Much like this arc.
All good things must come to an end, and fortunately, so must all bad things. There was a marked improvement in consistency in recent events compared to prior episodes, but even so such a mild counterattack was far from sufficient to turn the tide for this arc. The school festival was given its most comprehensive treatment so far, but while this primary setting provided a sense of consistency it failed to address the core issues with the Ai arc. But on the positive side of things, it did feature several appearances by both Ayatsuji Tsukasa and Takahashi Maya, though failed to shed any more light on previous indications of a Tsukasa-Ai confrontation. With this arc over, the world is also left to ponder the implications of the breakdown in storytelling and presentation on future arcs.Now with our final report, the THAT Amagami Monitoring Group presents our findings and predictions.
Recent Developments
- The school’s Founder’s Festival proceeded smoothly, in large part to the organizational efforts of Ayatsuji Tsukasa in checking up on preparations, hosting, and by using her personal paramilitary forces to ensure order. Meanwhile, Haruka continues to make her presence felt far from her arc, the latest in a long demonstrated ability to project power far from home.
Don’t you wish your girlfriend had a good arc like me?
Ein volk! Ein reich! Ein seitokaichou!
- Also spotted at the festival was a new model mobile suit, on display in its first public appearance. While the development of a mobile suit by Ayatsuji Heavy Industries has been suspected for some time, this is the first time this has been confirmed in open-source reports. The design shares several similarities with several late-model Earth Federation Space Forces designs, including the ground-battle Gundam and the GM Command, as well as design elements possibly related to Union or perhaps the police model Ingram.
Also features an innovative security device to deter Zeonic remnants and angsty teens from stealing the mobile suit: a key.
- Tsukasa was not the only participant in the festival to field a personal security detachment, with Hibiki’s elite all-female security force known as the ‘Swim Team’ also in attending in force. We are aware of no threats to her at present, so it must be assumed that they were deployed to help in the eternal task of keeping tabs on Haruka.
Each ready to die for their mistress at a moment’s notice.
- Once relieved by Hibiki’s team from the oden stand, Ai led J4 to an undisclosed location some distance from the school. Taking a public bus, they arrived at a mountain said to be owned by Ai’s grandfather. This remote location was an odd choice at first, but it was confirmed that the mountain contains hot springs and a combination of fanservice and the final confession of the arc took place there. Swimsuit tanlines filled in for this arc’s supply of kink, while Ai’s confession came after both were already naked and in the water, followed by a kiss. The wisdom of staging this scene before even confessing and beginning a proper relationship will be left up to the reader.
I can think of a few things. Perhaps this, or maybe that.
“I lied, as I have from the very beginning.“
Analysis
This episode was more consistent than previous ones, with things being a lot less out of nowhere. Unfortunately it was too little, too late to even partially redeem this arc. A very strong showing in the final episode could have been something memorable, but as it is we only got a ‘good’ episode when to cancel out some of its past failings what it really needed to be was ‘excellent.’ The festival was a decent setting, and while it was strained a bit in delivery, the part where the tea club members challenged Ai and Junichi was fairly funny. The part with Takahashi-sensei was also a bright spot, mostly because any moment with her makes an episode better. Ai’s grandfather conveniently owning a mountain with an onsen within a relatively short distance from school also stretched believability a bit, but after the WTF moments last episode I wasn’t too picky. Something a little more jarring was the fact that Ai would get naked with Junichi before ever even confessing her feelings to him. But then again, Amagami for the most part hasn’t turned out to be the realistic romance drama that its forebearer KimiKiss: Pure Rouge was, so perhaps I’m asking too much of it.
Though I have to hand it to the writers for including this as the last of the daydreams J4 had while climbing the hill with Ai. As soon as they came off the bus it was the first thing I thought of, indeed, that I hoped for. This fourth iteration of Junichi has been, as comrade Crusader would say, most unworthy and a contemptuous harem animu lead. Which brings us to another point, the possibility of any sort of less than GOOD END ending. When the show started, myself and others speculated about this, and I had hoped that the writers might end one arc in something less than the ideal ending. While I wasn’t asking for or desiring a Nice Boat ending, it would have been interesting to see a ‘just friends’ ending or having one of the girls overcome Junichi’s being stood up without falling for him. But with 2/3 of the arcs now complete, that possibility can be firmly put to rest.
