Seiren

I'm just going to say it outright; if anyone is going to remember this anime at all, it will be as Amagami SS's eccentric little sister. The "eccentric" part comes from the fact that the story presents some rather bizarre events and quotes, while the "little sister" part comes from not only the fact that it not only noticeably comes from the same universe, but a couple of the characters are actually younger siblings of Amagami SS characters! (Let's not forget the omnibus format both series share, too.) In fact, this connection with Amagami SS was why I selected this anime to be among those from the Winter 2017 anime that I watched in the first place; in spite of this decision, however, my expectations were actually quite low. Unfortunately, I was proven right.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my review of Amagami SS's eccentric little sister, "Seiren".

Seiren follows the romantic misadventures of Shoichi Kamita, a second-year high school boy. Similarly to Amagami SS, four episodes each cover the heroines that Shoichi ends up romancing, except the number of girls is halved this time. First, we've got Hikari Tsuneki, the cheerful "idol" of Shoichi's class with a secret job at a restaurant. Then, we've got Tooru Miyamae, a gamer girl who joins Shoichi and his friends in playing what I've come to think of as "a deer version of Pokemon". Finally, we've got Kyouko Tono, Shoichi's childhood friend who just joined the Home Economics Club. As time goes on in each of the girls' arcs, Shoichi becomes closer with either one of these girls and gradually falls in love with her....whether or not he actually has any chemistry with any of them.

What could I possibly mean by that last sentence? I mean exactly what I said; Shoichi does not have very strong chemistry with any of these girls. I mean, when you're creating an anime with this format, it's hard to build a strong connection between our protagonist with all of the girls he gets with, but there's bound to be at least one girl who has a believable relationship with him. Unfortuately, in Seiren, there is none of that; in the best case scenario, I would see Shoichi and the girl whose arc is ongoing as just friends, and that's pretty much it. Each of their stories suffer a bit because of this, too, and when an anime's story is taken down with two characters' chemistry, especially when it's done three times in the same series, we've got ourselves a bit of a problem. Although the story can surprise you with its bizarre ideas at times (for example, there is a character with a real thing for bunnies), it doesn't help too much.

Now, let's discuss the characters. I remember liking Junichi, the protagonist of Amagami SS, a lot, especially since he had what Shoichi didn't: a believable personality. Shoichi, on the other hand, is a rather boring main character with little personality; it's not as easy to root for this guy. The heroines aren't much help, either. While Hikari is definitely the most interesting of the bunch, it really didn't feel like she got a lot of development, so I couldn't get myself to like her. Tooru had potential, but as time went on, she seemed to become less and less of an interesting character; by the end of her arc, I had given up on her. As for Kyouko.... ugh, where do I even begin? Out of all of the heroines - no, out of all of the characters, period - she has to be the character, or at least one of the characters, with the least amount of personality, and I honestly felt that her relationship with Shoichi, as well as her entire arc, was the weakest. Out of the supporting cast, there are a few memorable characters, but most of them are pretty forgettable.

The animation, done by Studio Gokumi, wasn't terrible; sometimes, the movement of the characters was a bit awkward, but for the most part, it wasn't terrible. After all, a particular diamond in the rough from Seiren came from a beautifully-animated scene in episode 4; I won't say what it is because of spoilers, but anyone who has actually watched this series might know what I'm talking about. The voice acting wasn't too bad, either; for the most part, the voice actors played their roles well, although some weren't really as good. The opening and endings themes were also nice to listen to, albeit not songs to listen to over and over again.

Overall, Seiren was a below-average anime. I won't stop you if you're desperate to watch it, but if you're looking for an anime with an omnibus format where the protagonist ends up with more than one girl in more than one alternate universe, I'd prefer that you watch Amagami SS. I mean, let's be honest; it's more memorable than Seiren.