Well, at least they didn’t involve chocolate cornets.

Impressions:

Well, it’s better than I remember the show, but I don’t have particularly good memories of it. Mainly because the second half was almost nothing but horrible melodrama sucking every tiny bit of fun out of the show until a remarkably bad ending. What happened, JC Staff? You used to be aces with your specials, even when the show itself was awful. It was a little better than JC Staff’s Aria special, I guess, in that it was at least occasionally funny and they actually put some effort into the animation here. The baseline for Toradora and its characters, even with all its awful drama and nonsense is a bit higher than Aria too.

Then again, it was about 23 minutes of them futzing around with food and cooking because Yuusaku’s grandmother made him a crazy boxed lunch. Like Aria’s special, this could’ve passed as generic completely nondescript filler in the actual show itself. I think I liked the DVD specials with them dressed as random animal creatures extolling the glory of pudding more. They were also only a few minutes long each instead of 23 minutes on how to make a good boxed lunch with the wackiest thing being hiding a rice cooker in the classroom. Well, not counting the attempts at English. That hurt my brain. 

Okay, I think that’s everything for today. At least… I hope. I don’t know how much more I can take. At least Bridge to Ayumu’s OVA tomorrow looks like it has the right idea for these throwaway specials.

I wanted more bunnies…

Impressions:

Continuing the week(end) of OVAs brings us the third ToraDora DVD special, this time exploring the wonders of curry. I’m sad that we didn’t get more of the bunny girl teacher (I’ve forgotten her name), and sadly, she really didn’t add too much. Ryuuji and Minori railed ever onward about the wonder of curry as has becoe usual for this specials. Ryuuji hugging himself and moaning while all the girls’ heads shook at his crotch level was a bit more disturbing than I’m sure it was meant to be. "Today’s Inko" was as amusing as it always has been. Maguro-maguro-maguro-maguromaguro-maguro… kuri manju!

Shut up, Rie!

Impressions:

I’m already of mixed feelings about sitting down and checking this out, and I haven’t even started watching it yet. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the ending, and spending the last 5 hours integrating (and bugfixing…) BMW’s surprise early release has sort of been slowly driving me insane and hating much of the world, but I’ve only sworn a blood oath to destroy Werk… so far as yet.

…

And then here comes this DVD special, with Rie screaming in her irritating loli voice about pudding for four straight minutes. The Inko portion at the end was sweet release from her incessant shrill banshee whine. I have no problems with her when she’s speaking like a normal person, but this was pretty bad. The entire little episode wasn’t nearly as amusing as the first one anyway since they basically just recycled all the jokes, only using pudding this time. Minori’s weird facial expressions in the middle were easily the highlight.

And now I’ve realized that I’m not watching a single show with a shrieking loli Rie in it this season. Wow. That was like instant medicine for my ears and my brain.

I need my beauty sleep now. Badly, apparently.

Well, at least it wasn’t into more wreckage.

Impressions:

*sigh* What are we going to do with you, ToraDora? After completely blowing the climax last episode, I’m not even sure how or where they should be going on this point. On one hand, I’m glad that they wrapped up the really stupid Yasuko subplot within the first 4 minutes, but on the other hand, that just drove home how trivial and totally machinated it was in the scheme of things. If they had spent more than a grand total of 7 minutes on it, I’m sure it would have at least felt at least somewhat more fitting instead of shoehorned in at the last minute. They could have seriously skipped it entirely and we wouldn’t have lost anything except a ponytail scrunchy.

The Taiga/Ryuuji makeout scene also made me laugh instead of feeling whatever warm and bubbly feeling it was supposed to represent, probably because we already passed that revelation. First a little quick unromantic peck. Then another. Then a round a tonsil hockey more fitting for low end pornography or the backseat of a prom limo. I’m pretty sure it progressed from there to a bout of fumbling OCD Ryuuji/clumsy Taiga sex pan up and fade to white.

Well, whatever. It was about as good as they could have done given the absolute disaster of the previous episode. The music was especially nice through the episode and very fitting for the ritalin they apparently pumped into the water for the cast. Then again, I think the only way they could have made things worse was by announcing that Yasuko was pregnant with Inko’s baby. Although… nah… it’d never work. Where would they get enough burlap?

