Amagami SS - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating

[Kairin]

This thread is to be used for discussing the entire episodes of Amagami SS ... your thoughts about the show, overall impressions, expectations and hopes about the BD/DVD only footage etc.

(Mod Note: There is still a Miya-centric BD special to come in April, so please feel free to take that into account when ranking the show, or adjust your rating accordingly when that happens.)

A few subjects you might want to ramble on about:

• General impression of the series.
• Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices.
• Thoughts about the animation quality.
• Characters/Character Design
• Voice Acting
• Which kind of footage (BD/DVD only) you feel you'd really like to see.
• What the show meant to you.
• What could the creators/animators/writers have done better.

And so on.

The poll represents your total series rating. In other words, how you would rate all the episodes combined (1-10)? If you'd rather rate the whole series by technical/artistic merits, you can do so. An example:

Animation Quality: 1-10
Voice Actors: 1-10
Script: 1-10
Soundtrack: 1-10
Editing: 1-10
Enjoyment: 1-10
Emotional Involvement: 1-10

Average = Total Series Rating

Or a combination of the two. Or your general gut feeling.

Feel free to discuss and more importantly, have fun

[Zeroryoko1974]

Animation Quality: 8 It had some good animation
Voice Actors: 10 some great voices
Script: 5 some really good stuff, and some really bad
Soundtrack: 7 was decent i guess
Editing: ???
Enjoyment 6 some highs and lows
Emotional Involvement: 10 greatly involved

Overall, I give the show a 7. It was better then average, but mainly because the Tsukusa arc pulled it up a bit. The Rihoko arc was terrible, and Sae arc could have been done better.

[Kusa-San]

Originally Posted by Kairin

Feel free to discuss and more importantly, have fun

A bit of topic but who are you ? I know who is Kairin but never seen a member with this pseudo before today ...

Other than that, I put a 7,5/10 for this serie. The main problem is the script and the editing. But I really like this new format and all the girls are great

[Ushima]

the show DID give me my #1 fav anime girl..so, it think it was good.

#1 fav anime girl: Rihoko
#2 fav anime girl: Loise (from zero no tsukaima)
#3 fav anime girl: Arcueid (from tsukihime)

since she's my #1, this show is good ;D

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Kusa-San

A bit of topic but who are you ? I know who is Kairin but never seen a member with this pseudo before today ...

Other than that, I put a 7,5/10 for this serie. The main problem is the script and the editing. But I really like this new format and all the girls are great

Kairin is Kairin ... a mysterious mascot who's been around since day one. She doesn't post too often.

(whether she's an aggregate personality avatar or a single source avatar is a mystery )

As for Amagami .... I thought the mechanical idea of the serial parallel reality or "omnibus" was interesting. However, I think the writers missed the boat with the protagonist .... he's basically a substantially different person even in the beginning of each arc - so you've lost that whole sense of him evolving towards each girl as he learns about her. Some of the stories are fairly incomplete, one or two are actually grade-school amateurish in execution, a few are pretty good.

I mostly finished the series because I said I wanted to see how this type of 'omnibus' worked out... but I'd have probably dropped it otherwise or waited til it was over and chosen an arc or two based on review posts. As usual, some of the side characters seemed far more interesting and full of potential than the main characters.

Mostly I think the omnibus idea is a fair solution... but the stories still suffer from what I feel is a level of insufficient talent in the adaptation teams. They get paid for this, they should be able to take even piss-poor source material and do something entertaining with it.... but more often I see them take fairly excellent material and just fail. I used to say that integrating stories was often hard and cut them some slack, but this didn't help them out much.

The 'choose the girl' genre isn't a high-brow art... but it seems like maybe 1 out of 10 climb out of the sludge at times to shine a bit. I gave Amagami a "7" overall .... "8" when it was firing on all cylinders and either a "6" or "5" when it was spiraling into oblivion.

Some of my favorite anime characters come from horrible series as well as good ones, but only a couple were really somewhat memorable here as characters in themselves (whatever I thought of the plot).

[A l i]

This series had some good moments, while it had some bad moments as well. Sae and School Council Prez's arc were awesome though, thus I'm giving this series 8/10.

