English Dub Review: My Senpai is Annoying: “Valentine Symphony”

Overview: Futaba (Risa Mei) plans to make homemade candy for Takeda (Patrick Seitz) for Valentine’s Day while Sakurai’s (Jennifer AuBuchon) co-workers get to know her little brother, Yuuto. 

Our Take: Love is in the air as Valentine’s Day arrives with sweet office hijinks and, thankfully, that endearment is given to Sakurai this time around, rather than Futaba. Sakurai has been a great side character up to this point and one that is, arguably, just as strong as Futaba with her budding, playful relationship being the main factor. But not only do we get more of their cute dynamic but a bit more about her as a whole in her family and past. Yuuto, her younger brother, is a passive, kind-hearted kid who shares some sweet scenes introducing his character to Futaba, Natsumi and Takeda. But most importantly, it incites memories that are relevant in how she handles relationships now in how her popular reputation in high school has kept her from displaying affection for the amount that she so often receives. With Kazama mistaking Yuuto for Sakurai’s boyfriend, it eventually leads to Sakurai’s first real effort to get her feelings across to someone in Kazama. It also puts an end to Kazama’s hilarious befuddlement that is not without purpose beyond being funny in showing how much his feelings have grown for her. 

Nothing especially new happens on the Futaba front as far as Takeda is concerned. Their romp pretty much sticks to the same formula that we’ve seen up to this point in Futaba wanting to make homemade candy for Takeda but not wanting to show just how much she cares in the process. And, at the same time, others are able to interpret her emotions better than she thinks and give her a gentle nudge in the right direction. It’s very much the same ol’ same ol’ but with the added bonus of showing how much adorably Futaba misses Takeda when he’s away and his appreciation of her baking. Although Futaba’s Valentine’s Day may stick to the script pretty well, the well executed focus on Sakurai and Kazama’s more than make up for that.