Amagami SS

A countless number of visual novel to anime adaptations have seen the light of day and it takes no genius to figure out the trend in story-telling. Divide the show into a series of character arcs, whilst following an over-arching story/plot; or just follow a single character arc and be done with it. This has proven to be quite an effective method for telling these kinds of stories but it's not ideal for pleasing all the character's fans. Now in comes Amagami SS, a series that takes a step in a new direction by telling each of the character's stories, as a 4 episode standalone ... arc.

Amagami SS basically has every arc begin the same, by introducing our protagonist Junichi Tachibana, who's suffering from some form of PTSD, after being stood up on Christmas eve sometime ago (I know, it's pretty pathetic... just roll with it). Stuff happens and then it wraps it up, in pretty much the same way for every single arc. So yeah, there's really not much to say about the story, well stories, since they all follow a distinct pattern that's easy to pick up on. Boy meets girl, boy & girl bond through some arbitrary activity, mutual romantic feelings develop and well you catch my drift. Sure each character arc provides a fairly different story from the last, yet it's difficult shake off the feeling that you've just seen this story but with some differences. So by the end I really couldn't find pleasure when Boy A finally got together with Girl B, when he also hooked up with Girl A,C,D,E & F.

Speaking of the girls, they are just about the best thing about the series and the director & writers did a good job in combating the obvious favouritism we are used to in harems by developing each of the girls equally. My only gripe with this method is that even the characters I didn't care about we're also developed. As for the male protagonist, he's just what you expect from your average high school boy who sneaks off with his friend to enjoy the odd dirty magazine. Although the creator tried adding some subtle quirks for each individual character arc. Some of these quirks work but others don't. Like hiding in the closet (that's just waiting for a joke).

I've heard a lot of praise regarding the art and animation of Amagami SS and sure I must admit that the character designs are great. With character's looking like people you expect to meet in real life, doing away with the annoying multi-coloured hairstyles that plagues this genre. But apart from that the animation is just above average. All one has to do is pay attention to the background. As for the sound design, there's really nothing remarkable about it; the same seiyuus we anime veterans are all used, working well with the roles they are given and completed with some typical light-hearted melodies. Like I said... nothing remarkable.

All in all, Amagami SS is a collection of 6 run-of-the-mill highschool romance stories and with 6 stories/girls to choose from you're bound to like at least 1 of the stories/girls. So I'll give the show credit for allowing me to enjoy multiple romantic short stories. Did I enjoy them all? No, but I enjoyed enough... sort of. The good thing is that the obvious fanservice tropes, like pantyshots & breast jiggles are kept to moderate levels throughout but that's because the very nature of this anime is fanservice. That in itself made the show watchable for me however it doesn't excuse the unfunny humour the show is filled with and fact that it became a repeatable conquest, like with every visual novel on the market. Some may take pleasure in what Amagami SS has to offer, I cannot refute that, but I didn't. So you can accept what I've written about Amagami SS, or take it with a grain of salt, but either way I'm sure you did not click on this review assuming that I wholeheartedly liked the show now did you?

Amagami SS is a lighthearted romantic high-school anime with a little bit of humour here and there, telling the story of Junichi Tachibana, who had his heart broken two years ago on Christmas when he got stood up by his date. Therefore, he has a hard time opening up to his feelings and fears that he will have to spend another Christmas alone. Luckily for him, there are plenty of girls in his high school that he will soon get close to.

This anime consisting of twenty-five episodes is divided into story arcs, each leading to a different path for Junichi as he gets involved with ... different girls. There are six girls in total, each developing a deeper relationship with Junichi over the course of four episodes, after which everything resets and it starts with a different story arc. The last episode is sort of an arc on its own, and it’s mainly there to explain some stuff such as why our hopeless romantic protagonist got stood up two years ago.

Watching Amagami SS can be kind of an unstable experience, as some episodes may be better than others, or even entire story arcs could go right or wrong for each individual viewer. I did enjoy most of it, although there were indeed some ups and downs here and there, and by the end it was pretty obvious to me how I felt about each story arc in particular. As such, I’ll be giving you a closer look into each arc and why exactly I liked or disliked it. This remains, however, my own personal opinion, and I’m sure some may have a different view on the whole thing. Let’s get started now, shall we?

