Does anyone have any idea how UTW is able to have their subs of Amagami out before the raws even appear? That's amazing speed.

As expected, Tsukasa's arc ended entirely too quickly. Her arc was by far the most interesting and could have easily been expanded into a 13-ep season or longer. I'd like to know the hints I should have caught in her cameos before her arc started. (You can wrap them in a spoiler if you wish.)



My final rankings:

1. Ai
2. Tsukasa
3. Kaoru
4. Sae
5. Rihoko
6. Haruka

I was crazy about Haruka. I thought she would be at or near the top for me. But in all her cameos since the first one, I've come to realize she's gay. It's not that there is anything wrong with being lesbian, but I wouldn't want to marry a person who will inevitably leave me for a woman when she finally comes out.

We have the bonus arc next week and an OVA to go. Since Amagami started, I have watched (or am in the middle of) 5 animes based on ren'ai games: Amagami, Yosuga no Sora, Clannad, Kanon, and Kimikiss. They all use various strategies for adapting the different girls' arcs. For showing all the arcs, I am kind of liking the approach in Yosuga no Sora best, where the arcs share earlier episodes but then split and continue differently at different points. (All the arcs share ep. 1.) This probably matches game play best.

Kanon, Clannad, and Kimikiss chose instead to present a single narrative that somehow encompassed the stories of all the girls. Kimikiss was by far the best, and indeed the way they did it was an ideal adaptation overall. By introducing a second male protagonist, they could adapt stories of 4 girls in a really moving story of finely balanced triangles.

Kanon and Clannad were both a bit silly, even though I enjoyed them. In Kanon, they eliminated the girls by have 3 of them be non-human and one be walking dead. (Although I haven't yet watched the final ep., and I am sure it has surprises.) In Clannad, the girls just took turns and only one stuck. In neither was there any hint of jealously or being upset when the protagonist switched interest from one to the next. Hardly real life there.

Amagami's approach wasn't terrible, but the stories were very curtailed. No girl's arc was more than 4 eps. Compare with Yosuga no Sora where in only 13 eps they were able to give 3 of the girls 4-ep arcs and 1 of them a 5-ep arc. And they have a bonus arc in the super-deformed mini-eps at the end. It's a much more efficient and game-like approach.