Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Amagami SS: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 5, 2014

Considering the general awkwardness of many teenagers and the fumbling, stuttering approaches many teens take toward the rigors and rituals of dating, it’s perhaps something of a minor miracle that the human race has been able to propagate at all. Of course, the sway of teen hormones is able to overcome any mere social inadequacies, in what might be a genetic gambit to ensure an almost Darwinian survivability factor. All of the glories and horrors of teen dating are on display in the agreeable Amagami SS, a 2010 anime based on the old PS2 dating sim game. There’s probably a built in irony that many who played Amagami in its game version were perhaps exactly the type of folks who had issues forging real life relationships with a significant other, living a life of romance vicariously through their monitors and controllers. Those who consider themselves lovelorn will probably get the most enjoyment out of Amagami SS, for its central conceit is that young high school male Junichi Tachibana tends to be spectacularly unlucky at love. The anime version opens with Junichi remembering a fateful Christmas Eve two years previously when he thought he was about to go out on an exciting date. Instead, he was stood up on a snowy night when much of the rest of the world was celebrating. That sent Junichi into something of a depressive spiral, to the point that he lives inside a closet in his bedroom, and has come to the conclusion that dating—let alone an actual committed relationship—is probably not in the cards for him.

Amagami SS might on its face seem to be yet another entry in the harem subgenre, considering the fact that hapless male Junichi is surrounded by a bevy of beautiful young girls. But the anime adaptation structures itself somewhat unusually, offering a series of four episode arcs devoted to the various girls whom Junichi wishes to date. While that gives a kind of vignette feeling to the series as a whole, it provides a nice set of demarcations allowing each separate story to play out in its own way without much fear of a through line getting overly crowded or convoluted. On the other hand, that very structure means there really is no through line, and the series can therefore be seen as a bunch of unconnected stories which just happen to feature the same male character.

One of the other interesting differences in the series as a whole is Junichi himself. While he’s obviously traumatized (almost comically so) by the unfortunate incident on Christmas Eve a couple of years previously, and has his quirks (which include that aforementioned closet dwelling, as well as a certain interest in girlie magazines), he’s actually fairly competent in “real life,” interacting decently with his sometimes annoying little sister Miya, and able to at least lurch through high school life with a baseline of proficiency (though the series does make a bit of a running element with regard to Junichi’s tendency to stutter in times of excitement).

In terms of the girls, they’re a varied group. First up is Haruka, the kind of “unobtainable” upperclass woman who is typically out of reach for shlubs like Junichi. Junichi is rather surprised, therefore, when Haruka ends up being surprisingly accessible after the two “meet cute” in a couple of quick interactions. Junichi’s inherent friendliness (another interesting element to the character, considering some of his general social anxiety) is immediately apparent to Haruka, and though she takes just a little advantage of that tendency early on, it’s obvious that she actually really likes Junichi. However, that doesn’t necessarily spell romantic involvement, leading to a “let’s just be friends” scenario, at least until the two can figure out how they really feel about each other.

The other girls are perhaps slightly more generic than Haruka, though there are interesting things about each of them. The series has some built in repetitiveness anyway due to revisiting certain aspects, like the Christmas Eve fiasco, or even little sister Miya waking Junichi up to go to school, but the would be girlfriends also share some salient characteristics. Two of the girls, Sae and Ai, are in fact friends of Miya’s, something that tends to add a comedic aspect to their arcs (more so in the case of Sae). Similarly, two other girls, Kaoru and Tsukasa, are classmates of Junichi and their arcs tend to exploit a situation where acquaintances become friends and then something more.

A couple of the girls tend to lash out—sometimes physically—at Junichi, even if none of them is a tsundere in any traditional sense. While the series is often quite sweet and good natured, it can’t quite escape from traversing some of the same material or at least general situations over and over again, as Junichi in these various relationships almost always has trouble “confessing” (as it’s phrased here) his true feelings. That leaves the bulk of the variety up to the characters of the girls, and, as stated, they can tend to be a little generic or at least overly similar at times.

There’s a famous poem by Robert Frost entitled The Road Not Taken, dealing with the choices everyone makes at virtually every moment of their lives, choices which then ripple out into cascades of sometimes unexpected repercussions. Amagami SS simply lets Junichi get to any number of forks in the veritable road and then take each and every one of them, letting those stories play out in different ways. That gives the series an inherently divided structure that is perhaps a bit too reliant on its videogame roots to work organically as a drama. But each of the individual stories has some fine moments, with a nice combination of sweetness and gentle humor making those awkward teenage years go down a little more easily.

Amagami SS: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Amagami SS is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The series aired originally in 2010, but it's perhaps just a bit soft looking for such a relatively recent vintage outing. That aspect is exacerbated by some slight (intentional) brightness boosting in certain scenes. Conversely, the flashback sequences detailing Jinuchi's "tragic" Christmas Eve are darkened and even softer looking than the rest of the series, with a kind of fuzzy, wintry quality. Colors are often very bright and even bold at times, and there are some nice whimsical touches, like a vision of Junichi's closet domain as its own universe (see screenshot 5). Character design is relatively realistic for this sort of entry, with good distinctions on display between the many girls populating the anime. Line detail is generally very strong and stable. There are minor banding issues on display, perhaps made more apparent by some of the overall brightness of the series.

Amagami SS: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Amagami SS features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix (in the original Japanese only) that provides more than ample support for what is often a very talky series. Occasional elements, like the narration in the Sae arc, are mixed well, and the entire series' dialogue is presented very cleanly and clearly. Fidelity is excellent and there are no issues of any kind to report.

Amagami SS: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Clean Opening Animations (1080p; 12:16)


• Clean Closing Animations (1080p; 12:16)

Amagami SS: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Amagami SS can't quite escape its dating sim genesis, and the series therefore tends to be kind of like a collection of tangentially related short stories rather than an organic whole. The show tends to play like a "slice of life" entry quite a bit of the time, crossed with some traditional shōnen elements, though that said, Junichi is a likable, relatable character who isn't a complete klutz or nincompoop. There are also some overt similarities between some of the girls that tend to make the series' repetitive nature especially apparent. All of that said, Amagami SS is often very sweet and it's also incessantly good natured. It's not any giant slayer in the anime realm, but a decent middling effort that should entertain those with a special interest in romance stories. Recommended.