Toradora!

I agree that the signs of growing affection between Ryuji and Taiga were there to be found from very early on, and that the time taken on the storytelling gives the anime real depth.
I was not so sure about Ami's suffering ... sometimes it seemed that she was more put out about not getting her chance than deeply involved.
I didn't see Minori as being selfish, just ambivalent at first, then putting her own tentative feelings aside to support Taiga. While Ami seemed to think it was up to Minori to reject Ryuji quickly so she herself could have a clear path, it doesn't seem fair to ask that of her. She would have had to both sacrifice her own hopes (which I found a little hard to credit) and risk hurting Taiga's chances. It didn't appear selfish - just a difficult dilemma that made her hesitate.
Somehow I missed that Taiga had been gone for an entire year before their reunion - I thought it was shorter.

Ami correctly pointed out that Minorin didn't know if she was hurt because she was losing Taiga or losing Ryuji. But that's my intepretation. I still liked her, she was a good character.

Ami was the most perceptive of the group hence why I believed she suffered silently. The little scene with her in the last episode was wonderful. Going to her suffering I believe that by the time she and Minorin traded blows (a great scene btw) she was fully in Taigas camp.


As far as the time skip is concerned: Yes, remember they were Juniors. When they come back it was High School Graduation. I know in the novel Taiga comes back sooner.

they sort of, kind of, confess to eachother and then suddenly decide to run away. It's that last part that I don't get. Even after seeing the last episode, the running away doesn't realy make much sense to me, especially given the fact that it doesn't even amount to anything. And their friends don't even bring it up? Maybe I'm just too stupid to get it, but that had me really confused

I liked it! This show probably has one of the best kissing scenes I've ever seen. Most of the time they're just awkward and thrown in because what's a romance anime without some kissing? But here it felt so sweet and natural.

They both were still kind of in little boy and little girl mode thinking an irrational "running away" from their so-called bad parents was a good idea in the moment. It was very immature. The "practice wedding" scene was where they realized they had to grow up and face their "problems" head on.

It makes sense for Taiga to want to run away. She probably already knew she had to go live with her mom ever since that field trip accident. So of course she saw eloping as the only answer at the moment. But for Ryuuji... I don't know. Sure, the tension between him and Yasuko has been building up in this and previous episodes and her berating him for working may have been the final straw... But the way he snapped at her felt so out of character for me.