they subsequently showed, hence the title of this entry. Interesting to note here how Ami refuses to help in this scene but later relents. Her initial inclinations toward merely teasing Ryuuji to get a rise out of him are slipping further and further into haremette territory rather than antagonist territory.

I spy with my little eye…

Oh right in the face. Those were some lame ass “traps” to scare people if I ever saw them. I never really found Kitamura to be a particularly interesting character, dense and energetic is so overdone. Although I did give him man points for whipping out the one-eyed snake last episode, that took some cajones…literally.

I guess I sort of get the moon and the sun metaphors, but I also sort of don’t. What’s becoming more of a factor is Ami looking rabu rabu over Ryuuji. Although I still hope this doesn’t devolve into yet another “everything with a vagina loves the main character for no reason” show.

Ami is not pleased. She has such awesome facial expressions.

You may say that, but we all know where this is going. The show would have no purpose in being called Toradora if it wasn’t a Taiga End. But until then it’s fun to salivate over Ami and ship other characters for our own amusement.

More importantly what is she thinking about?

I never did expect to like Toradora! much, still while I have mild levels of love for Taiga toradorable though she maybe (as she is loli enough to reside three miles past the point of uncomfortable and has yet to use her wealth to provide Takasu with decent ingredients) I did find myself liking Ami more and more as the episodes go by. I like her not only because she looks more developed biologically than Taiga but also because she is so deliciously insincere that it is hard to read her character and her motives. While there have been many who have wondered if Ami-tan ever did take off her mask I do suppose she has, instead of pretending to be an air head the whole time, shown much more of her mischievous self and insincere tone to those around her. Perhaps the Ami we see now is the real Ami, a person with a unique gift for obfuscation. If nothing else Ami has no problem using a ball with lethal force against Yusaku.

Leaving are we, Ryuji? Were it so easy…

Oh Ami-chan does know how much Ryuji can’t say no to cleaning something…

Not that Ami-chan needs to know, she just wants him to confess what went on in dirty mind of his.

I confess that I have not watched much within the harem genre, but from what I have seem Ami seems to be rather unique this year in that she seems to show much more cunning than your average haremette. The fact that Ami is already aware of where Ryuji’s crush at least indicates some significant powers of observation and deduction, and as a result points to Ami having a high degree of intelligence. Moreover she is already aware of Yusaku’s disinterest in Taiga and possibly about Yusaku’s crush on Sumire. Like a future top tier operative it is very possible that Ami is making a file on everyone, and so far she at least knows which buttons to push on both Taiga and Ryuji. Subtlety seems to be her strong point as she lacks that spectacular flair that Taiga seems to be oozing out constantly. Taiga may possess the brute strength but Ami seems to be a bit more precise in expending her efforts as demonstrated by the Taiga pool toss. Not only is her precision impressive, but her mental agility is worth noting as well. I was quite impressed with how she turned that shower thing around and humiliated Ryuji in the space of less than a minute. Ami went from hearing him to figuring out a plan a executing it with devastating results that made Ryuji cry like a sissy at the drop of a hat.

It took Ryuji a while to realize that he had been toyed with…

Ami-chan is spicy…

So you like Minorin, your thoughts betray you. Taiga was wise to hide it from me, but now her failure is complete…

If nothing else Ami is confident to the point of arrogance though one has to wonder if she is being genuinely narcissistic or just putting up another layer of smoke to keep people guessing. All that can be said for certain is that Ami has the knack for playing mind games as Ryuji was sent crying back to Taiga after she toyed with his pure boy heart, though as she did succeed perhaps Ryuji is not so loyal to Minorin as he thinks. The thing that makes Ami’s private little war with Taiga is that Ami is better able to get under the latter’s skin in ways that not even a brutal beating could equal. Sure Taiga might be able to inflict a bit of physical pain, but the wounds from the kiddie swim suit might well last a lifetime as Taiga has yet to have her growth spurt. Where Taiga never seems to have all of her wits about her given her uncertainty in just about everything including herself, Ami at least knows herself a bit more and certainly knows what her own agenda is and how to execute it. Out of the titular five it is Ami that acts as the catalyst for accelerating developments. Ami forces Taiga to react to her omnipresent threat and that at least keeps things interesting in the short term.

Part of me still wonders if goading Ryuji to make an extra spicy curry wasn’t part of one of her schemes, in any case I doubt it could have gone any better in feeding sweet curry loving Taiga some real curry.

