[Kinny Riddle]

Excellent use of a special ED. Kyoto-Animation, watch and learn. If the story demands it, then a special ED is sometimes more appropriate for the mood if your usual ED happens to be awkwardly upbeat.

Anyway, like I said, the turning point of whole story, when Taiga finally realizes her feelings for Ryuji (her feelings for Kitamura not yet settled completely as well), and then to have Minorin see the whole thing, and both end up hurting themselves by trying to shove Ryuji to each other.

Ryuji being the most oblivious of them all ends up in limbo, though subconsciously, he's already made the choice of choosing Taiga over Minorin by choosing to go to Taiga in his Pedo Bear, sorry, Santa Bear suit, so that she wouldn't be alone. Of course, he may try to use Ami's explanation that he's only caring for Taiga like a father, but sooner or later, even this excuse would wear thin, and Ryuji would have to confront this feeling.

Originally Posted by houkoholic

He placed a higher priority to make Taiga happy than the fact that Taiga had set him up a chance to confess to Minorin. Not only did he went to the trouble of playing Santa Bear, but he actually made excuses to reject the chance that Taiga had gave him until Taiga literally booted him out of the apartment. In his heart Taiga is WAY more important than any of the other girls, it's clearly shown in his actions. The only thing he hasn't realised, which Ami clearly sees and pointed out to him (the other reason that Ami's speech last week wasn't about her "wanting another chance" [extremely poor wording on the fansub's part btw], but really showing that she already knew that her opportunity is far gone and the only possible scenario that she could be in the race would've been if she was included in the gang from the beginning, which is of course impossible [no time resets], so she decided to saracfice herself too by helping Taiga/Ryuji/Minorin), is that he is pretending to play father.

Even if Ryuji ends up with Minorin, you can't have a true relationship when Ryuji is going to worry about Taiga being lonely the first thing in his mind. Minorin is quite wise in rejecting Ryuji because while they do like each other, it's clearly shown that Ryuji's true heart is no longer there for Minorin, which you can even see hints of since Taiga's father arc (not to mention they haven't been able to reach the sort of mutual understanding that TaigaXRyuji has).

And that pretty much sums it up.

Poor Ami, she has no chance and she knows it.

And Kitamura? I think he's now content on being the Patron Saint of Broken Hearts, which means Ryuji might need to make an appointment with him soon.

Anyway, this is as far as I've read in the novels, so it's going to be all new territory for me from next week on, but Taiga breaking into tears is definitely the turning point. Now it's all the way to the end, especially now author Takemiya Yuyuko will end the series at volume 10 to coincide with the ending of the anime.

I think it's safe to say Takemiya is a very good writer, if not a great one.

Two thumbs up. I look forward to see how it all ends.

Originally Posted by Bonta Kun

ok this may be quite the "WHOA AWESOME!!!" ep but its also got a huge "WTMFH?!" and that comes in the manner of a certain Kitamura

seriously WTMFH?!!

Originally Posted by SageGaiGar

Yeah so he had the costume *but* forgot the top. Kitamura being.. Kitamura, he decided to simply wear what he had. Hence he is 'nudist Santa'. Really it's pretty damn classic of him to pull something like this, shameless bastard

Originally Posted by Darknemo2000

He is just an exhibitionist.

Not only is Kitamura an exhibitionist, he's also a masochist, as can be seen by him seemingly enjoyed getting abused by Haruta as he toys with his suspenders. lol

(In comparison, while Kitamura is a physical masochist, Ryuji is a mental masochist, in that he happily accepts all the abuse thrown to him by Taiga, all because he cares about her. )