Amanchu! Advance

Some people count sheep, I count Amanchu's moe faces. Without a doubt, the latter is more efficient when it comes to falling asleep, and when I do, I sleep like a baby. No, I do not mean that I wake up every 2 hours, cry, shit myself and suck titties. I mean I sleep without worries, wearing some sort of moe face myself, and it's great.

This second season is much like the first one in terms of story. Slice of life silliness, school time and scuba diving. Everything there needs to be for the series to work. No one really cares what the story ... is so let's focus on things that make this show good.

Our characters are the epitome of kindness and happiness, but just like last time: never too much so. If there was any problems with Aria, it was how overly sweet it could be at times, making it almost nauseating to watch over and over again. The author has fixed this with Amanchu, making the whole cast well-balanced.

The art is amazing. According to anonymous 4chan source, the series has had over 1200 different moe faces by far. The nature's backdrop alone is soothing to watch, and whenever there is animated water present, I can almost smell the fresh air. It's hard to believe that J.C. Staff can create something like this.

The sounds are the best part of this show. I have seen the first season something like 6 times, 4 times practically eyes closed. You don't really need to even watch it to see it. The music is beyond calming and voice acting is almost ASMR. If there ever was an anime that needed to be watched while wearing headphones, it is this one right here.

When it comes to enjoyment, Amanchu has given me a lot. Sometimes I put it to play in the evening before I go to bed, and it helps me to relax and fall asleep. It's rare for any series to do this to me. Non Non Biryori and Nichijou are practically the only others that give me this. Amanchu is and probably will always be my favorite healing anime.

Oh, my dear Amanchu!, what happened to you? I don't remember you being so messy. I don't remember you being so unrelatable. And I certainly don't remember you being so mediocre.

Amanchu! Advance is really a textbook example of how sequels should not be made.

Before we start, it is important to express what does the original Amanchu! mean to me. I've always been a fan of Slice of Life. However, it is always very hard to find a SoL with good characters, healing atmosphere and, most importantly, enough entertainment value. Amanchu! had all of those and to this day I consider it to be the third ... best anime of this genre I've seen. So, you can guess that I was really looking forward to its second season. And it hurts me to say that it left me disappointed.

The daily stories of Amanchu! were one of the things that made the original series so good. If they were dramatic, comedic or both, they always managed to be impactful and brought a message with themselves. In which we get to the first huge problem of Amanchu! Advance. That it refrains from doing things the same way as before. The first hit comes very early on, with an episode about dreaming and flying on a broom. Oh no, Amanchu!, ghost stories are really not the way to go. Sadly, the show doesn't think so and decides to continue. Which is a decision that comes back to haunt it immediately. The dream stories are not very interesting, drag on for a huge amount of time and the fact that everything is a dream also makes them feel less touching, meaningful and nowhere near as impactful as before. In comparison to the daily stories it presents at the start, they are a huge dropout, both quality and entertainment wise.

This is not where things end however. The character department is also a place the creators wanted to add in. And so we are presented to a couple of more and less important newcomers to go along our original core five. First of them is Kokoro-chan, a tsundere-ish kid trap... *sigh* Do I need to say more? ; Actually, let's keep this unbiased; Kokoro is a beautiful case of a character who gets a lot of screen time yet ads absolutely nothing to the show. His only role, despite appearing in most of the episodes, is to fall in love with Pikari and act like a kid. What I always liked about the characters of Amanchu! is that they all had their purpose. They were helping Teko with her diving training or they had their own little moments here and there. If Kokoro hasn't been in the show, literally nothing would've changed. Hell, he doesn't even bother telling others that he's a boy, even though he knows that everyone thinks of him as a girl. If you really had to add a childish character, as if Pikari herself wasn't childish enough, you really could've done a better job. Like with the other new character Kodama, Pikari's little sister. She has layers and overall felt like she brought a bit of common sense to the group, even though she appeared very little sadly. If she got all the screen time the show wasted on Kokoro, maybe I wouldn't be writing this review.

Another area I didn't expect would happen is the yuri-bait feeling. As far as I remember, the first season didn't have any moments that would bait you into shipping characters. Because of that, it remains a huge mystery to me why do characters suddenly battle for Pikari's heart now. Why not leave them just friends? Do the people behind this seriously believe that the cringe-worthy dialogues about who loves Pikari more add anything to the show? Well, they technically could. But not when you know that nothing is ever going to happen. You know that nobody's going to ever express their feeling, you know that they'll stay just friends in the end. Then why all this battling for Pikari's heart? I just don't get it. The yuri-bait cliche which arose in the last couple of years is really starting to annoy me. And that is coming from a guy who normally very much loves yuri.