[grandchaosSR]

Animation Quality: 7
The animation is pretty decent but its far from best. The animation in the game is way better IMO. I think what made Amagami SS eye catching is their character designs and the hairstyles. Its probably one of the few anime that uses a somewhat "realistic" proportion. Well, I may be biased because I kinda hate bug eyed character designs like Clannad, Angel Beats or Haruhi(I like their stories though). Overall the animation quality could have been better.

Voice Actors: 9
VAs captured the essence of the characters they portray especially Haruka, Miya and Kaoru. Sae and Rihoko could have been portrayed better but I guess their voices are ok.

Script: 6
The only arcs that is fairly consistent IMO is Haruka, Kaoru and Sae arcs(BTW these are the top 3 highest TV rating in the series). After these three arcs, the series kinda went downhill. Example: Messy plots, too much themes in a single arc, unanswered questions and wtf moments. But there are good moments in the other arcs(Rihoko episode 1, Tsukasa's true self scene, Risa episode, etc.)

Soundtrack: 9
Music is almost perfect the opening ending songs are good IMO. Each heroine also have their own Background theme music Ex: When Haruka does something wacky a certain music plays in the background.

Editing: 8
I think the editors did a fine job piecing different scenes together.

Enjoyment: 7
Enjoyment rating per arc:
Haruka - 10
Kaoru - 9
Sae - 8
Ai - 6
Rihoko - 5
Tsukasa - 7
Risa - 7

Emotional Involvement: 6
Haruka - 8
Kaoru - 8
Sae - 7
Ai - 5
Rihoko - 4
Tsukasa - 7
Risa - 6

FINAL VERDICT: 7

[serenade_beta]

7/10

In general, it was pretty decent, but the quality went up and down with each arc.
Umm...
Lovely-senpai - First arc. Astonished by the couple's ridiculous actions. To be honest, didn't like her at all, but it wasn't a bad arc.

Tangel... Kaoru - A breath of fresh air from the crazy woman before her, but the end was ( O_O) and the story wasn't really good...

Sae - Her voice......... But her arc was cute, and the narrator was kind of fun to listen to. Plus, cat Mya~!

Ai - Honestly didn't leave much of an impression, except Tachibana's super swimming...

Rihoko - I feel so sorry for her... Her arc was just so poorly done....................

Ayatsuji-san - As expected of the last boss! What quality!

Stalker - Well, as far as one episode goes, it was just as good as Ayatsuji-san's arc

Loved the OPs. The second OP's part where Tachibana is standing alone in the snow is my favorite part.
EDs... Sae's was pretty interesting, and there was one character that didn't sing in her voice at all.


......I wish it wasn't omnibus, but something like Kimikiss' anime though

[Khu]

Decent, but they just messed up in some arcs too much for it to be exceptional as a pioneer of the omnibus (even though Yosuga no Sora was also XD) Amagami SS provided something that was relatively accessible by everyone, but was also just a little too out there protagonist wise, since he restarted each arc (which was a bit jolting.) Perhaps if they made him break up every arc? XD

Oh btw, 8ish from me. But that's a borderline 7. lol.

[Gault]

Animation Quality: 9
Voice Actors: 10
Script: 9
Soundtrack: 10
Editing: 9
Enjoyment: 10
Emotional Involvement: 10

I don't watch anime much so my ratings aren't competitive

Amagami SS gets a 10 from me
it had abit of everything , even if we had to rate the girls aswell
I believe this series had something for everyone
and that everyone could find someone in this series to relate to

[roriconfan]

Next on my line of harems to spite comes Amagami SS (Jesus, I’m still on letter A). This anime is somewhat weird to talk about as it is implements a weird thing called “Omnibus”. Before I get to nerdraeg about the show, first I must clear my thoughts on one of the most dreaded recent additions to one of the stalest and lamest anime categories ever.

Omnibus is when the story resets every few episodes, just so the lead character can choose a different action in some point in his life that will change the later events of the story. It is an element introduced by date sims, where there you chose a girl and move towards winning her. Replaying the game by choosing a different girl, meaning following a different path. This in anime terms, means that time resets and you get to see the same things again, only this time the character will go for a different girl. This is what we call an omnibus; the choice to win all the girls, one at a time
… and it sucks.

