Amanchu! Advance Episode 1 Review – “You Who I Love So Much”

It’s been a while but Amanchu is back!

And the episode wastes no time in reminding the audience that this is its second season by having Futaba / Teko reminiscence about the first season’s fun festivities right after the OP, which followed the opening scene in which Hikari / Pikari outruns Teko’s moped due to her head-start.

Teko’s small moment of nostalgia happens while she’s scuba diving with Pikari, Ai, and Makoto, which causes her to wonder what would happen if she ends up parting with Pikari. After the gang hit the showers, they end up helping Pikari’s grandmother since the restaurant suddenly became bustling.

Teko is reminded of the thoughts she had while underwater because she is asked to take a picture for three ladies who will end up parting ways soon (since the short-haired girl is moving abroad the following week). With such what-ifs swirling around in her head, Teko decides to not accompany the others to scuba diving training school and volunteers to help Pikari’s grandmother with running the restaurant.

As a result, Teko hangs out with Pikari’s grandma since the restaurant is barren while Pikari helps the diving school instructor teach the twins and a few other students. Both girls find themselves thinking of each other.

After diving school is done, Pikari is told she’ll be alone in the S.S. Hot Spring since no one else wants to enter such a tempting prison of heat and pleasure during the summertime. Pikari still opts to chill by herself in the hot tub, but she accidentally left her bikini top on the outside rack which means she’s topless. Unfortunately, a group of old guys show up and she’s left cowering and feeling embarrassed in the hot tub.

She ends up calling Ai and Teko, who come to her rescue after a considerable delay since the former was still wiping herself down after her shower and the latter was keeping herself limber by doing radio exercises with Pikari’s grandma.

As thanks for getting her out of a sticky situation, Peko decides to throw a BBQ party for everyone. But since Teko was still feeling grateful that Peko has introduced her to so many pleasant experiences and sensations in the first season (and because the twins were taught by Pikari in diving school), they decide to make this into a Thank You, Everyone BBQ party!

Teko’s friends from when she lived in the city (aka the ones who visited Teko during the OVA) call Teko and they have the kind of fluffy talk teenage girls have.

Afterwards, Pikari and Teko go for a walk and both girls have an earnest heart-to-heart. Pikari admits she was initially shocked that Teko didn’t want to go with her and the others and thus became worried that she wasn’t considering Teko’s feelings. Teko comes clean with her own thoughts and says that she’s trying to learn how to have fun by herself in case she does end up parting with Pikari in the future.

The episode closes with the two girls deciding that “fun is infinite,” that they love each other a lot, and that they’ll continue to enjoy their time together.

I titled this episode review after the telling words in Teko’s little speech where she refers to Pikari as “you, who I love so much.” It’s an exciting episode for those who ship Teko and Pikari.

But I could have also easily titled this review after the underlying theme shown for this episode. What Teko decides upon realizing that she’s being overly dependent on Pikari is quite mature. It feels great to turn to others in order to ask for and receive validation, of course, but sometimes you gotta do your own thing. I’m not sure if this will be further explored in upcoming episodes, but it’s definitely a topic that some people will relate to.

It seems really fitting that this is something the series touched upon since Teko struggled so much with anxiety in the first season, to be honest. Pikari, as Teko claimed early into the episode, is Teko’s light since she’s so carefree and free-spirited and can amaze Teko so easily. But Teko believes she needs to get used to being by herself or else she won’t be able to handle it should the two girls part ways. It’s like when you stare at a campfire at nighttime and then decide to go off into the woods to pee. Your night vision is thus compromised and you can’t— wait, is this a strange metaphor? It is? Sorry…

At any rate, I hope that Pikari’s optimism is accurate and that the girls stick together. They’re not too far from being a couple at this point, alright? They deserve each other.

This was probably the most enjoyable episode I watched thus far into Spring 2018. Amanchu! Advance has me excited for next week.

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Thank you for reading.