Amagami SS - Episode 4

The previous episode of Amagami SS saw the distance between Morishima and Tachibana closing rapidly... and not a moment too soon, considering her story arc ends with this fourth episode of the series.

Anyhow, after a bout of Christmas shopping that leads Tachibana to bump into Haruka (where we learn that her middle name is Lovely and his is, and I'm guessing here, Dimwit), we enter one of those tired old tropes of romance anime - the "we met before in our past and made an instant connection, and now we've finally realised that our bond is complete" moment. This could have been an emotional and moving cornerstone of this story arc, but seeing as Tachibana reminded Morishima of her dead dog, it kind of lost a little of its lustre if I'm honest.


So, after all of that we end up with Haruka agreeing to spend Christmas Eve with Tachibana while also meeting with some of her relatives, although not before somehow managing to squeeze in some swimming pool scenes - I think you have to credit this series for managing to pull off some swimsuit scenes at Christmas. With that done, it's time to head up to the hotel room where Haruka has agreed to meet her relatives... except their flight has been delayed so it's just the two of them in a lovely hotel room together.

It's at this point that we're reminded of a very important fact - That Morishima might well be a beautiful girl with sparkling blue eyes, but that aside she's also crazy in the coconut. So it goes that Morishima chooses to take a bath while Tachibana waits for her in the room, before berating him for not peeking at her and getting upset because he only confessed to her twice. Of course, Tachibana doesn't spot these early warning signs of blatant insanity, and so they end up living happily ever after, complete with a jump ten years into the future to remind us just how batshit crazy this pair is.

You know, even though we've finished one story arc I still can't decide exactly how I feel about Amagami SS - I can certain appreciate its visuals and what it's trying to do, and to be fair its male protagonist is better than most visual novel escapees (White Album's Touya Fuji, I'm looking at you), but the fact that I spent more time laughing that "Aww"-ing or understanding why Tachibana has fallen for Morishima can't be a good sign. Come the end of it all I still don't understand why a somewhat selfish, vacuous, vain and clearly rather bonkers girl would hold such allure for a guy like Tachibana, and doing fun stuff and joking around will only get you so far. Perhaps the story arcs to follow will fare better, but for me a love story that I can't associate or sympathise with never really works, and this first arc of Amagami SS certainly falls into that category.