Amagami SS

Looking at the chart with this summer season’s new series, was interested in “Amagami SS”, the anime adaptation of the romance simulation game “Amagami”.

Although it might quite easily be a harem romance or comedy of which there are a dime a dozen each season, won’t deny that I still do like to watch a romantic series now and then.

However, what mostly persuaded me to try “Amagami SS” was the promise the series would air in omnibus format, divided into arcs each focusing on a specific heroine from the game.

The first arc focuses on the main protagonist Junichi’s story with the elegant school idol Morishima Haruka and has been entertaining so far, with several fun and romantic scenes.

The reproach made at most harem centric series is that they nearly always dissolve into a watered down romantic plot where the main protagonist never makes any real choice between those who seek to win his heart, preventing the series from having a conclusive ending.

While I can understand the reasoning of the producers to leave open endings where no specific heroine is chosen to try and cater to all the fans of the different girls and not alienate any, it does make far too many series crumble down into mediocrity or worse.

As such, have always liked series like “Shuffle!” and “Kimikiss: Pure Rouge”. The first “Shuffle!” anime adaptation surprisingly saw protagonist Rin ultimately choose Shigure Asa.
“Kimikiss: Pure Rouge” not only choose to split the original “Kimikiss” game’s single male protagonist Aihara Kouichi into two characters, Sanada Kouichi and Aihara Kazuki, but each also has a definite pairing where they end up with one specific girl.

With the Morishima Haruka arc now certain to span at least four episodes, do wonder how long the other girls’ arcs will be and how many of them will receive a full arc dedicated to their story, considering the series is tentatively slated to run 13 episodes long.

Definitely want to see a full arc on Tsukasa, Rihoko, Ai and Kaoru. Guess though there will be no Miya arc unless Junichi would turn out to be a siscon, though Miya has been quite hilarious so far.

On a related note, had written earlier that I wasn’t sure about “Ookami-san To Shichinin No Nakama-tachi”, but must say that the past two episodes were far more pleasing than the first one. Especially liked the episode that focused on Otohime and Tarou, even though a common syrupy sweet tale, it was still a cute story.