It's also important to talk about the satisfaction factor this series brings. Because of all the things mentioned above, the original Amanchu! is one of the most satisfactory shows I've had the pleasure of seeing. At the end of every single episode I had a wide smile on my face and was genuinely happy. With Advance, not so much. There are a couple of episodes that focus on everyday's life, and these are all very good. However, as I said, the ghost episodes in particular feel very weird and not like something you can relate to anymore. Their purpose in general is very questionable, as I don't think there is any particular reason they were thought up in the first place. That as a whole brings the satisfaction factor of the show much lower than I wanted it to be.

The animation and sound both stayed very much the same as in the first season. Character drawings are still very good, though I think they used chibi cheap faces way too much this time around. Backgrounds are still good, everything looks clean and sometimes it has very nice shots. I could very well be lying right now but I think the OST stayed almost the same as in the first series. Which is not a problem, because it is still generally very good and atmosphere fitting. Other than that, everything good.

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Believe me when I say that I have nothing against adding or changing things for the greater good. I really don't. However, why did the creators decided to add elements that were destined to worsen the show lies beyond me. It hurts me to say, but Amanchu! Advance is a failure of a sequel. It's the same show deep in heart, but the things around changed so much you have to dig way deeper than before to find its real value. And that's a shame, especially for a small-audience show like Amanchu!.

Note: This covers the whole animated franchise up until 2023.

Unlike with Amaama to Inazuma I was fully prepared to tear Amanchu to pieces but I decided that wasn’t fair so I rewatched what I watched back in 2017 about it, and continued with the sequel. And I’m glad I did that because the show wasn’t at all like I thought I remembered it to be. Learned a good lesson to rewatch the show you are going to talk about in order to talk about it correctly, for a second time.

Anyways my first impressions about Amanchu! back to six years ago was that it was a ... plotless, super slow, melodramatic, tryhard moe show with no explorations of its themes and elements, constant changes between a sad and a tryhard happy mood, with one of my most hated protagonists of all time that was constantly crying, along with one of my most hated co-protagonists of all time. With an ova sequel that was a completely melodramatic throwaway episode about a high school girl accepting that her friend now has more friends. What do I think about it now?

First of all, Amanchu! is as plotless and slow as any moe slice of life out there really, in fact, it has more plot and progression than most I’ve seen, in the second episode it already introduces the scuba diving which is the main element in the show, and from there it progressively explains more about it, and it also introduces new secondary characters and a teacher that are part of the club. The main idea behind all this is to show how the protagonist, Futaba, grows from a crybaby with first world problems to…well, not that, as she learns to dive and not be dependent of her new friend and co-protagonist Hikari for everything, or at least that’s the intention.

The show is certainly not tryhard moe but it is however tryhard funny, which to me usually misses the mark in any show or movie or whatever that tries that. Amanchu! desperately makes its characters overreact to every little thing changing its arstyle to a chibi one as well as changing the faces of everyone in order to make you laugh. Some will find it funny, some don’t, I belong in the second group. And it’s not a problem really, because unlike what I thought in 2017, Amanchu! is a completely lighthearted and relaxing show (or at least that’s what it amounts to) that shouldn’t be taken all too seriously, it’s not that it presents stakes and serious themes and then ruins it with constant comedy as plenty of anime and the MCU do.

Sure, Futaba sighs a lot but she’s not sad or crying as I thought she did, in fact she only cries twice in the whole show, one even happens in a flashback. The reason why she feels so down at first is because she moved from another place and is overwhelmed by the completely different new town and people, and misses her old home and friends. Something which I thought was stupid back then, but can now understand and empathize (although not relate) with now, especially considering she’s just a teenager, speaking with teenagers from different countries during these six years helped me a lot with that.

Also the teacher who I remembered being super childish, in fact is not, as she has some moments where she acts like an adult and gives advices to the teen characters of the show. Sure she is happy and having fun a lot of the times, but since when is that a problem? Being an adult doesn’t mean you have to be serious all the time, although this may vary depending of the place, country, culture and people around I guess.

There are however issues within the show. Futaba seems to have a bit of a social anxiety going on with her, yet because of the lighthearted nature and tone of the show, it comes off more as her being extremely shy instead. Also, although there is some exploration in the show, it is true that the series reaches a point where it has nothing else to show and thus, instead of showing the protagonist learning to swim and improving herself, it proceeds to have five episodes about typical slice of nothingness happening that lots of slice of life anime have. Is during these episodes when the pacing and themes go to die and the characters fool around doing anything but talking about diving or swimming, including the teacher. And it doesn’t even lead to a satisfying conclusion in the last episode, since despite all the things Futaba learns in the season, she still needs the help of everyone around her, especially Hikari.
I mean I guess she couldn’t do it perfectly at first try, but what was the point of the whole show then?

As for characters, I still include Hikari within my most hated characters of all time, nothing very wrong with her in the way she is written I guess, she is the typical happy and very energetic character in a slice of life show. It’s just that she’s the reason why I had an issue with the show in the first place, she fools around all the time doing silly faces and trying hard to seem funny, that I found her irritating and wanted to kick her head open instead. I remember back when the show came out and people were debating if she is autistic and a proper representation of people from the spectrum, it was that bad. She is not, by the way.

