Initial Impressions: Amnesia

I've never been a fan of otome anime (or manga and games), so my reason for trying out this series had solely to do with the fact that Brain's Base is behind it... wait, was that Kaori Nazuka?!

I suppose I should have done more research before picking up my Winter titles, because that's exactly what my reaction was to the first episode in one sentence. I have a hard time with harem series (reverse or otherwise) because they're so formulaic and generally predictable. That doesn't mean I don't watch them, or that I don't like them (I enjoy Key works just fine, for example), but I find reverse harems in particular to be a bit more tedious to get through than harems with male leads. This probably has to do with the fact that a male-centered harem usually concentrates on comedy, whereas a female-centered one is usually based on relationship drama. I'm not the type of anime fan to fawn over how hot bishounen (or bishoujo) characters are either, so I don't even have that kind of draw to pull me in; as it is, I wouldn't have given this title a second thought if Brain's Base wasn't involved. The studio doesn't necessarily make masterpieces, but it does have a nice track record for making well produced and interesting adaptations. After Tonari, I figured that Amnesia was a good bet for a decent Winter title, but I didn't bother with finding out much about it afterwards.

In any case, about three minutes into the first episode, I found myself thinking, "this protagonist sounds very familiar..." and another minute after that I realized I was listening to none other than Kaori Nazuka, my favorite seiyuu ever.

I know I bring up Eureka Seven way too much, but I just want to assert my opinion that that series would have been much less powerful had Nazuka not been in the role of Eureka. She was a quiet role, but when Eureka required emotion, Nazuka delivered spectacularly (don't believe me? I direct you to episode 24 of Astral Ocean, where in just repeating Renton's name over and over desperately about six times, she successfully delivered one of the best bits of voice acting in the whole series). She isn't the most talented seiyuu (though she's amazing), but I've yet to find a seiyuu that can do emotion quite as believably and powerfully as she can, when given the chance. Hearing her in the lead role for Amnesia definitely did a lot more to pull me in to the story than the actual episode did, even if her acting here wasn't all that interesting in and of itself.

That's not her fault as a seiyuu though; the character Nazuka is portraying is nameless, known as the Heroine, and she's suffering from amnesia, causing her to be timid and meek to a fault. The Heroine wakes up without any memories of her life before August 1st, and a spirit only she can see cautions her not to let anyone know that she's an amnesiac. Apparently that spirit, named Orion (Hiromi Igarashi), accidentally bumped into her as he came into that world, and doing so bound their souls together and caused the Heroine's memories to be erased. Like the otome game it is based on, she can only regain her memories by interacting with others and learning about her identity through them. The four love interests then are introduced to us: Shin (Tetsuya Kakihara), Toma (Satoshi Hino), Kent (Akira Ishida), and Ikki (Kishou Taniyama), and all of them seem to have connections to her past, as they are all coworkers at the maid cafe she works for. We are also introduced to a mysterious man who stalks out the Heroine's apartment, and to a set of faceless girls who confront her and accuse her of betrayal, seemingly bringing memories of bullying to the surface.

Though the art is very nice and the production fluid, I can't say that the episode was that interesting, other than the fact that a dark or ominous feeling pervades everything beneath the rosy glitter of the bishounen. This was clearly an introductory episode, one meant to show us the players without delving into the game too much. The Heroine is a very bland character, though I suspect that's a result of her being the heroine of a visual novel (and, you know, the amnesia); it's easier to place yourself into the main character's shoes when there's not much of a personality in the first place. I can only hope that she becomes more interesting further on and that Nazuka has a chance to shine, though she's already doing a good job at portraying that lost and confused feeling. The rest of the cast is fine, the usual set of love interests, though Ikki seems to get a bit more of the spotlight than the rest for some reason. The mysterious stalker is also of interest, and I can't help but wonder if he stands for the Joker in a set of cards (the other four each stand for a suite). Perhaps the pace will pick up now that the introduction and conflict are in place, and it will be up to the next few episodes to flesh the characters out better.

OP "Zoetrope" by Nagi Yanagi
Episode 1 Screencaps: "I"
ED "Recall" by Ray