Ami is a veteran of being around Yusaku, I suspect that Taiga doesn’t even know half of Kitamura’s quirks…

She speaks the truth of course…

There is a large degree of transparency to every one but Ami. Ryuji obviously has the hots for Minorin, Minorin is living in her own little world, Taiga is gunning for Yusuke and for now harbors little overt romantic interest in her inu (taking an active part in trying to hand Minorin over to Ryuji does not in my mind indicate romantic attachment), and Yusuke gave up long ago on Taiga and has his heart set on Sumire. However we can never be sure if Ami is genuinely interested in Ryuji or simply delights in picking on the simpleton. The one thing we can count on in regards to the other five is that for now she seems to know Yusuke too well to actually harbor any feelings other than that of friendship. Unlike the rest it was only Ami who kept her cool after Yusuke decided to streak as Taiga froze up and Minorin just went blank. Perhaps in the end much of the mystery surrounding Ami’s motivations will disappear, but until then at least she remains deliciously different from the typical well meaning kind of female you expect from the genre, I am quite sure that Ami has plans within plans to keep Taiga off balance. With any luck Ami-chan will be able to mislead those around her with enough innuendo, half-truths, and bald face lies while looking hawt to keep us all guessing at what her true agenda is.

Even if Ami is not the nicest person of the year at least she boasts something that is sorely lacking within the typical haremette, intelligence and the willingness to use it. Ami-chan is clever and cunning, and that makes her my kind of scum. Ami might be a bitch, but the same can be said of Taiga. Taiga certainly could do with a lot more tact when she interacts with people and definitely could do more to quell her outbursts. More often or not we wear masks when we go out in public, there ought to be no displeasure that Ami is more than capable of doing the same. After all we are expected to be on our best behavior in public, for is it not dishonest to smile at a person you loathe rather than reaching over the table and clocking them?

Well it seems that Taiga was shocked and awed by what she saw…

A bald faced lie, no doubt…

I like her scowl.

I hope you folks don’t mind the sub snobbery (I wait for the gg/qq releases before watching) and the delays it causes, but I think it’s worth the wait. I’ve also been hard at work on our Winter preview (yes, it’s that time again) so anticipate that dropping in a week or two. As for the episode it was great stuff, the first episode in which I generally agreed with the cuts they made from the novel. Probably the most laughs so far in one episode as well.

As I just mentioned, they did cut chunks of the novel material here, mainly the other people walking on on Ryuuji and Ami, as well as Taiga being pissed about it for quite a while. But, that’s actually a good thing because they focused the story more on the humorous things that went on in the episode rather than the melodramatic. And that bird still creeps me the hell out.

Ah, nasty jabs so early in the morning. Wonderful.

This is why I like the real Ami more than the fake, bubbly one. I love characters who are mortal enemies with one another and can deliver nasty jabs back and forth. Like I mentioned the other day, their conflict drives the best humor the show has to offer.

245JFGSKGF#rtqFWQ#SEFQ#

Now that is what you call flat, especially when you compare it to Ryuuji’s mother. However, if you ask Mayumi it would be considered a status symbol. There are some lolicons out there that are into that sort of thing. I’m sure you guys all know my preferences though, and it’s on the opposite end of breast size, although not too extreme.

Can’t get anything past Minorin

You knew that as soon as they came up with the fake breast idea that it was going to be either exposed or threatened to be exposed. It was also rather cliche and unimaginative that the tough and klutzy girl can’t swim. However, it was still pretty funny and I can certainly understand her subsequent rage. Although, there really isn’t anything under there to touch, so it can’t be too bad, right?

If this is supposed to be some sort of reference I have no idea what it is. Next week’s episode should be another good one with the Taiga vs. Ami competition. Can I spend the summer at Ami’s house? Please?

The MPRE is over! Yay! Anyways, in the anime world there was more delicious Ami story this week that really starts to flesh out her character. They did rush some of however, when compared to the novels. It’s good, but it lacks some of the impact that the scenes had in the novels. Oh well, she still looks smokin’.

As I mentioned last week, Ami does get some of her comeuppance, albeit a shortened version. Not to beat a dead horse, but they made this shorter and less serious than the source material. But they also made sure to keep the tie-ins with the other parts of the episode. Ami is gaining weight because of the stress of the stalker and the poor food she’s been forced to eat as a result of her circumstances.

One of the many great faces of Ami this episode

And of course, he has to put the trash can back. Too funny.

