9 Jul 2010

Amagami SS (Anime) Impressions


Amagami SS (2010)
Format: TV Series, 13 X 22 minutes
Studio: AIC
Potential: 1-2 stars
Summary: While the art is not bad, it's a little TOO clean, to the point of boredom. I can't see this series being anything more than "OK" at best.


Our main character was dumped/stood up during Christmas one year. In order to snap out of his depression, he decides to hit on the most popular girl in school... and was promptly rejected.

I don't usually like Visual Novel adaptations. Especially the harem kind. The characters end up being too one-dimensional, predictable, and ultimately boring to watch. Moreover, the plot is usually ridiculous, with the plain main character being the most popular guy around for no reason at all. AIC is quite a respectable animation company. They are the ones behind Bamboo Blade, Dual!, and Nyan Koi, all of which are very enjoyable series. The only thing AIC-like I've seen here however is the consistency of their art and animation. The direction in this episode is just so uninspired and predictable. Surprisingly, the director (Yoshimasa Hiraike) last worked on "Working!!" which I thoroughly enjoyed. Why is he working on such a bland series!

Amagami SS has not addressed any of these issues so far. In fact, the members of our main character's future harem are painfully obvious. Not gonna waste my time on this.

Side note: AIC collaborated with NTU back in 2006 to develop Cacani, a software that can do the in-between animation frames from key-frames. Their work is amazing and could potentially put many in-betweeners out of job. But of course, this is only OK for regular animators. The works of animation geniuses such as Norio Matsumoto (some of the most controversial action scenes in Naruto), Mitsuo Iso (Dennou Coil) and Shinya Ohira (Wanwa) cannot be in-betweened with such software as the movements are too weird and unique to follow.

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