Arc Review: Ai Get!
I honestly wanted more out of the first half, considering that this is the first time in the arcs that Junichi actually did something productive for the Founder’s Festival aside from frolicking on the stage with Sae. Lots of time and space for him and Ai to bond over the steaming pots of Oden broth, but instead we get a food challenge, a freeloader named Haruka and a drunk teacher. So the show decided to go the silly path for the first half of the episode like they always do. And I mean always.
On the other hand, the final half of the episode towards the conclusion is probably one of the more memorable confessions I’ve seen in months, and so far the best for the series. She clearly planned all of this, the cunning young lady. A perfect spot for a perfect scene to end with a perfect confession. Ai again shows some uncharacteristic embarrassment considering she openly flashed Junichi more than once already. Junichi, as generic as he is, despite his usual fantasies actually managed to hold together in the hot spring and not fall apart into a perverted delirium.
Yes, the bathing suit was a lie!
It again shows just how much Ai was in control. This arc, for the most part, has had her in the driver’s seat rather than the guy. It’s not bad of course, and after this episode it makes nearly perfect sense to me why Junichi shouldn’t have been setting the pace for this arc. I’m already willing to concede having Junichi take the helm, because Ai shows she’s perfectly capable of handling guys like him.
My favorite scene in the entire episode, and probably the arc, is the epilogue (if you could call it that) of Junichi lying on Ai’s lap like a sleepy little child. Some might call it strange, but it does represent perfectly just how their relationship is about. Ai’s been the rather mature figure in the relationship while Junichi’s sort of… the one who’s still learning, and the lap pillow does accurately portray how Junichi does rely a lot on Ai. That doesn’t mean of course that it’s a one sided relationship because, he might be an perverted idiot, but the episodes did show he can really be an active member of their pairing when he has to.
There is of course the suggestion that uh… the way he suddenly wakes up in the epilogue from a haze sort of makes me consider that the entire episode before the epilogue, hell maybe even the entire arc, was Junichi dreaming and remembering how they met, got together and fell in love. That’s not such a far fetched idea when I think about it, and actually puts more depth into the final scene rather than simply him falling asleep on her lap. It perhaps shows that the story we had witnessed was more a recollection than an active watching, and maybe sort of explains all the ridiculous scenes in the arc as… tricks his mind is playing on him.
Maybe.
A litte late!
with that Santa Claus robe!BTW who is the girl all the way to the left of her? 
I didn't think about that but come to think of it it can be the case. I like this theory 
watching them.
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