Episode 10:
Yusaku overhears Ryuji and Taiga’s plan to scare Minori and agrees to help them. Yusaku leads the group into a local cave rigged with ’scary’ traps. While briefly separated from the group, Ami does a psuedo confession to Ryuji and says that she would be best suited to him as an equal compared to Taiga and Minori.
They return soon after when the plan starts to go awry with the disappearance of Minori and Yusaku. Scared out of their wits, Ryuji and Taiga soon find out that they have been played by Minori, who was savvy to their plan the whole time, and her partner in crime Yusaku. Later that evening Ryuji admits to Ami that he likes having her around, and Minori suggests to Ryuji that they go UFO hunting sometime.
Impressions: I liked Minori’s scare reversal plan to turn the tables on Ryuji and Taiga. The hunter becomes the hunted… My only qualm is that it was hard to see much of anything in the cave. Ryuji’s reaction to Ami adjusting her the bow on her swimsuit was absolutely priceless. Whie Ryuji is slowly moving closer to Minori, he’s also getting plenty of brownie points with Ami too. The love triangle will inevitably get more complicated as Ami now enters the fray as a serious contender.
Episode 11:
The school cultural festival is coming up, and Ryuji’s friend Haruta is absolutely ecstatic with thoughts of a cosplay cafe. Haruta’s poor planning backfires on him though, and the class ends up deciding on a pro wrestling skit for the festival. Ami is cast as the hero with Taiga and Ryuji playing the villains.
Meanwhile, Taiga’s father suddenly attempts to come back into her life. Ryuji encourages her to make amends with him despite strong protests from Taiga. She ultimately gives in and decides to give her father another chance.
Impressions: We didn’t get to really see a whole lot of Taiga’s dad, but my initial impression of him was that he looks like a big d-bag. Also, Haruta is the man. He had the right idea but was too stupid to put it in place, so they ended up with a wrestling skit of all things. My favorite scenes had to be Ryuji imagining the palmtop tiger running up Taiga’s flat chest, the teacher having a major mental breakdown in the middle of class and the class discussion of the prizes. Ryuji’s got some daddy issues and it seems to me that he’s trying to live vicariously through Taiga by encouraging her to spend time with him. To close this impression, I can’t be the only one that thought of “other things” when Ryuji pinned Taiga to the door, right? Maybe my mind jumps to those kinds of conclusions way too quickly… Onto the next episode.
Episode 12:
Taiga is spending a lot of time with her father lately and tries to impress him when she asks Ami to switch roles for one showing, so that Taiga can be the hero. When Minori finds out she tries to dissuade Taiga from spending more time with her good-for-nothing father and has an argument with Ryuji in the process. Even Ryuji’s mom has the same sentiment when she had a chance encounter with Taiga’s father on the balcony. Additionally, Ryuji soon finds out that Taiga’s father wants her to move into another apartment, which Taiga later confirms.
The day of the school festival, Taiga tries to get Ryuji and Minori to make amends but the two still refuse to talk to each other. The pro wrestling skit is a smashing success with the whole school but Taiga’s father doesn’t attend for even a single show, leaving our palmtop tiger heartbroken.
Impressions: The wrestling skit was so bad that it was good and ended up being funny. Taiga’s deadbeat dad not showing up was a foregone conclusion, and he’ll no doubt have a lame brain excuse for not showing up to watch the show. Ami is a pretty slick customer and has quickly become the frontrunner for Ryuji at this point in time, though Ryuji will eventually apologize to Minori and get even closer to her. My favorite scene from this ep is tied between bald, eyepatch Minori asking the audience to lend their power to Ami and the class teacher having a meltdown during the middle of the show and getting carted off. So next week, more of Taiga’s deadbeat dad.
PS: Didn’t feel like captioning all these pictures, but they will return in the next synopsis.
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