Amagami SS - Episode 3

After making some pretty substantial progress in turning his relationship with Morishima around last episode, it's perhaps of no surprise to find Tachibana in extremely high spirits as this third instalment begins, with our protagonist having found a new lust for life - It's funny what love can do to a person, isn't it?


No, really, it's weird what love can do to a person; at least when that relationship is portrayed within Amagami SS anyway. So it goes that a chance meeting between Tachibana and Morishima ends with the latter agreeing to allow the former to kiss her, but only if he can find somewhere quiet and get her there without anyone spotting them. With this mission accomplished, Morishima insists that Tachibana can't kiss her on the lips, leaving him to choose a suitable alternative. Of course, at this point with his male mind running riot, Tachibana does what any guy would do and chooses..... behind her knee?

To be honest the entire endeavour takes a downward turn from here - First we have some attempt at making a guy kiss behind a girl's knee erotic (it really isn't in this scenario, it's just rather unintentionally hilarious), before Morishima's musings about how to handle her enthusiastic junior next ends with her jumping on him while making meowing sounds before being fed by him in the school cafeteria while re-enacting some kind of bizarre kidnap fantasy. It takes all sorts.

All of this actually makes it rather hard to get my thoughts about this series so far, and particularly this episode, straight in my head - It's an almost ludicrous slice of male wish fulfillment no matter how you slice it (and assuming you have a fetish for kissing the back of girl's knees... seriously, all those possibilities and you picked there Tachibana?!) and both its major characters at this juncture are clearly batshit crazy in all sorts of ways, but at the same time it's actually rather fun watching two mental people making eyes at one another in increasingly ridiculous ways, especially when it's helped along by some high production values and the fact that you can watch it while laughing and smiling while wondering if you'd ever really want to get involved in a relationship as downright odd as this one. I suppose there are worse life choices to make...