Some minor spoilers ahead.

Haruka Morishima

The first story arc starts in a pretty great way and I have to say that even though I did not expect much going into this anime, I was entirely captivated by the first episode. It was very entertaining and kept things at a casual level, which made it an easy and pleasant experience. Regarding Haruka Morishima, she’s in her final year and is considered one of the most popular girls in Junichi’s high school. Like I said, this story arc had a good start, but over its course I kinda felt more and more turned off by it. First of all, there’s a scene involving a weird fetish that even though is somewhat cute, feels awkward and ultimately throws that entire episode off balance. Then there’s Haruka’s personality – her insensitive manners and the way she treats Junichi at times doesn’t give much credibility to their whole “love story.” Plus, there’s little to no chemistry between them, which makes things even worse. The 10-years-later scene at the end of the arc was a nice little touch, though.

Kaoru Tanamachi

A huge improvement over the first story arc, this one works much better as it features a good sense of progress between the leads’ relationship and some drama over its course keeps things interesting and more emotionally involving. One of Junichi’s childhood friends, Kaoru Tanamachi is in the same class as him and works a part-time job as a waitress. There’s a good sense of development between them as the story goes on and the final episode delivers a satisfying conclusion, even if it feels a little rushed. The chemistry between Junichi and Kaoru is also excellent and their interactions are quite enjoyable, often accompanied by some good laughs. One of the better story arcs of the series, for sure.

Sae Nakata

Next up is Sae Nakata, an underclassman and friend of Miya’s, Junichi’s younger sister. Sae is extremely shy and the reason why Junichi and her end up spending so much time together is because Junichi decides to help her improve her social skills. Do not be surprised if you find her voice to be annoying, which many actually did. For those who enjoy Sae’s personality, this should prove to be a really nice arc, as it does pretty much everything right, including the ending.

Ai Nanasaki

Another friend of Miya’s and around the same age as her and Sae, Ai Nanasaki is part of the school’s swimming team and her first encounter with Junichi leads to her calling him a pervert. Unlike many of the other girls, Ai’s personality is easily likeable and her relationship with Junichi develops in a natural and pleasing way. Unfortunately, there were some weird stuff in this arc as well, including a trip to the amusement park that makes for some odd moments that just don’t fit in this anime. Nevertheless, Ai’s arc is an enjoyable one and has become my favourite, especially due to the well-done ending.

Rihoko Sakurai

Rihoko Sakurai is another childhood friend of Junichi, although their relationship has been minimal over the years and mostly held at a casual level. Most of this arc centers around Rihoko’s battle with her unusually big appetite as she tries to go on a diet. For me, this arc has been by far the least interesting, especially considering that nothing really happens, even in the final episode, as Rihoko and Junichi actually don’t end up being together, although it isn’t out of the question in the long run.

Tsukasa Ayatsuji

Coincidentally or not, the final story arc is the one I’ve been looking forward to the most, as I found Tsukasa Ayatsuji quite intriguing as the anime progressed. Unfortunately, this one took a surprising turn when it was revealed that Tsuakasa actually had two personalities and her real one was marked by extreme tsundere qualities. Not to say that the arc wasn’t interesting, because it really was, and the ending was satisfying enough, especially since it showed us another “10-years-later” scene, but Tsukasa’s sudden change of personality simply ruined my view of her for the rest of the arc. Still, it’s one of the most well-done arcs in the entire series.

Final episode and closing comments

The final episode features yet another girl, Risa Kamizaki, with her very own little story arc that develops in the last twenty minutes, as well as explaining why Junichi got stoop up on his date two years ago. I was mostly lukewarm towards this episode, although it was somewhat of a nice addition to the end of the series. Risa’s actions, however, made it hard to root for her or even like her, but it seems that Junichi had no problem with that at all.

All in all, Amagami SS turned out to be quite a good anime and made for some really pleasant experiences. I found it to be very addicting to watch, especially since everything develops so fast and new story arcs always make for a breath of fresh air. On a visual level, Amagami SS looks great. The art is very fitting and the animation is very well done. You won’t likely end up calling this one of your favourites, but it’s still a series well worth watching.

