(L) Toradora! Novel Discussion

[Vexx]

typhon said "WILL" mess it up. He's figuring that JC Staff will trainwreck it somehow before the series is over.

It is not entirely an offbase bet ... many anime productions do manage to show that their writing staff are mediocre or just flat unskilled at creating their own material or in constructing interstitial material to link source material segments. Some wreck the endings in terms of satisfaction to the viewer.

In this case, the staff has SO FAR done an *interesting* job of compressing the introductory material and getting to what may be the more compelling stuff (depending on who is asked) --- but the future is always chancy

[roan]

I vaguely remember hearing the series composition person saying that the anime will go in a different direction (could have just been referring to the original episods though).

Volume 9 would be a really bad place to end the anime and at this point in production, it'd be a hard to incorporate volume 10 stuff (which probably is going to be released next year, not this year) unless they start planning it out with the author now.

Speaking of which, I had the pleasure of taking look at the nice garbage heap called 4chan.

Spoiler:

No, Taiga's mom doesn't take Taiga because she wants to get her married. She just wants Taiga to move out and live with her and her new husband (+kid) since she cut off ties with Taiga's father.

[Vexx]

aye, I'd place a strong bet on an anime-only direction simply because of what seems to be the complexity and wide range of the novels. I have no speculation on whether that direction might get very serious or maintain the current level of semi-seriousness.

[Sixth]

Originally Posted by roan

You'd have to know the general flow of volume 7 through 8 first.

Volume 7

Spoiler:

At Christmas Eve, Minori rejects Ryuuji's proposal after seeing Taiga bawling/crying/wailing after making Ryuuji go to Minori (Ryuuji doesn't know how Taiga acted and Taiga doesn't know Minori saw her).

Volume 8

Spoiler:

Taiga still tries to help Ryuuji get together with Minori at the school trip at a skiing resort, but Ami and Minori get into a big argument about Minori dumping Ryuuji and Taiga gets into the middle of it to pick up a hairpin that Ryuuji had been planning to give to Minori (at Christmas, but he got dumped before he could give it to her) but falls off a cliff because the snow around it was unstable.

Ryuuji rescues her and she admits her feelings for Ryuuji (but she thinks she's talking to Yuusaku). Ryuuji's in shock about what Taiga's been through the whole time and realizes this is also the reason why Minori dumped him and one of the reasons why Minori and Ami were fighting. He tells Yuusaku to just say he was the one that rescued Taiga. Taiga's mother picks up Taiga, and Minori, after realizing what Taiga went to go pick up and what she had been wearing the whole time (because she thought it was a present from Taiga), feels miserable.

Volume 9

Spoiler:

February, approaching Valentine's Day.

Basically Ryuuji and Taiga finally wake up and realize how they feel about each other, but then have to run away because of a lot of shit happening.

Hard to really say it simply, so here's a more detailed, but ugly summary.

Spoiler:

Ryuuji is put under a lot of stress because of what happened with Taiga (who still hasn't come back to school), how he feels about her, and what he intends to do after high school and his mom's opinion on the matter.

With Taiga, he's worried that she hasn't come back and isn't answering because she's embarassed about what she said. That doesn't turn out the case because when she comes back she claims she was just skipping school and having quality time with her mother, but he's relieved and starts linking her confession to her actions. He tells her that Yuusaku said she didn't say anything.

So for most of the book, the premise is that, Taiga thinks that it was Yuusaku she was talking to, and doesn't know it was Ryuuji. Ryuuji knows about how Taiga feels now, but tries to pretend it never happened.

As far as guidance counciling, he's been tardy on submitting a paper to his teacher on what his plans are (since you need something to at least determine how classes are split up next year) and gets stuck in a conversation with his teacher about that.

On the way, he runs into Minori and talks to her about him feeling like he's being left behind because of everything that happened recently and about there being something that he has to forget, but can't forget. Ryuuji admits he's envious of her for being able to be so forward-thinking and she replies that it's by deciding, since if you can't decide what direction you want to go, you can't move at all. Ryuuji asks her if she knows where she's going, and Minori instantly says yep. They walk together for a while and pass by Ami, who ignores the two of them.

Back at home, Ryuuji gets into an argument with Yasuko about what to do, and she tells him to just study. Ryuuji points out that they don't have the money, so Yasuko decides to take up a lot of jobs and also tells him not to do any work.

Next day, Ryuuji and Taiga are called in together at the same time by Yuri about what they want to do, since they haven't submitted anything yet. Yuri leaves for a while, to leave the two of them to fill out their paper, but both Ryuuji (other than to not burden Yasuko) and Taiga come up with the conclusion they don't have any dreams and goals. Taiga finally figures out something and says that her dream would be to just have a normal romance, under a normal family, and just being together would be good enough. She's saying this while making a really sick looking face. Ryuuji asks if she gets along with her mother, she claims she does and then leaves without filling out anything.

