Amagami SS – 1st Arc
Haruka? Sae? Ai? Rihoko? Kaoru? Who to choose?!
According to many around me, I like romance animes. Which is weird. I’m a very manly man, you see. And I would hate for my manly man image to be ruined if my friends saw me getting all cutesy at the end of Kimi ni Todoke (which I really enjoyed, shut up). I think I might be part girl. Or I’m a really feminine manly man. One of the two. But because of this, I was intrigued when Amagami SS showed up. I had never heard anything about it before in my life but I safely assumed it was sugar-coated enough to make me smile, so I decided to give it a watch.
Amagami SS is setup into six arcs, twenty-four episodes in total, telling the story of Junichi Tachibana with six different girls. He’s a little depressed because he was stood up on Christmas Eve two years ago by a chick he liked. (Don’t ever do that, girls.) When he attends school, he by chance develops relationships with the six girls, eventually leading to more serious encounters ^^. Alright, fine, it’s based off a dating sim. It doesn’t mean it can’t be good! I’ll be reviewing the first arc based around Haruka Morishima, then progressing onto episode reviews! I hope you enjoy them!
Like I said before Junichi is depressed. He spends his time sleeping in his closet (which is awesome) and is constantly annoyed by his little sister, Miya (Niiiiii-niiiiiiii). After a chance encounter with Haruka Morishima (one of the hottest girls in their school :3) they start meeting again and again, leading Junichi to think he must be getting lucky. As they get to know each other, Junichi mans up, facing his fears and confesses his feelings to her. She turns him down straight away, saying she likes older guys. Junichi dies a little on the inside.
Despite Haruka turning him down, she still acts herself, flirting here and there, almost leading Junichi on. She realizes she’s being a little selfish, but Junichi reassures her that she’s better off acting normal. Little does she know, he is just trying to confess once again. He finds the right time and place and confesses once more, confusing Haruka further. She agrees to allow him to keep liking her, and receives a kiss for his efforts.
With a new found purpose, Junichi drives himself, trying to become someone who Haruka will love. Junichi, lost in his lust, whisks Haruka away so he can kiss her, just as she kissed him. But being the weirdo he is, he decides to rather kiss the back of Haruka’s knee. Amazingly, she accepts and what follows is three minutes of pure embarrassment. He pretends to be a dog, and it all gets very strange. Luckily, Haruka enjoys it, and gets all lovey dovey on him and starts to depend on him! :3
Dat Knee xD
With Christmas looming, Junichi vows that he won’t spend it alone, promising that he will spend Christmas Eve together with Haruka. As Junichi finally asks her on a date, she declines but instead invites him to meet her family. He accepts and after a grand stuff up, Haruka and Junichi end up spending the night alone together in a grand hotel. As Haruka ‘freshens up’, Junichi contemplates peeking on Haruka. She however stops him in his tracks, in tears and only a towel. She’s worried that he’s not interested in her, and that she has been trying hard to get his attention. He reassures her his feeling and they finally have that long awaited, sweet little kiss (I bet that’s not all they had), and end up living a happy life even ten years later. D’awwww~ :3
Dat Towel~
Some things that need saying:
Nii-niiiiiiiiiii… Nishishishi~
Ayatsuji obviously has a thing for Junichi :3
QQ some more, Junichi D:
~Imagination goes here~
End Thoughts: Now I don’t know about any of you, but when you first kissed someone you liked, did you kiss the back of their knee? No? Really? I thought so. The one thing the Haruka Arc did well was establish Junichi’s character. By knowing that he’s a depressed, shy boy with a troubled past (that sounds like every other anime ever…), we don’t have to be reminded at the start of every episode. For a romance like this, establishing characters seem pretty paramount. Every girl will be different (unless there are twins, in which case I’m so there), so I’m hoping they get better with each episode.
One thing I found quite pleasing was the extensive range of side characters. Usually I hate side characters. They are either there for comedic relief or offer quite blatant and stupid advice that drives the story. While there still is a little bit of that in Amagami, the help and interaction with every character is really smooth and it blurs the lines between the plot-devised characters and normal friends someone would have IRL. I screamed in fanboy joy when I saw that a lot of the characters had freakin’ awesome hair. (I judge a lot of characters on what their hair looks like. I’ll explain more below, I guess.) Haruka, Sae, Ai, Rihoko, Kaoru all have awesome hair, so that should keep me entertained for the series.
