[Vexx]

Spoiler for don't know how many people have seen ep 8 sub yet:

The workaround seems to be that Taiga suddenly wonders WHY she was engaged in this duel. She knew she must attack Ami but she forgets to ask why until partway through the episode and she's not sure of the answer. What is the prize here? The band-aid is that she realizes what is important just as she sees Ryuuji drowning.

Aye, not the cleanest thing in the world and yeah, I'd rather have 48 episodes of ToraDora and let it play out in full technicolor.

But so far -- looking at the anime as a stand-alone storytelling effort: the connecting points in ep 8 seems to just manage to work for the reasons offered.

Its subjective -- it can be argued the other way easily enough.