Overview: Nishikata (Bryson Baugus) and Takagi (Sarah Wiedenheft) visit a shrine together, have a snowman competition and discuss a secret, while Sanae (Kristi Rockroth), Mina (Maggie Flecknoe) and Yukari (Kristen McGuire) talk about what they did during their New Years break.
Our Take: With a shrine visit to ring in the new year, it funnily points out that, no matter how much he wishes for it, Nishikata will never not be teased by Takagi because fate can be one cruel mistress. To really rub salt on the wound, Takagi gets her wish granted almost immediately in agreeing with Nishikata to come back to the shrine again next year with her.
Nishikata loves to get carried away, am I right? One of the best aspects is how that always inevitably leads to his downfall with the snowman contest in making two giant ass snowballs. Takagi being the refined wine she is, makes a petite yet pretty snowman for another landslide win that is just as per usual for her in exquisite style. Helping Nishikata finish his snowman, a comment on how the snowmen look like a couple sends our favorite boy spiraling his cheeks into red.
Mina, Sanae and Yukari’s discussing their New Years vacation just highlights how uniquely quirky each is. Mina having fun communal family experiences is a good way of showing how sweet she is. Sanae focusing on running is typical in her love for it and the running joke of Yukari always loafing around is quite enjoyable in her bashfulness
One aspect of this episode is that Nishikata can keep a secret with the best of ‘em. It is cool to see a new layer, and a stand-up one at that, in how much integrity he has, even willing to go as far as to keep it a secret that Hojou disclosed to him about Hamaguchi. Takagi, despite her winning streak, becomes more refreshingly humanized when showing her own little flaws in feeling guilty for poking her nose into what Nishikata discussed with Hojou. Bringing up her daily teasing and her lack of guilt in that regard, Nishikata is just dense as all hell, despite how much of a lovable dork he is, in not understanding that Takagi does it because she likes him, the oldest trick in the book.