neko's thinkbox

Do I see some tears there?

ITT: derederederedere

So… I ended up writing a summary after all. God, that’s what happens when I remove my restraints. Not going to let these lines go to waste, though.

Ouchies.

Ryuuji, now in the role of Taiga’s dog, tries to help her getting close to Yuusaku (while trying to approach Minori as well), but their plans all fail horribly. And as if that wasn’t enough, their tagging together gives birth to a rumor that they are, in fact, a couple. It went as far as they’ve been severely misunderstood by their respective targets, Minori and Yuusaku, who gave them their approval and blessings. Both Taiga and Ryuuji are devastated.

In the evening, Taiga lets off her steam at a light pole, and confesses to Ryuuji about her inferiority complex, about how she is always misunderstood by anyone. The way she despairs over it, she’d almost make good yandere material!
Ryuuji, feeling the same, joins her in her rage until the pole is slanted. Usually she would rebut that kind of sympathy from him, but this time she feels cheered up by him. MUKATSUKUNJAAAA! Epic stuff. With this, she decides to relieve Ryuuji from his duties as her servant dog, and resolves to confess to Kitamura the next day.

MUKATSUKUNJAAAAAAAAI

By the time Ryuuji arrives in school, he bumps into Taiga who doesn’t address him a word. Because of the misunderstanding on the roof on the previous day, she created a huge mess in the classroom to clear all the rumors about her and Ryuuji being a pair. Ryuuji goes after her, and finds her confessing to Yuusaku. Taiga does very badly, and even goes as far as giving full credit to Ryuuji for having given her the courage to confess. Yuusaku agrees that his presence has had a positive effect on her, and YES, he amicably rejects Taiga. What a dork. One year after she had rejected him, too!

Ryuuji comes to comfort her immediately, spouting stupid things like “I am a Dragon, you are a Tiger, we are destined to be together!”. And he also calls her by her first name. Taiga snaps out of her emo mode and returns to her tsundere self, obviously happy that Ryuuji still sticks to her.

Rejected.

ORE WA DRAGON!

deredere :’(

And here I thought it would follow the manga closely, but it skipped into chapters 9 and 10, which I found very fast. I’d have liked to see more of their failed tactics to conquer their targets. Taiga’s kicking the pole was much more emotional in the manga than in the anime, and she also injured herself so Ryuuji let her ride on his back. Her emotions and problems feel kind of… trivial in the anime. At least the music compensates for the shallowness.

Why did Ryuuji leave the classroom in the end. In the manga he goes to the toilet, from where he sees Taiga confessing to Yuusaku outside. But here, he has no real reason to leave, has he? Why would he just ignore Minori and walk away… weird. Also the “dragon” bit makes more sense in the manga: during the first clash when Taiga hits him, Ryuuji notices that he is wearing a t-shirt with a dragon. Mentioning it the anime out of the blue is also weird.

RAGEEE!

…see, that’s why I hate spoiling myself on the manga/novel before watching the anime. I keep comparing and complaining about (the bad) discrepancies. “What would I think if I never had read the manga before?” is now the opposite question of “What if I had read it?”. Bah, too late anyway.

But on the other hand, it may be for the best that they’ve concluded the confession part. I feel that with this, they set the foundation of the anime, (scarcely) introduced the characters and all, and now they will have a lot more freedom about the future content, which may or may not include stories from the novel. The end might be the same, but the path until then might vary greatly.

The opening looks really well-done! Great visuals, I love it (even though the song feels a little unfitting at first, I’d have imagined something more lively). There are also more screens of Ami Kawashima, whom I don’t know yet. Looks real cute, though. But I still maintain my preference, Minori is fukken cute and funny.

Minorin, hug me too! :(

wtf@guy in background

She’s so dramatic.

And I like her more than Taiga (overrated Kugyuu or not). My dibs on her in this series, k.

I have a lot of hopes for the next episodes. I want TAIGAROLLS!

BTW, that parrot is hilarious.

What a stupid bird.