Recap from last time:

Ryuuji has some time getting to know Minori because they are accidentally locked in a wine cellar by Uncle Inage, owner of a local convenience store, who know's Ryuuji's mother. We also see Taiga back to her usual tsuntsun-self, but more to the extreme side by physically abusing Ryuuji whenever he's near Minori.

Key plot points:

• Ryuuji finds out that Taiga has been taking pictures of Kitamura Yuusaku, but they are rather blurry ones.
  
• Taiga wants Ryuuji to take an infinite amount of pictures of Kitamura with her camera.
  
• While discussing this, Kitamura comes in and says Good Morning to both of them, Ryuuji replies the greeting. Seeing her chance, Taiga greets Kitamura with a "Good Morning!" (Oha!) and Kitamura replies the same greeting back to her and walks to class saying Oha! to everyone else.
  
• The whole high school lines up outside for morning assembly, Taiga outlashes against the President of the Student Council and is stopped by Kitamura. Later, Taiga finds this moment almost "magical" when she is held up by Kitamura to stop her.
  
• Taiga, Ryuuji, Kitamura and Minori all agree to eat lunch together, but this puts both Taiga and Ryuuji in a tough situation: they have the same lunch!
  
• Kitamura and Minori both have to attend the softball meeting, so they leave both Taiga and Ryuuji.
  
• Taiga drags Ryuuji to a softball game to take pictures of Kitamura in the outfield. Ryuuji takes too long to set up the digital camera because he's unfamiliar with the placement of the buttons, so Taiga quickly takes snapshots. We come to a conclusion of why the pictures are so blurry.
  
• Minori gives Ryuuji one of her sets of photos depicting her homemade pudding, which didn't turn out as expected. One of the photos has Minori eating the pudding, which Ryuuji keeps.
  
• Ryuuji finds out that Kitamura actually confessed his love to Taiga a year ago and was rejected a second later, and, like Taiga, keeps a picture of Taiga in his student handbook. Oh, the irony!
  
• Ryuuji learns about Kitamura's confession from Taiga, which happened on the roof of their school.
  

Episode thoughts:

Alright, this episode pretty much wraps up the first volume of the novel that the first three episodes skipped over: with the lunch with all four of them, Minori's pudding story and photos, and Kitamura's confession to Taiga. In the novel, Ryuuji overhears at Taiga's confession to Kitamura that he did confess to her a year earlier; however, in the anime it's slightly different. Overall, I find that they adapted everything regarding photos nicely into this episode, and a fitting episode title to boot.

I found it amusing that Taiga would lock up whenever she's near Kitamura, the lunch scene, for instance. I read it in the book and smiled, and now watching it animated, I did the same. The part where Kitamura tells Ryuuji he confessed to and rejected by Taiga a year ago and later Ryuuji screams "WHAT THE HELL!" was the highlight of this episode due to the irony that he's helping Taiga get closer to Kitamura, even though she rejected him. Lastly, Inko-chan actually said something normal, after much encouragement from Ryuuji. Seriously, LOL.

J.C.Staff seems to be taking a new direction with Toradora! than their previous animes, Taiga is more embarrassed and blushing rather than blaming others or herself, which is not Kugimiya Rie's usual role for her characters. Unlike in Zero no Tsukaima where the majority of episodes has Louise being angry all the time, Taiga is the exact opposite of Louise, which is a good thing. Kudos, again, J.C.Staff for not slapping together Louise and Shana, from Shakugan no Shana, and naming her Aisaka Taiga.

Next episode titled, Kawashima Ami, the transfer student and the fifth and final principle character is introduced. Since everything from the next episode onwards will be fresh for me, unless if I start reading the novel's second volume, so my guess is that Ami will be a potential interest for Kitamura, thus Taiga (with Ryuuji's help) will need to accelerate her plans. As I said the last time, let the cat fights commence!