[Dreamchaser]

I've waited for this arc since we were first introduced to Sae in episode 1. Despite her shy attitue she managed to make quite an impression of me and she's been the only character, that I remember anyway, that has shown a special interest in Junichi from the start. We've seen in the two earlier arcs that Amagami is capable of creating a fairly enjoyable romance story. So at the very least I was expecting an arc that at least resembled the earlier ones. I'm also aware that Sae isn't one of the more popular girls in Amagami but I didn't think that it would result in this disappointment.

Spoiler for Episode 9:

The narrator. I have to wonder why they felt the need to include a narrator in this arc. In some animes a narrator can be a hilarious addition, like Ookami-san where I love the narrator but in this show it just doesn't work. Especially so when this is the first arc to even include a narrator, something that just makes it even more out of place. Throughout the entire episode I was bothered by the narrating and more than a few scenes would have worked a lot better without it like the wallet scene. But let's start looking at the episode itself.

I wasn't especially fond on how they introduced Sae in this arc but I suppose I shouldn't be to suprised since Junichi is pretty perverted and the creators are obviously trying to be funny throughout the episode. I did however enjoy the wallet scene and how Sae chased after Junichi to give him his wallet. The scene would have worked a lot better without the narrator but I take what I can get.

Now I should point out that I loved the bread scene in episode 1 so I was quite excited when it turned out that another cafeteria scene would be arranged. It turned out to be good and I liked that they showed how shy Sae is and how Junichi tried to get a conversation going by pelting her with questions. It was pretty funny to see Junichi try to find Sae by asking Miya if she knew her. I was expecting Miya to set Junichi and Sae up so it was nice to see how the jealousy was avoided here.

Sae being afraid of the dog was pretty funny even though it was fairly predictable that it would be a puppy or a really small dog. But since it brought out Sae's cuteness I have no problems with it. I enjoyed the talk at the coffee shop and it was nice to see Junichi actually taking the lead for once. Kaoru was pretty funny here as well, I like her when she's shown as a good friend instead of love interest.

The whole training session felt pretty awkward and it was pretty standard cheese as far as a romcom goes which was utterly disappointing and not really worth commenting on. The walk home with Miya acting as a chaperone was hardly any better with the awkward piggyback ride which the creators felt an apparent need to throw in since an ordinary walk apparently was too normal.

Miya was quite funny in this episode and I like how she's not being jealous and instead introduces Sae to Junichi and she'll probably be the one who makes Sae accept her feelings or something like that.

Sae is really cute throughout the episode. While I was a bit bothered by her voice during the other arcs it didn't turn out to annoy me in this episode. Instead I found myself enjoying it. And she obviously gets a bonus point for the fact that she rocks an amazing zettai ryouiki. I did enjoy her ED as well, it seems to be quite fitting for her character.

Miya and Sae really was the saving grace in this episode otherwise I would have been tempted to drop the entire show. It was that awful. As stated above, this show doesn't need a narrator and his comments just feel unnecessary. The drop in animation quality really didn't help either. I hope this will be fixed but I expect that the creators are being a bit lazy and are saving the money for the next arc.

I really hope that the next episode will be better since I really want this to be a good arc given that I really like Sae.