Also… holy crap, that looks painful.

Final thoughts at the bottom.

Final Thoughts:

ToraDora really excelled at the first 1/2 of stories. It introduced likeable characters who were long on charm and confident in their interactions. Unfortunately, it was by and large terrible at leveraging that into decent stories. It hit its peak around the beach episodes, and after that everything got drowned in a sea of angst. All the charm and confidence was replaced by sad girls (and yes, I’m including Kitamura as a girl) being sad. Some characters didn’t even have a particular story or even resolution attached to them. Ami just did some freeform goth poetry at Ryuuji for a bit and that was the end of that.

Even that could have been forgiveable if they hadn’t flubbed the big moment. The confession/first kiss/balcony scene is the big payoff, the final solution, the money shot of a romantic story. It is supposed to be when all those pent up feelings that they’ve gently attempted to stroke and caress out of you for the past 20 episodes well up and then burst out in a sticky blubbering emotional wetness all over a very poorly conceived metaphor. Instead, it was distracted by a subplot created and brought to its conclusion over less than the length of a single episode and destroyed even further by skipping the pink hearts, soft music, and tender looks for a business-like proposal devoid of even the ugliest cherub tooting a bent horn. The sudden understated marriage is practicually a standard joke in comedies, not as the big romantic moment.

So where does that leave us? Production was rather haphazard throughout, although the music (aside from Silky Heart) was consistently good, the ending was rushed and rather painful, and naked Kitamura flopping onto Ryuuji is probably the lasting image I’ll have of the final episode. Shame on you all for doubting the proper Kitamura ending… AT ANY COST. If they had managed to keep the charm of the first half of the series, then this would have turned out so much better. Unfortunately, every character became an introvert and lost all that confidence that made them fun to watch in the first place, and all we got for it was… well… a half naked Kitamura. Not something you want to take to the bank, even in Amsterdam. It all depends on whether or not you believe that the inertia of the first half is enough to outweigh the endless angst and hamhanded writing of the second. C’est la vie.

We’re going to Vegas!

Impressions:

Well, that was painfully machinated, stupid, poorly written, and a slew of other things I’d like to say but would involve a number of less kind epithets directed at whoever was in charge of writing this mess. They went from "I’m so horrified of admitting that I like him that I’m in a frantic panic" to "we should run away together and get married" over the course of 5 minutes, most of which they weren’t even with each other. Meanwhile, all their friends think that this is just a dandy idea. It’s like this episode took place in some kind of bizarre continuum where Taiga and Ryuuji had been dating all along, but been kept apart by their evil Montague and Capulet families. They can’t even maintain eye contact with each other, let alone kiss. Apparenty marriage is relationship 1st base in Japan. Makes me seriously fear what ToraDora considers 3rd base. A Cleveland Steamer?

Let’s not stop with the bile there. Ryuuji’s argument with Yasuko was just plain awful. She’s fine for scolding him for lying to her. His counter argument on the other hand… How dare you want me to go to college… just like every single other person in the show thinks I should? That’s what you want. I want to be a dock worker. Or a coal miner. Or a manwhore. Also, I bet you wish I was never born. Where the hell did that nonsense even come from? The Book of Generic Teenage Rants? It didn’t even make an iota of goddamned sense. How dare you take an extra job for me, you hateful wretch. How dare you believe me when I lie to you about what I want.

Ugh. Enough. If you need me, I’ll be pacing in the angry dome. Literally fewer than 10 minutes of show passed between "Taiga thinks that Kitamura saved her" and "Taiga and Ryuuji are running away from home to get married." Just… what the bloody hell?

Preview:

Meanwhile, back in Verona…

There were a lot of shoes this episode.

