Amagami SS - Episode 13

Now that Sae Nakata's story arc is now over, I can finally take off those ear protectors lest her voice irritate me any further... well, until she crops up and gets a couple of lines in this episode, at least.  This leaves our favourite pervert Tachibana to pursue a new girl, albeit only after going through his moments of misery from Christmas past yet again, although on this occasion he nearly runs into a girl excitedly running home with a Christmas present for her brother...

Junichi doesn't seem to realise it, but that girl is Ai Nanasaki, a classmate of Miya's who he next runs into (and catches a tantalising glimpse of) at a park while he's running to the nearest toilet - yes, that's right, this arc's first meeting between its soon to be lovers is pre-empted by a full bladder.  And they say romance is dead.

This caption just writes itself, doesn't it?

From here on it, the rest of the episode is pretty much a near-constant stream of coincidental meetings between Nansaki and Tachibana, be it at the school canteen, outside the swimming pool where Nanasaki is training for a tournament, or at a water fountain after Miya has scribbled something about a trip to Hawaii on her brother's head.  All of these meetings culminate in Tachibana helping Ai with her shopping, and then sharing the 500 Yen lottery ticket winnings which result (no Hawaii trip for you, Miya!) while walking on the beach - a state of affairs which was actually threatening to get a bit romantic until Tachibana started chasing litter around like an excitable puppy.  Maybe Haruka had him pegged right after all?

Anyhow, it's really a little too early to get any feelings for this arc from this first episode - Unlike Sae who annoyed me instantly, I don't dislike Nanasaki, but although I'm starting to warm to her I wouldn't go as far as to say I like her either.  At the moment there isn't really a lot to her aside from the glint in her eye when she catches Tachibana looking at her in that way, and her personality seems to be a little all over the place which makes her hard to pin down (oh stop it, I don't mean it like that).  So, this is a mediocre start to the story arc for me with little of note to speak of, but hey - At least I don't completely hate the girl involved this time around, which has to be a promising start to proceedings.