This Anime in Step To Step:
1. Be sad about lost waifu 2 years ago
2. Chase Crush-Waifu
3. Get Closer to Crush
4. Love Waifu
5. Go back in time, chase a new waifu, be happy.
6. Repeat ^

This anime is fairly average.

... Story: Sad loser is sad about waifu not showing up at to date christmas evening. He then decides to move on, and get a new waifu. It's basically 5 Stories, with 5 different girls. Though, the last story tells you about the X-Mas night.

Character: I will mention the girls shorly in 1-2 words, as they are only important for 4 episodes. :3
Junichi Tachibana, a guy who is bad at talking with girls (imo), but he is scarily lucky. He is so lucky he get's whoever he wants, apparently.
Rihoko Sakurai: Childhood friend.
Ai Nanasaki: Imouto-chan. (Not a waifu. No incest here.)
Sae Nakata: Timid.
Haruka Lovely Morishima: Senpai&Straightforward
Risa Kamizaki: Bitch, stalker + Silent Yandere. (Important to the story, but only important one episode.)
Tsukasa Ayatsuji: Rude, kinda Tsun-tsun.

Enjoyment: 5.2 It was very decent and mediocre. It just felt like Higurashi all over again. It's 5 stories, and each story is 4 episodes, till episode 25.

6 Arcs. 6 Girls. And an extra one episode of a bonus girl.

That's what Amagami SS is.

Each arc is 4 episodes, and every arc is like another route you chose in the dating sim. Every time another girl. So you watch 4 episodes, and then at episode 5 you get back to the starting point, but the main character (Let's shorten it to MC) will be friendly and get closer to another girl. (Even though all characters are seen from the first minutes)

On the one hand, if there's an arc you hate, you know it's over quickly (as it's only 4 episodes) but on the ... other hand if there's an arc you like.. Well you won't be getting more episodes for that.

Also, most arcs follow the same pattern. So that gets kind of boring after a while.

I'd like to divide each arc and review it by itself. The order will be from what I liked the most to the least. In each arc I'll say a sentence about the opening (how the arc started, ep 1), the progression (the development in episodes 2-3 of the arc) and the ending of the arc (ep 4).

Nanasaki Ai- 9/10

Nanasaki Ai is a friend of Miya(MC's sister).

Opening- Ai and MC haven't met beforehand. The opening was extremely random and kinda forced.

Progression- Even with the weird opening, it developed pretty well in such a short time.

Ending- Pretty good, But I would've liked to see more.

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Ayatsuji Tsukasa- 7.5/10

Ayatsuji is the class president, she has talked with MC a few times before. They're in the same class.

Opening- Actually it was pretty good, it didn't feel forced.

Progression- Messed up, rushed. So many questions, so much complexity. Too much for a short arc of 4 episodes. Altogether, it was still cute.

Ending- Quite nice, I was still in a shock of what happened beforehand, but it was nice. The ending by itself was good.

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Tanamachi Kaoru- 7/10

Kaoru is MC's friend for about 5 years. But nothing romantic for these years.

Opening- Extremely fine, nothing too exciting.

Progression- Cute, nothing more, nothing less.

Ending- The first part of the ending is nice, but after that... nothing, no good. It leaves too much that I do not know.

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Nakata Sae- 6/10

Sae is another friend of Miya.

Opening- Random, but not forced, it felt completely fine.

Progression- Here lies the problem, two random people, different by all means, somehow getting together? That IS forced. But how they spent their time together, what they did together was not forced.

Ending- It was fine, Not much. I've read the ending for the dating sim, It's a lot better.

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Morishima Haruka- 4.5/10

Morishima-senpai is a senior, older than MC by one year.

Opening- Random encounter. That's it.

Progression- No. Just no. It was awkward, cringey, embarrasing. It made me pause every 20 seconds and question myself what the hell am I watching.

Ending- Was really good.

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Sakurai Rihoko- 2/10

Ah yes. Childhood friend. Every anime needs that "Childhood friend who always loved MC". That's Rihoko.

Opening- She already knew MC for a long time, so there wasn't much of an opening.