Two arcs remain, two I’m anticipating greatly, especially Tsukasa’s arc. But I do worry about the course of the show overall. The Haruka arc was superbly done, but overall I’d have to say that it’s only gone downhill from there. Kaoru’s arc wasn’t bad, but was clumsily executed. Sae’s took a different, comedic turn, which was definitely fun but started to show some of the problems in storytelling and consistency that came back in force with this arc. In the Sae arc they didn’t matter so much, because it was supposed to be silly, but in the Ai arc they completely disrupted things. I’d like to think that we’re at the nadir, and that things can only go up from here, but that’s what I’d like, not what I’m seeing. Given current trends, I’m seriously worried about how the last two will play out. From what you’ve told me in the comments, the Ai arc in both VN and manga form had a lot of good points and scenes, material that would have made this arc very good. But the choices of which to include and exclude in the anime were beyond questionable. I sincerely hope that Amagami rebounds after this arc, but right now I worry. Is this the bottom from which recover begins, or will it follow the Russian saying “we thought we’d finally hit the bottom ’til we heard someone scratching from below.”
Opinion (guidance beyond our analysis)
Even drunk, she’s still <3
I swear that was one of the kids from the park/the beach. Wouldn’t be surprised that he’s got a date to the festival since he seems to know more about relationships than Junichi.
Tsukasa had another ‘Ironside’ moment with Ai and was watching from the window, but we’re still left to wonder what it all means. The simple explanation would be a crush on Junichi, but if that was the case, why does she focus solely on Ai?
I approve of this pairing.
Deer are perverts.
28 Comments
Still the haunted house mishap remains the most bizarre event to date. What is that supposed to mean? Junichi on marijuana? I think Junichi is just a perverted character with little redeeming quality. His best trait would be his somewhat godlike ability to score with various girls. And that is granted by the storytelling, which is deteriorating as we speak.
Put him in real life and he would be a helpless fag for the rest of his miserable life.
The haunted house will probably go down as the most out of nowhere moment in this show. It was a tale told by idiot writers, full of the strange and foolish, signifying nothing.
kiss behind the knee, kiss on the belly buttonn, instructer/ student play, quite literally eating her up… Gotta wonder what they come up with next…
It has become a trademark of the show, though one that I regretted seeing happen. I had hoped against hope that the Haruka behind the knee kiss was just a one time thing, but the need to come up with something to match it every arc seems like kind of a drag on the story.
I think the most interesting things this arc have been the Ai:Tsukasa interactions. There *has* to be something there, but I’m just not sure what.
Also, it seemed like the encounter in the library was somewhat hostile, though they were too polite to make a scene. The encounter at the oden stall, though, appeared to be more of a peace offering from Ai to Tsukasa. I really want to know what’s going on there.
The Founders Festival was kinda meh, aside from the interactions of the other characters (Maya & Sae, Kaoru & Keiko, etc). J4′s presence was very nearly pointless.
This. There wasn’t much else to interest me aside from Takahashi-sensei, but I really want to know what’s behind the Tsukasa-Ai thing. I can’t accept the simple jealousy explanation, because Tsukasa never acted that way towards any other girl.
I simply love how you can get an appropriate quote to fit the dialogue!
I actually liked this week’s episode, we had: Ai, Tsukasa, Sensei, Rihoko’s weird friends, kinky hot springs.
Sensei was left in the care of two guys… I mean really… really!?
Tsukasa and Ai made up for… whatever between them.
Is it me or Ruriko (Rihoko’s friend, bespectacled girl) talks in a VERY LOUD tone?
I’ll say this here and there, just look at Junichi fondling Ai’s thigh…
“Perverted deers” pretty much what I thought!
You know how it goes… Thanks for your review Mr. ExecutiveOtaku.
The ‘whatever’ between Tsukasa and Ai really caught my interest, so I hope there will be some explanation for it in the former’s arc. Tsukasa didn’t act that way towards any of the other girls, so it can’t just be jealousy. Gah, I need answers!
