Amagami SS generic discussion thread

[Mentar]

Originally Posted by Nosauz

Oh come on the story is fairly simple, She's the airhead, and he's the desperately in love lovesick puppy, She's all aloof teasing him, and he does his best to get her to reciprocate, in the end it is absolutely a linear love story and yes they "technically" do fit but from the voice work it's never apparent that they are involved in anything more than puppy love.

Before you get me wrong, if you don't like this kind of love storytelling, that's perfectly fine, more power to you. Just please consider going somewhere else. Because it's bound to get fairly annoying to have someone complain in a ramen shop that he'd rather want to have steak instead for 20 weeks in a row.

Many "love stories" are very linear in structure. And what you denigrate as "puppy love" is two people who like to give the partner what he needs: Haruka can live out her positive outlook on life with someone to accompany and provide for her, who enjoys their fantasy plays as much as she does. And Junichi has someone he can depend on too, someone with energy and optimism to pull him along, to make sure he doesn't fall back into his depressive-brooding times. Each of them provides what the partner needs. Obviously it doesn't match your ideal of a partnership, but it matches theirs. That's what counts. That's what being soulmates means in my book *shrug*

[msg]

lol @mangafred.Maybe she used some kind of special of hair volumiser l.I know ...thats impossible

The anime should have put Junichi "rivals" the kouhai and the male students of the same year as her on one of the episodes on how they wanted to impress haruka etc and also how haruka rejected them flatly.That'l be interesting imo.haruka's brothers is also interesting..

As expected they shown the best ending of the game. - Junichi become a police detective and the "role playing" still continues after that...^^ at haruka to never expect Junichi to become a detective.

Overall not the best and can be improve more

[Nosauz]

Originally Posted by Mentar

Before you get me wrong, if you don't like this kind of love storytelling, that's perfectly fine, more power to you. Just please consider going somewhere else. Because it's bound to get fairly annoying to have someone complain in a ramen shop that he'd rather want to have steak instead for 20 weeks in a row.

Many "love stories" are very linear in structure. And what you denigrate as "puppy love" is two people who like to give the partner what he needs: Haruka can live out her positive outlook on life with someone to accompany and provide for her, who enjoys their fantasy plays as much as she does. And Junichi has someone he can depend on too, someone with energy and optimism to pull him along, to make sure he doesn't fall back into his depressive-brooding times. Each of them provides what the partner needs. Obviously it doesn't match your ideal of a partnership, but it matches theirs. That's what counts. That's what being soulmates means in my book *shrug*

See it's not that I don't like ramen, it's that I don't like my ramen "aldente" or I don't like my ramen soggy. If i'm going to sit down at a ramenya I'd better get eddible ramen. And for the most part what about their shown relationship leads you to think this more than superficial?

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Nosauz

See it's not that I don't like ramen, it's that I don't like my ramen "aldente" or I don't like my ramen soggy. If i'm going to sit down at a ramenya I'd better get eddible ramen. And for the most part what about their shown relationship leads you to think this more than superficial?

Are *all* romance stories supposed to lead to "eternal soulmates"???? Or just two people who happen to be able to make things work. One could probably shoot down most romances this way.

I'm not particularly keen on any particular lass (probably won't have an opinion before the end of the series). And yeah, this one is 'puppy love' but that actually suffices for many couples (;P

Suzumura55 ... perhaps you should read the forum rules before posting again. There's a difference between "your opinion" civilly stated and 'shipping+flame-rants. If you want to talk about whether the events seemed believable or not, that's one thing, but to simply fly off like a three year old because they're not spending the whole series on "your favorite path" is just childish.

[Suzumura55]

I will never forgive this show! And i'm not taking back what i said!

[Nosauz]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Are *all* romance stories supposed to lead to "eternal soulmates"???? Or just two people who happen to be able to make things work. One could probably shoot down most romances this way.

