とらドラ！
Toradora! Vol. 05 (manga) 

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***SPOILERS***

Highlights from this volume start with Ryuuji preparing dinner for the group at Ami’s summer residence. After Ryuuji and Minori clean up the dishes, they have some ice cream desserts on the deck and chat about love and the supernatural. That night, Taiga and Ryuuji hang out to discuss their plans to scare Minori as a plan to get her closer to Ryuuji, leading Yuusaku to join them, after which he ropes in Ami, who is resistant until Taiga uses her blackmail trump card. The following day, Ami wants to know why Ryuuji is so keen on scaring Minori, but he refuses to tell her, irritating her. The trip to the cave where they plan to scare Minori starts, with Minori acting scared, but though it seems cheesy at first, it quickly becomes very scary for Ryuuji and Ami, who get separated from the others. Again, Ami tries to get Ryuuji to tell her why he’s so keen to go through this for Minori, but he won’t say. As such, Ami reveals she realizes Ryuuji likes Minori, but says that he’ll burn up in her light. As such, Ami offers herself as a better choice.

The two manage to find Taiga, Minori, and Yuusaku, but then Minori and Yuusaku disappear and the frights for the remaining three start. Minori and Yuusaku return to reveal that Minori had turned the tables on Taiga and Ryuuji, Minori having figured out what was going on. That night, Minori and Ryuuji have another chat about things, including Ryuuji’s reasons for wanting to scare her and a continuation of their earlier conversation before watching the fireworks. Finally, Taiga goes with Ami, Maya, and Nanami to have her nails done, followed by a girl’s evening at Taiga’s apartment.

I recall when the anime got to this point in the plot, I really started liking it a lot more. For starters, we got that really nice chats between Minori and Ryuuji which on the surface was about ghosts and stuff, but was actually about love and romance.

Second, we start to see that Ami really is starting to develop feelings for Ryuuji.  After all, he’s the only guy who’s not affected by her charms (though the manga shows that he is aware of them), thus he becomes more interesting to her because he’s a challenge — he is friendly to her but doesn’t fawn over her. Plus, Ryuuji understands her in a way no one else would, spotting that despite her popularity, Ami is in fact a lonely girl.

As an aside, it is interesting that episode 9 of the anime had Minori act VERY differently about Yuusaku’s towel incident than she did in the manga.

Also, I liked the night scene on the couch between Taiga and Ryuuji better in the anime because Ryuuji sat on the floor in front of Taiga as she put her feet on his back. It gave a much more intimate feel than the manga did.

On the Seven Seas side of things, the Japanese honorifics are retained (YAY!), as is standard for them. No translator notes (unless there were some between panels), which is always a bummer for me. I’m not sure why so many people apparently don’t care about those. I’ve always found them very interesting and educational. The only extra is a preview of Girl Friends.

Reading the manga always makes me want to watch the anime again, and I may have to do that sometime.  The manga is nice to have for when I need a dose of Toradora!, but don’t have the ability to watch the anime.