Progression- It was more focused on other things, unlike the romance with the other girls in other arcs. It was not interesting.

Ending- Eh I guess? The ending they did was fine. Better than the second option which would've been extremely forced.

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Other honorable mentions: Umehara, MC's best friend. Too bad I couldn't see more of him. He seemed like a really cool guy.

And as for the "extra", 25th episode. That was a mistake.

Meet Risa, an extremely random girl, who decided to have her arc shortened to one episode. It was a random girl who came, then decided to crush every other arc you liked (or not) and say "Hey, I'm the main girl now!".

My opinion of the show would've been better without her.

And as for MC himself- Junichi. He is not really interesting. Generic pervert guy. He is a bit dense at first, but understands and grasps the situation. At least he doesn't bleed every time he sees a girl.

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As for other aspects: The sound and art were nothing great. 6 for Art as it's fine and 4 for sound as I don't remember any good OST or OP/ED from it.

If I make an average of all the arcs- I'll get to the score of 6. I'll give it a 6.5 tho.

Alright Folks! There is one HUGE thing about this anime that will make people love it or hate it, and that's the fact that the whole story

"Repeats after every arc"

Yes.. after an arc, time shifts back to the night on christmas eve 2 years ago. however, each arc presents a different girl that the main falls for.

People who like the short romance arcs and a repetition of love with each arc's special twists will enjoy this. However, people who get bored of watching the same story over and over again will condemn this. Personally, i like watching each arc, but the repetition ... of certain events kills me. Also i find the arcs development a little to quick.

Arts good, not much to say

Sound all depends on your headphones or speakers. same old same old

Now characters is something i have trouble with. I find the main character very irratable since he is way too sarcastic and too impulsive. He acts like his event 2 years ago on christmas eve was the end of his life, and for a while i fails to uplift himself. however i find the girls personalities quite cliche in a way, but every anime has those types, so i guess its acceptable.


Overall i have mixed feelings about this series. I do enjoy the series of short romances and development, but i do get anoyed by its pace and main character. I feel like this is a bubbly romantic twist of higurashi, but that's just my opinion

It is clearly a dating sim that was adapted to an anime. They had to cut it in many parts to have all the endings presente on the anime. So the protagonist keeps going back in the past and reliving his school days so that the espectators can see a different ending. All girls have four episodes. I only watched the first girl. The result is that everything feels a little rushed.

The art is good. There isn't much complexity, but it goes well with the story. The girls all look very diferente and also very cute.

The music is also nice, but the english is kind ... of weird.

The protagonista is well constructed. He is a simple teenager searching for love. His sister is very annoying. The first girl is somewhat mysterious. At first she looks like she is faking it, but in the end she is just very extroverted. Because the anime leaves just four episodes to each girl, only the protagonista is truly developped.

I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had played the game first.

If you are searching for a romance/school life anime, there are many others out there that can entretain you more. I can only recomend this for those that have played and enjoyed the game.

With my own love for romance shows, I expected to really enjoy Amagami SS, an anime that is seemingly always recommended in romance circles.

Unfortunately, this first season didn't pull me in as much as I wanted. The first arc was so terrible that it almost made me drop the show; the main character was a weeb's dream, worshiping his crush and overall being very weird, doing things that not only would put off any girl in real life, but might have the police called.

Thankfully, the show and characters, including the main male, do get better, but not all of them are created equal. The unique ... 4-episode structure of each arc is both a positive and negative; it allows for fans to pick their favorite girl and, if one girl isn't great, they don't have to suffer for too long. However, only 4 episodes was not enough time to develop a few of these relationships.

Romance shows, above all else, are supposed to bring emotion out of the viewer and this first season did not do that for me in any significant way.

Not a bad anime, as others have states. Just not my cup of tea. I like to binge watch shows, when I have a lot of spare time. That being said with this anime I could not. I had to watch each arch separated by some time. If it took any of the stories and kept it going I would have loved that. Sadly it felt like a bunch of 4 episode anime's packaged together with all the restarting. Just a personal issue others do not seem to mind, but please note if you are like me and ... like to binge watch 12+ episodes as to not think about the plot to much and spoil it for yourself but get a lot out of it, then this is not for you. Sure you can knock these out but I would have loved to get more out of it. I did not realize it kept switching and restarting before I stared sadly and I am a completionist. Though I will not ever watch this again.