Impressions:

The end of this episode was so surreal. I think Horie Yui was channeling the combined irritation of every person who has ever expressed any kind of annoyance at all this pussyfooting around crap. And then they shifted into the low art/high(er) animation style for extra dramatic rolling around the classroom and yelling. My main issue with it is that it seriously just came out of absolutely nowhere. Minori learned that Ryuuji and Taiga hadn’t cleared things up about the whole skiing incident, and after a moment or two of looking stunned, went completely ballistic at both of them while Kitamura and Ami guarded the doors with smiles on their faces. It just felt a little too mannufactured to me… like it could have easily happened at any of five or six times through the season, but they just picked this one because the show’s about over. If they had spent a little more time building up to it instead of Taiga and Ryuuji’s relatively meaningless part time adventures, or had it come off of more than one little comment (okay, and the gushing adulation that followed), I would have been a lot happier with how it was handled.

Most of the rest was just more of Ryuuji’s oedipus complex and pointing out that Taiga’s like his mom, only less likely to be used as a flotation device in the event of a water landing. Yasuko gets sick, so he and Taiga go find a part time job. There was some pretty hardcore handholding along the way, but that was mostly to prevent Ryuuji from wandering into the street without looking because the 24 hour flu is ALL MY FAULT OH GOD WHAT WAS I THINKING I WAS AN ARROGANT FOOL. Honestly, it’s amazing that Ryuuji’s survived this long if he throws himself into traffic every time Yasuko gets a fever.

Preview:

Still pulling for the Kitamura ending.

I’m not judging you, Ryuuji.

Impressions:

A tremendously uneventful episode. Ryuuji thought about how great Taiga was and… that’s seriously about it. Ami and Minori hashed it out some more about doing things properly from here on out, but since both of them are all but out of the picture on that front, it holds about as much dramatic impact as… oh… I don’t know… Paris and Mercutio arguing over who gets Juliet. Yes, given that Taiga has gotten into more fights, she gets to be Romeo. Ryuuji’s practically a housewife anyway.

A lot of the episode was focused on Ryuuji being conflicted over what he’s going to do after high school and how it affects Yasuko, but considering that the show’s not going to make it that far, I have a hard time caring about that either. He could decide to become a Swiss Milkmaid in the Antarctic Circle in order to harvest delicious penguins and it wouldn’t have any significant impact on the core of the story here, except that it would make the inevitable Kitamura ending somewhat more fitting. 

I’d say that I’m disappointed in Taiga remembering her confession as a dream, but honestly, it’s better than the amnesia that I was expecting. I’ll take half the loaf over none at all. Minori teasing Ami was a little fun, but extremely out of character for Ami. I thought she was just screwing around with Minori as some sarcastic joke. I mean… seriously… the haunted vending machine corner? And from Minori? Why would she… no… why would anybody trust anything Minori’s got to say, especially when it comes to random rumors?

At any rate, we’re certainly past the honeymoon of the series and into the "stretch things along until the end" phase. Ryuuji was head over heels for Taiga during their entire interaction, and she’s well aware that she likes him back. Too bad there are still 3 episodes left because we could honestly wrap everything up at this point in one.

Preview:

Back to work.

There’s no crying in skiing!

Impressions:

Well, that was a packed episode. Ryuuji all but decided to give up on Minori, two different sets of people nearly came to blows, and Taiga confessed her love for Ryuuji. Granted, in a feverish hallucination, so I’m sure the writers will have no problem tossing up amnesia and just letting Ryuuji angst over the entire cast wanting his junk. I’m betting he goes with the Kitamura ending anyway. Some of it was fun, but most of it was angst and bad skiing. If they’re such good skiiers, why weren’t they on parabolics? THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR MY SKIING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF.

Anyway, I found it amusing the amount of damage Minori and Ami were able to do to each other while wearing thick gloves and heavy jackets. I don’t think the animators realize that those things are… thick gloves and heavy jackets. It’s an effort to even move in that crap, let alone in heel deep snow, let alone fight. At least they’re pretty clearly going to have a real ending here though, even if we’re still in the "amnesia’s totally a useful plot device to string thing along" phase. At least they’re still keeping a little bit of silliness as the angst reaches monumental levels for just about the entire cast.

Oh yeah, and don’t forget to give Totali crap for refusing to watch the Toradora DVD special.