Ryuuji's about to go inform Yuri that Taiga left, and runs into Ami who's arguing with another teacher with Yuri trying to moderate the situation. Ryuuji does what he came to do and announces he's going to go home, Ami does the same, and they both escape. Along the way Ami drops her bag, Ryuuji picks it up, and is about to give it to her, but she gives him attitude, which makes him unconsciously throw the bag far, far, away. The bag reaches a group of students that are going home that belong to the Futsal club. One student bounces it off his chest and passes it to another student who shoots it way up, where it bounds off the bicycle parking lot room, and lands in a playground off of school grounds.

Over there, the two of them talk a bit, even when Ami had cut off ties with Ryuuji in volume 8 (for being obtuse to what he was doing to Taiga), and she basically tells him that she might transfer. She had actually planned to transfer after the stalker business was over, but she liked the relations she had with everyone here, since this is the first school where she actually had friends. Then she saw Taiga suffering a bit (back at the end of volume 4) and wanted to help her out to keep everything stable. Which makes Ryuuji feel like being a dousche again being the only one who hadn't noticed anything about Taiga.

Ami kept screwing up (from her point of view), becoming more and more miserable without anybody realizing how she felt, and started to feel like nobody noticed her. This led to Minori dumping Ryuuji, her relationship with Minori being beyond repair, and Taiga almost dying (again, just from her point of view - she didn't really play that big a role). Ryuuji tells her not to run away and that's it ok to make mistakes, but Ami asks him if he of all people has the right to say that since he's been ignoring her. They part ways and Ryuuji receives a phone call from Taiga about Yasuko collapsing.

Ryuuji goes back home and finds Taiga watching over Yasuko. He's about to go buy food for dinner and tells Taiga to go home, but gets a panic attack, storms off, and walks around like a zombie, with Taiga chasing after him because she's worried about him and there's a good chance he'd get hit by a car. He eventually calms down and thinks this is all his fault, so he goes takes responsibility by lying to the person that hired her for partime work that she won't be coming anymore. The man asks Ryuuji to the job (which is selling chocolates) to fill in Yasuko's place for just two days. It turns out the store owner actually thought Taiga would be doing it, so Taiga decides to tag along, while saying the one who will be working is Ryuuji, not her. The store owner can only pay for one person, so he's fine with that.

Next day, the two of them work together, and bumble a bit, as some friends from school stopped by (Haruta (and his girlfriend) and Noto). Since they weren't selling enough, Taiga calls Ami to get her to buy stuff, which draws a crowd of people that also buys chocolates.

With the first day of that being over, Taiga goes back with Ryuuji and asks him about advice on giving chocolate to the usual gang as thanks for rescuing her (plus Ami since Taiga did force her to help). She was going to just give the chocolate from the store, but Ryuuji suggests making it on her own with the chocolate she bought. The two of them talk about the job actually being fun, and Ryuuji then apologizes for acting the way he did yesterday and thanking her for helping him out that day since he didn't think he could do it by himself. Taiga asks if Ryuuji would be happy if she made him chocolate. When Ryuuji blurts out an answer that he'd have to be an animal to not be happy, Taiga says she'll try. Ryuuji realizes how he feels about Taiga and doesn't want to see Taiga suffer or disappear out of his life like she had intended to do in volume 8.

The next day (which is Valentine's Day), Taiga assembles the gang to distribute cookies that she spent all night making, as thanks for rescuing her. Over there, Minori picks up on on stuff that Taiga was saying about her rescue (about Yuusaku rescuing her and saying something incredibly embarassing that she could never repeat) and what she knows about what happened (Ryuuji rescuing Taiga and Ryuuji telling Minori before about something he heard but wants to forget), then lets the cat out of the bag, and Minori forces Taiga and Ryuuji to deal with the situation.

Taiga manages to run away and Minori asks Ryuuji if he's going to chase her; he says he won't let Taiga get away from him no matter what. Minori gives him a "Giant Farewell", takes his hand and puts it to her lips, then they both run after Taiga. Minori finally admits out loud about how she feels for Ryuuji but demands that Taiga do the same and to snatch her happiness with her own hands. Taiga gets away but not before hearing her. Minori slips, so Ryuuji takes her to the school infirmary (since she's bleeding) where she tells him that she wants to become a pro soft-ball player, but since everybody laughed at her, she's doing all those part time jobs so she could go to a college with a good soft-ball team, on her own wallet. Ryuuji says he believes she could do it, and Minori says that she'll be able to keep pursuing her dream as long Ryuuji believes in her. Minori says she has to chase after Ami to patch up things between them and tells Ryuuji to go to Taiga. Thus ends the Minori route.

