Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister

BeetleR19d★ 7

When I first binged 70 odd chapters of 'Amagami-san Chi no Enmusubi' manga back in October 2022, I was almost sure of two things—first, it was a good find and I might come back to check the new chapters every 2-3 months or so. (I binge read manga, so that's normal for me.) Second, sooner or later, this manga will get an anime adaptation. And fortunately , I was right for both cases. Cliched yet interesting start, great character design, perfect amount of fan service for a harem manga, unique implication of supernatural elements—all of these hinted that 'Amagami-san Chi no Enmusubi' anime would bemore than a decent anime of its genre. And it has turned out to be just as good as I expected it to be. Art and Animation(8/10): As I stated in the 'Intro' of this review, 'Amagami-san Chi no Enmusubi' manga is visually striking. Consequently, the anime's character designs are equally attractive. The animation quality was also respectable. I have little to criticize, especially when a competing series in the same genre this season exhibited, to put it mildly, substandard animation (yes, I'm referring to 'Kuroiwa Medaka ni Watashi no Kawaii ga Tsuujinai'). 'Amagami-san Chi no Enmusubi,' on the other hand, maintained excellent background art throughout its 24-episode duration. The direction of certain pivotal scenes was also superb. Thus, animation is certainly not among this show's shortcomings. Plot and Characters(7/10) : At first, 'Amagami-san Chi no Enmusubi' looks like your standard harem anime. A guy ends up living with three girls, and he's gotta pick one to marry. You might think it's like a mix of 'Gotoubun' and 'Tenpuru' at that point. But 'Amagami-san Chi no Enmusubi' throws in something extra: supernatural stuff. This really gives it a unique identity that it wouldn't have had otherwise. The supernatural events actually reminded me of 'Kokoro Connect,' which I really liked. Body swaps, time loops, alternate realities—those tropes have been used in big animes like 'The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya' or 'Bunny Girl Senpai.' But putting all of them into a harem anime? That's pretty unique. And none of the arcs felt out of place or rushed. So, the story's progression was actually pretty good. The characters in 'Amagami-san Chi no Enmusubi' aren't bland, nor are they so extremely fleshed out that you'd imagine them as real people. Uryu Kamihate, as his name suggests (with 'Kami' and 'Hate' separated), is supposed to hate gods. This initial god-hating premise resolves quicker than I expected. While a decent logic is given for his hatred, it feels somewhat unnoticeable compared to Yae's, who I think has the most intriguing backstory. And personally, Shirahi's (childhood friend) arc was more interesting than Asahi and Yuna's. Though, I won't say any of the character arcs are boring. The characters themselves are close to being termed generic, each representing prominent archetypes. The interactions between the main character and the female leads aren't extraordinary either. The author uses common tropes to trigger fan-service scenes, which is kind of inevitable in this genre. So, I'd say this anime has okay-ish characters, just as good as any decent harem anime, nothing fancy going on. Audio and Soundtracks(7/10): I was actually surprised by the anime's voice cast announcement. I had watched the manga PV a while back, and was really impressed with that cast. They had Sora Amamiya, Ai Kayano, and Ayane Sakura voicing the Amagami sisters, all of whom are super popular and felt like perfect fits for the characters. So, I kinda already had a picture in my head of how they'd sound. But then the anime announced a completely different team of voice actors. And they definitely weren't bad! Especially Kaede Hondo, who did a great job as Yuna, who's mostly a tsundere. I don't remember her doing that many tsundere roles. The others were fine too. Since it's a 24-episode anime, we got four different opening and ending songs. The songs were... okay. To be honest, I skipped them most of the time, except maybe once or twice. They just weren't catchy enough to make me add them to my Spotify. But hey, music taste is super subjective, so I'm not gonna judge anyone who enjoyed all of them. Overall(7.3/10): "Amagami-san Chi no Enmusubi" isn't particularly special, or a must-watch, if you judge it as just another romance anime with supernatural elements. There are a lot of superior animes that contain those tags. But, as soon as you consider judging this anime keeping that harem tag in mind, then it becomes kinda hard to ignore. Regardless, the anime itself was nice. The plot is good enough that sometimes it can hook you up. The animation was really good for this genre as well. So, I don't see any reason anyone who likes harem anime skipping this one. Even if I compare it to something well-regarded like "Gotoubun," it doesn't lack that much at all. So the bottom line is that—if you have watched harem animes before and liked at least some of them, there is a chance that you will also like this anime, so give this one a try. But if you are someone who doesn't like the harem tag and also don't prefer anything that has fan-service, you should avoid this one. Thank you for reading :)

Tharr★ 7

Hmmmm. This is a tough one. Mostly because of the supernatural stuff. Kinda simple but I'll say meh, with some good ideas. This is one of those anime that you wanna love but something is amiss and you can't really tell what. So, this might be a problem of adaptation. I don't know the sauce, I don't care about sauce. This is a review for this media, spoiler free. The visuals are good. Except for the MC (dunno why, I don't really like it), the designs are nice/really good. Good color palette. Extremely beautiful landscapes/background. Same for VFX. Animation on par. The audio is good. Decent soundtrack, goodlevels. Good OP and ED (and their visuals), VAs do a good job. High production value, good mix, the cinematography is very good. Yes, I'm rushing through all this because everyone can notice the high level. Now, the tricky part. Like I said, this anime has some integral supernatural parts. Every time you deviate from the norm your project becomes harder to master. And thats because you need to carefully balance said elements or the world-building will suffer. A simpler example is the fantasy genre. Lets say you get some nice characters and an interesting story, but you feel like you want to add magic. As in magic spells, not pizzazz. Well, if your magic system doesn't have some strong rules, your story will have plothole after plothole. I'm sure any of us can come up with some anime title where this happened. The same goes for supernatural. You can have a little more freedom, but some rules MUST exist. If someone asks "how the fk did that happen?" and your answer is "'cause its magic/supernatural", then you're doing it wrong. And now back to our stuff. This anime's approach to said elements is mostly ok. A couple of iffy parts, but thats ok, its supernatural ( :) ) The main issue is with the characters. And their relationship with the supernatural parts. The MC has a character arc, good or bad, thats not the problem here. What I'm talking about is him being dumb or quick-witted by how the plot dictates. And thats mixed-in with some supernatural elements. And yes, there are more examples/situations, but he's the main element that lowers this anime. Spoiler free, so I won't say much. The story is kinda interesting in the beginning. After a while it kinda becomes something like mini-arcs for each girl: 3 episodes for developing his romance with this girl 3 for the next one, and so on, and so on. Not a bad thing per se, but makes you raise an eyebrow. Again, probably this is because of the sauce, maybe a volume had chapters of one girl only. Dunno. While it does its job, of characters' development and relationship advancement, after a while this kind of storytelling becomes boring. Do keep in mind this is a 24-episodes season, so if people want to know how it ends, it feels too long. Oh, also: the comedy is meh, the romantic angle is ok-ish. A personal note, this anime would've gotten a lot better if MORE fan service was added. Something shiny to distract you. More so when you have such lovely visuals. But then again, the MC is a wuss, so maybe its ok as it is. Another personal note, I like the way the title and the last episode ties up ( I'm sorry, I had to do it...). Thats about it. A good-looking anime, with good ideas, but meh story and elements. Probably very enjoyable if you can turn off your brain. I'd say no return value, because there's is nothing to make you wish rewatching it. I'm giving this a 7 ( it really should be a 6, but ok) for the extremely nice backgrounds, some nice ideas, some character development. Have a lovely evening.