The heroine wakes up and learns from a spirit named Orion that she is suffering an Amnesia within her soul. He tells her that the only way to remember is to interact with people, and if she doesn’t remember she will die.
Eva’s First Impression:
Holy shit, I was not expecting this to be intense. It might be just me since I already know a tiny bit of what certain characters are like, but smokes- I felt very nervous when I was watching this.
I wasn’t expecting the heroine to be this soft-spoken, but considering how she has the Amnesia and all- to the point she doesn’t even know who she is, I think it fits the situation pretty well. However I do hope that she will gradually have a stronger tone of voice as the series goes on.
Usually when we see characters with an Amensia, they are on their own- but not for our dear heroine (who appears to not have a name right now… ). Despite the fact that Orion was the one to cause the mishap in the first place, I find it nice that she has a “sidekick” that nobody can see to help her out.
The reason why the danger with Orion having bumped into her soul and being trapped inside is so great; is that she can actually die. So it’s important for her to not be in the hospital and remember as much as she can by interacting with the people around her. With that kind of threat ahead- this makes the whole Amnesia situation pretty nerve-wrecking.
Orion is so cute, I love his character. I am very curious about how he accidentally wounded up into their world in the first place.
I am also VERY curious about the green-haired guy (his name is Ukyou) who looks like a psychopath. I don’t know much about him but he is definitely already an interesting character- even more so when there are hardly any information about his character within this show so far- including the PVs. Judging the ED sequence, he seems to be connected to Orion in some way. Since he’s holding the Kaleidoscope as well- WAIT, NOPE. NEVER MIND- HE’S HOLDING A FUCKING CAMERA OMFG. I get the feeling that he MIGHT be able to see Orion as well.
The animation is so-so. I trust Brains Base to do a decent job, but unfortunately the Eyes- they are something that is going to take even longer for me to get used to in comparison to Utapri’s heroine’s green pupils. In fact, they so distracting that I have a hard time keeping my eyes on the subtitles. The character designs, special effects and the background scenery is pretty good- definitely a whole lot more vibrant than the game (the game’s BG is very bland). Hopefully the animation quality won’t falter too much.
The Opening sequence was considerably a major disappointment. The song “Zoetrope” by Nagi Yanagi is fantastic (I LOVE IT), but it is really too bad that it didn’t match with OP sequence. The sequence and the song were at times offbeat, and it was a such a downer. Honestly, they should have just made the first PV the opening because the way they put together that trailer was a much better match. As for the ED, it was okay but you can tell that the quality dropped a bit.
Overall I think Amnesia will turn out to be one of the most interesting Otome Games to be adapted. The plot is definitely intriguing and the fact that the heroine will be desperately trying to keep the fact she has no memories before August 1st will be proven interesting. Definitely hands down, the most intense factor so far is our mysterious Ukyou. This should definitely be fun to blog about, so count me in!
Blogging Possibility: Guaranteed
Tenderfoot’s First Impression:
So. This is a show about a girl, who wakes up not knowing who she is, and instead of maybe being just a little concerned or even vaguely emotional in any way about having amnesia, she decides to listen to the disembodied voice that only she can hear that tells her to not go to the hospital or seek medical help of any kind and instead chooses to put her trust into the two (admittedly very pretty) boys who offer to take her home (remember, they’re essentially strangers to her, because she has amnesia, and doesn’t know anyone is.) We’re off to a good start here people! The disembodied voice turns out to be a spirit named Orion, who gives a long explanation about how he messed up her memories, and how she will “break” if she goes to the hospital instead of staying out in the world and making connections with people in order to get her memories back. That’s the first half; the second focuses on the Heroine working at her job in a maid/butler cafe, where we’re introduced to two more potential love interests, as well as some “Evvvvil” girls. You can tell they’re evil because they roam in a pack, and glare at the Heroine from under the brims of their hats every time time she comes in contact with White-haired-boy-whose-name-I-forgot (supposing they even have eyes under their in the first place since they’re always in shadow.) After a long day of working (and almost getting sent home because she had a tiny cut on her finger, god forbid!) Heroine makes it home only to be ambushed by the “Evvvil” girls, and after having a flashback to someone giving her a surprise hair cut, she promptly faints. And that’s the episode in a nutshell. Oh, and there’s a long, green-haired villain-type lurking around too, smiling in that way that screams “I’m a psychopath, watch out!”