Taiga and Ryuuji both meet at work surprisingly. Taiga tells Ryuuji they have to talk after work is over, but once work does end, the two are confronted by their mothers. Taiga's mother intends to take custody of Taiga and Yasuko is having a fit about Ryuuji lying and working instead of studying. Ryuuji then has a breakdown about Yasuko making him try to fulfill her dreams in her place, that she would have been happy without him and that she regrets giving birth to him.

Yasuko's shocked, Taiga's mother is also caught offguard, Taiga places her hand on Ryuuji's while he's screaming/crying, Ryuuji takes it, and both of them run off.

The author doesn't mention anything about the next volume being the final one, so I think there's still a couple more volumes of material left.

My god, this was a real pain in the ass to type out.

So, Taiga and Ryuji is now running away from their parents and heading to any hotel for their first sex?

[msuwildog80]

Lol noobita,

obviously!!

[kittybear]

Originally Posted by noobita

So, Taiga and Ryuji is now running away from their parents and heading to any hotel for their first sex?

Lol first blood..... sounds kinda weird lol

[stormy001_M1A2]

Or they could commit suicide together.

[kittybear]

Originally Posted by stormy001_M1A2

Or they could commit suicide together.

It reminds me of nice boat ending

[Sixth]

Originally Posted by stormy001_M1A2

Or they could commit suicide together.

Yeah...I also have this kind of feeling.

[azziz]

Originally Posted by noobita

Yeah...I also have this kind of feeling.

still,it's seem to get more and more interesting,a shame the translator stopped translating-or so it seem...

[stormy001_M1A2]

Originally Posted by azziz

still,it's seem to get more and more interesting,a shame the translator stopped translating-or so it seem...

Be patient.

Be glad too that there is someone who actually kind enough to translate the novels. You cannot complaint if they decided not to do it. After all, he/she did not get paid at all.

[The Sandman]

I know nothing about the novels past where Baka-tsuki's translation is, so forgive me if my character interpretation is wrong.

What all of the people going on about Taiga's verbal abusiveness to Ryuuji seem to have forgotten is that ultimately they are friends. I know that we otaku don't tend to have many of those, but I'm sure at least some of you know that really good friends tend to be pretty harsh with each other, precisely because the friendship lessens the sting of the insults. And you also might notice that Ryuuji, when he feels like it, can give as good as he gets in he and Taiga's stream of banter, encouragement, and dickery.

[Darknemo2000]

Harsh maybe, but to some extent. Taiga is just acting like a total bitch Towards Ryuuji. Its a good think that Ryuuji is such nice taht he could live with total jackasses, thus making the relationship look friendly, but Taiga herself is acting like a bitch.

All this wramth of relationship come from Ryuuji, Taiga so far hasn't really done much about it.

[LC]

Originally Posted by roan

Spoiler:

Taiga manages to run away and Minori asks Ryuuji if he's going to chase her; he says he won't let Taiga get away from him no matter what. Minori gives him a "Giant Farewell", takes his hand and puts it to her lips, then they both run after Taiga. Minori finally admits out loud about how she feels for Ryuuji but demands that Taiga do the same and to snatch her happiness with her own hands.

So,

Spoiler for Minori:

Minori actually liked Ryuuji back?

[typhonsentra]

By the time the series ends Novel 10 will be long-since released and I'm sure they're working with the author and she's told them the general direction she plans to take the series in.

[stormy001_M1A2]

Looks like it. But she sacrifice it for Taiga. What a nice girl.

[roan]

Originally Posted by typhonsentra

By the time the series ends Novel 10 will be long-since released and I'm sure they're working with the author and she's told them the general direction she plans to take the series in.

Probably not. On the Novel 10 being long-since released part.

The next novel, which is another spinoff book, is slated to be out in January of next year. Which means that at the earliest, the release date for 10 will be in March or April.

[typhonsentra]

There was a double update at B-T yesterday. Both for Volumes 3 and 4.

[Sylphic]

Noo with all the recent developments in the novel, does that mean Ami is finished a potential partner for Ryuuji, and all that remains is to close out the ending with a RyuujixTaiga?

[golthin]

Originally Posted by stormy001_M1A2

Looks like it. But she sacrifice it for Taiga. What a nice girl.

Minori deserves someone much better than Ryuuji. I don't feel sad for her not ending with him.
don't get me wrong, Ryuuji is a nice guy, but Taiga and ryuuji are a better match. Taiga will not find a guy that can put up with her personality in her lifetime. Minori could have any guy she wanted.