Subculture Anime Blog

Dream’s a premonition!

Summary:

Ryuji wakes from a frightening dream, where he had chosen to marry Taiga. The result of this was a family of dogs. When Ryuji meets Taiga afterwards, she expresses her distaste in seemingly having the same dream. Because of this, Taiga decides to have a challenge to change this future. Taiga ends up losing in a game of badminton to Ryuji, forcing her to help him get together with Minori. After meeting up with the rest of the usual group, the two join them on the train to Ami’s resort. Conversation is brought up about what everyone has been doing during the summer break, and when it is Taiga’s turn, she shows Minori that she has been working on a frightening piece of audio. When Minori expresses quite a bit of uneasiness with this, Ryuji recalls Taiga’s telling him about her weakness to frightening things. After making Minori scared, Ryuji would be the one to save her. With this, all is seemingly going to plan.

Upon reaching the resort, and learning that no one has occupied it for quite some time, Ryuji predicts that it would be the perfect place for Taiga’s plan. Ryuji quickly begins to clean inside the living quarters, but everyone else decides to play at the beach first. While Taiga and Minori are away from them, Ami takes the chance to ask if Yusaku was really okay with coming. Yusaku confirms that he would have to come for Ryuji, but when Ami makes a suggestion about the student council, he seems to claim ignorance about what she is referring to. As everyone else starts to help clean, Yusaku suggests a ride by bike to purchase some things in town. Ryuji tells Taiga to go, but when she nervously denies because of a supposed fear of bikes, Minori ends up going with Yusaku instead. Taiga claims that she did this to help make a plan for Minori, but Ryuji easily sees through her story.

After typical antics before and after Yusaku and Minori return, Ryuji finally prepares dinner for everyone. Having made the curry specially towards Minori’s requests, the group soon finds that the dishes are very hot. Taiga expresses that she has somewhat of a stomach ache after dinner, and when Yusaku states that he has some medicine in his room, Ryuji convinces Taiga to go with him to his room. Despite Ami’s trying to get his attention as usual, Ryuji then ends up spending time washing dishes with Minori. Beneath the stars with her afterwards, Ryuji takes the chance to ask if Minori has a boyfriend. Minori has been completely absorbed in the seaweed spirit that Taiga had created, however, then wondering if Ryuji believes in ghosts.

Minori states that she believes in ghosts, but whenever she asks others, they always seem to deny their existence. On the other hand, Minori cannot seem to find feelings of love whenever she looks for them. Because of this, she questions those who have the feelings so easily. Ryuji responds by saying that he may want to see ghosts, and for this reason, he watches scary movies or tries to experience frightening things at times. Some day, perhaps he would see one. When Minori looks into the sky again, she believes she has seen a UFO. However, Ryuji gives a more logical suggestion.

Taiga later enters Ryuji’s room, revealing that she is hungry after her stomach has calmed down. Because of this, the two have another meal in the living quarters. Taiga then mentions how happy she should have been to be able to spend time with Yusaku, though she ending up being more nervous than anything. On the other hand, she is completely fine with being around Ryuji. Taiga almost says something about the dream she had, but she decides not to in the end. When Ryuji enters his room afterwards, he finds his pillow covered with what seems to be hair. Taiga quickly enters to have him look in her room as well, as one of her dresses seems to have been tampered with. As the two are inside, banging starts to come from both the door and outside window. With this, Taiga and Ryuji can only hope in panic that this is a continuation of the dream they had from the morning.

Preview: More fun in the sun… except not.

Impression:

Ryuji is destined to be stepped on by Taiga! So, implementing as much of a plot as a lovcom can have, this episode gave more character development to a good chunk of the main characters. Minori especially got fleshed out in my eyes, as she mentioned her inability to see love in the same way others to through a very appealing metaphor. I really loved how the comparison of spirits and love was played on all throughout the episode, starting from the horror movies at the beginning of the episode to Ryuji and Taiga’s being trapped in a frightening situation by the end. Ami even gave some hints towards who Yusaku is really suppose to end up with, though this was about as much of a role she had in the whole episode (unless you consider the revealing of her spectacular sizes development). At this point, I’m pretty sure we’re all just waiting for the inevitable ending to happen. But with shows like this, it’s really just how we reach that point right?

Notes:

• Puppies: gifts of the wedding!
• Zero no Tsukaima? What? Nowai~…
• Ya-chan is sleepy~!
• Club, work, club, work, club, club club, work…
• Taiga sporting a pink iPod! Classy!
• Ryuji’s cleaning eyes…truly scary.
• Ryuji…don’t go crying to Taiga like dat!
• The wakame spirit strikes fear into Minori through Yusaku’s uh…..yea…
• Taiga likes to play footsie with Ami and Ryuji’s back! Kinky.