STORY:
'Amagami SS' is made up of 7 short stories where the protagonist goes after a different girl each time. The heroines are made up of the most common archetypes for galge or moe anime. The reason I say this series is the most comprehensive, however, is because there's a wide spectrum of heroines and the protagonist's personality also changes depending on who he's going after. What we have here is not just an average indecisive main character in a harem, we get to see all kinds of personality match ups, and it's more realistic because we behave differently in front of different people, especially in romantic relationships. In addition, there were all sorts of hentai fetishes and endings for each arc. I will touch on this subject little more in the Character section, but I really liked this about 'Amagami SS' because it's harder to get tired of the story even if same events are repeated 7 times.
Another thing that really struck me was how watching this series really felt like playing a galge. There's been plenty of galge/eroge anime adaptations before, but most of them seemed to follow a single route or one combined route. Every such series I have seen so far gave me a sense of a set story. Boy meets girl(s), everyone fall for him, but eventually he ends up with "girl A" over all other girls, or unable to choose for the indecisiveness. In 'Amagami SS', we know exactly who we're going after like picking a route in advance, and then protagonist come in contact with the heroine like every other series. But here, they clearly spell out the possible options; the protagonist frequently think to himself "should I do this or that?" or another character asks "are you coming or not?". While this may be considered poor scriptwriting, it gives us a sense that the main character is actually making a choice himself rather than fate or where the wind takes him. It actually feels like he's consciously making decisions to win over a girl, just like how a player should in the game. Sometimes it's the girl trying to win him over too.
The final episode also explains why the other girls back off when he goes after a particular girl (assuming it's when Risa gives up).
CHARACTER:
One of the better harem protagonist around. There are moments when he gets reluctant or miss the signals, but he is not nearly indecisive nor thickheaded as our typical anime main character. He actually goes after the girls most of the time, and confess his love every single time. In rare occasions when the girls are chasing after him, he notices the girl's unnatural behavior. The girls are still more interesting in him than they should be, but it's far more tolerable because he worked for all of their attention. He also has just the right amount of perversity, which gave us viewers the right amount of fan service, and had relatively rational motives.
The heroines are very diverse, each with a distinct personality and status. The main character behaves differently to win them over, and indulges in all sorts of fetishes in the process.
To summarize each arc, [Name]: [Personality type (Translation)] [Status] - [Fetish]
Morishima Haruka: Nonki (Carefree) Princess - Behind the knee
Tanamachi Kaoru: Yancha (Boyish) Girl Buddy - Bellybutton
Nakata Sae: Uchiki (Shy) Kouhai - Student/instructor play, maid play, loli
Nanasaki Ai: Cool (Composed) Athlete - Flat chest, cosplay
Sakurai Rihiko: Tennen (Airheaded) Childhood Friend - Huge boobs
Ayatsuji Tsukasa: Seijun (Pure/Innocent) Valedictorian - Trapped in room
Kamizaki Risa: Osekkai (Nosy) Stalker - None
...Who are we kidding?
Ayatsuji Tsukasa: Tsundere Slave Queen - Masochist play
All the girls are not as dumb as typical harem heroines, and behaved rationally with exception of Ayatsuji. There's at least 1 girl that suites your taste no matter what kind of girls you're into.
Character developments are poor and love triangle didn't exist, but for the purpose of galge anime adaptation, their cameo-like appearances were very appropriate since they didn't detract from the main story.
ART:
All the girls are cute and pretty as they should be, very visually pleasing. Backgrounds are decent. Nothing particularly impressive about it, but tried and tested style that projects the peaceful high school life atmosphere. There were also couple of scenes with great composition and camera movements.
SOUND:
With exception to Konno Hiromi (Sae), everyone sounded like they should. She is a shy character, but the strained high-pitch voice was just too annoying. Itou Shizuka (Haruka) and Satou Rina (Kaoru) were solid as usual.
BGM is rather ordinary, but fits the romantic scenes pretty well.
OP1 'i Love' by azusa was an extremely strong theme song for a seishun series like this, and the OP animation had a nice flow that introduced the heroines well and represented their personality well with their signature poses.
OP2 and EDs were above average as well, and appropriate.
ED3 is a soft song that makes us reflect on all the girls conquered before.
OVERALL:
'Amagami SS' is a rather conservative seishun (coming of age romance) series that was wonderfully executed. Although things go a bit too well for the protagonist and character development was limited, it depicted the flushing, awkward, and bittersweet high school romance very well. A great simple heartwarming romance anime.
The comedy series was also pretty funny without being distracting to the romance, and came off very naturally. It was a very solid series all around that I enjoyed a lot more than I expected from a galge adaptation.