Note to self, NEVER become Taiga’s enemy

This scene was pretty well done, I liked how they showed the rapidfire shifts in her personality throughout. Once again I’d like to compliment Ami’s seiyuu, Eri Kitamura, on the job she has done voicing her. And while the fake Ami is pretty cute/moe, I rather enjoy the real Ami because the conflicts she has with Taiga drive a lot of the humor.

And another!

Frankly, he was a pretty pathetic stalker, and I don’t think they spent enough time with the stalker material. It seemed rather sudden and had less of an impact on your impression of Ami’s character. I suppose that in an anime they end up having to shorten some of the characters’ development, I just wish they didn’t short Ami’s -_-

Scary

Love me! Aahhhhhhh moeeeeeee! Ahem. In the end, I don’t know whether Ami will actually fall for Ryuuji. She’s pulling his leg in this scene, but you never know later on with these shows. In harem shows at least, all females automatically and unconditionally love the main guy, but this show isn’t really a harem show. Will be interesting to see either way, but since this is an adaptation of an ongoing source material, don’t count on on anything being resolved in the end. We’ll just have to hope the guys translating the novels go quickly =)

Swimsuit shopping, pools, and fake breasts, oh my. Interestingly enough, the novel material for next episode just got translated and it should be a fun ride. Mmmm, Ami in a swimsuit…

Ah finally, the really good stuff begins. I know you’ll all be surprised that Ami-chan is a new transfer student who happens to be in the same class as everyone else! Shocking!

Yes, this will do nicely. They really faked me out last week with Sumire and her blue hair. Really, there are too many blue haired characters in this show, it’s spreading like some sort of illness. So far Eri Kitamura’s voicing of her is top notch, catching both sides of her personality well.

M-m-moe

This is the Taiga we all know and love, having the wonderful ability to just not give a shit about other people, especially really irritating ones who talk down to her.

Oh that has to hurt. Now, for those of you who have not read the novels, you may be wondering why the hell I’d enjoy Ami’s character, which is a valid question. But don’t worry, the plot changes things quite a bit soon, assuming the adaptation stays true. That being said, she’s definitely going to get some of her comeuppance next episode judging by the preview (if the scene is what I think it is).

Right…

One of the most entertaining parts of the novels so far has been the relationship/combat between Ami and Taiga. I’m liking how they are introducing Ami so far, putting enough of the novel material in there (from what I remember) to lay a good foundation. I will apologize that this entry is a bit short and lacking on amazing insights, but this is a rough week with the MPRE coming up on Saturday.

“Adorable, yet creepy” is one way to describe the episode’s focus on photographic voyeurism. On the one side you think, awww that’s kind of cute. On the other side, watching Taiga drool over the pictures or keeping albums full of them is a bit creepy. I had my fair share of crushes in middle and high school, but I don’t recall ever keeping a stack of photos of them.

Adorable

You’re not Ami-chan, dammit. JCStaff has cheated me for another week! Well, Sumire is kind of cool in her own way, I always dig foul mouthed girls. Although, what the Japanese consider foul mouthed is quite different from my views, considering the people I hang out with IRL.

What the hell is this? I feel so cheated, I wanted a fight between Taiga and Sumire, and instead she wusses out because he grabbed her. By the way, the fact that a male student went up to a female student, grabbed her, and held her up in the air struck me as somewhat out of line. Continuing to compare this show with my own life, if that happened in my school the guy would probably get a referral or worse. Maybe I should stop trying to compare anime with life.

Creepy

No it’s not, it’s just weird.

As you can well imagine, this shot has already made the rounds on /a/ with various dirty things done to it. Well, with so much Taiga creepy photo voyeurism, they had to give Ryuuji some as well. Frankly, if I was going to keep a picture of some girl I like this would not be the one, unless he planned on using it for uh, something more than just admiring it. Even then, I wouldn’t be satisfied by a shot like this.

Call me weird, but I love the expression on his face. I always enjoy watching the ways in which animators choose to animate “wtf?” expressions. It’s much harder to show such surprise in live action without genuinely being surprised, plus I’m a big fan of exaggerated expressions and comedies. One of the reasons I loved Seto no Hanayome so much was the exaggeration. Now, I’m not comparing the two series at all, I just once again went off on a random tangent.

