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Forum - View topicShelf Life - The Amagami SS Collection
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5514 Location: Iscandar |
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I guess it is a good thing that I never read synopses on the back of boxes. I watched the first 4 episodes of Amagami a while back and actually liked what I saw, but I hate the whole "multiple routes" approach. Kanon (2006) is the way to do a multiple routes anime.
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3019 |
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I'm pretty sure that at one point Amagami SS would have made it into my "top twenty anime" had I been making a list. I've definitely cooled on it since then, but it's still one of my go-to romance shows to recommend to newer anime fans.
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2487 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Those Key/Visual Art’s shows will try to finesse the multiple routes thing as best they can, but I still come away frustrated when we have to put Obvious Destiny Girl on hold for 15 episodes so we can run through the other routes (yeah, I’m talking about Clannad). In the end, I think I have the most respect for adaptations that can commit to the best route and let the rest fall by the wayside, like the Clannad movie or Rumbling Hearts (and possibly Air, though I don’t know enough about the source VN to say for sure), though I’m obviously in the minority here, because the one-and-done approach to routes is almost unheard of now. When you have to show all the routes, as in Amagami SS, it seems like instead of the anime being an end in itself, it’s more like a souvenir for fans of the VN. EDIT: Thinking about it more, Amagami SS kind of sounds like it has the same approach as Diamond Daydreams, an anthology of little two-episode romance stories (and obviously aren't terribly deep at two eps each). Last edited by invalidname on Mon Nov 13, 2017 1:40 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5525 |
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I wish someone would pick up Iron-Blooded Orphans for a UK release.
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Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4634 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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The series is quite a mess, but it is a fun one.
But you short change our hero a little bit. The truth is, he IS different depending on the girl. It's not a huge difference but ultimately the character he is in each route would not choose the heroine from a different route and the other heroines wouldn't choose him. The stories even seem to switch slightly back and forth between his S and M tendencies. In one he teases the girl, in the next he's the stuttering apologist to the dominate girl. Even his sister changes- sometimes she's a clingy jealous little sister leery of the girls around her Nii-nii and other stories she's joyfully playing match-maker. And one other interesting thing- no matter the route- Junichi is always just a little bit of a freak. Whether it's elbow/belly licking or getting his cosplay fetish on, he's always just a little bit. I find the series refreshing for the above differences. Similar shows like Photo Kano and last year's semi-sequel, Seiren, miss these points and though the girl choices in those can vary, the guy is always the same extreme milquetoast and the only difference is which our fickle hero decides to persue. And unlike the usual harem where the girls who aren't picked basically end up as very young unfulfilled "old maids" who can't have the only choice given to them- Amagami sets up the stories that the girls who aren't picked merely go on with their life. |
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H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
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I would agree. He's not extremely different, but he's different enough in each storyline so that the other girls aren't a possibility. As to the overall quality I think its really good. They're little short stories rather than full series. I had no problem with the show, except I found one character particularly annoying and disliked that arc accordingly. When Seiren aired I hoped for similar quality and was quite disappointed. Amagami is good quality. |
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BlueAlf
 Posts: 1555 |
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H. Guderian, Spastic Minnow, I agree with you guys.
I also mostly agree with James (especially with his sweets analogy), but I disagree about his thoughts on the MC. Amagami SS's biggest appeal to me was actually Junichi himself. He seemed normal at first glance, but he's actually far from it. He's... shameless (and I've never seen another MC quite like him) but in a sorta good way. I also agree how he also develops in different ways depending on which girl he ends up with. I think Photo Kano tried doing the same thing Amagami SS did, but in a different way. They generally had the right idea, but things didn't work out. Its shorter episode run certainly didn't help. As for Seiren, man, it hurts to compare Seiren with Amagami SS. Nevertheless, don't watch Amagami SS for the romance. Watch it for the weirdness and resolutions. |
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Blackwolf0925
 Posts: 67 |
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For me Amagami SS, and its sequel are one of my favorite anime Romance animes. I used to enjoy harem anime when I was younge but as I grew older my taste in harem tend go for the dislike more often than not. The reason being is that I always felt that the lead always got the guy. Lo and behold I find an anime where all these girls either are with him or are just friends/classmates of him. I found this to be very refreshing as a long time anime viewer.(having Ai Yori Aoshi being one of my first watch anime.)The MC even had subtle changes through out each arc. I enjoyed this series so much that I actually own both dvd's, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4161 |
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I was thinking about this part of Junchi's character prior to reading the review itself. But then got to this point:
...and then I was immediately reminded of Infinite Stratos which has a written main character from a Light Novel series but has no personality. I can certainly list off quite a few more characteristics over Junichi than over a number of other romance leads... from his personal fetishes to the type of girl's he's attracted to how much he was hurt over his previous romance experience which itself is very plot specific and gets resolved in its own way. The Infinite Stratos guy? His thin skinned armor has more character than he does and would have made an awesome metaphor if the guy himself took after it a bit. At all. Look, if his armor took after him, it'd had an infinity energy gauge. Not all stories are equal in Amagami SS... I'm pretty sure one of them doesn't even end... but I do recommend watching the series for at least three of the girls as well as the bonus episodes... though one of the bonus episodes only works if you watch the whole thing. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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I really like Amagami. It was sweet and satisfying in the best possible way when I watched it. I think the timing had a lot to do with that, but I've rewatched it since, and it still remains as enjoyable as it did the first time. It was the first dating-sim series I ever saw that didn't either go the harem route, nor pick a dedicated girl. And up to that point, the series's that I had seen were all so non-committal that I was just incredibly frustrated by anime romance in general.
This was only a couple of years into hardcore fandom for me, so I certainly had much to learn, but coming into Amagami, a show that gave me, a person with apparently out-of-the-norm personality preferences, a series where the girl I liked best could actually have her moment and the series fully committed to their romance during their arc! Holy molly! It was the greatest thing ever! It is always genuinely a fresh breath of air when a romance actually comes to fruition. I've mellowed a lot on my expectations and I definitely appreciate a well written romance that is more interested in drama, rather than getting two characters together, but it's still really nice to have one of those every once in a while too. I also do genuinely enjoy most of the cast. All of the girls had something that made them charming in their own way and Junichi wasn't so bad himself(amusing that he's voiced by a girl though). |
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