Oh boy.
So if the featured image says anything, Masamune-kun won this week for a few reasons. Onihei and Demi-chan brought their enjoyable episodes, Hosoya came back in the former while the latter still had a lot of sensei to give us even though I thought it was the yuki-onna’s episode. Seiren came out with a very bitter-sweet conclusion which really fell flat on its face which really isn’t the Amagami way of going about the relationship. This is enough to place Tsuneki at the near bottom since even Rihoko’s arc or Sae’s arc felt better than this. Masamune-kun delivered some supreme cute and I appreciate how it didn’t take absolutely forever in getting the main girl dere for our protagonist. It’s nothing new, honestly, but hey, execution counts for these things and it’s a character archetype I like.
Onihei (3): This week’s story revolves around the case with an assassin who masks his scent with perfume and his feminine appearance obscures his true identity. After surviving multiple attempts on his life, Heizo is joined by our thief turned spy from episode 1, Kumehachi in finding the assailant. Our assassin, Hanshiro, also has his own troubles as his main goal in life is to hunt down his father’s murderer and become a fully-fledged samurai, but to make money, he works as a contract killer. The perfume he uses is not only used as a professional tactic to mask his scent and blood, but also to calm himself down from his accumulated trauma from his many murders. He becomes attached to a girl who showed him some compassion and was frequently ridiculed by the inn keepers who owned the place he stayed in. There definitely is a clearly observable theme of the past catching up to people going on but I definitely feel like this series could benefit from having longer, two-parter episode arcs for most of these. Still very enjoyable, but relatively rushed.
Masamune-Kun (4): I’ve heard enough bad things about the series as a whole and I don’t want to sing too many praises but these events basically summed up a development that can take entire series to convey in a single episode. Well, sort of. Masamune goes in for the kill in trying to push his faux-relationship further with Aki but his pushiness is ill-advised by Yoshino and she tells him to utilize some distance to have Aki come to him now. This puts into a motion a back and forth interaction of the two attempting to ignore each other after Masamune successfully avoids her which has her try to interact with him. One encounter has Masamune getting cornered by Aki, only to have her weakly admit that she doesn’t know what to do if he kept ignoring her. Masamune fails to deliver a decisive blow and runs off while Aki is left in more of a maidenly, emotional turmoil. However, this becomes a rejection from Aki when she overhears Yoshino and Masamune in the park. Aki is comforted by Yoshino and the latter affirms that Aki is falling for Masamune and she tries to deny it. Still lost in thought, Aki is narrowly saved from a traffic mishap by Masamune whose straight out of a book line strikes her right in the heart. The moment is however ruined when the girl whose car almost ran the two over shows up and hugs Masamune after she recognized him.
Seiren (4): Tsuneki and Shoichi practically avoid each other for a while until the person who sold her out for having a job is revealed to be the friend who got with the upperclassmen they were aiming for. Instead of being angry, Tsuneki takes it in stride and Shoichi decides to make the move to invite her to the beach so she could at least have fun some and “become adults” together. So we finally reach Amagami levels of romance, but Shoichi sums up the events that are about to occur very well, because as much as the two realize how they feel for each other, Tsuneki realizes something about herself that’s quite unexpected. Apparently, her job in the cafe and her cooking food for him was something that she considered as a career choice and she intends to leave Japan to study cooking abroad and she wishes to halt the relationship’s advance until they meet again. Shoichi roughly puts it “just when we got so close, we’re never more apart”. So in the epilogue, FIVE YEARS AFTER, the two meet again in the same cafe Tsuneki worked at where Shoichi decided to study to become a nutritionist and Tsuneki returns from her years studying. Suffice to say, it was disappointing but I expected something like this when the relationship barely went anywhere after 3 episodes.
Demi-chan (4): Kusakabe’s problem is pondered over by Takahashi who is quickly joined by Satou who offers her assistance as her own experiences as a demi and as a woman would be able to level with the other girls. Takahashi accepts the help but his problem with the bullies are alleviated by none other than Hikari who confronts the girls and gives them an earful. Later on, with the 4 demis all gathered, Takahashi tells them to feel free to consult either Satou or himself if they have any problems and the next small focus is given to Himari, Hikari’s little sister who is suspicious of Takahashi’s fascination with her sister and is worried that he’s only interested in her vampire half. Takahashi however gives her the most straightforward and impressive answer in his honest thoughts which has Himari try to have him to tell his spiel to her parents. Yet that is avoided due to Hikari’s text that has Himari freak out over the fact that Takahashi and Hikari hugged for whatever reason. The problem got solved real fast and Sensei definitely got the better scenes in her desperate attempts to get closer to Takahashi.
Lair of the Idle 