Subculture Anime Blog

Attack of the diet warriors!

Summary:

Ami tells the girls in class that she has never gone on a diet before, denying her need to ever do so, but Taiga and Minori soon appear to prove otherwise. After their surprise attack on her, Ami turns to her fake crying to get comfort. On the school rooftop with Taiga and Minori afterwards, Ryuji notices a suspicious boy waiting outside of the school grounds. On the way home with Ryuji later, Taiga expresses her wish and knowledge of making a salad that night. Ami suddenly runs into them, then alerting them that the individual from earlier is following her. This type of thing happens somewhat frequently to models, and Ami had secretly transfered to avoid this. Ami requests to hide in Ryuji’s house for awhile, but when she finds that Taiga’s is much more secure, she agrees to go there instead. Inside Taiga’s house, Ami quickly returns to her true self. When Taiga confirms that Ami has no intentions of showing her true self to the rest of the students, she puts her through a test.

Ryuji and the rest of the class find that Ami is exhausted the next day, unknown to them what had happened with Taiga the previous night. Although it was not Taiga’s intention to help Ami, Yusaku eventually approaches her to make a request. Since Ami would not be able to make true friends using her fake personality, he wished for Taiga and the others who knew her true self to involve themselves with her. Taiga quickly agreed to Yusaku’s request, brining Ryuji and the others to have lunch with Ami later. Ami notices that Ryuji and Taiga’s lunches are the same while eating with them, and when Minori suggests that this is because they are destined partners, Ami cannot help but express a bit of annoyance.

After classes end for the day, Taiga has Ryuji volunteer for the trash pick up that Yusaku and the others will be doing. Taiga obviously wanted the chance to get closer to Yusaku, but Ryuji is surprised to find that Ami and Minori are participating as well. Taiga and the others end up getting separated from Yusaku and Sumire’s group later, leaving Taiga only to be annoyed by Ami’s remarks. When Ryuji and Ami get separated from Taiga and Minori, Ryuji finally takes the chance to ask about Ami’s hiding her personality. Ami finally admits that she is only able to act like this, but after confirming that Ryuji does not really understand her, she starts to run at the sight of something familiar.

Hiding with Ryuji, Ami finally reveals that the individual she is running from is a stalker. She had transfered to avoid troubling her parents, and built up a lot of stress because of him. Taiga and Minori show up close to the others while they are hiding, and when the supposed stalker begins taking pictures of the two, Taiga quickly attacks him and causes him to run. Ami wonders how Taiga was so easily able to take care of this boy, and seeing this as losing to both the stalker and Taiga, she quickly rushes to punish him herself. When Ryuji meets Ami after she has finally chased off the stalker for good, she admits that she was scared while doing it. When Ami is alone with Ryuji at his home later, she expresses how nice it is for Taiga to have so many things while being honest with herself. Ami gets closer to Ryuji while asking if he would come to like her if she showed him her true self, and when Taiga enters to see the scene, she puts on a face of shock.

Preview: Toradora tries to be Umisho.

Impression:

OMG. Screw tsundere. Full out pissed off women is where it’s at. I would let Ami step on me HARD. *cough* Wait…um….er…..I mean…uh….stalkers aren’t that scary are they? I bet most of them would be pretty nice people if we were actually to go out and meet them. They probably just think that sending multiple faxes and phone calls towards people’s houses is something fun to do! The suggestion that Taiga had come up with one of Ami’s secrets at the end of last week’s episode came off as pretty anticlimactic, since all it led up to was the diet warrior attacks on her, but it was nice to see Ami’s character develop in a direction different than I predicted it would be. Along with most of the characters in this series, I love how Ami can be related (to an extent) to those we meet in real life. Like an episode of Shugo Chara, I’m sure we’ll eventually see Ami make friends with the usual crew while being her true self. There are people like Taiga who make lots of friends while being their rude, yet honest selves as well, and I really connected with that mention. It looks like Ryuji’s harem gets a +1 with Ami’s expected attraction to him, but I’m still liking the different approach to lovcom that this series is taking.

Notes:

• When Yusaku shows up, Taiga is like a doll!
• Horie’s deep voice makes me giggle.
• Minori’s whistling and looking away makes me giggle.
• I’m not digging how the only difference in character design that Ami and Sumire seem to have is different hair color.
• This piece of garbage looks like you, lol.
• Poor stalker’s expensive camera…. =(
• Totali! Writing lovcom posts instead of studying for Physics tests since 2007!