Amnesia - 5

"V"

What I wouldn't give to make the Heroine more interesting so that Nazuka could really show what she's capable of... *sigh*

Okay everyone, here's some advice from Kairi: if you watch Amnesia, I suggest you also watch Eureka Seven, if you haven't already. I swear I'm not just saying that to bring more members into the cult fanbase; unfortunately, Shujinko is a very boring character. And even more unfortunately, Kaori Nazuka, who is good at soft-spoken characters, got this role. Does that make her a boring actress? No. Hell no. But Shujinko's flat personality is very limited in what it allows her to do with her role, and it's a damn shame; Nazuka doesn't get many leading roles, so if this is what she's going to be remembered for in recent years, I want newer anime fans to go back and watch her 2005 performance as Eureka; she will blow your mind, I promise. Soft-spoken does not equal flat or emotion-less, I assure you.

In any case, I would probably like this series a whole lot more if just one of the guys was substance over looks. I know that bishounen and bishoujo are just part of anime and otaku culture and that they're not going away anytime soon, but one suave, good-looking, and controlling guy per anime is enough, thank you very much. That's not to say all the love interests are exactly the same either; they have their individual quirks, but none of them is really much more than a type character. It'd be nice to have a Manabe-kun in here somewhere, someone more interesting than just eye-candy and flair. But that's not going to happen; otome games rarely, if ever, have unattractive guys as love interests, just as galges rarely have non-bishoujo or moe girls as candidates (though I find the latter franchises to have more interesting characters than the former on occasion). It's up to the particulars of each game to make the characters more than two-dimensional, but clearly that's not really the case in Amnesia. Still, I'm sure there's plenty of people, girls particularly, who enjoy the series for the bishounen, and I suppose that's the target audience. I'm just not included in there.

What keeps me from dropping this series, other than being a good anime production-wise, is the mystery. I've mentioned that I'm a mystery fan but I suppose I didn't clarify: I love mysteries. "Curiosity killed the cat," they say, but curiosity also stops me from dropping a story, nearly almost any story, I ever read, watch, or interact with in some shape or form. I hate not knowing things, and even if I absolutely detest a plot, I will almost always finish it anyway. There are some exceptions (Naruto and Bleach come to mind), but Amnesia isn't one of them. Until I find out why Shujinko is experiencing different scenarios whenever she meets bad ends, I will put up with pushy bishounen like Shin and Ikki any day.

Actually, I think I prefer Shin to Ikki, though not by much. Ikki is the seemingly traditional playboy (one with a three month trial period) who surrounds himself regularly with girls, even in front of his girlfriend. The bullying incident girls are present this episode as well, and Shujinko gets two texts from a mysterious person asking her where her "report" is. For some reason this reminds me of the aforementioned girls in the first episode, where they accuse Shujinko of breaking her promise (whatever that is). I imagine that in this version of events, Shujinko probably had some sort of deal with those girls concerning Ikki, such as acting as an undercover agent or something of the sort. There's also the possibility that she was coerced into doing such a thing, but at the moment there's something seemingly off about Ikki himself that's more worrying to Shujinko. He speaks of his playboy activities as if they were inevitable, and he seems exasperated to think that the Heroine is immune to his charms. Perhaps his attractiveness is supernatural; why else would wearing sunglasses indoors make a difference? Or maybe I'm reading too much into this.

On a lighter note, it was nice to see Orion back if only for a moment. To be honest he's the only character in the entire series that I find to actually have depth, which is bizarre because he's been absent for most of the show and idly floating around for the rest. He's not very helpful here either, disappearing right before he can explain anything more that this is indeed a different world than the one in which he and Shujinko first met. Whatever is happening is affecting him as well, and it might just be that he doesn't have much control over which alternative path he lands in whenever Shujinko starts over. I suppose that we'll find out in time, though it'd be nice if Ikki's arc didn't drag out too long.

Perhaps this series would do well to take a leaf out of a fellow reverse-harem series like Ouran High School Host Club; that had bishounen and great characters. Oh, and it was hilarious. But it wasn't an otome series, I suppose. Oh well.