Quote:
Originally Posted by Ricky Controversy
Conversely, it'd also create the opportunity for a story with interesting storytelling, provided it was handled skillfully. Creating a good story always involves risk, but if you tell the safest stories you can (as in this show), you will only ever create something mediocre at best. That's okay for the purpose of the show, though.
The truth is that anyone going into this expecting good storytelling had the wrong mindset. Let's be pleasantly surprised by what high points we do get, but not expect anything groundbreaking.
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Given the shallow backgrounds of each character, I don't think anyone considers Amagami SS or the game to be a classic.
Junichi is revealed to have been stood up by a girl on Christmas day, and supposedly that experience traumatized him and and made him "afraid to love." Is he really? The girl who stood him up is never revealed, and Junichi never gave an impression on how close he was to this girl. It's true that the reason behind Junichi being abandoned unknown makes the audience understand Junichi's point of view, but also not knowing how close the girl was to Junichi dampens the audience's empathy, and it makes the whole "traumatized by unrequited love" background very trivial.
What about the girls? Junichi can choose to spend time with a popular socialite, his close friend, his childhood friend, a shy kouhai, the class president, or a stern, ambitous kouhai. None of the girls exactly have original or compelling backstories, especially not when they're all simple enough to describe in a few short words or phrases.
However, the series does have a few gems. For example, Haruka tells Junichi that they don't necessary need to go out in order to get to know each other. Despite being shown as very innocent and sheltered, Haruka made a great point that can apply to real relationships as well. The fact that Junichi helped Sae get some lunch was important as well, because it showed that Junichi was geniunely kind, and not just putting up a facade to win over Haruka.
Kaoru's arc was refreshing because it contests the friend-zone myth where if one sees another as a friend, they cannot become intimate. In the same vein as Haruka, Kaoru was another example of a girl Junichi got close to without actually going out with her. They just hung out on their leisure time and subtlely got closer together. By the end, they still teased each other like they did when they were just friends, but at the same time the audience could tell how close they were.
In my opinion, the reaosn why Sae's arc was the weakest and why she is considered to be the least popular heroine (according to the poll, anyway) is because their relationship was the most superficial. While Junichi did mean well, he did help out Sae mostly out of lust. Sae admiring Junichi because of his "reliability" is understandable, the quality could be found within a platonic friend as well. It seemed more like Junichi happened to be a senpai who was a guy, so her appreciation for his help must turn into affection. Junichi was worse, because he really hadn't demonstrated that he liked Sae for any reason other than "she was cute." That isn't saying much when he thought Haruka was cute in her arc and Kaoru was cute in her waitress outfit. What I
did find very nice was Junichi picking up on Sae wanting to hold hands and be a couple, but that is not enough to comment Junichi and Sae's story as being a good love story.
Though I am digressing, and I think we should move this discussion to the Arc comparision/discussion thread.
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