Toradora Episode 24

What the heck happened to this series? As you’ve notice from my posts, I took a small break from blogging about anime lately largely because of some time issues and because there were more interesting things happening on the gaming side. So, I’ve been spending the last couple of days catching up.

So last night, I marathoned episodes 22 through 24, skipping the ski trip that was episode 21. When I left this series, the growing feelings between Taiga and Ryuji was become more apparent, leaving Minorin (and to a lesser extent, Ami) conflicted about their feelings about Ryuji.

I’ll be quite up front in that I didn’t enjoy episode 24 very much at all. The episode had a much more serious tone than previous episodes of the anime and the decision made by Ryuji and Taiga about what to do about their feelings left me bewildered and a little loss for words. The rest of this review will have lots of spoilers, so if you don’t want to know what happens in this episode, stop reading here.

*****

Episode 24 begins where episode 23 left off, in the classroom after Taiga gifts each of her friends with chocolate. The gift giving soon dramatically dovetails into a situation where Ryuji and Taiga’s friends force a confession from both of them about their feelings for each other, prompting Taiga to run out of the classroom with Ryuji and Minorin in hot pursuit.

During the course of the chase, Minorin reveals her feelings about Ryuji, saying she’s liked / loved him for a long time but withheld her feelings in deference to her best friend, Taiga. Ryuji and Minorin aren’t successful in catching Taiga, but then have an intimate chat in the school infirmary together. There Minorin reveals her dreams, ambitions and some of the feelings she had hidden. She also tells Ryuji that she’s knows that Ryuji loves Taiga, encouraging him to continue pursuing her.

Ryuji later catches up with Taiga at the cake shop where they’re both part-timers, knowing that Taiga, as responsible as she is, would never run away from a commitment. After an awkward meeting, they talk a little but are soon confronted by their mothers, who had been searching for them.

This is the part of the anime where Ryuji lost a lot of points with me. Yasuko is angry that Ryuji decided to do some part-time work behind his mother’s back and not focus on his studies. Ryuji angrily counters that Yasuko is foisting her dreams and ambitions on her son and that his wants and desires are never taken into consideration. The reaction of Yasuko is pretty heart-breaking as she cries as she’s yelled by her son.

Ryuji explains that he wishes that his mother would rely on him more, and that he desires to contribute more to the household. While I can understand Ryuji’s feelings, it bothers me to no end that he’s belittling not only his mother’s desire to see him do better than life than herself, but also the sacrifices she’s made up to this point. While Yasuko isn’t the smartest person, she realizes her son’s potential and wants to see him make the most of his life. A parental instinct like Yasuko’s isn’t selfish but springs out of a desire to see one’s children be self-sufficient and comfortable. I think it’s rather heartless to simply reduce Yasuko’s desires for Ryuji future as an act of self projection.

Taiga grabs Ryuji’s hand and they run away together from both their mothers. The two talk together again when they’re alone, and the discussion turns to the future they must face.  Comically, Taiga almost ends up killing Ryuji by pushing him off of a railing into freezing water.  While in the water, Ryuji tells Taiga of his intention to run away from home for 2 months until he reaches age 18, and then marry Taiga.

So just like that, the two decide to run away. They stop first at Ami’s house to get some dry clothes and to tell their friends of their intentions. The friends surprisingly don’t stop them and instead gift them with money (Minorin’s life savings), a key to Ami’s villa and train tickets (courtesy of Kitamura). When the two of them leave, you’re left with another scene showing Minorin’s struggle with her conflicted feelings (happy for Taiga, sad that she lost Ryuji to her).

Ryuji and Taiga first go back to their respective homes to gather clothes and other things so they can run away. At his apartment, Ryuji discovers that Yasuko ran away first, leaving him a watch. He meets up with Taiga and they take a train to Ryuji’s grandparent’s house, where Ryuji presents the watch, confirming that he is their grandson. There, to Taiga’s surprise, he presents her as his wife.

This episode was over the top for me for a lot of reasons and there were a number of things that bothered me about it. Ryuji was uncharacteristically a jerk in this episode, both for yelling at his mother and for essentially abandoning the life he had with his mother by running away. Where was the responsible Ryuji that I admired for his self deprecation and kindness? Also, I don’t understand why the only decision that can be made in this situation involves running away. Running away rarely accomplishes anything other than delaying the inevitable and abandoning responsibilities. I understand that the writer was going for a dramatic and romantic twist, but this plot twist went too far and ruined the painstaking work accomplished in the previous episodes of defining the personalities of each of the characters. I have no idea what to expect from either Ryuji and Taiga in the next episode.

The episode also felt rushed. I’m sure I’m losing details that the light novel supplied, and it probably doesn’t help that I’m missing a lot of language subtleties by relying on a fansub for translation. However, I’m just amazed how the episode just rushed from a pursuit by Ryuji to a half-baked plan to run away and get married instead of facing their futures.

I think Toradora jumped the shark with this episode. That’s too bad, because up to this point, it was among one of my favorite animes of all time. I really enjoyed the largely platonic bantering between Taiga and Ryuji and how the anime refused to play to character stereotypes. I’ll check episode 25, but it will take a rather dramatic comeback to restore my faith in this anime.

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