Brief Summary:

After running over Ryuuji, Taiga and he discuss their lack of relationship progress on the trip. Kihara and Second Banana #2 get into an argument over her sticking to Kitamura that ends with Kihara in tears. Later, Ryuuji and Minori try to get away from all the angst, but after Ryuuji sees Minori wearing the hairpin he made her (delivered from Taiga) along with Minori’s semi-inane rantings, he wonders again to himself whether a relationship with Minori really is possible. As he angsts it up in his room, the stooges pop in to harass him. He ends up telling them that he likes Minori and they decide to help him out and head off to the girls’ room.

Nobody’s there, so… of course… they start rooting through their girly things like creepy perverts. They hear someone coming and flee into the closet. It’s Taiga, who spills some soda, mops it up, and then uses the same towel to dry her hair. She hears Ryuuji freak out about that from the closet and goes to investigate. When the other girls approach, the guys drag her into the closet and keep her quiet. The other girls idly chatter for a little bit, but then Ami can’t resist twisting the knife in Minori and tells the others that Minori likes Ryuuji. Minori clams up completely. She keeps pushing and pushing after Minori says that Ami’s not involved until they almost come to blows. The other two make them apologize to each other before leaving to find Taiga, letting the guys escape.

The next day, Ami’s moping by herself, so Ryuuji goes to talk to her. The talk is brief because Taiga and Minori crash into Ami on their sled. They try to apologize, but Ami is livid and yells at Minori for always getting in the way between her and Ryuuji. The two eventually start fighting (keep in mind that they’re still wearing mittens) and need to be dragged off each other. In the melee, Minori’s hairpin goes flying and Taiga runs off to find it.

Later, Taiga’s still missing and the weather’s gotten worse. Since the cops won’t be here soon, some of them go out to find her. Minori finds her tracks, but Ryuuji sees the hairpin stuck in a tree and realizes what happened. He holds Minori back and goes after Taiga himself. He finds her facedown in a snowdrift and starts carrying her back. She mumbles to herself, thinking that she’s talking to Kitamura, and apologizes to him, saying that she loves Ryuuji.

Preview:

Career prep.

JCStaff has the best DVD extras.

Impressions:

With the second DVD release of ToraDora! comes ToraDora SOS!, chibified cosplaying versions of the characters doing strange things. While the parody is quite a bit less than the Shana-tan or Index-tan specials, they do ramp up the weirdness and the cuteness. Ryuuji just about wet himself when given a seat across from Minori and Ami makes the cutest little puppy imaginable. Best of all, Inko had more screen time than Kitamura, though 20 seconds of watching him thrash about just to say "panties" did make my mind slowly turn to a darker place where Cthulu seems natural. Watching this at 2am probably didn’t help that either.

It’s only five minutes long, and probably something that JCStaff threw together in a weekend to make fun of Kadokawa. I support them in this endevor, but must admit that I’d watch puppy Ami any day of the week. On the other hand, it just reminds me how awesome of a job JCStaff does with being downright adorable when they want to. Maybe one day we’ll get that proper Mahoraba ending or a second season of Potemayo.

The Penis game is way more awesome for school bus trips than freakin’ Shiratori.

Impressions:

Well, on one hand, the angst level of this episode was down about 14 notches, so that made things quite a bit more enjoyable to watch for most of the episode. On the other hand, it seemed like the way they’ve decided to go forward is to have Ryuuji and Minori pretend like her shooting him down just didn’t happen at all. The only important thing of note that happened this episode was Taiga deciding to cut Ryuuji loose from taking care of her… which is somewhat ridiculous since they still end up together half the time because they’re neighbors and both want a slice of Kitamura pie.

I was still pleased with this episode though, because it had something that this show has been lacking for a couple weeks and the reason why I liked it to begin with: fun. Minori was silly, Ami was playful (mostly) as well as extra hot in her 80s frazzled hairbun-ponytail, teach was crazy, and lackey #01 repeatedly and forcefully explored his femininity in addition to harassing Taiga by making her say ‘penis.’ I certainly wouldn’t mind in the least if they kept the silliness up and the angst low for the remainder of the run, but I’m not taking any sucker bets here.

Preview:

A school ski trip is such a liability lawsuit waiting to happen.