When Kaoru said she was in The Hustler, she wasn’t talking about the magazine …
Hello, I’m your friendly neighborhood Shinmaru here from UNMEI KAIHEN! ExecutiveOtaku is away on a short vacation this weekend, so he kindly asked me to pinch hit for him with this week’s Amagami SS. Only too happy to help out — treat me well, everyone! 
This week’s Adventures of Junichi’s Courtship is decidedly less, er, insane than previous installments, but it makes up for that by being fairly cute. And that approach actually works in this case. The Haruka arc set up expectations for all sorts of kinky madness to go down, but really, Junichi had a completely different relationship dynamic with Haruka than he does with Kaoru.
Haruka’s the older, more experienced woman (never mind that she isn’t much older than Junichi); on top of that, Haruka has a different personality than Kaoru. They’re both playful, but Haruka is more spontaneous and prone to try exciting new experiences. Junichi had to step up his game in a completely different way with Haruka than he should with Kaoru. That’s why, while hilarious, the belly button kiss in last week’s episode feels juuuuuust a bit off, like it’s there because the fans are expecting crazy things after the Haruka arc. To be fair, it at least left an impression with Kaoru!
This week feels more right, however. Instead of being a Love Daredevil, Junichi is a Love Detective, sniffing out Kaoru’s whereabouts based on the clues and hints of their friendship over the years. He picks out a couple of dopey places to scope out (“Hey, Haruka said she likes that limited edition ice cream one time! Maybe she’s at the convenience store!”), but his heart is in the right place the whole time, and it serves the dual purpose of showing how close Kaoru and Junichi have been over the years. Have to say, though, Junichi is already whipped before this relationship has started. Going shopping for clothes with Kaoru? Really?? Every character in this series is going to trick Junichi into looking at clothes at some point.
Hopefully Junichi is not doing what it appears he is doing.
Meanwhile, the whole issue with Kaoru’s mom stepping out with another man is handled in a surprisingly down-to-Earth way. (Hasn’t really been said yet, but with the way Kaoru reacts at first, I’d say her mother is a widow rather than a divorcee. The whole “surviving on our own” thing is one reason to be angry, but she probably would not be this upset unless she had some great memories of her dad.) Kaoru’s initial reaction isn’t tough to understand: She’s still a kid, and she’s built up a certain comfortable dynamic with her mom. A sudden change like that can be weird and upsetting; it would be easy to say I would not react the same way in her shoes, but I don’t know.
With Junichi at Kaoru’s side, however, the funk does not last too long, although I doubt it is completely over yet. There will probably be one final hump (pun not intended) for Kaoru and Junichi to climb before everything falls into place for our latest couple. But Junichi gets Kaoru through things with some common sense and just being there for her in general. Really, by the time Junichi gets to the restaurant, it seems that Kaoru is mostly over everything; all that time alone gave her an opportunity to think everything out, and Junichi provides someone to whom she can let everything out and feel better afterward.
The little cute touches in that scene are nice, especially the one where Kaoru leans against Junichi when they sit down together. That’s the action that said to me, “OK, she’s pretty much done with this. Ready to move on!” Don’t want to understate Junichi’s involvement here, however. He’s really one smooth customer here, isn’t he? Able to help Kaoru through a small emotional crisis, and then he makes a quick move on her without coming off like a total pig taking advantage of someone in an exploitable moment. Damn, he deserves to brag to himself after that one! Check and mate.
Junichi never misses an opportunity to check out the majestic view.
Overall, a surprisingly enjoyable episode despite not being totally batcrap crazy and/or perverted. Maybe it is just because I am a huge sap, but I like the natural way Junichi and Kaoru are being drawn to each other based on their friendship. It’s a bit awkward and strange to think about for them, at first, and both are still having slight reservations; however, they clearly have something, and the ol’ Christmas Eve magic is just the spice needed to make that chemistry come together. Definitely looking forward to the climax, if you catch my drift.