I love you forever with you... for four episodes, that is.

My attention was pointed to Amagami SS after watching this season's Seiren. I heard tales of "Oh, this is much worse than the original anime Amagami SS. The concept is executed much better." And thus I watched Amagami SS.

The music for Amagami SS wasn't bad, besides the questionable grammar of the second sentence of the first OP. It was nice that each girl got to sing their own ED. I particularly enjoy when animes do that, just like the Monogatari series.

The setting and background of each story is exactly the same. It's a little ... strange Returning to Zero after each arc, but that's what happens when you get an anime from a visual novel. The novelty of this concept gets old around the 3rd or 4th time. If you've watched time travel or alternate reality stuff, it's not really anything new though. There are some cheeky little surprises for those who think the anime gets stale as it continues.

The art has me going "meh." The background art is completely fine, but I just straight up dislike the art style for the characters. Meh.

The best part of this anime has to be the characters. Each girl has her own personality... which is great because if they didn't, this anime would have been dumpstered for sure. This is a good tactic because every person has their own preferences. Some like the shy girls, some like the more assertive ones, and some like the mysterious ones. If you asked me how much I liked the girls as the episodes continued on, I would have to respond with a concave up parabola.

Overall, this anime did as well as one based off a visual novel could have done. I'd definitely rather watch this anime than watch a playthrough. An alright anime kept from staleness with its rotating cast of waifus gives Amagami SS a final score of 6.

Amagami SS is the anime adaptation of the visual novel Amagami made by Enterbrain. It is a standard harem romcom anime that tells the story of Tachibana Junichi a second year boy that got stood up by his date on his last christmas eve, he is finally starting to move past that and just on cue he meets several girls at his school that could potentially be his girlfriend. Let's get started with the negatives of this anime, there are a lot since it's your run of the mill harem romcom that was made at the early 2000's, first of all the MC Junichi is ... a self insert character that has no personality whatsoever except for being nice and a pervert, he also gets a shot at girls that are obviously out of his league like Morishima because he's the MC. Next up the characters are pretty much too basic and boring, we have a sister that has a crush on his brother, a girl with a social mask, the popular school girl, two childhood friends, a stalker girl and two kouhais one being the shy one, by this point I'm just sick and tired of seeing the same troupes, cliches and personalities used over and over again. Let's talk about the routes, some of them are weird and the character dynamic between the MC and the girls are kinda off, a great example of this is with the two juniors ahem ahem kouhai troupe characters Ai and Sai, the Sai one route was just weird af to me, since he became her instructor then she fell in love with him and since the MC pretty much gets every happy ending in this anime it just felt weird and too easy, and the character dynamic between Ai and Junichi just doesn't work it feels hella forced, which is a shame since I actually liked these two characters. The routes that were good for me was Morishima and Ayasutji. Morishima and Junichi blended really well and complimented each other making them entertaining to watch, and Ayasutji's route just felt like a breath of fresh air after all the weird and generic routes I watched. There are positives about this anime tho, those you can count them on one hand, the first one being that the the anime was fairly entertaining, the first half was pretty decent in my opinion, but then it just kinda felt off after the second arc, but it is what it is. The characters themselves were generic but atleast they were entertaining enough.



Pros:
-Decent Op's and Ed's
-Decent scores
-Entertaining routes like Morishima and Ayatsuji
-Artstyle and animation wasn't bad for it's time
-Certain characters like Morishima and Ayasutji have good character dynamic with the MC



Cons:
-All routes are happy endings [personally not a fan of that] I prefer 1 or two bad endings
-Is a generic harem romcom
-MC is a self insert
-Gets dated
-Characters are troupes and cliches
-Most of the main heroines do not have good character chemistry with the MC, which is weird since the guy has no personally whatsoever lol
-Some routes end up coming off as cringe, bad or just weird AF



Overall Amagami SS is a generic romcom anime based off a dating sim that utilizes the same old boring troupe and cliches that the genre has used for years and years now, granted there are a couple of interesting characters but those are not enough to justify watching this show, if you're looking for a harem romcom that's actually good go watch Bunny girl Senpai or Sakurasou. I give Amagami SS a 5/10 for my overall anime rating.

