Amanchu!

Originally from a big city, Futaba Ooki spends most days cataloguing her life through pictures on her phone. Upon moving to a seaside town, she gazes out over the vast expanse of sea and quickly becomes captivated by its endless possibilities. Unbeknownst to Futaba, her quiet contemplation catches the attention of local diving enthusiast Hikari Kohinata. Finding herself in the same class as Futaba the next day, Hikari is drawn to her quiet and shy demeanor and affectionately nicknames her Teko, sparking a tender friendship.

Struggling to adapt to the change of pace in her life, Futaba finds herself strung along by Hikari's vast energy and passion for diving. Together, they join the school diving club, led by their homeroom teacher Mato Katori. With Hikari by her side, Futaba works to earn her diving certification while experiencing new friendships and possibilities.

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Adaptation:	Amanchu!
Sequel:	Amanchu!: Yakusoku no Natsu to Atarashii Omoide no Koto, Amanchu! Advance
Side story:	Amanchu!: Upyopyo Dive Tsukkome! Umi no Sekai!

Hazuki, Erino
Japanese

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Kaneko, Hirotaka

Producer

Itou, Shousei

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Fujishiro, Atsushi

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Yamazaki, Asuka

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Opening Theme

"Million Clouds" by Maaya Sakamoto

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Ending Theme

"Futari Shoujo (ふたり少女)" by Tekopikari (Ai Kayano & Eri Suzuki)

Reviews

Aug 30, 2021

RESOLVING_POWER

Recommended

I watched Amanchu (both seasons and the OVA). Here are my thoughts:

For those unaware, this anime's source manga has the same mangaka as the more well-known Aria series.

The anime is (superficially) focused on diving but I feel that the activity is just a suitable allegory for the true character-driven story. Superficially it's a SoL show, but it is steeped heavily in romance. I was not expecting yuri romance going into this but I welcome it with open arms.

Romantic. So romantic. The two main characters have great chemistry. Romance is probably the strongest aspect of this anime. There are so many elegantly crafted romantic scenes.

Very nice ... character designs, especially the faces. I like the school outfits -- they're unique (although apparently an homage to Aria?). Actually all of the outfits in the series are really cute.

Good character animation sometimes. Not consistent but it is good when it counts like during close-up scenes. Some episodes are more sloppy than others in this regard. The cinematography during some scenes can be quite nice.

Nice setting. Nice atmosphere. Very relaxing. Soft and sweet. I can practically smell the salty ocean air as I watch this anime. Setting and atmosphere are definitely strong aspects of this show. Very immersive. The setting is the classic coastal Japan that you've probably seen before, but nevertheless it is executed very well.

The OST is decent, depending on your tastes. It mainly consists of acoustic string instruments. It fits the setting well. All the OP and ED songs are good too. Generally speaking, I liked the voice acting of the two main characters, although sometimes Hikari has some mildly annoying quirks. The script can be surprisingly thoughtful sometimes, particularly during more-emotional scenes.

The two redhead sibling characters are kind of weak and drag down a lot of scenes they're in. They are somewhat unlikable and often used for unfunny humour. I found myself dreading their appearance on screen. These two characters are probably the most significant flaw of the anime. That said, they don't really soak up that much screentime, so this is a fairly minor criticism. Generally speaking, Amanchu is at its best when it is focused exclusively on the two main characters.

Overall the romantic aspects of the anime are terrific but strictly as a SoL it is comparatively weaker (although still good in this respect too). The diving scenes are pretty nice, as are the various activities around town, but many scenes are steeped in some kind of underlying character-related drama, so it often doesn't really function as a typical comfy SoL. This is more than fine with me and I really enjoyed the anime, but it's important for the viewer to set their expectations accordingly.

One 'complaint' I have about the anime is that it introduced a few new characters during the latter half of season 2. These characters seemed really promising to me and it was somewhat disappointing that there wasn't enough time to give them more attention. This is a perennial issue with manga adaptations though. Things are rarely tied up neatly -- Amanchu is no exception to this. The introduction of these promising new characters late in season 2 impeded the feeling of finality I might have felt at the end of the anime. On the other hand, this has also amplified my desire to read the manga. This kind of thing comes with the manga-adaptation territory. It would be more of an issue for an anime that is more plot-heavy than Amanchu. It's also worth noting that the ending of season 1 was handled really well and left me feeling very satisfied.

My overall rating: 8/10
Some of the best girl-girl romance I've seen in a while, and it's wrapped up in a nice soft and relaxing atmosphere. Very pleasant.

This show seems to be underappreciated/underviewed by fans of shoujo ai. If you like yuri romance then I strongly recommend watching this. On the other hand, someone who doesn't enjoy yuri romance would probably find this anime slightly boring, which might explain the show's lukewarm reception.

I should mention that, at the time of writing this, I have not yet seen or read Aria. I expect that I'd enjoy it though.

I haven't been able to find the specials for this anywhere so unfortunately I have not seen them yet.

