Toradora! Ep. 24 - In the Snow and Running Away

[SimsHsia]

Episode 24: Confession
The hearts of two entwine together. Only one episode to go.

Omedetou futari tomo!

Recap from last time:
It was Valentine's Day and chocolates were distributed to everyone from Taiga. Everything crumbles from then on when Ryuuji's cover up story is revealed by Minorin, the only other person he forgot to tell to protect Taiga. When Taiga runs out of the room, Minorin asks Ryuuji what he will do. He hesitates at first, but then...

Key plot points:

• ...Ryuuji says he will chase after Taiga with Minorin. They split up and take a different route to see if they can cut off Taiga. They both reach their classroom only to find it empty then suddenly realize that Taiga may be at the front entrance, who, at the time, is putting on her shoes. As they make their way there, Minorin shouts as she runs down the hallway that she has always liked Ryuuji but thought it would have been better if Taiga had him. When they finally reach there, Taiga is no where to be seen.
  
• In the infirmary, Minorin is stopping her bloody nose (she tripped when running) and both she and Ryuuji have a conversation about her future. She aspires to attend a sports university to later go into the national softball league. Although both she and her brother both played baseball, Minorin had to quit because she was a girl, and later played softball. The conversation then goes to Ryuuji's hairclip and how Minorin already knew it was the present Ryuuji wanted to give her on Christmas Eve, and she apologizes for having to wear it in front of him when Taiga gave it to her as a gift. With this, Minorin encourages Ryuuji to run toward the thing he can see, and finishes it off with a final goodbye cheer.
  
• Taiga is heading toward work at the cake shop and is surprised that Ryuuji's already there for work. She asks him not to laugh, but she needs to tell him something after their work shift is over. After work, they are confronted by both of their mothers; Taiga's biological mother wants to bring her back home and Yasuko is upset that Ryuuji is working even though he promised her that he wouldn't. Ryuuji shouts back at Yasuko not to push her failures of not graduating from high school on to him. When Ryuuji realizes what he's done, Taiga grabs his hand and runs away with him.
  
• They both are standing on a bridge discussing about the problems in their lives. Taiga with her father's business failing and her biological mother having a new husband and pregnant; Ryuuji about Yasuko and how her life would have been better off if he wasn't born. Taiga refuses to believe this, since the reason for her being alive is because of Ryuuji, and she accidentally pushes Ryuuji over the railing. He's alive and well, but cold, and tells Taiga that he'll be 18 years old in 2 months. On the very day of his birthday, he will runaway from home; away from Yasuko away from everyone. With this, Ryuuji asks Taiga to marry him, but Taiga stops him mid-sentence before he said "I love you" and crashes on him saying it's not fair, she didn't say what she wanted to say after work. She promised Minorin that she would do things on her own and both of them agree that they'll say "I love you" at the same time. Both stop mid-sentence when Ryuuji's cellphone rings, wondering who it is, he picks up and a concerned Yuusaku wants both of them to meet at Ami's house.
  
• Ami gives Taiga a change of clothes and asks her to take a shower so she won't catch a cold. Alone with Ryuuji, she asks whether he loves Taiga and forces him to say he loves her seriously. When he does, she's satisfied and tells him he looked dumb saying it. The entire gang show up later and Yuusaku asks both of them what they plan to do now. They tell them in a serious tone that they plan to run away and get married in two months.
  
• Being the supportive friends they are, Minorin gives them all her life savings, Ami gives them the key to her villa they went on summer vacation, and Yuusaku gives them something as well.
  
• When they both return to their respective homes, Ryuuji finds out that Yasuko ran away from home leaving a note asking that he go to his grandparent’s house and show them his grandfather's watch and they'll understand. The following morning, Taiga and Ryuuji are not present at school. When Haruta notices this and asks if they both caught a cold, Yuusaku says to himself that they didn't catch a cold, more like a "fever". Instead, Taiga and Ryuuji are on a train to his grandfather's house where they will stay for the time being. When they reach there, he presents the watch and introduces himself and his wife, Taiga.
  

Episode thoughts:
So, it has finally happened, Taiga and Ryuuji are together - except only a few people know. So, everything up to this point has been mostly resolved now; Taiga and Ryuuji confirm their feelings for each other, Minorin finally shows her true feelings and Ami was redeemed as well. We finally see Taiga's biological mother, and the opening sequence came it late. Everything before the bridge confession scene, that's roughly 7 minutes, occurred before the opening sequence.

I felt that the confession scene was a bit cheesy, but that's because I later read that the anime adaptation of the light novel's scene was altered a bit. There was no kiss between both of them on the bridge, but regardless this adaptation was still pretty good. J.C. Staff's most likely going to put that in the final episode (again, this reminds me so much of the true tears anime drama). In addition, I felt that TaigaxRyuuji's relationship was set on turbo-speed with NOS-injected (minus the analogies, it felt too rushed) when they both agreed they would get married and run away together to start new lives as adults. Well, there were circumstances to that rushed decision. After all, Taiga's biological mother wanted to take her away.

One step foward...oh! To be resolved, BRB.

The final episode, Toradora! Everything's coming to a close. Well, it has been a fun drama ride.