God, this one was so weird - in my experience, anyway, there's probably a group of people that like this a lot because how all of the girls get their screen time. (and that can be taken very literary)

Cliche everything, cliche scenes, cliche lines, cliche events, and cliche voice actors - it's kind of difficult to come up with this many quirky characters, yes, but come on. Also the nii-nii thing from the very beginning just irked me real hard. I used to be okay with the imouto shit that is done in animes when I was younger, but it's just plain unnecessary. At least, ... the two don't get romantically involved with each other, so I guess it's fine.

All of the girls except for the sister get 4 episodes each to show how the MC and the girl gets close. Although it might seem like it's plenty of screentime for that to develop, it's very unsatisfactory imo - They all have the initial meetup, some issue they have to work towards, two romantic events (one that makes them Friend+ and the other for Lovers//im even straight up writing like this because it's so obvious that it was adapted from a dating sim), and a kissing scene at the end with a possible X years later scene (not for all of the girls).

The one kind of nice part about the anime was that by watching all of the episodes, you get to see all the scenes that the characters talk about - like the Christmas party that Miya talks about all the time.

Yeah, teenage hormones wheeee, but it felt so uncomfortable watching it. I just ended up forcing myself to finish it and luckily the streaming service I was using had the option to play it at x1.25. I don't know if I am coming down with a cold or this anime is causing me to have a headache.

It is difficult to review and appreciate Amagami SS due to the visual novel-esque design of the episodes. Every four episodes revolves around a different girl, with the tying narrative being where our protagonist Junichi Tachibana started: dumped on Christmas Eve in front of the snow. Of the love interests, I must say that I enjoyed Haruka Morishima (whose arc covers episodes 1-4) the most, but that is perhaps due to personal tastes, or because it was the first arc. It became increasingly difficult to see the deviations of the relationships afterwards due to the characters' natures changing (perhaps what makes VN games so appealing ... these days, I wouldn't know). For VN fans, a very enjoyable anime that bears all the hallmarks of its namesake game. For other viewers, it was a decent watch, but having storylines that last only 4 episodes make for bland story development. 6/10

Initially when I first discovered Amagami SS, I thought it was gonna be a singular love story about the main protagonist finding love but it was cut fairly short when it was all separated into four story arcs.

The anime itself isn't bad, in fact, I fairly enjoyed it and managed to watch the first love story easily but it quickly soon got harder and harder to watch when it was all repetitive. Basically everything was kept the same, with the same main plot, same dialogue, pretty much everything else with the exception of a different love story that was similar to the rest. It was ... all just about a boy that was heartbroken and found love four times over and over again. The anime would of been better if it was just one story and girl with the male protagonist, although separating the anime into four arcs wasn't bad, I just didn't like how everything was kept the same.

I felt trapped during my time watching the anime, you experienced the same thing over and over again like it was if you were experiencing a severe case of deja vu. The setting and environment was the same, it could of been different with each arc to add variety but it unfortunately didn't.

Overall, Amagami SS isn't truly a bad anime it has exceptional characters and very good art. There are animes that are very similar to SS that are terrible beyond disbelief.

I won't lie, I loved the first 24 episodes of this show. I thought that each arc was well developed, each girl had her own quirks and traits that made Junichi become a different person than he was in a previous arc and every outcome was satisfying...

So why did I give it such a low rating? Two words: Final episode

The show felt like it was giving me a delicious piece of cheesecake. Then episode 25 comes along. It takes my cheesecake, shits on it, lights it on fire, then force feeds it to me. The last episode was so unbelievably terrible that it killed ... any and all enjoyment I had gotten from the rest of the show, which was particularly painful since the episode before it was one of, if not, my favorite.

I could completely recommend this show if you're fine with watching 6 unrelated stories of the same guy falling in love with different girls in different timelines without any connection or reason, saying you skip out on the final episode. However, I cannot in good conscience say that it is worth your time to watch this show just to see what a shitshow it ends up becoming.