Amagami SS - Episode 12

After a successful first date last week, the final episode of Sae Nakata's arc sees her really ramp up her plan to ensure that Tachibana falls for her - not that she needs to worry too much, as his biggest problem appears to be actually getting over his fears and saying something.

Still, their next date turns out to involve eating some kind of giant parfait which (so legend, aka stuff Miya probably made up on the spot, has it) will ensure that they stay together forever if they share it - quite the cunning one, is our Sae. This of course leads on to the school's Perfect Couple competition which the pair of them entered in the last episode, an event which sees Sae and Junichi beat out some stiff competition from Umehara and a fish (no, really) but sees them end up in second place against who else but Haruka... that girl really does seem Hell-bent on elbowing her way into everyone else's story arcs at every turn, doesn't she?


Then again, second place does guarantee our almost perfect couple a movie screening in a private room (which seems far plusher than my local cinema, but I digress, where the closest you get to luxury is a seat where your feet don't end up stuck to the floor) which seems pretty swish, and finally allows Junichi to do his manly part and confess to Sae, albeit via an accident which leaves me wondering why the back of a sofa in a private room at a cinema would ever tilt back so far. So, our couple is now complete and they all live happily ever after - happily ever after in this case seemingly involving Sae romping around in a penguin suit, which for the record is absolutely fine by me.

I think it was pretty evident from the outset that this was going to be the weakest story arc of Amagami SS for me thus far - I enjoyed Haruka's arc to some extent just because she was absolutely crazy in the coconut, and I like Kaoru's arc because she was actually a fun and decent girl despite her moment of overblown drama. Sae on the other hand did little for me; even though I got used to her voice, there was nothing much to her personality, and although I admire her for taking the lead with Junichi despite being the shy type (and did I mention the penguin suit?) her overall demeanour left me a little cold. Still, with that arc done it's straight on to the next in episode thirteen, and what couldn't be a more contrasting change in characters for Junichi to be pitted against by the look of it. Besides, now that this arc has thrown us a curveball with its with its "fish nibbling on toes" fetish element, surely all bets are off for what kind of erotic weirdness this next girl will bring our way?