I'm not particularly keen on any particular lass (probably won't have an opinion before the end of the series). And yeah, this one is 'puppy love' but that actually suffices for many couples (;P

Yea but we never get to see that "make things work" phase, all it is the puppy love juxtaposed 10 year after just seems like a 1+1=3 situation. Eh I'll just back off but that's just how I feel.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Nosauz

Yea but we never get to see that "make things work" phase, all it is the puppy love juxtaposed 10 year after just seems like a 1+1=3 situation. Eh I'll just back off but that's just how I feel.

eh, that's actually one of my complaints about much of this stuff -- not getting to see them "make it work". One of the reasons when a series *does* that (rarely), I'm so enamored of it (e.g. Love*Complex into college... or that series that covered the lives of the couple from high school through their family years, damn forgot the name of it, by the author who died just before completing the source).

[ueXia]

Originally Posted by Suzumura55

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjKBvS266fU

You're the biggest nerd on the net, oficially.
And your nerdrage was one of the most "/facepalm" deserved jokes I've listened up to date.

A hint for you: This is a show for otakus, and for the game-fans.

PD: You're watching this for free, go touch yourself with some realistic romance

[Somnus]

Originally Posted by Vexx

eh, that's actually one of my complaints about much of this stuff -- not getting to see them "make it work". One of the reasons when a series *does* that (rarely), I'm so enamored of it (e.g. Love*Complex into college... or that series that covered the lives of the couple from high school through their family years, damn forgot the name of it, by the author who died just before completing the source).

That would be Itazura na Kiss, I loved that show. Honestly though, I love this show because I don't have to sit through drama for weeks on end. This is a warm fuzzies show so far, and it knows that. I'm loving it, and the ending screens of this arc. I can't wait for the subs.

Edit: Just to add to personal opinion here, I really don't need to see the "make it work" part. I'll live my own life for that one

(That wasn't a comment to insult anyone, just a general statement)

[CWW]

Whoever you are, you can't deny that the show follows a basic formula that comes straight off a dating sim which it's based on. Girl approaches you, you choose option B, girl reciprocates unless your relationship level is low. You gain relationship points by doing menial tasks, being nice, showing puppy eyes, being persistent and so forth. Do this enough and you get her route and ending.

To put simply it's pure wish fulfillment. Implying it's is anything more than that is frankly ludicrous. It's not sophisticated, it's not sensible, it's not intelligent. That's not to say it isn't entertaining, but heralding like it's some sort of Honey & Clover level of storytelling is taking it a bit far.

[Itlandm]

Yeah. After this series started I've read up on this "dating sim" thing (evidently not related to The Sims at all) and even played through one a few times (not this one, I still can't read Japanese) and it is the first time I have seen an anime really following the formula of a dating sim. That would explain the weirdness - if you could "win" by doing logical, sensible things, it would not have much replay value I guess.

Won't be my favorite type of game, and won't be my favorite type of anime, but at least they seem to be loyal to the source, no matter how embarrassing. I guess that asks for some modest level of respect, in a way.

On the downside, I now expect the next arc to be equally weird, only in a different way.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by CWW

To put simply it's pure wish fulfillment. Implying it's is anything more than that is frankly ludicrous. It's not sophisticated, it's not sensible, it's not intelligent. That's not to say it isn't entertaining, but heralding like it's some sort of Honey & Clover level of storytelling is taking it a bit far.

If I were to say that a person was not sophisticated, sensible, or intelligent, and that implying anything more than that was frankly ludicrous, I imagine they would be pretty damn pissed off at me --and rightfully so. But when other people put forward decent arguments why this show is actually more sophisticated, sensible, and intelligent than it appears, you can't just turn around and dismiss those arguments using that same sort of argument. That's not a real argument, that's some sort of bizarre appeal, like "you can't deny I'm right, because that would be just crazy-talk!". Enter the crazy-talk!

Speaking of which...

Originally Posted by CWW

Girl approaches you, you choose option B, girl reciprocates unless your relationship level is low. You gain relationship points by doing menial tasks, being nice, showing puppy eyes, being persistent and so forth. Do this enough and you get her route and ending.

You can't deny that this is how many real-life relationships work.

Wait, what?

Sarcasm aside, "wish fulfillment" is certainly one of the biggest reasons I'd watch a romance anime presented in omnibus style. I mean, spoiler: he's going to get the girl every time! (Note: This is not a spoiler.)

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Somnus

That would be Itazura na Kiss,

Thanks... actually that reminds me to put it on the queue for a "rainy day".

