My Senpai is Annoying 03
Senpai ga Uzai Kōhai no Hanashi 03
先輩がうざい後輩の話 Episode 03

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Takeda sees Futaba give up her scarf to help a child. She begs him not to tell anyone what he saw. However, he brags on Futaba at the office. Meanwhile, the office lottery is held to see who will be Santa and hand out the gift bags of candy. Futaba is relieved when Sakurai pulls the Santa duty as Futaba had been Santa the previous year. However, the final paper in the box is also Santa and Futaba pulls it.

Futaba meets Natsumi after work to have dinner. As they admire Christmas decorations, Futaba mentions getting a gift for her senpai. Natsumi encourages her to do so. As such, Futaba goes to Mantie to buy a tie for Takeda. The following day, a frustrated Futaba gets into the Santa gear. She and Sakurai hand out the gift bags. Afterward, Futaba ponders when to give Takeda his present, but doesn’t find the right time.

That night, Futaba ponders not giving Takeda the present at all. Natsumi calls Futaba to talk about it. Eventually, Futaba decides to come to work early to leave the present at Takeda’s workstation. However, Kazama also comes in early, killing that plan. After a busy day, Takeda invites Futaba to come to a meeting with him. Afterward, the two get Christmas fried chicken at a restaurant.

Elsewhere, Kazama and Sakurai walk home and chat. Since it is Christmas night, Kazama invites Sakurai to dinner and she accepts. Meanwhile, as Futaba and Takeda walk home, Futaba finds a moment to give Takeda the present. He gives her a new scarf as a present. The next day at work, Futaba is crushed when Takeda isn’t wearing the tie. She gets frustrated when she learns he wants to make it a display and insists he wear the tie.

Thoughts/Review:

In My Senpai is Annoying 03, we get a traditional Christmas anime episode. And that is fine.

Buying/Giving the Christmas Present

The situation set up in My Senpai is Annoying 03 is a fairly common one in anime and manga. In this case, Futaba has a crush on her older senpai, which she denies. So we have the normal, “Should I or shouldn’t I?” internal debate on whether she should give Takeda a present for Christmas. Then there’s the, “What should I buy?” debate. And of course, there’s the old, “When can I give this present without others knowing?”

I don’t exactly remember when all of these Christmas moments are done in the manga. (I’ve got the manga volumes, but haven’t read most of them. I’ve seen the stuff MANTA Shiro-sensei publishes online, but don’t remember when things were done.) However, they are strung together pretty well (with a healthy dose of additional material to flesh things out).

The unique part of the episode (which was in the manga) is Takeda’s decision to turn Futaba’s present into a display item for his desk. I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard of anyone doing such a thing before.

The strange element in the episode is when Takeda gave Futaba a present. He wasn’t going through the turmoil that Futaba was when it came to giving gifts. I guess we are supposed to believe he forgot he had a present until Futaba gave him one. I’m pretty sure Takeda gave Futaba a scarf in the manga, so I need to see how the manga handled things.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Things are insanely busy with work, so let me wrap up my review with some final thoughts.

• The Sakurai x Kazama romantic elements feel stronger at this early stage than they did in the manga. I’d be OK if the anime decided to go ahead and make them a couple. Based on how things have progressed between the two to date, it will be weird if they don’t start officially dating soon.
• Whenever I watched these Christmas anime episodes, I’m reminded of how idiotic the push to kill Christmas in America is. I mean, someone might be offended at a so-called Christian holiday. In Japan, with its 1% Christian population on a good day, Christmas is just a fun, festive time to put up lights, eat fried chicken, and exchange presents. And no one is offended.

In the end, My Senpai is Annoying 03 is a fun, Christmas episode.