Glad you liked the quotes, I’m always happy when I can find a way to work in that Force Unleashed line, hehe.
I really love this ending than sae Arc ending, lap pillow scene is better than freakin penguin/kuroneko custome.
Certainly a more appropriate and less nonsensical ending, but I did feel it was a little lacking. Then again, I’ve thought that all the endings after the Haruka arc were lacking, heh.
On the contrary, actually. I think the Ayatsuji x Nanasaki goings-on is just simple jealousy, and I think Ayatsuji realises in this episode that giving the cold shoulder to Nanasaki won’t do any good, as it’ll only annoy Junichi (despite how totally oblivious he is to everything at school).
I do approve of single female sensei making a return at the festival. Funny (albeit obligatory) is still funny.
Still didn’t quite get why Miya was humming ‘Happy Birthday’ on her way to Sae’s house, though…
I don’t know, I have a hard time buying jealousy as an explanation (though watch the show prove me wrong and go with such an overly simple explanation.) If there was jealousy I’d think that it would have been exhibited in earlier arcs, but there wasn’t anything prior to this. Which makes me think that either they have some mutual history that’s less than pleasant, or maybe Tsukasa just has a particular dislike for Ai. Something is up with that, and I really hope some light is shed on it in the Tsukasa arc.
Good Points: Maya-chan, Miya, Sae, Haruka (duh), Hibiki, Mecha
I am disappointed in the lack of explanation for the Tsukasa and Ai standoff.
Anyways…..NEXT
You and me both. I’m holding out hope that it’ll be explained at least a little in the Tsukasa arc.
I would just like to say that if we get Rihoko Bad End (which you can only get if Junichi stands HER up on Christmas Eve), Junichi still gets more action than he got with any girl before Ai Best End. So yah. (Actually, I think that end is the most action he gets from Rihoko too, heh.)
I think Junichi’s super-power, regardless of which arc it is, is to attract girls that should really have no interest in him. Including his sister, you could possibly say. I can see clearly through my yuri goggles that all the main girls are at least borderline lesbians (except for maybe Rihoko, but she just seems slow – I don’t see how she can still be that good of friends with him, the way he treats her).
I think the biggest misstep in this arc is the break in formula; while not necessarily a bad thing in itself, where they broke the formula really throws a wrench in the flow. How this show has been going is: end of ep.2 the girl explicitly demonstrates to the audience that she is interested in Jun-1; by the end of ep.3 there is a confession, and the last is the Christmas-Eve date. Where they missed here is the confession at the end of ep.3. I was highly confused by it, but figured they would do it at the beginning of this episode. But they saved it for the end. I think this is where it gets the “typical school romance” vibe that the show has mostly managed to avoid. The feelings were obvious to all, just never explicitly stated (so the characters involved weren’t quite sure if the other felt the same – the guy because he’s dumb, and the girl because maybe the dude is just being a perv/nice/etc.), and the climax of the whole thing IS the confession, not what comes after (which is usually SEXYTIME).
Sometimes I think we are watching different shows. You almost seem like you are watching a serious romance show (with the exception of Sai). Well, this show has never been a serious romance, right from the start. In fact, Haruka’s arc was less serious than even Sae’s arc – at least Sae had the thing where she was trying and training to get a job. Kaoru’s arc was almost pure laughs (with the one big exception). Sae’s arc wasn’t as funny as the two previous ones, really (in either the funny-haha or the funny-weird sense) – it was mostly banking on the odd training J3 had her do (the funny part being we knew he picked those particular things because he’s a perv). In fact, Sae had the most serious romance of them all so far (and I think of the whole show, probably) – which I think stems from the fact that that’s exactly what she wanted from the start.