ADDENDUM: I was not aware of the yuri/hetero controversy when I wrote this. I have since been informed. Doesn't change my opinion of the anime though.

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Sep 7, 2018

Foxdude69

Recommended

Amanchu! is the story of a teenager called Futaba. She looks like a supermodel but she suffers from social anxiety. Futaba recently moved to a seaside town and there, she quickly befriends an apparently mentally handicapped girl who goes by the nickname of Pikari who, throughout the series, teaches the protagonist that the secret to a happy life is to stop stressing about stuff and enjoy the little everyday things.

The series clearly wants to get the message across that regardless of the fact that someone might look utterly braindead to you, you still might be able to learn quite a bit from that person and ...

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Oct 13, 2016

AoiHonoo

Mixed Feelings

Looking for an anime about a group of girls (and one boy) going through school and club life with cartoonish facial expressions tossed in and a pinch of yuri subtext? This one is for you. Looking for anime about scuba-diving, along with all its splendor and trials? You may want to look elsewhere.

Amanchu is a very laid back and easygoing show. The series will really show off it's well detailed scenery along with soft music to really set a relaxing atmosphere. The story focuses on protagonist Futaba Ooki and her companion Hikari Koihinata, along with their sempai a pair of ... twin siblings and their homeroom teacher/club advisor. Each episode contains it's own story, even two sometimes, not building an overlying plot in the background. Yep, it's really just the cast going through high school, and learning important life lessons over time. Futaba herself is adjusting to moving to a new area and adjusting to going to new school and new people after leaving her old home and the friends she made in her previous school behind.

Through Hikari's persuasiveness and pushiness, Futaba decides to join the scuba-diving club. In the beginning episodes, the viewer is gradual introduced to the know how and basic info about the gear involved, the buddy system, getting a license, and measuring your air volume by depth and pressure of the water. You'd think it would continually keep expanding this, but it doesn't. Why? Because Futaba can't swim. Around halfway in, Futaba couldn't pass her pool course exam because the club advisor, along with the viewer just found out about this very key detail. Most of the second half is dedicated to more slice of life episodes with the characters just doing things with Futaba learning how to swim mostly offscreen.

And the shift is especially egregious with how out of focus the scuba-diving becomes afterwards, especially due to how it just cuts off. Even in the first half, Futaba wasn't learning about diving every episode. She really only starts in episode 3 when she first signs up with Hikari, and it continues in the next episode, but episode 5 was dedicated to meeting their upperclassman. And episode 6 is the face-palm moment when we learn she can't swim. The club still gets together, but they aren't going to do any activities until she can swim, switching the focus around and changing POV to different characters, telling multiple stories.

The main point of criticism is how this issue was never brought up before. You'd expect she reveal this fact the very first time she's expected to enter water. Also, it should have been the first thing the advisor would check for before starting to teach her. The advisor had the perfect opportunity to ask when she was drilling Futuba on diving basics when she and Hikari just applied to join, but didn't. This was either something that wasn't planned in advance and added on the spot, or was planned for the sole attempt at really shallow and cheap humor. On top of that, to make sure Futaba's first experience at diving is the finale, the episode before it was about taking care of a stray kitten, being after the one when she passed her pool exam.

Ai Kayano did an excellent job voicing Futaba. She conveyed the character's shyness and timidness really well.... to an annoying degree. I give special mention to her role, because it really needed a specialized care in handling.

Amanchu starts getting really preachy during the second half. It was preachy before in the first half, but the second half is when it really goes all out. There is no subtlety in it either; expect everything to be spelled out for you. "Don't be afraid to move out of your comfort zone", "How you view things is important; you can spin any negative into a positive", "Any setback can turn into an opportunity", "While school is important, the answers to life aren't in a textbook to be studied from", "It's okay to abuse your younger twin sibling"... wait, no, ignore that last one. Each episode will take every chance it can get to hammer it's life lessons into your head.

I was enjoying Amanchu at first, but got increasingly frustrated in the second half. In the end, it became something I just wanted to finish. The tone was really lighthearted, and the atmosphere was relaxing. Still, my main problem was how the series executed it's themes very blatantly. Someone would say something meaningful, and the target of it would be completely moved. The problem was that it happened so frequently that the impact was lost fast, and it just became annoying the rest of the time. Another point is that the cartoonish facial expressions were used entirely too often, often times killing the moment of important scenes.

Also, I couldn't get invested in the characters (especially not Ai), due to there not being any overarching plot or stakes. Both Futaba and Hikari are very hit-or-miss characters. You'll either find them likeable or very annoying for different reasons. Futaba takes her role as audience surrogate and main POV character to an extreme where we will know her thoughts about everything in painstaking detail. Her shyness is ridiculously exaggerated; expect her to be embarrassed at the slightest thing and stammer a lot. Oh, she'll also have many long-winded monologues that will sooner or later put you to sleep. Hikari is the usual cheerful girl who can't stand still. Expect her to make random noises most of the time either by mouth or whistle, and generally act like a little kid instead of a teenager.

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