I had a problem with a lot of things that were going on here, first and foremost though is our main girl. She’s meek, can’t think for herself, and is clusty in that anime girl way where they trip over nothing for the sole purpose of being caught in the arms of a handsome suitor. I know, she’s got amnesia but you’d think that she’d be a little confused, angry, or upset about waking up in a strange place not knowing who she is. But she has no emotions at all, except for fear of the girls who confront her at the end of the episode. She seems content to just go with the flow, and resigns herself to doing absolutely nothing to help herself. I think I might have been able to deal with all that, I mean I get that she’s supposed to be a stand-in for the viewer and as such needs to be kind of unspecific, but it struck me as especially…offensive? that she doesn’t even have a name. Like at least give the poor girl that much! She’s exactly the type of character that I can’t stand, and who I want to give a good shake to. The boys, on the other hand, represent the same standard “types” that are common in this genre. You’ve got the main guy, the good natured one, the super logical dude, the suave play-boy, and I’m counting Orion as the cute little one.
The animation was alright, the guys where good looking, even if their wardrobes were particularly ludicrous (Green-haired guys coat get-up thing made me laugh.) The eyes were…very interesting. At least our heroine has normal eyes, unlike Soup-Eyes McGee from UtaPri. The music was…there. The opening and ending were alright. Having not played the game, I can say that the story at least is vaguely interesting in a “I wonder what happened/ will happen to her” kind-of-way. I guess to sum this up I would say that if you’re a fan of Otome games, reverse harems, or this franchise in particular, you will probably like this show. In a season full of large casts of cute girls, it is nice to see a show with the opposite set up. I’ll probably keep watching this, and I really hope that the girl will become a better character (and maybe grow a spine.) Hopefully they’ll even give her a name at some point! But in the end, I don’t think I’m the right person to blog about this show. So I’ll leave it to Eva (and maybe Kaitou?)
Blogging Possibility: Thanks, but no.
Kaitou’s Impression
I think I just watched an episode of Uta no Prince-sama gone wrong. There’s the heroine and her murky eyes, and all the hot guys you could ever want in a show. However, whereas the previous otome game adaptations featured lively (but not bright) main girl characters, Amnesia is led by a quiet amnesiac (surprise?). With all the clues that are sure to open up into bigger mysteries, it’s not hard to get caught up in it.
While the story lacks any real interest in the side of heroine, there are, however, a lot of guys. Lots of guys. However, the show seemed to spend most of their time concentrated on the co-worker in the café where they both work, with the rest of the guys jumping in the background, so I assume this will be the canon. Throw in a bullying session, an unrepentant demon(?), and a lot of monologue in the form of questions, and even I have a hard time paying attention to this show. Adaptations like Uta no Prince-sama, Hiiro no Kakera, Starry Sky, and Arcana Famiglia all had a redeeming quality to them, despite their varying quality (UtaPri on one end, Hiiro no Derpy-ra on the other)- the over-the-top style of story-telling made you come back week after week. Even with all the whining doormat girls and flaky guys, you watched it.
Amnesia…lacks all of it. Quality-wise, it looks fine, but this is going to be quickly bogged down in the antics of crazy guys, and less so about the female lead and her journey to recovery. Since I don’t read Japanese, I can’t play the game, so the only choice I have is to watch this anime, no matter where it goes.
Possibility of watching: Medium
Possibility of blogging: No thanks. OTL
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My first impression of this show is pretty much a mix of Eva and Tenderfoot’s…on one hand I find it pretty intense that the girl will die if she doesn’t interact with others and regain her memories (something would prove difficult for many a person in her situation) and am definitely eager to learn the whole truth behind the memory loss plus whatever dark secrets the plot has in store.
