Amagami SS - Episode 14

While I'd love to say that missed Amagami SS terribly during its one-week hiatus, what actually seems to have happened is that I've completely forgotten the name of the girl who stars in this latest arc.  Oops... thank goodness for my own 'blog to remind me that it's all about Ai Nanasaki.

Anyhow, for at least a while it seems as though poor old Nanasaki has been forgotten about, as attention switches to rumours of a beautiful new girl working in the school library; a prospect which Tachibana has to check out of course.  It's there that he meets Ai, who is checking out a book (rather than the librarian) on maths for a make-up test she has to do.  Luckily for her Tachibana is (astoundingly) good at this subject, and so he offers to help teach her what she needs to know.

Thanks to Tachibana's characteristic childishness, Ai ends up mentioning that she's been having some trouble with her younger brother acting up before quickly changing the subject back to her own schoolwork.  This isn't enough to stop the gears within Tachibana's vapid skull from whirring into action though, and he eventually figures out (or at least hopes he has) what Ai needs to do.... only to be distracted by breasts.  I'm not going to pretend this kind of thing isn't a regular occurrence for most guys, but it doesn't exactly impress Nanasaki.

Of course Tachibana being Tachibana, he makes up for this by intruding upon Ai's swimming club so that he can deliver a more carefully prepared monologue on the female bosom, which amazingly actually seems to help his cause - I assume this only works in the world of Amagami SS though, so don't try it in your local swimming pool.  Come the end of the episode Ai is starting to fall for our male protagonist, via spending some time playing with a toy Nanasaki bought.  No, not that kind of toy - who are you, Junichi Tachibana?

After a reasonable introduction last episode, I can't help but feel the writers didn't really do anything much with Ai Nanasaki here - in previous arcs we at least had a clear idea of the girl in question's characters, but Ai still feels like a bit of a blank slate; sure, she's nice enough, but it almost seems as though we've spent too much time skipping around with other characters (and their boobs) to spend any time on her, which is a bit of a shame.  Not only that, but Amagami SS' plots seem to be getting more cringe-worthy to watch arc by arc, to the point where it's moving away from being funny to actually being slightly embarrassing to see.  Oh well, at least Ai has quite a nice voice, I guess...