とらドラ！
Toradora! Vol. 06 (manga)
Toradora! Manga Volume 06

–> Purchase from RAKUTEN (formerly BUY.COM)
–> Purchase from BARNES & NOBLE
–> Purchase from RIGHTSTUF!

***SPOILERS***

Highlights from this volume start with the class deciding to do a pro-wrestling show for the school festival. Taiga’s father attempts to reconcile with Taiga, but since she wants nothing to do with him, Ryuuji acts as intermediary. As the class prepares for the festival, Ryuuji convinces Taiga to meet with her father, though she is only doing it for Ryuuji. She begins having dinner with him every night, but when Minori learns of this, she gets angry, leading to a fight between her and Ryuuji. Ryuuji is angry by this, so Ami comes by and has a chat with him.

For the class’s first performance, Ryuuji and Taiga play the wrestling villains for the show, as originally scripted with Ami playing the damsel in distress. After they take a break, Taiga reveals that her father hasn’t answered her attempts to contact him even though he’s supposed to be attending the festival. Ami helps Taiga dress up for the role of heroine for the next show that her father will see. The show starts with Ami being the villain this time. Ryuuji gets a message from Taiga’s father saying he won’t come. Ryuuji hates himself for believing Taiga’s father and not believing Minori or Taiga at the beginning.

As I said before, reading the manga always makes me want to watch the anime again.

Anyway, the story does an interesting thing when it comes to Taiga’s father. Ryuuji can’t understand why Taiga hates him so much, more so after he meets the man. It makes sense that Ryuuji would want Taiga to reconcile with her father since Ryuuji’s father is dead.

Of course, the truly sick thing about Taiga’s father is that he’s not really interested in Taiga.  If he were, he would have put her first and made it to her performance. Even if there was an emergency, he should have told her directly. But instead, he hides behind Ryuuji and says that the living arrangements of Taiga living apart in the apartment will remain in effect.

Obviously, having watched the anime, I know what happens from here, but nevertheless, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Taiga as she emerged in her dress on stage, wanting to do this performance for her father.

I enjoy the evolution of Ami’s character as she serves a role in helping both Ryuuji and Taiga. I think this is why I started liking her character so much. She still has the same artificial front she puts on for others, but now that she’s warming up as friends to Ryuuji and Taiga, she’s being true to herself.

On the Seven Seas side of things, the usual Japanese honorifics survive. Also as usual, there are no translator notes. There are a couple of color pages at the front, including a clean image of the front cover. There are two, 4-koma strips here and a page on how to draw Taiga. There are two single page previews for two other Takemiya-sensei works.

Story-wise, while there may not have been a huge push forward in what happens, there are a lot of interesting things that happen to make it a good volume.