YES

Synopsis

Tomiie Kouta is just about the most unfortunate person around. Let’s start at his birth, shortly after which he was dropped by his incompetent fuckwad of a doctor because his mother needed taking care of. Just before the entrance exam from middle school, Kouta was hit by a bike and fell 10 feet into a river. On the day of his high school entrance exam, he was hit by a car and hospitalised. He managed to attend the second round of exams and got into a good school, but on the day before the opening ceremonies he got food poisoning and was hospitalised for a month. As a result, he failed to make any friends in a class where cliques were already forming and turned to extra-curricular activities – unfortunately, recruitment time for clubs have gone and passed, too.

Then a ray of hope – a position in the student council opens up. He joins the student council in the hope of making some friends in the same grade, but all he found were eccentric sempai’s who entertained themselves at his expense – such as sending him on a quest to find the “Palm-sized Tiger of Happiness”. Anyone who’s read this far can probably imagine how THAT ends, so let’s skip over it and move on to the really important bit – his meeting with Sakura.

Kanou Sakura, a naturally coquettish girl, the younger of the Sakura sisters. The younger sister of the perfect, indomitable, manly Kanou Sumire, the student council president who has never gotten anything less than 500 in her exams (that’s out of 500, folks). Well, unfortunately for Sakura, the genes weren’t fair when handing out intelligence – she failed all 5 of her mid-semester exams, and must pass all 5 re-takes or be forced to change school. In one of the oldest anime story-telling tropes ever, Kouta is recruited by Sumire to be Sakura’s tutor, and the two’s fate began to intertwine.

Thoughts
Phew, was that as boring for you as it was for me? If it was, I failed, because I’m trying to convince you that this book is worth reading. If you’re still here, thank you, and read on.

Unlike the main story of ToraDora, Cherry-coloured Tornado of Happiness is a very typical high school romance story. Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl falls in love with boy, happily ever after. There is barely even any tension, because simply by reading the title you KNOW the boy gets the girl. What sets it apart then is its simplicity and straight-forwardness, and the clarity and intensity of each character’s emotion.

The majority of the relationships in manga and anime feel forced and contrived, probably largely because writers are expected to drag on their series indefinitely as long as it remains popular. The greatest offender here is probably School Rumble: what made it great for many others killed it for me. The relationships are unnecessarily complicated, the ensemble cast diluted the focus of the story, and in the end the story didn’t end up anywhere. With just a cast of two main characters, two side characters and a handful of red shirts, CCToH was able to keep the story intensely focused and give its characters and relationships the development they deserve.

The second strength of CCToH is also the strength of ToraDora as a whole and the strength of its writer Yuyuko Takemiya. She can bring out vivid and powerful emotions with her words, and she can make your emphasis with them. Whether it is in dialogue or a paragraph of descriptive thoughts, she can convey emotions with astounding clarity and intensity. There are numerous moments that stand out through-out this volume, but in particular the scene where Sakura explains why she insists on staying at the school when its way above her standard and Kouta running through the school after he finally makes up his mind about Sakura takes the cake.

In the end, the main appeal of Cherry-coloured Tornado of Happiness lies in how well it identifies and presents the feelings of being in love for the first time in your life. Whether it is the uncertainty surrounding a yet-to-blossom relationship or the joy of finally finding mutual love, CCToH fills your heart with warmth and, as its name promises, happiness.

This week we have a Minorin-centered episode, and at times it was rather hard to sit through. She’s alright in small doses, but an entire episode of her high energy rambling can really grind on you. It’s ok, next week we get to see Ami-chan so it’s all good.

Edit Title: I kin spel gud

Wow…those are really freaking ugly uniforms

Much better, thank you

The whole poking out the eyes thing is pretty amusing, at least her abuse of the guy varies from time to time. Rather than just kicking all the time a good eye poking when he drools over Minorin seems warranted. She is definitely way more tsun tsun then other Rie characters, at least so far. The physical and verbal abuse she gives Ryuuji is just on a higher level, even more than Louise.

Anime hair never ceases to amuse me. Blonde mother gives birth to a blue haired son who is in love with a pink/purple haired girl and whose best friend has green/blue hair.

Scary!

When I was a kid I had training wheels on my bike for a long time, I guess I was kind of scared of falling. And of course after I took them off I took a nasty spill and I still have that scar. Regardless, I was a big bike fan when I was a kid, our neighborhood was pretty secluded and had few cars so it was good times.

/facepalm

I think she’s a bit too genki for my tastes. I like energetic characters to a certain level, but more along the lines of someone like Miyako from Hidamari Sketch. Minorin is just too out there for me, and like I said before I think she’s fine in small doses. However, and entire episode dedicated to her was a bit much at times.

For the love of God man, run!