12 Comments
Welcome, comrade! Not been following this series (even I heard about that behind-the-knee kiss, though!), but I enjoyed your post.
If the roles were all reversed in terms of the genders, then I’d probably enjoy this show/ epi too, sounds like there are some sweet slice-of-life type moments, as well as the more kinky kind, lol. Anyways, nice to have you here.
Thanks!
I was definitely more into the romantic moments a bit more than expected. Am I actually … legitimately enjoying Amagami now?!
Nice to see you branching out Shinmaru, unless you’ve actually abducted ExecutiveOtaku as the first step in a devious scheme of complete anime blog domination XD
Anyways I liked this ep/arc an awful lot. I always felt a bit cold towards Haruka and her “crazy” ways, she came across a bit emotionless and artifical, pretty much what you would expect a character from a dating-game to be like, ie fanboy material.
Kaoru’s definitely more balanced out and human in personality so her and Junichi’s relationship is progressing quite naturally instead of a series of random kinky scenes. I hope the future arcs are as enjoyable (particularly looking foward to Rihoko’s storyline).
“Hopefully Junichi is not doing what it appears he is doing”
NII-NII NO-NO!!!
Shh, don’t broadcast my plan everywhere!
Yeah, I get what you mean about Haruka. I enjoyed that arc more for the craziness than the romance, because Haruka felt like such an artificial production. Not that Kaoru is an entirely natural character (I don’t think the writing in this series is that good lol), but I like the dynamic of her relationship with Junichi more than Haruka’s. But maybe I’m biased because Haruka x Junichi is a bit out of the norm.
I can’t help but notice this is the reverse of Karou’s rule during last Christmas. She was there for him then, and he is there for her during her crisis. I guess that is what makes this episode so heartwarming for me. Yes, I am strange that I liked this more than stomach kissing or kneepit licking.
You have a good point there. Didn’t think about that, myself!
Intruder alert! Intruder Alert!
Release the dogs!
I enjoyed this episode, and yeah I agree with you, it’s nice to see them develop this relationship slowly. Some people have been speculating that they might just end up as friends, I hope that’s not the case, but in this case, they don’t need a kinky Haruka esque relationship. This relationship seems to be one of those “always fighting, but still loving” kind of relationships. or at least I hope so.
Not the hounds!
I could kind of see them ending up as just friends, but the romantic in me wants to see them get together, of course.
Just got around to this episode now, but good job covering for me while I was away.
I have kind of mixed feelings about the episode. On the one hand I liked that it didn’t go further into the oddly added kinky stuff like last episode, something that was appropriate in the Haruka arc but not so much here. On the other hand it kind of felt like the events in this episode were just a bridge for transitioning into a more serious tone. Which would be fine in a longer series but, depending on how the last episode goes, may have taken longer than necessary. Everything is set up for next time though, so as long as they pace that well there shouldn’t be an issue.
Definitely agreed about that moment where Kaoru sat up against Junichi, that really was the moment of the episode for me. That and when they exchanged that look in the hallway that embarrassed Junichi, which was just perfect.
Yeah, I suppose part of this episode’s execution depends on where the story goes in the next episode. I’m interested to see what will happen, since it seems as if most of the drama was taken care of in this episode.
While Junichi gets on my last nerves with his perverted thoughts/kisses he was really…nice this episode. He keeps referring to her as a bad friend yet he knew where to look for her. He remembered the thing about the candy which was said in passing. And even though Junichi didn’t know how to make the situation better he told Kaoru he was there for her. Oh and gave her a just thinking of you gift. Junichi….was almost a normal human boy today.
I do think that too much time was taken from their relationship with all this lost/mom drama. Next week will probably be super rushed as a result.
I dunno, I think the momma drama was used well enough to further establish how close Junichi and Kaoru are. She knows she has someone who will be by her side no matter what, and he knows that he cares enough about Kaoru to go to any length for her.
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