You know an adaptation is skipping around a bit when it gives you a Christmas episode in October and a New Years one in late December (with a beach episode in between).  That’s not a problem, especially when an anime elevates the experience the way Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi does.  The manga is charming but it’s basically a series of short vignettes more than a narrative.  What the anime has to do – and this is not uncommon with comedy manga – is effectively take a series of snapshots and turn them into a fluid film.  Some succeed at this better than others, and Senpai ga Uzai is one of the best in a while.

Christmas and New Year’s and how different they are in Japan from most of the West is quite important in the context of a story like this.  Christmas is, more than anything, a hook-up holiday.  You go to work like any other day, and for aspiring couples it’s an evening full of high-pressure expectations.  Families eat their KFC and strawberry shortcake and schoolkids will sometimes have a “holiday party”, and you’ll see department stores and other retailers join the cavalcade.  But as a holiday, it’s New Year’s (Oshougatsu) that reigns supreme both in spiritual and secular terms.  As such, it’s a very important event for a slice of life series like this one.

The first allusion we see to this is the bounenkai, the most important work-related aspect of Oshougatsu.  Most business will shut down for about a week centered around New Year’s Day, and the work drinking party is a de rigueur event where everyone is expected to attend and act drunk, even if they aren’t (not acting drunk is considered rude, a sign you’re not enjoying yourself).  Futaba and Harumi’s office is a pretty laid-back one by Japanese standards with a pretty chill boss, and that’s reflected in the rather moderate atmosphere we see here.

As is its wont, Senpai ga Uzai gives us a glimpse of what everybody is up to.  Grandpa is on a fishing trip (that’s gotta be goddam cold), Yuuto-kun is off to a party at a friend’s.  That’s important, as it means Souta  – who’s been invited by Touko “because Yuuto wants to see you” – will be alone with Touko on Oshougatsu, the most important day of the year.  I confess when Yuuto alerted his sister of his plans I thought he was secretly meeting up with Natsumi, especially given his somewhat furtive demeanor – or that at least he was discreetly getting out of the way for their sake.  But the former was clearly not the case, and there was no sign that the latter was either.

It’s a subtle distinction, but because of the much more reverent nature of the holiday, being together as a couple on Oshougatsu means something very different than X-mas.  For couples Christmas is about sex, New Year’s is about love – and commitment.  So this is a lot of pressure for Souta and Touko.  Futaba is spending the evening with Natsumi, Harumi having told the party he was crashing on New Year’s after a long stretch of holiday judo training.  But this show being the king of coinkydinks, of course they run into each other during their hatsumode visit on New Year’s Day.  At this point Natsumi, who obviously knows the score very well, excuses herself post haste for some fictional urgent business.

The Japanese are among the least overtly religious societies in the world, but they’re highly superstitious – and those superstitions are weighted towards Shinto and shrines.  The Omikuji – fortune – is available year-round but the one you get on hatsumode is especially important for obvious reasons.  Both Harumi and Futaba get hankichi – basically the fortune equivalent of kissing your sister – but the critical thing is both their fortunes say “the person you are waiting for is standing right next to you”.  That sweatdrop on Harumi’s cheek at the ramen shop is kind of a watershed moment in my view, because it’s probably the first indication that he actually has some awareness of the potential for his relationship with Futaba to deepen.

Souta blabbing to the reporter (of course they’d be interviewed, ROFL) is a nice reminder that he’s kind of a cheeky bugger, and it was very amusing that only Futaba saw what was going down, not Harumi.  Her knocking him out set up the big payoff for the episode, with Touko taking their relationship to the next level under cover of concussion.  With next week wrapping up an adaptation of an ongoing series I don’t expect to see any firm resolutions in the strictest sense, but Touko and Souta is already a fait accompli if ever I saw one…