Originally Posted by Itlandm

Yeah. After this series started I've read up on this "dating sim" thing (evidently not related to The Sims at all) and even played through one a few times (not this one, I still can't read Japanese) and it is the first time I have seen an anime really following the formula of a dating sim. That would explain the weirdness - if you could "win" by doing logical, sensible things, it would not have much replay value I guess.

Won't be my favorite type of game, and won't be my favorite type of anime, but at least they seem to be loyal to the source, no matter how embarrassing. I guess that asks for some modest level of respect, in a way.

On the downside, I now expect the next arc to be equally weird, only in a different way.

If you're really about my age you may remember the old "choose your adventure" multipath books that were popular in the 70s and 80s (before com-pu-ters went big). These are pretty much the same "Zork/Adventure" sort of bag but with multi-media fun (good music, good voice acting, good artwork). They're designed to run on most any PC without needing much horsepower. A LOT of the "harem choose the girl" romantic comedies you'll see in anime are based on these date-sim visual novel games. So much so that when a series is NOT (e.g. Toradora!) it confuses those expecting the usual storyline.

Amagami is one of the few that doesn't try to integrate all the story paths - just telling each route. Other series choose a triangle mode (e.g. Canvas 2), a straight 1:1 romance (Lamune), a serial romance mode (each girl is spent time with and then it breaks off) or a "horse race who will be chosen" (e.g. Shuffle!). The last mode is often where the trainwrecks and poor story path integration happen.

I was interested in this series because I'm getting more and more brutal on series that try to integrate and fail.

[ID555]

Spoiler for ep 4:

Squee!! The crying was a bit awkward but that was a nice ending! I was pleasantly surprised by the timeskip, now I'm looking forward to the other arcs even more. They even acknowledged Haruka's flighty nature and showed that Junichi managed to keep it fresh even after ten years.

That Kaoru with the wind in her hair bit must be a nod to Kaoru fans, I think. Was it messy enough?

Ah, now going back to read the comments for episode 4, and we have the realism debate again....

[Vexx]

They're probably saving animation budget for Kaoru and her hair.

Interesting thing about the name Kaoru - until the mid-20th century it was a man's name (my father-in-law's name was Kaoru). It is only in the last decade or two that it went "feminine" (like some English unisex names shift back and forth).

[DragoZERO]

I had mixed feelings in the middle but by the end I was happy. Really sweet ending and Haruka managed to play with him the entire time so that was funny. I wish we had a couple more episodes to develop the characters some more but they are doing things very well with the four episode arcs.

I shall look forward to Kaoru with everyone! I think it's going to be a lot of fun...

Spoiler for Image:

Originally Posted by Mentar

And just a side remark: If you ever began to wonder why Haruka gained the title of school idol... this episode delivers the curvacious eye candy to support the claim...

O_o

I read that before watching the episode and it brought my patience down to zero. I could not wait any longer to wait it.

The anime definitely upped her design compared to the magazine.

Spoiler for Images:

Originally Posted by pampz21

there goes the first ending....can't believe it 5 more...!who would have thought they even put the 10 year later!

Right? I would have never thought they'd go that far ahead. Maybe to their college years, but that far? I wish they told us what Junichi truly did for a living though.


And to those who disliked the first four episodes and are bashing: please leave and don't come back. You don't like it, we get it. Just don't come back after next week with more complaints.

[Vexx]

No.... the routine is they'll only like the arc of "their girl" whether its well written or a piece of hackery. :P I'm tempted to take a few of those outrageous Kannagi otaku comics that skewered such foolishness and tweaking them to skewer rage 'shipping. But no, it is hard to satirize something so over-the-top to begin with.

[Nightengale]

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

Right? I would have never thought they'd go that far ahead. Maybe to their college years, but that far? I wish they told us what Junichi truly did for a living though

That badge you saw?

It's real.

[ID555]

I'm slightly disappointed...... that there wasn't a voice calling out 'Nii nii!' from somewhere in their house.

Then I can spend the rest of my day imagining what kind of roleplaying three people can get up to...


@dragozero's kaoru pic: Wow, Kaoru gives Junichi a LOT of dai-service, it seems

[kk2extreme]

So 10 years after, junichi -> police detective, hibiki -> doctor, Haruka -> housewife...

I wonder why they do not show any kids.

Would they do a time skip for the next arc?