Kawashima Ami ❤ Toradora! ❤ not reservedcameracrushAugust 10 2011, 16:37:23 UTC
Personality: Ami-chan is just about the sweetest teen you can hope to meet, if not a hopeless klutz and in constant need of saving because of it. A pure soul with naivety written across her forehead. Not to mention she's drop-dead gorgeous. But no worries, she's really very modest about it, and doesn't want to rub her appearance in anyone's face and make them feel inferior or anything. All the attention she gets is actually a con for her, especially since she's so hard on herself, readily taking blame for just about everything under the sun. Kind and soft-spoken, it's hard to dislike Ami.
Unless, you know, you don't fall for her shit.
If you show zero signs of interest, the mask crumbles to reveal a spoiled princess. Ami-chan is a farce. Ami is a hugely successful model at 17-years-old, and the impact is understandably potent. She's conceited, demanding, vain, and hugely manipulative. Give her a mirror, and she will marvel at her own appearance. Give her a crowd, and she'll relish in making them her adoring fans. She's used to having girls look up to her and guys throw themselves at her feet and loves the attention. If someone crosses her, she'll use crocodile tears and make them look as bad as possible in public, and in private she'll poke and prod until she finds a weakness and then tear them apart. Taiga is the clear example; when she ignores Ami and refuses to fetch her a drink, the model responds by mocking her height and threatening to steal Ryuuji away... before saying he's not even worth taking. The smaller girl ends up just slapping her. Ami then tries to trick Ryuuji and turn him against Taiga by pulling her usual act, and repeatedly insults the other girl until she gets a reaction in the form of her crush on Yuusaku. She exploits this to say that Kitamura hates Taiga for being a brute to his childhood friend (which isn't true, but still ensures that Taiga spends the night crying). It doesn't help that the way she speaks is frequently a sing-song, condescending tone brimming with sarcasm that's very much meant to sting.
But maybe that's not actually Ami either. Not entirely, anyway.
These are both extremes. White and black. Ami Kawashima might be better described as a shade of gray. She certainly pulls on her light, angelic face for the public; it's an image for a bunch of strangers and they love it. When confronted, she goes for what most (herself probably included from how she speaks of her own personality) would call her 'real' side. She managed to convince herself that no one would like her if they really knew her, so all her friends were made with her mask. The side effect was that Ami grew used to being alone, to the point that she didn't even think about it anymore.
Once she's exposed though, Ami's 'real' personality doesn't actually describe her very well either. As she's accepted for who she is, 'who she is' begins to change. She tends to tease her friends whenever she can, but isn't outright hostile about it. She still has her ability to read people (very well, at that- she's the best in her series), but rather than rub salt in their weaknesses, she uses it to inspire and cheer them up. When she learns that someone's not being honest with themselves, she won't baby them, nor will she make their problems worse. She'll probably call them stupid and point out what they're doing wrong just enough to set them on the right path. If they keep making their mistakes or being dishonest to themselves, she can get frustrated or just flat-out pissed. And an angry Ami makes no attempts to hide it. Over the course of the series, it's clear that Ami isn't a bad person. She can be a ruthless bitch or put her angelic mask into overdrive, but in the company of her friends she's usually just kind of calm and sarcastic in a friendly sort of way. She acts jaded and ten years older than she really is, and is brutally direct (e.g. will straight up walk out of a conversation she doesn't care about, will call her friends out on their idiocy complete with some derisive laughter, etc.).
Ami-chan is just about the sweetest teen you can hope to meet, if not a hopeless klutz and in constant need of saving because of it. A pure soul with naivety written across her forehead. Not to mention she's drop-dead gorgeous. But no worries, she's really very modest about it, and doesn't want to rub her appearance in anyone's face and make them feel inferior or anything. All the attention she gets is actually a con for her, especially since she's so hard on herself, readily taking blame for just about everything under the sun. Kind and soft-spoken, it's hard to dislike Ami.
Unless, you know, you don't fall for her shit.
If you show zero signs of interest, the mask crumbles to reveal a spoiled princess. Ami-chan is a farce. Ami is a hugely successful model at 17-years-old, and the impact is understandably potent. She's conceited, demanding, vain, and hugely manipulative. Give her a mirror, and she will marvel at her own appearance. Give her a crowd, and she'll relish in making them her adoring fans. She's used to having girls look up to her and guys throw themselves at her feet and loves the attention. If someone crosses her, she'll use crocodile tears and make them look as bad as possible in public, and in private she'll poke and prod until she finds a weakness and then tear them apart. Taiga is the clear example; when she ignores Ami and refuses to fetch her a drink, the model responds by mocking her height and threatening to steal Ryuuji away... before saying he's not even worth taking. The smaller girl ends up just slapping her. Ami then tries to trick Ryuuji and turn him against Taiga by pulling her usual act, and repeatedly insults the other girl until she gets a reaction in the form of her crush on Yuusaku. She exploits this to say that Kitamura hates Taiga for being a brute to his childhood friend (which isn't true, but still ensures that Taiga spends the night crying). It doesn't help that the way she speaks is frequently a sing-song, condescending tone brimming with sarcasm that's very much meant to sting.
But maybe that's not actually Ami either. Not entirely, anyway.
These are both extremes. White and black. Ami Kawashima might be better described as a shade of gray. She certainly pulls on her light, angelic face for the public; it's an image for a bunch of strangers and they love it. When confronted, she goes for what most (herself probably included from how she speaks of her own personality) would call her 'real' side. She managed to convince herself that no one would like her if they really knew her, so all her friends were made with her mask. The side effect was that Ami grew used to being alone, to the point that she didn't even think about it anymore.
Once she's exposed though, Ami's 'real' personality doesn't actually describe her very well either. As she's accepted for who she is, 'who she is' begins to change. She tends to tease her friends whenever she can, but isn't outright hostile about it. She still has her ability to read people (very well, at that- she's the best in her series), but rather than rub salt in their weaknesses, she uses it to inspire and cheer them up. When she learns that someone's not being honest with themselves, she won't baby them, nor will she make their problems worse. She'll probably call them stupid and point out what they're doing wrong just enough to set them on the right path. If they keep making their mistakes or being dishonest to themselves, she can get frustrated or just flat-out pissed. And an angry Ami makes no attempts to hide it. Over the course of the series, it's clear that Ami isn't a bad person. She can be a ruthless bitch or put her angelic mask into overdrive, but in the company of her friends she's usually just kind of calm and sarcastic in a friendly sort of way. She acts jaded and ten years older than she really is, and is brutally direct (e.g. will straight up walk out of a conversation she doesn't care about, will call her friends out on their idiocy complete with some derisive laughter, etc.).
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