Then there was the big sister, whatever her name is, I didn’t remember her much, but during my rewatch I couldn’t stop thinking how much of a bitch this girl is towards her brother for no reason, she just likes to beat him all the time I guess. Hey people, when a woman is violent towards a man, is not abusive, is funny, didn’t you know? Off to my most hated characters she goes, taking what was Futaba place there before.

Oh, and visuals and sound are fine I guess. The former are basic but serviceable, people had a problem with the school uniforms back then, I couldn’t care less about them, the only thing that stands out visually are the backgrounds, very pretty and based on actual places in Japan. As for the latter, the sound effects and voice acting do their job just fine and the music is relaxing like the shows intends to, with the opening and ending being very cute.

The ova that comes after is indeed about Futaba’s friends visiting her, and one of them is jealous of Hikari, but there’s no problem in it, it is not presented in a melodramatic way, is all lighthearted and she gets over it by the end of it in just twenty four minutes or so. There’s nothing wrong with it so this is actually the best of the three animated installments, it’s just that it feels like it should have been the last episode of the season instead of being released on its own, milking the Japanese I guess.

Then came the second season which remained more or less the same in terms of visuals and sound. The opening and ending are not as good as the first ones but they are still fine, as is the soundtrack in general. There is however some CGI in this season and it does not look good, as usual.

This season is nowhere near as beloved as the first one and it is because of the plot. On the positive side, it has the undisputed highest points of the franchise, with Futaba finally developing as she was supposed to do during the previous season, while also introducing the very likeable family of Hikari. The problems with this season are everything else, as follows:

-There was a bit of fanservice, very little actually, but definitely unwelcomed on a previously very clean and pure show.
-If the previous season gave reasons to ship the characters thanks to some dialogues, this one leans harder on the yuri vibes by making Futaba jealous of a newly introduced character that likes Hikari, only to do nothing with that and not change the relationship between the characters in any way, it was all bait.
-Speaking of which, said new character is thought of as a girl when he appears, but turns out to be a boy. Unlike Hikari’s family, he adds nothing, he makes the show worse by making everything more childish, and his whole personality isn’t likeable either.
-Something like four episodes are wasted on dreams. There was dead time on the first season as well but at least the characters were actually in the actual setting. This third of the show felt like complete filler and nobody could defend it. There was an in-story reason for these episodes but that only led to a bigger problem that deserves its own paragraph which is:

-The Peter Pan arc. Ladies and gentlemen, Amanchu presents what’s most likely THE SECOND WORST, MOST STUPID LOVE TRIANGLE OF ALL TIME, after that thing in the Twilight movies. Nowhere near as messed up for sure but it still comes off as a bit creepy and purely nonsensical and unfitting within a setting and show like this, and to think this was the reason why the dreams were in the show all along, to asspull a solution during this arc. Also, two versions of the same character that defy all time and space logic coexist in the same place, somehow. Also, the big sister character turns into a completely out of character childish, girly, easy to fool and manipulate version of herself. Also, it ruined the teacher by giving her a terrible backdrop, also, what kind of a love triangle has a student involved? Unless the show is a hentai, and if the author is not a creep, it is obvious that the two adults will end up together. Only thing they don’t, because the series does nothing with them just like with the other romance bait and yuri bait episodes, and it even gives amnesia to every character except the three involved, precisely because IT WAS ALL A DREAM.

Some tried to defend the show by saying that these episodes were about showing the magic that can be found in everyday life, a message that the series tries to convey, and that every other Kozue Amano work has some fantasy-ish elements (and water settings) in them. Those are terrible justifications because Amanchu! is not those other works, it is its own thing with its own setting and rules, this is not another planet in the future like in Aria, it is contemporary Japan. And also, if the show tries to tell that even everyday moments in everyday life can be magical, throwing out of nowhere magical elements go against that message, precisely because those are not everyday elements, even more so when they end up having no impact whatsoever on the plot and characters by the end of the arc.

Thus, Amanchu! ends up lasting for at least double the amount of time it needs to, if the show was just episodes one to six and twelve of the first season, the ova, and episodes three, five, ten and twelve of the second season, Futaba would fail at a midpoint in a whole show instead at the end of a first season, regain confidence in the ova (now episode 8 in this scenario), and achieve her goal and grow by the twelfth episode of a single cour anime. But unless a fan makes an edit that turns it into a watchable slice of life with a satisfying conclusion or something, here you are with a show that ends up being worse and more disappointing than the average nothing happens moe, because it makes you think that it will be about something, only to pad the runtime with unrelated random goofing around and out of place elements that go against the themes and messages, and be about nothing like most other moe shows by the end. So, the best thing to do with Amanchu! is to read the Aqua and Aria manga instead, which are more creative, make a better use of its water based setting, does not have out of place elements, and has six much better explored characters than Futaba here.