On the other hand I find it pretty ridiculous that this girl would just hush up and not go to the hospital per the instruction of a floating being. I mean, I wake up, can’t remember anything, and then there’s this person that only I can see and hear telling me that I shouldn’t go to the hospital cuz I’m not sick? The first thing I’d say to that would have to be, “oh god, I really am crazy!” I mean really, just how credible is Orion expecting to be here?
As the viewer I know Orion is undoubtedly telling the truth, though, so I can let it slide. Strangely, it isn’t really the girl’s behavior that makes me bothers me here- she’s got amnesia, feels lost, it’s understandable that she’d be a little meek. What bothers me is the writing. Making her trip and break things just to be coddled by others, feeding the hate of random jealous females in the meanwhile? Never mind the fact that she’s suddenly the only female on staff a day after she collapses? And the harem, oh god the harem! I don’t mind it if multiple guys like a single girl, but it’s the same thing every time! The main guy is always an unadjusted jerk who needs to have his heart melted, there’s the nice guy who liked her all along but won’t say anything, the suave guy who’s always invading her personal space- to which she will blush without fail, even though my natural reaction to an unknown guy getting that close to me would be to elbow them in the gut- the logical guy (who is somewhat amusing to me this time because his coat reminds me of Vash the Stampede XP), and so on. Just wish there was some more variety to these things.
But the characters are more bearable than oh, say, Hiiro no Kakera, and the plot twice as interesting already, so I’ll at least keep watching for another episode or two to see where things take us.
I can promise you one thing that I know about one of the guys with: “Never judge a book by its cover”. And by your reaction, I think you might be caught by surprise- varying on how they play this out of course. I trust BrainsBase to do way better than Studio DEEN (who did both Hakuouki and Hiiro no Kakaera) since that company is known to butcher most of their adaptions pretty badly.
Is it the nice guy? Is he secretly an obsessive yandere!? That would…not surprise me, not after School Days :/. But okaaay, I’ll trust you! Hakuouki really grew on me actually, especially after playing the game (Chizuru’s game persona enraged far more than in the anime since I had no choice but to hear her thought process- ‘I had to do something! …But there was nothing I could do’ -THERE ARE A MILLION THINGS YOU COULD DO, you have super healing for crying out loud!!). I’m a sucker for historical anime/manga though, so they had me at ‘Shinsengumi’ regardless.
I do have good faith that BrainsBase will make this interesting, but hopefully you’re right about me getting a surprise as well!
Hahahahaha somewhere in the back of my head knew you’d say that. Or rather, it’s not that hard to guess- it’s only a matter of which one (and you probably know who it is- especially with your School Days experience (i never watched it simply because I am aware and would not be able to handle how psychologically MESSED UP is it)). But hopefully there will be some unpredictable surprises for both of us in the future.
I watched Hakuouki, but never completed it because-*TEARS* I CAN’T. IT’S TOO MUCH FOR MY HEART. THE FIRST SEASON ALONE KILLED ME, I COULDN’T EVEN GET HALF WAY THROUGH FOR THE SECOND SEASON! ;A;
OMG, I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN. Those lines got annoying after a while. But hey at least the game was good- ah crap that reminds me I never actually started Hijikata’s route/FACEPALM I better do that soon. And he was the one I initially was excited for until Souji’s route happened and all the FEELS came rushing in.
Historical Series FTW!!!!!!!!
The first episode seems to be really, REALLY depressing. LOL For an Otome Game adaptation, that was a huge shock to me (since usually, I really do love those comedy on first episode bomb!). But yeah, this seems like a very interesting to watch. I’ll buy it till I’m tired.
I’m going to have to agree with Tenderfoot’s take on this one. I initially checked it out for…no reason, actually. Yet somehow, even with my zero expectations, I managed to get annoyed at the female character (who remains unnamed and equally forgettable) for being emotionless and possessing no personality whatsoever. I think I’ll stick around to watch Amnesia until the girl manages to get more bland than she already is.
Also you’re right about the guys falling into “types”. It’s like they were pulled out ready-made from the bishie closet!! XD