I’m a bit late, but that’s because as usual I got distracted by a new game and I’ve been working long hours. But never fear, the weekly dose of tsundere loli adventures is here, complete with chapter skipping and ugly birds making jokes about shampoo commercials. However, what I find the most disturbing is the addictiveness of the ED song.

Taiga’s even more abusive than Louise, with a constant stream of insults directed at the poor fellow. Her voice in this episode also sounds a lot more Louise than it did in episode one. Ryuuji fights back to a degree, but he still makes her food. Then she totally cockblocks him from Minori with a nasty smile on her face. Ouch dude, ouch.

She’s a strange one with her obscure references and quick method of speaking. One of the members of the group that subbed this, [gg], has a fairly detailed set of TL notes for Minorin this episode, you can check it out here.

That…looks like it hurt. Like others who have read the novels, I noticed that some of the first couple of chapters were skipped out on or cut down heavily, like the basketball scene. I’m holding out judgment on whether or not this is a good idea, because I think a lot of what was cut was important development. However, if this gives them more time to flesh out some of the better story sections later on (like Ami) then I’m all for it. On the other hand, if they use the extra time for shitty JC Staff fillers I’m going to rage.

This girl is hard to follow, she goes from melodramatic pondering, to angry facial contortions, to asking the guy to take care of Taiga. I guess that’s what makes her endearing. I’m starting to warm up to Hocchan’s portrayal of Minorin, at least for the time being.

This…was strange looking.

Instead of actually showing a wide shot of them kicking the pole the whole time, we get the occasional foot, a shaking face, and then shots of power lines. Trying to save a few bucks on animation there guys? Anyways, the scene was fairly well done, if anything Rie has a really good angry/emotional voice. She gets lots of practice.

Aha! The show can’t end 2 episodes in now can it! Instead she gets the dreaded “friend zone.”

Like the scene before it, I guess there wouldn’t be a story without stuff like this, despite the stupidity of it all. “Not being able to leave her alone” and trying to get closer to Minorin just can’t be worth all the abuse and explain his dedication in a realistic sense. Ah, the world of anime, how I must suspend my disbelief for thee. When I read the source material I kind of glazed over this beginning material, and I’m glad I didn’t give up, because it got a lot better afterward.

While I was dissapointed that the loli tsundere was voiced by Rie Kugumiya because I wanted something different, it turns out that it’s not all too bad. At least during the first episode the material won over me and I found myself having quite a laugh and enjoying it. I’ve read and greatly enjoyed the first two volumes of the light novel this is based on, so I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.

While I’m not a big fan of sloppy whore characters like this in general (think the two women who live with Yuuto in Nogizaka Haruka) the family dynamics at work here are seemingly complex. From the first episode we gather that she works at some sort of bar late nights and relies on Ryuuji to do all the cooking and cleaning. Also, he refers to his mother by her first name and it is suggested that his father is dead, a man whom he greatly dislikes.

You know you have OCD when the fact that he took out the trash and didn’t wash his hands was bothering you for 5 minutes.

I think they did a decent job of making him look somewhat scary, at least in comparison to the rest of the males in the show. The way his face and especially eyes are drawn it at least signals the watcher that his features are intended to look intimidating. The most hilarious result of this is the fact that his teacher is terrified of him.

I’m usually a big Hocchan fan but I’m really not sure this is the right casting choice. She’s using her Manabi peppy and energetic voice, and when reading the novels I didn’t get that kind of vibe from Minori. At least, not to that extent. However, she only has a couple of lines so it remains to be seen how it plays out.

Amazing logic

Holy shit that is one ugly bird

One of the more amusing personality traits one could have is the unquenchable urge to clean. For a male lead Ryuuji isn’t particularly bad so far, he’s shown some interesting traits and doesn’t merely let himself get the crap beat out of him constantly. The show is going to earn a lot of comparisons of the Ryuuji/Taiga pair with Saito/Louise and Yuuji/Shana for obvious reasons, but lets hope JCStaff can make the characters have their own unique flavors.

I’m cautiously looking forward to this, because I love the novels but lately JCStaff adaptations of novels have been less than stellar for me. I’m looking forward to how they handle the other characters, especially Ami. Eri Kitamura is voicing her, whose voice I really like (her singing is amazing), and I hope she can pull off a rather complicated character well. Hopefully JCStaff stays away from too many fillers and gets through a good chunk of the source material. There’s definitely a lot of good stuff available for them to use, and I hope they do a solid job so we can get a second season.