Amagami SS+ 09 – Sae and her bear costume

This time around we have moved on ten months from the original confession, with Sea’s arc taking place during the autumn. Sae-chan is probably my least favorite Amagami heroine; she has never quite grabbed me as much as other heroines in the series. This week, however, presented a little surprise in the shape of a far more confident Sae Nakata, who is almost unrecognizable from her previous, shy and introverted self. We see that her budding relationship with junichi has developed too, along with a substantial resume of anime costumes. The opening sequence with Sae acting like a bear was brilliant and incredibly cute. If anything, Sae’s newfound confidence, along with her appearance in the previous series in the schools couple contest has increased her popularity tremendously. It appears to have got to a point where everyone seems to be after her and are even wondering who the guy that constantly hangs around with her might be.

 

Junichi appears to have spent so much time looking at Sae, and admiring her beauty that he has little idea who she is and what she likes. What we have, therefore, is a boyfriend who doesn’t necessarily know as much about his girlfriend as he thinks he does. And his attempts to demonstrate that they are going out unfortunately ends in failure, along with being saved by Sae, the very same Sae who in the last series seemed incapable of talking to anyone except for Miya and Ai. This whole situation is made worse when Sea apparently goes off to an Omiai (arranged marriage interview) – something that is reported to him by Miya. In order to prevent his cute and adorable girlfriend being taken away, Junichi rushes off with Miya in tow to save her from the machinations of any would-be suitor. Only when he arrives, does he find out that the entire situation was created in the mind of Miya, who misheard Sae. I have to commend Miya for never failing to come to the worst conclusion and constantly being a thorn in Junichi’s side, if an entertaining one.

Seeing Sae and Junichi I together in this episode was great, especially when the misunderstanding over the Omiai had been cleared up. Their relationship is quite a innocent one, and the sight of Sae in a kimono was also brilliant, further emphasizing her appeal as a beautiful girlfriend. In a sense, Junichi’s problem, and the root of much of his unease is that Sae is from a rich family, beautiful, and now increasingly popular. He perhaps feels as if he is being left behind, despite being the one in the original arc to help Sae (although sometimes through questionable methods) to become less introverted and capable of interacting with people around her. It looks like there will be some drama next week, with Sae becoming president of the Founder’s Festival Committee, a role that will surely mean she rarely meets up with Junichi.

 

This episode was full of cute moments, from the opening sequence with Sae wearing a bear costume and being pretty adorable in the way that only Sae seems capable of. This may have been the sweetest episode of the series so far, being far sweeter than Ai’s arc, which was more focused on her loneliness what with Junichi attending Juku and her being the swimming clubs captain. In this case it was more about two people attempting to make their relationship work while the conditions around them continued to changed. Seeing Junichi’s doting attitude for Sae was heartwarming, and something that has not really been part of other arcs, often because the heroines in those have stronger wills (Tsukasa, Kaoru). It was a nice change of pace to see Junichi worrying, rather than the respective heroine, with the majority of the drama being a creation of Junichi’s mind, along with the idea that Sae may be moving out of his reach. I particularly liked the use of a narrator in this arc, which made up the majority of the dialogue, and produced some incredibly funny moments, such as narrating Junichi’s internal thoughts. Sae Nakata may be my least favorite heroine of the series, but I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, and look forward to seeing how this arc is resolved next week.