とらドラ！Episode 02
Toradora! 02

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Taiga is having breakfast at Ryuuji’s place, his mother having let her in. On the way to school, they meet up with Minori, who’s surprised to see them together. Taiga assures Minori that her being with Ryuuji was just a coincidence and she gives Ryuuji a look, meaning Ryuuji has to do his part to help Taiga win over Yuusaku if Ryuuji wants to be with Minori. So in gym class, Taiga and Ryuuji partner up for basketball tossing, planning to use this to get close to their intendeds, but the plan fails and Taiga gets beaned with a basketball. Next, Taiga tries making cookies in Home Economics class to give to Yuusaku, but Yuusaka isn’t back in their home room class. When Taiga and Ryuuji try to catch him, Taiga falls and in the process, the cookies are destroyed. To make her feel better, Ryuuji eats them anyway.

With Ryuuji and Taiga being seen together so much, the rumor starts that these tough students are now a couple. As such, Minori drags the two of them to the roof, where she asks Ryuuji to treat Taiga well since Taiga is her best friend. She also threatens Ryuuji not to make Taiga cry. This is also witnessed by Yuusaku, who congratulates the new couple. Stunned, Ryuuji and Taiga go sit in a restaurant for a while before heading home. There, Taiga lets out her frustrations on a light pole. She’s angry because people won’t listen to her, including her parents, which is why Taiga moved into that apartment on her own. Ryuuji joins her in kicking the poll and Taiga feels better. She promises to not only confess to Yuusaku, but make things right with the class. As such, Taiga and Ryuuji will now just be classmates in the same neighborhood.

The next morning, Ryuuji’s mother is disappointed that Taiga isn’t there. At school, Taiga blows off Ryuuji’s greeting and when Ryuuji enters his classroom, he finds it a disaster area with the students cowering in a corner. They apologize to Ryuuji for thinking him a Yankee and thinking he’s dating Taiga. Ryuuji decides to check on Taiga and exiting from a 2nd-story door, he sees Taiga and Yuusaku below. Ryuuji hides and overhears Taiga attempting to confess. Yuusaku knows what she’s trying to do and learns that Taiga is not dating Ryuuji, but she doesn’t hate him either. In the end, Yuusaku wants to be friends. After he leaves, Ryuuji comes down. Taiga is going to skip the rest of the day, so Ryuuji decides to join her, promising to make her a meal and declaring he’ll stand by her. She promises she won’t give up on Yuusaku. She’s hungry so she wants Ryuuji to keep his promise and work his tail off for her. Quietly, she’s pleased that Ryuuji called her “Taiga” instead of her family name “Aisaka.”

Thoughts/Review:

The way this episode just suddenly jumped into things made me almost think that I had missed an episode or something. Its hard to know what to say. While I remain interested enough to want to keep watching, I’m not seeing anything really special. Its pretty clear that the couple will be Taiga and Ryuuji rather than their intendeds. I’m not sure if more plans will be created to fail for Taiga and Ryuuji to hook up with the people they like or not, but if that’s how the anime goes, I’m not going to be that interested.

I guess the one thing that did surprise me was Taiga already confessing her feelings for Yuusaku so soon. I didn’t actually expect that to happen, so kudos there.

Beyond that, I’m struggling to find something to say about this anime and so far, I’m coming up with nothing. It appears to be a standard tsundere romantic comedy, though the comedy hasn’t really grabbed me yet and the romantic part seems ultra predictable. I’m just interested enough to want to see more, but that’s it.