Amagami SS+ 06 – The Joys of Buying a New Coat

Ai’s arc has been the happiest and possibly one of the most vomit inducing experiences in any romantic anime series I have ever watched. The love in the air around her and Junichi is so thick you could probably cut it with a knife and spread it on toast. It is like they are sucking the happiness out of the world for themselves, and yet I really enjoyed the arc. To see this young couple who are clearly head-over-heels in love sorting out their problems was a wonderful sight.

What fascinated me in particular about this arc was its ability to maintain a certain element of drama, even though the ‘big problem’ could be considered to be something inconsequential. This arc is about the feeling of loneliness when someone who you have always been around is suddenly taken away from you – in this case it is Junichi essentially being abducted by his cram school to do make-up exams over Christmas. Ai is beset with negative thoughts about being alone on Christmas Eve – one year on from confessing to Junichi – and her thoughts stray towards the idea of being away from him when he leaves school. This is an interesting arc in this respect since it does not rely on some form of conflict like the previous two, but instead is about emotions and the notion that life moves on.

It always seems to be far more difficult to write proper romance after the confession has happened than before. Before the confession you have the possibilities of more drama, but properly placed drama, there are other plot elements within a High School romance that allow for a more in depth story. After the confession has happened it is still possible to have a wonderful romance, but we often see more melodrama and other plot devices used to add tension – such as them splitting up due to a misunderstanding. While a happy couple who are deeply in love is a wonderful thing, it doesn’t necessarily make for the most attractive and watchable series. Ai’s arc does have a few scenes where the story feels a little lost, as if it isnt completely sure of where its going, but for the most part it works.

Seeing Ai getting ever more depressed as the episode went on was heartbreaking as we were seeing someone who is incapable of seeing the person they love. It was great, however, to see Junichi swoop in just as she was about to burst with thoughts of him leaving when he goes to university. We then had a very cute Christmas eve date full of lovey-dovey looks and even Junichi buying that coat we saw in the previous episode – something that was obvious really. We even had some random bits of comedy coupled with Ai falling even more in love with Junichi than she was already, assuming that its even possible. We even had Ai quietly consenting to spending a night with Junichi when they manage to wander into the love hotel district, only to bump into their teacher Maya Takahashi leaving one of its many Spa’s. One of the standout moments for me however was the brilliant interaction between Miya and Sae at their Christmas eve sleep-over. Seeing Miya play the ‘meat-bun’ competition only to jump onto Sae and start fondling and cuddling her breasts was great to watch and incredibly funny.

We did have a sort of ending in this arc, with the episode ending when Junichi is at university and has his own apartment. We see him and Ai watching fireworks through the window, this implying that they have been sleeping together, thus cementing their relationship. My problem is however that this series lacks many proper endings. While we know from the first series that Junichi marries Tsukasa and Haruka – in separate arcs naturally – the other characters are left to our imagination, which feels a little odd. One could assume that this is deliberately done in order to keep their options open for other sequels and follow-up arcs for individual characters, but it also feels a little cheap. If you do it or two of them I see no reason why you cant have a similar ending for them all. Set it about 5-10 years in the future, which gives you plenty of time to add other sequels to the franchise. A small point perhaps, but an important one in many respects. Regardless, however, I have thoroughly enjoyed this latest arc and am especially looking forward to next Kaoru’s arc next week. She was a great character, being very forceful, but also having one of, if not the best confession that I have seen in an anime series in many years.