I am vertically negative towards such a trope in anime form, thus I am writing a biased review from the start (as if hating harems wasn’t enough already). Some may like the option of having the guy winning all the girls and making time reset so to see how things will turn out if you make a different choice somewhere in your life. Although this concept was quite interesting in movies such as Groundhog Day or The Butterfly Effect for showing you how fragile the outcome of the future can be, here it is nothing but a lame excuse to render all character development and the gravity of one’s choice completely useless.

Another thing I want to mention is that unlike in the above movies where the lead remembers each reset, here he does not. Every time is like we watch a different alternative reality, making even the notion of maturing and learning from your past (or possible future) mistakes equally useless.

And finally, I want to make clear that Amagami IS A HAREM despite some refusing to accept it as one because the lead goes for one girl at a time and there are no cat fights. Well excuse me but one guy surrounded by pretty chicks, and he needs to pick one, counts as a harem, even when the choice is clear from the start. The oldest and most famous harems are Love Hina and Ah My Goddess and there the chosen girl was also clear from the start. Thus Amagami IS A HAREM like it or not.

So starting from the worst part, the story, I say it is bollocks. Using the reset button after the lead wins a girl means we practically watch 7 short romantic comedies of roughly 4 episodes each. The same characters are present in all of them but their interactions are different each time, so you might as well consider this a collection of similar short romantic school life stories, with the same actors in each one. Thus we practically have a typical slice of life school romance that begins and ends in 4 episodes maximum before throwing to the bin all that happened and going back to square 1, where we see the same formula, but with a different girl being the main target. Some may like this gimmick for making them feel like they are watching a date sim in anime form
… but I find it stupid as heck. Here I am watching a story unfold and then is deleted like it doesn’t mean anything.

It’s not like I reject the notion of the omnibus. It is ok in date sims and it was great when they implemented it in Tatami Galaxy. Using it here, in a typical story about typical people, feels disappoint. What is the point? Some will say it is a great way to please all shippers, which are guys who prefer one specific girl to end up with the lead and even argue with others who prefer a different girl. All these dudes can just choose the arc where the lead wins their favorite girl and reject all others, so everybody is happy.

Again, I am against that. Making an important choice in your life means to reject all other possible options. Winning something means at the same time losing everything else. The little pebble you chose out of a huge rubble of other pebbles will be more important to you that all the rest you sacrificed just to get this one. So what is this crap; doing anything I want and forgetting everything just to do something different? It sounds like cowardice in the least. Where is the importance of choosing? What is the point in having free will without the notion that you can’t undo what you chose to do?

Enough with that babble; it’s practically off-topic and random rant visualized by a biased mindset that loves to space out and overanalyze shitz. Let’s talk about the cast a bit; shall we? What we basically have here is seven girls and a main lead, teasing each other in a game of who gets to win whom. The lead is not the usual spineless dork of harems, as he is quite open with his feelings. Well, it’s not like he had the time not to be; he is roughly given enough time to waste in indecisiveness in a show of short arcs. He practically fools around a bit and confesses his love rather fast, the girl also agrees rather fast, the arc ends in a weird or funny moment and abracadabra we are transported in a different alternative reality where he now pulls the same with a different girl. Takes away all sense of progress or meaningfulness.
… Woops, again with that off topic fuss.

The girls themselves are practically seven basic archetypes, found in many date sims, each accompanied by some clothing fetish to act as a vague character trait, just so we can set them apart easier.
Yeah, we get to remember them as an archetype and a fetish; how romantic and noble for the female genre.
But it is true that although they are stereotypical caricatures, they get colorized very well throughout the series. The nice visuals, the good voice acting, the romantic foreplay, all that work fine at bringing out all that it’s available on each archetypical trait.

So they may all be omelets but you will not get to confuse one omelet with another, thanks to the cooks’ ability to bring out a special and unique flavor on each one of them. After that, it all has to do with your own personal perverted fetish … errr, I mean taste. If girl A is better than girl B will be up to you and not because some are not as well done … errr, well presented as others.

Other than that, they are not special or memorable for any given reason.

Animation and sound do their work in a fine way, helping you to get in the light and fuzzy feeling of the show. The backgrounds and the character figures are nicely drawn and colored, there is attention given to various lightings effects and camera angles. Voice acting is good, if you don’t find the rather high pinched voices that weird. Music themes are good and fitting for such a type of show.

