Hello everyone,
Today we'll go with a new quick review of an anime series I watched some time ago (actually I concluded it only from a couple of weeks) named "Amagami SS" based on an dating sim named Amagami released for PS2.
Let's start with a synopsis :
A second-year high school boy finds himself uneasy during Christmas time due to an experience in the past. However, this year at Christmas, he gets his last chance to ask out a graduating female senior named Haruka Morishima — or one of several other classmates.
Yes, like a typical generic dating sim devoid of any special situation of narrative, this series as well provide a great number of girls to "conquer" in the most generic plot-line you will ever end up watching in a series. (Something most of us already heard too many times to be able to enjoy it for real)
The difference in this series from the rest of the anime till now adapted is that they picked up a rather peculiar way to make sure each girl gets enough time. They divided the series in a multi-route system so you'll basically get reset after the conquer is done and the main character will start with another girl...
Yes, while this may look better than the classic "choose one, ignore others" approach, on the long run it's tiring and makes you lose interest in the characters (there is no emotional building as you know that in the next episode everything will just reset back and start again)
The characters are plain to say the best, most of them follow stereotypical personality and have little to no development in the story (even if they do show some "after" scenes).
The only character I happened to care about (and that don't get a REAL route) is the sister Miya Tachibana that with both cute voice, nice body and energetic/cheerful personality is by far the best in my books. (If I had to choose by looks alone would be Haruka Morishima thought...)
The graphical quality is very good and this series sports one of the most wonderful girls design ever. Every girl (even the random characters with no storyline whatsoever) are well defined and with great looks...hell, if I had to watch by look alone I would like the entire cast hands down.
The animation was also pretty much ok with no major problem (good job AIC this time!)
The sound quality is very good as well with many great seiyuu working on the series like Shizuka Itou in Haruka Morishima's role, Yukana in Ai Nanasaki's role, Kana Asumi in Miya Tachibana's role and many others each giving a very nice portrayal of our characters.
I liked all the ending songs sung by the various girls in the series especially "Suteki na Aru Hi" by Kana Asumi (But maybe I'm biased as I love both seiyuu and character)
Concluding this is a rather generic series with very good production quality. Unfortunately the generic story won't make you crave for more, but if you're a fan of Romance/Comedy series go ahead and give it a look. It is worthy of your time!
See you soon,
feal87