Alas, I despised that third episode. Just the sheer awkwardness of that one scene. I know that anime characters are clueless when it comes to love and Toradora and Kimi ni Todoke were no different. Those characters didn’t know anything! I guess that if these characters actually acted like normal people, the show wouldn’t be very entertaining to watch, but sometimes it goes a bit too far but I guess delving into fetishes is going to be a thing of this anime. I was cringing in awkwardness, hiding behind my hands because it was so bad. I kept looking around, seeing if anyone would see me watching some weird soft-core stuff.
We get a lot of little hints as to what the other girls will be like as well, passing conversations and small litter inserts with other characters. By the end of the series, I hope that every character has a pretty good background and all the characters actually seem believable. They all seem to know each other, so there should be some juicy cheating scandals as well! The only trouble is, it’s a Romance anime. One can safely assume what’s going to happen at every corner, it’s just a question of how they go about that. Will they pull off the cliché? All signs point to yes so far, let’s hope it stays that way.
Well, a little about myself, I guess! My name is Hato-kun! I’m an aspiring writer / director currently residing in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city! (That’s Middle Earth, for those who can’t read maps :P) This is my first appearance in the world of anime blogging, so I hope you all enjoy my style of writing! Sometimes I get a little to critical and really hate things, but I’ll try not to do that too much! I Promise! >///< I’m very much into music, films, games, anime and pretty much anything else you throw at me! So feel free to ask me anything! Hit me up on MAL and I hope I can get on well with everyone! Thanks! :3
About Hato-kun
I'm Hato, born and raised in glorious New Zealand and a self-proclaimed awesome person. I started writing here in July and I'm loving it so far! I'm Metanorn's go-to Moe Man (lol) and the games guru, so don't be shy to say hello!
POWUH: iLurker with 4 comments
hahah while reading this post i kept thinking of this song
http://nowyoureamanlyman.ytmnd.com/
POWUH: 400-499 and Manly Russians lover with 401 comments
I think that song pretty much sums up my existence xD
POWUH: iLurker with 9 comments
Ahhhh Miya is sooo irritating!! I TOTALLY understand why he’d be irritating.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
I hated Haruka in the beginning but by the end she was ok. I especially loved the Miya Cancan. Nishishishi~ xD
Welcome to the team, Hato-kun, more members arriving in the first week of August. ^^;
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 74 comments
I take all credit for showing people (Kyokai) that video. That and the Kaiba Can Can.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 58 comments
Ahh, hey there, new writer! And you’re from kiwiland, too! Don’t worry, you’ll become jaded and start to be critical and hate things soon… I mean, looking forward to seeing some more new voices here at Metanorn. I look forward to reading about romance anime from the POV of a manly man. :3~
POWUH: 400-499 and Manly Russians lover with 401 comments
Kiwi’s represent! (Or would Hobbits be more appropriate…?)Thanks for the welcomes, everyone!
POWUH: Metanorn Regular and Bassun-yo~ with 118 comments
Holy crap, you sound a lot like me :shock I’m from Wellington too and along with playing the guitar and drums, I play the piano instead of bass
And great first review btw, your writing style reminds me of a certain person I know. Can’t wait to read more of the stuff :thumb:
POWUH: 400-499 and Manly Russians lover with 401 comments
I know, it’s weird! We’ve probably run into each other before and never realized it xD I’m also a drummer as well. This is just gettin’ creepy.
Thanks!
POWUH: iLurker with 2 comments
Oh wow, I didn’t realize there were many NZ’ers on here, nevermind actually blogging. I’m in Auckland atm, great first review. I’m also a manly man with a soft spot for romance anime (Kimi ni Todoke was awesome, no need to be ashamed). I really enjoyed Amagami, watched the first 4 episodes back to back, and think I will wait till episode 8 before I start the next arc. Will keep an eye out here though. 😛
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Hato-kun, Kyokai. Kyokai said: New post on Amagami SS Haruka arc, covered by Hato-kun: http://metanorn.kokidokom.net/2010/07/amagami-ss-1st-arc/ […]
POWUH: iLurker with 17 comments
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