And with this Minorin solidifies her status as the best character in the entire show.
Hat’s off to J.C Staff for coming up with some wonderfully weird animation for Ryuuji’s Sprint of Love. The eventual actions of Taiga’s father were sadly predictable, but I didn’t expect him to be that cold. Texting your daughter’s friend to say you can’t live with her after giving a generic excuse of “something came up”? Just… ugh. It was so saddening to see Taiga stand on stage with this look on her face. But then again, perhaps such depressing shots and terrible comedy (a faceplant after that humiliation?Really? That’s just low…) were necessary to make the epic race truly epic. (Anyone else get DMC vibes from Taiga’s outburst? “Fathers should be chopped up and thrown into a morgue” is definitely something O-Krauser-sama would say).
(Further aside: Anyone got an idea what any of that suitcase bit was about? And I mean “bit” as in “sketch”, because other than that I cannot for the life of me figure out its significance. Or maybe it has no significance and I’m just overthinking it. Or maybe it was Taiga’s trick as she was in a beauty pageant. Whatever.)
Seeing Ryuuji finally living up to his delinquent persona for all the right reasons was great, but he could not compare to the consistently shining star of Minorin. Though the dialogue was a bit clunky at times, the feelings of the two were conveyed so fantastcially through their actions that such minor details were barely apparent. Taiga’s reaction says it all. We all know that she’s a strong gal and that she can take many-a-hit and keep on going but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t need the support of her friends at times. It’s not that they don’t need to, but that they wish to and will will never stop wishing to help her that makes their bond so special. That and Minorin’s secretly a lesbian.
It was nice to get a few words from the president, since she’s been relegated to the background since her appearance in the series. Hopefully she won’t just disappear into obscurity now either.
Overall, a wonderfully heartfelt episode which continues to demonstrate that Toradora’s not as two-dimensional as it may seem at first. Can’t wait for the secons half; who would’ve thunk that we’d get two seasons of Minowin?
OH GOD HURT ME AMI-CHAN.
I mean, cute.
Grand Punk Railroad 
I noticed Studio 4°C showed up in the credits for this episode. ( I look at credits even though I don’t know any Japanese, so English words stick out.) They could have been helped with the weird animation during the race.
Yes, this episode was awesome. I don’t think there was any special significance to the Taiga-in-a-bag thing except that it showed she was able to rebound quickly from the disappointment about her dad and take the attention off it with a party trick. Either that or she’s training for the circus… with Ami as ringmaster.
I was quite worried for a while, since the whole (WONDERFUL) episode smelled strongly of Last Episode Wrap-up – thank God there’s more.
I thought that the suitcase trick was something that Taiga (or maybe even Ami?) came up with to advertise Taiga’s chibi appeal – like the Haruhi imouto-in-a-bag meme. I’d like to see it become standard in pageants.
This episode was seriously full of win. And yes, Minorin’s my fav character in Toradora lol.
p.s Ami gets the best costume award.
p.p. suits her personality
You got the good parts right. I’m really delightfully pleased with this show. Whenever I think it can’t or shouldn’t be able to get better, it just wows me.
I cried, and now I’m full of the awesomeness of Ryuuji. If only Gundam pilots were as badass.
the episode is a win! yay! for ryuuji! i’m actually starting to like minorn – in 13 short episode ^^ the race was awesome!
Great episode overall, and great finish from Minorin – too bad there wasn’t a lot of her in this one.
>Anyone else get DMC vibes from Taiga’s outburst?
Me too, hohoho. Ami’s performance in this ep also made my respect for her go up a notch. She could punish me anytime.
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@thenullset
That would explain it. After having seen their work on Mind Game, this is noticeably tame in comparison. Although we wouldn’t want to go too crazy with ANGRY RYUUJI no would we?
@LBrevis
Hehe, Ami be the Lion-tamer. Lions and Taigas are the same thing IMO.
@ojisan
An interesting
fetishidea you have.@Legionarian Conquistadorz
I’m sorry, I can barely get past how awesome your name is to read your comment.
@ghostlightning
I’m sure out of hundreds of pilots you’ve seen there’s at least one that’s better than Ryuuji. Then again, from the brief glimpses I’ve had of Gundam 00, maybe not…
@biankita
You spelt her name wrong! Blasphemer! I sentence you to 100 Minorin MADs.
@Diego
From what you said on your blog, I highly doubt your honesty here 😛
@schneider
Tru dat, my friend, true dat.