I think the Ai arc was trying to have the same sort of feel as the Kaoru arc – funny, but with some SERIOUS BUSINESS. But the thing is, Ai isn’t nearly as funny as Kaoru, and J4 isn’t J2. I can sense a sort of pattern – the odd arcs are purely light-hearted, with the even arcs – while still being mostly light-hearted – have some serious stuff to change it up (a good plan, I think). (I just don’t see any real drama happening with Rihoko, and I know there’s going to be a ton with Tsukasa.) Unfortunately, I don’t think the writers want to focus on the drama at all, so it just ends up being thrown in there (I do think the pool scene from last episode will be the low point of the series). And with this arc, the DRAMA was so incidental as to be completely jarring – at least with Kaoru, we got some small warning, and it took a whole episode to resolve, instead of 30 seconds.
I wonder how Jun-1 will be next arc. First arc he was doggedly persistent; next, he was smooth; with Sae he was slick; and here he was…honest? From what I can gather, the “conflict” in the Rihoko arc is that Jun-1 takes advantage of their friendship (like all anime childhood friend girls ever), and is in denial about how they feel about each other (you can see that in the preview for the next episode). Doesn’t bode well for showing J5 in a positive light.
And in a total aside, I would like to add a metaphor for the various relationships. We will go with that of a shepherd (the girl) and the sheep (Jun-1):
Haruka: The sheep was pushing the shepherd until she got off her butt and led.
Kaoru: The sheep and shepherd were playing together, until she realized what she really was, and led.
Sae. The clumsy shepherd leading.
Ai: The shepherd leading the clumsy sheep.
Rihoko: The shepherd dragging the reluctant sheep?
Tsukasa: ? I have no idea.
As for the relationships (especially Ai’s) not being realistic – guess what. That’s reality. Sure, they may not be the most ideal, mature, potentially healthy relationships, but that doesn’t mean they are unrealistic. And in J4′s case, girls (especially young, inexperienced ones like Ai) aren’t exactly the what some might say the best judges of worthiness and character. Some choose well, while many others, not so much. Let’s hope they both grow from this (especially J4). At least they both seem content – it’s not like J4 is a bad person or anything, just dumb and/or (probably “and”) completely lacking shame in the public square.
And to put a wrap on this extra-long comment (maybe I should get a blog myself, heh), when the title said “future implications,” I thought you were talking about this…
Indeed we might be watching different shows, or at least from very different perspectives. Having loved KimiKiss: Pure Rouge and knowing that Amagami was a related franchise, I went into the show with pretty high expectations for it. The Haruka arc met most of those, just in an unconventional way that worked a fair amount of kinkiness into it. But I was able to accept that and not have it detract from the show because both Haruka and J1 seemed like that kind of people. The kinkiness wasn’t jarring because it was believable between two people with their sorts of personalities. But unfortunately for me, in later arcs it seems like that really is the focus of the show more than actual romance, conventional or unconventional. Even with lowering my expectations after the Haruka arc, I’m still being disappointed because at heart I’m a fan of serious romance shows.
I like the analogies you make there, though I think the prediction for the Rihoko arc could potentially apply equally to the Tsukasa arc in some way. And another possibility for the Tsukasa arc could be the sheep leading the lost shepherd back home. With all the work she’s taken upon herself, Tsukasa only gets to briefly interact with everyone around her, which might make her feel isolated or unsure of where exactly she’s headed in life. I could see someone as busy as her running on momentum instead of thinking and deciding for herself.
As for realism, I’m not expecting ideal or anything, as plenty of real life relationships are less than good ones, but I do expect a certain internal, subjective logic to them. When you see a mismatched or unlikely couple, you can see a certain logic to it, even if it’s not objective logic. From the point of view of the people involved, it makes sense within their worldview and thinking patterns. Which was something that I liked about the Haruka arc especially, and that’s the reason why I hold it up as by far the best so far. It was also present in the Kaoru arc, just not as well written or executed. I can see the beginnings of this internal logic in Ai, but it seemed to only be beginning to coalesce into something that could make her fall for Junichi. Surely, time constraints in the four episode arc format play a role in that, but again I point to the Haruka arc: if it could be done before, why not now?
OH DEER THOSE DEERS.
Deer: not just a nuisance to drivers anymore!
Jealousy~
So glad Takahashi-sensei made another appearance. I sure hope the next arc includes more hot for teacher moments :3 And now I totally relate her to Cake thanks to you :p
Still not buying it!
