とらドラ！
Toradora! Vol. 07 (manga)
Toradora! Manga Volume 07

***SPOILERS***

Highlights from this volume start with Taiga getting angry over her father ditching her performance at school. Ryuuji and Minori work hard to win the right to put the festival crown on Taiga’s head. In the process, Ryuuji and Minori make up after their earlier fight regarding Taiga’s father as Yuusaku asks for a dance from Taiga. After the festival, everyone vies for photos taken from the event while unbeknownst to his friends Yuusaku hears bad news that really shakes him up.

Yuusaku quits the student council and dyes his hair blonde, causing trouble at school. Ami and Ryuuji are summoned to the principle’s office, but they can shed no light on Yuusaku’s change of attitude. Ami confronts student council president Sumire over this as Yuusaku continues to rebel and runs away from home to Ryuuji’s home. Ryuuji’s mother Yasuko attempts an intervention, but Yuusaku runs away. Taiga and Ryuuji hatch a plan to snap Yuusaku out of it as Taiga registers to run for student council president, where she plans to make everyone’s lives hell. Yuusaku confesses the reasons behind his actions to Ryuuji.

Man, we had to wait over a year for this volume to come out, though I believe the fault lay in

Every time I read one of these manga volumes, I’m suddenly desirous to rewatch the anime series again. I’m really going to have to do that sometime…assuming I ever can make the time.

As to this volume, it was sad that Taiga’s father abandoned her, but Taiga recovered in typical fashion.

Although there had been hints there was a person Yuusaku was attracted to, I think this is the first time that Sumire actually shows up in the manga (at least, in any way more than a cameo). I was reminded by her sudden importance in the manga of how jarring her appearance had been in the anime to me. It is kind of unfortunate that she wasn’t properly seeded in the story, but it is only a small issue.

Yuusaku’s rebellion is both intriguing and humorous in ways. It doesn’t have all of the angst normally associated with such acts, though Yuusaku does exhibit angst behaviors at times. It still is amusing to me how Yasuko, Ryuuji, Taiga, and Ami attempted to do an intervention and dye Yuusaku’s hair back to black.

As to Taiga’s campaign to become student council president, it is pretty humorous in the manga, but there were things in the anime version that made it funnier, including Ryuuji and Taiga putting up posters of the vicious looking Taiga giving a thumbs down to everyone.

On the Seven Seas side of things, we get the usual Japanese honorifics throughout and no translator notes. There are a couple of color pages at the start of the manga. There is a preview of the manga Evergreen, which appears to be an original manga written by Toradora‘s Takemiya-sensei (and illustrated by KASUKABE Akira).  It looks like it might be somewhat interesting, and I did like Toradora a lot.

In the end, this was an enjoyable volume that introduces a new character in order for Yuusaku to have his own unrequited love.