But again, after all is done I found nothing memorable in all this fuss. It was just an average school setting with average people doing average things. Average is a hard thing to remember you know; it is so much easier to remember very happy or very bad moments. It has a very good pacing and atmosphere for its kind, while visuals and sound are quite nice. Other than that, there is nothing overall WOW in it; just a typical omelet that was cooked nicely. Plus that omnibus GOD I HATE IT.

If we had a story about a guy gradually mating and separating with girls until he finds the proper one in the end, as corny as it would be it would still be more solid and memorable than THIS mess.

Artwork: 8
Sound: 8
Story: 2
Characters: 6
Value: 3
Enjoyment: 3
Average: 5/10

[Southern Cross]

7/10

While I appreciated the attempt to utilize the omnibus format to create multiple self-contained and non-conflicting romances, a lot of it was hit-or-miss. Some of the arcs' plots and development were exceptional. At the same time, however, there were some really dull ones.

When it "hit" for me, as in the first arc with Haruka, it was amazing! I loved the chemistry between Haruka and Junichi. There were some memorably hilarious moments of ludicrous, as in that one scene when Junichi wanted to give Haruka the greatest lunch experience ever. I was engaged and entertained all throughout. The end was a satisfying conclusion to their romance and did a good job resolving Haruka's conflict of accepting her feelings for Junichi.

When it "missed," as in the Rihoko arc, I was neither engaged or entertained. Watching that arc was almost a chore for me, and I only continued watching the series because of my anticipation for Tsukasa's arc. As much as I wasn't a fan of Rihoko, I felt sorry for her arc's resolution (or lack thereof) - she was the only heroine who was shortchanged at the end of her arc.

From a technical standpoint, I loved the visuals and the animation quality. I also thought all the seiyuus chosen were spot on. The music was additionally fitting, but nothing really stood out.

When it came down to the characters themselves, they were good, but not always memorable. While they stuck to certain archetypes, at the very least they were able to develop - all the characters had some sort of personal conflict they had to overcome in order for them to devote their heart on Junichi and most of them were resolved satisfactory enough, except Rihoko. I mean they resolved the whole "getting members for the tea club" conflict, but I truly doubt her feelings are ever going to reach him. That's pretty tragic for what is supposed to be a romance like Amagami SS.

In conclusion, Amagami SS is "good," but it certainly isn't groundbreaking or exceptional to the point of being a watershed anime introducing the omnibus format. It will satisfy most fans of slice-of-life romances, but it isn't among the best titles of the genre.

[_eternal]

Not gonna write too much here since I still need to formally sort out my thoughts, but I enjoyed this as much as Kimikiss and I gave it a 9. I think most of the appeal lies in the source material for me. Compared to Kenichi Kasai's rather liberal interpretation of Kimikiss, Amagami is a straight-up adaptation of the game so it all comes down to how well-written the original story was. Obviously there isn't much to say about the plot, but I think the dialogue and development of each arc was done superbly. It succeeded in suspending my disbelief and capturing that daydream-like, shoujo-style of romance, where getting swept up in the relationship matters more than worrying about realism. That's the very heart of the dating sim medium and I applaud the anime for conveying that feeling.

[Forsaken_Infinity]

Gave it a perfect ten because I really don't see what exactly they could have done better with the material at hand. Absolutely perfect adaptation. Complaints about story etc. shouldn't really take off from the Anime itself imo at least. Regardless, I enjoyed it very much and it deserves the 10/10 in my book.

Also, Tuskasa, Ai, Kaoru, Miya, Risa, Rihocchi, Haruka, Sae in that order.

[janipani]

I gave good.. and it is all based on Haruka arc. Rest of the series never happend

Overal quality is very good but consept annoying.

[CrimsonSunshine]

Gah...Gave it a 6, but I should have ranked it a tad bit higher. 7, at least.
The animation was nice. Actually my favorite animation style.
The story...well, it was just a few love stories, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Amagami SS is a good series, for what it is meant to be, a harem, with multiple endings, making all of the pairings canon.

It deserves a 7...or 8...