More Takahashi-sensei is always welcome. Haha, the song played in my head as soon as I saw Junichi look her over.
Gee, why is everyone calling a “bad end” a “Nice Boat ending”? Did school days really traumatized all of us? I mean sure I get it, but I still wonder if School days was somehow ingrained in our brains for the rest of our lifes…./end rant
Anyways, back on topic. I really enjoyed the episode, although the gundam was a bit random…
As for Tsukasa…I have a strange feeling, one I cannot conprehend…I wonder whats in store?
Nice Boat has pretty much become the example of a bad end. Sure there are others, but Nice Boat is the most well-known and accessible.
Tsukasa’s arc should be interesting indeed, though with recent events I’m worried that the writers might have become too lazy to pull it off properly.
I’ve only been reading comments thus far (EO I love your analysis). However I’ve been compelled to express my opinion on Ayatsuji’s so called harbored ‘jealously’ towards Nanasaki. I’m probably wrong and I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m going to just suggest that the conflict between Ayatsuji and Nanasaki might have something to do with their intuition about people.
Starting from the end of the ep, we see Ayatsuji looking down at the festival, alone. As the organizer, you really don’t have much time to enjoy the festival, but to let others enjoy it. I’m sure Ayatsuji enjoyed receiving something (like soup) from the festival. However it foreshadows some loneliness as the class rep since she seems to be too busy to even enjoy her time with anyone or anything. If I assume she likes to work alone and she’s not introverted, then maybe she has a hard time trusting people. This brings me to ep 2 where we first detect her reaction to meeting Nanasaki. We know Nanasaki is observant and a perceptive girl but if Ayatsuji is keen on her trust issues with people it’s possible she has an intuition about Nanasaki. They could probably read each other which probably put a wall against each other. Of course there’s a possibility of a conflict between the two but we don’t know right now.
With these thoughts in mind, it piqued my interest as to why Ayatsuji is such an interesting character. Doing most things alone (I never see her with friends!), perhaps it’s difficult for her to trust anyone who isn’t like her. In any case, the final female probably needs to have some sort of depth (and I agree with TheRoyalFamily, lots of drama) I suppose. Maybe they can make Rihoko’s arc 3 eps and Ayatsuji’s 5 eps due to popular demand.
Good to see you joining the fray! I appreciate your comments. That theory on Ayatsuji is pretty interesting. While I’ve never really thought of Ai as that perceptive overall, there were hints of it early on and maybe it’s more fleshed out in the VN or manga. But I can definitely see it i Tsukasa. Being at something of a distance from the others would give her perspective, but also reinforce the loneliness angle. The only person we see her hanging out with is Takahashi-sensei in the Sae-arc version of the Founder’s Festival (and Takahashi was actually sober for that one!)
Ever since previews time I’ve thought that Ayatsuji Tsukasa held the greatest potential, and there’s been a nice buildup to her upcoming arc, even as the rest of the show has started to flounder. Here’s to hoping that whoever’s in charge of Project Amagami cracks the whip at the production staff and they return to the form they were in for the Haruka arc by the time the final arc comes around. A character like Tsukasa definitely deserves their best effort.
Start off with a bang, and save the best for last.
Thanks for the welcome.
I still think the Morishima arc has been the best as far as story and character development.
While the actual story of the arc sucked, Ai is so far my favorite girl of the show. I love her personality, her look (even though she lacks the sex hair) and her voice. Her seiyuu is one of my fave ever since FMP! So that helps too!
As for ayastuji I believe it’s jealousy. Each arc has showed something different about the various other girls who aren’t featured at the moment. For instance after so much insistence on making fun of rihoko being fat it was never to be repeated again. Meanwhile junichis super depression and his sister not wanting to talk to him at school and being super jealous were only in the first arc.
My theory is that ayatsuji was the girl who ditched junichiu two years ago. Well it would make for a good arc at least!
My theory is that ayastuji is the girl who ditched junichi two years ago
Gah these comment boxes are not iPad friendly. Ignore the repeated line
I thought about that theory too about Ayatsuji. It would make for an interesting last arc. We’ll have to wait and see