とらドラ！
Toradora! Vol. 03 (manga) 

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SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:  

Taiga is not happy with Ryuuji’s getting close to Ami, so she sicks Minori on him. Ami fights back by implying that Yuusaka hates Taiga, sending her into a depression. Ryuuji has to get Taiga out of her funk and on a trip to the store, they discover Ami trying to disguise her appearance with a bag full of junk food. Taiga gets Minori to help her expose Ami’s diet lies at school, cheering Taiga up considerably.

Taiga and Ryuuji discover the reason Ami quit her successful modeling career when Taiga accidentally discovers a stalker of Ami’s. This results in Taiga allowing Ami to stay at her place and then lording over her. Taiga’s further torment of Ami is thwarted when Yuusaku asks her to get along with Ami and even eat lunch with the girl.

During a school sponsored trash detail, Ami joins up with Taiga, Ryuuji, and Minori and this is just paired off with Ryuuji when Ami and Minori go to pick up trash on their own. When Ami accidentally steps back into a stream, she loses it briefly before trying to return to her fake, cheerful personal. A rain shower causes the two to seek shelter and she tells Ryuuji about her stalker, who happens to show up just as Taiga and Minori show up looking for Ami and Ryuuji in the rain. The stalker starts taking pictures of Taiga, which causes her to attack him and knock the camera out of his hand. Ami sees how Taiga stands up to him and finds the courage to do the same, destroying his camera and crushing his image of her angelic self.

Ami crashes at Ryuuji’s place for a bit to gather herself for a bit and decides that for Ryuuji, she will no longer put up a front. When Ryuuji’s mother arrives with Taiga in tow, they find Ami and Ryuuji in a compromising position. Yasuko gets flustered seeing her son in such a position, even if it is innocent. Taiga and Ami exchange barbs before Ami politely explains things to Yasuko before leaving. Taiga acts weird during dinner and when Ryuuji figures she’s upset with him being with Ami, she gets mad and leaves, but not before accidentally causing the parrot to be out cold.

Thoughts/Review:

I think I mentioned this before, but reading the manga is REALLY making me want to break out my Toradora DVD set.

Anyway, I’m enjoying the continued antagonistic relationship between Ami and Taiga as each scores points on the other. Of course, this volume marks the spot were Ami starts to shift her feelings for Ryuuji from simply taking him away from Ryuuji to something more substantive. It also marks Ami becoming a bit more mature as she faces her fears after seeing Taiga stand up to the stalker.

One thing this volume of the manga brings out much more clearly than I remember the anime doing is revealing (or rather, strongly implying) Yuusaku’s interest in the student council president, Sumire.  The manga lets it be known that Yuusaku has mentioned something to Ami about someone he likes and she’s able to deduce that it is Sumire (as yet, unnamed in the story).  I’ll have to go back and rewatch the anime at some point just to see if Ami’s remarks made in the manga made it into the anime or not.

The funniest moment happened with Taiga striking an attitude after seeing Ami and Ryuuji together in the house, despite her claims otherwise to not caring.  The whole idea of her eating her dinner while watching the “ugly bird” made me laugh.

I’m still not really a fan of Zekkyo-san’s art style.  It works OK, but it just doesn’t seem to be as clean and crisp as I’d like. Just a personal preference.

On the Seven Seas side of the house, the honorifics are retained.  There are a few translator notes, which is better than nothing and the honorifics are explained.  To complete the volume, in addition to ads promoting other Seven Seas titles (which is not a problem at all), there’s a preview of Amazing Agent Jennifer, which is one of Seven Seas OEL titles.

I find it is hard to review the manga properly because having already seen the anime, I can’t engage in my normal speculation because I already know what’s going to happen.  That said, I do really like the manga and as such, I do recommend it to fans of the anime (and the manga is written by the same author of the original light novels).  For folks new to the series, there’s plenty of good here to entertain and possibly entice to watch the anime.