Amagami SS+ plus - Episode 3

With Ayatsuji's story out of the way, we go back to the future for episode three of Amagami SS+ as Rihoko Sakurai gets her turn in the spotlight - an important moment for this series given how poor Rihoko was left hanging in a one-sided crush by the original series.

Rejoining her story a few months later, it's clear that nothing has changed in this regard - Rihoko is now tea club president with Junichi serving as vice-president, but aside from that it's business as usual between the two of them as they hang out and have a decent enough time time, with Tachibana clueless as to his friends feelings for him despite the fact that basically everyone else has clocked on to it.  Still, with Rihoko reminiscences about her and Junichi's youth and the latter's suggestion to rekindle those days gone by, it seems that our protagonist isn't entirely resistant to Sakurai's feminine chest... charms!  I mean feminine charms.

Is there any way out of this rut for Rihoko?  An opportunity presents itself as Junichi relays that his parents are away from home, leaving him and Miya to eat nothing but watermelon and white noodles - not exactly the balanced diet a young boy needs.  Thus, Sakurai offers to come over that evening to cook a meal, an offer graciously accepted by Junichi, albeit out of desperation for food rather than anything else.  With Rihoko persuaded by her former tea club fellows to serve him up some eel and lotus root, she seems all set for an entertaining evening - at least, she does until a mutual classmate of her and Junichi looks likely to put paid to everything...

Given her rotten treatment first time around, I have high hopes for the lovely Rihoko in this story arc - for such a sweet girl to be ignored by her crush was a huge let-down in Amagami SS (and I know I'm not the only one of that opinion), so with any luck this second attempt will go far better, and this hope alone is making for a more interesting viewing experience already than Ayatsuji's arc in my opinion.  That said, this opening gambit to said arc was pretty slow going, eased by the effortless dynamic between Rihoko and Junichi (fat jokes and all) and the fact that the former is an unspectacular yet lovable character who you can't help but root for.  There's some drama ahead, but for now this was a fun enough effort to get its story moving forward.