[whoahyuu]

Just finished Amagami SS in 720p :3 *with extra thoughts

Girl rankings:

1. Haruka Morishima - Most refreshing, playful, and exciting~ with a lovely childish personality and a certain spark.
2. Kaoru Tanamachi - Excellent dere side, very spirited and realistic, girl bro, SEXHAIR.
3. Tsukasa Ayatsuji - Secret bitch persona makes her the most dramatic girl.
4. Rihoko Sakurai - Simple airhead with an obsession of food is adorable in some ways.
5. Ai Nanasaki - Sweet and sensitive, but doesn't grab my attention.
6. Sae Nakata - Kind of annoying and boring, too much of a woobie.

Arc rankings:

1. Haruka - Quite unusual, but definitely the most entertaining arc. Haruka's confession scene in episode 4 is one of the best moments in the series. Her fun ideas and kinkiness spice up situations ~ she certainly brought out Junichi's liveliness. Also, the ending was epic win. *HIBIKI, RUN FOR IT!...* I wonder how their child looks like ^^
2. Tsuaksa - Well thought out script, but with unanswered questions such as what was in her notebook and the reason for hating her sister ~ although the ending was the most emotional out of all the arcs. He seems to be the most compatible for her, since most guys wouldn't want to marry a girl with a split personality.
3. Kaoru - The ending could have been executed better, wished there was a 10 years after epilogue. However the chemistry between the two and their growth for each other is pretty much flawless.
4. Sae - The funny narrator addition was very nice, but Sae herself is bleh. The instructor/student bond was way overused.
5. Ai - Her arc was a bit forgetful, but the onsen scene was ;D. The swimming aspect of the plot was a huge turnoff.
6. Rihoko - Her arc ranks the lowest since she got sadly friendzoned with a bittersweet open-ended epilogue. However, the rest of the arc was pretty interesting since it was the only one which followed the main girl perspective's and not Junichi's.


Overall Amagami SS deserves applause for such wonderfully realistic character designs, since the hairstyles and natural haircolors (with the exception of Sae) are what would be typically be found in a Japanese high school. The character designs are also really clean, and the color palette is vibrant. The general characterization and plot was enjoyable throughout all of the arcs. 10/10


The OP "i Love" by azusa is a great song for the series since it brings out the innocent warmth of a romance nearing Christmas. The ED songs were all brilliant in the fact that they stayed in character and revealed more in depth about the girls. 10/10

Animation Quality: 10 - High quality animation with a nice touch of realism.
Voice Actors: 10 - The seiyuu's caught the emotions and feelings well in each character perfectly.
Script: 8 - Some parts were very good, others not so.
Soundtrack: 9 - Nice BGM throughout, especially at those intimate emotional scenes.
Editing: 9 - Scenes transitioned fluidly and the half point break animation was done nicely.
Enjoyment: 10 - Was hooked on from episode 1.
Emotional Involvement: 10 - Varies with the arc, but generally very emotional.

Overall 10/10

[Aqua Knight]

Originally Posted by CrimsonSunshine

Gah...Gave it a 6, but I should have ranked it a tad bit higher. 7, at least.
The animation was nice. Actually my favorite animation style.
The story...well, it was just a few love stories, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Amagami SS is a good series, for what it is meant to be, a harem, with multiple endings, making all of the pairings canon.

It deserves a 7...or 8...

The show is omnibus not a harem

[Kayoubi]

I gave the series a 9/10 if not only for the fact they chose the best of the veteran seiyuus for all the girls.

I guess the music is pretty plain. And the animation is somewhat average; but then that's just because everything looks so nice nowadays.

Doing an anime 'port' of the game is a tough job, trying to fit hours of dialogue into a condensed 4 episode. Not having played the game, I was still able to understand and enjoy the many quirks and bond each girl has to junichi. The omnibus configuration was interesting and actually felt as if I was playing the game at times. The crossover scenes of key junctures in the perspective of different characters is like reloading the saves and choosing a different route. haha

The creators tried hard to differentiate each character with a differing narrative style and it worked out pretty well. Some would disagree, but don't you all think how they added a ten-no-koe narrator for Sae's arc was such a hilariously smart move?

It's not healthy to read so much into the bad parts of any particular anime. Amagami told 6 great stories and closed off on a touching sibling moment. There were no tear-jerking moments, but why do we always have to be jerking tears or doing some other jerking?