Episodes: 12
Genre(s): Slice-of-Life
Aired: Apr 2018 – June 2018
Also known as: Amanchu! 2, あまんちゅ！あどばんす
Summary: The second season of Amanchu! You can find my thoughts on the first season over here.
Review: For some, this second season will just as enjoyable as the first, if not more. For others, this season will prove to be rather disappointing.
This will largely come down to your stance on yuri in Amanchu! See, in most shows which feature a cast that is predominately women, there’s often little moments of intimacy that blurs the line between romance and friendship. Call it shipping material, call it subtext, etc. Amanchu! had plenty of that in the first season as well as in Amanchu! Advance.
Where Amanchu! Advance differs, however, is the unexpected and unheralded arrival of a boy to deny and sink the biggest ship in Amanchu! Furthermore, Teko comes to the conclusion that the boy’s feelings for Pikari is simply different than her own feelings for her best friend, which comes across as the denial of queer romance altogether. Some have said Teko might have been confused at the moment and jumped to conclusions.
I don’t buy it. It was handled rather poorly and it’s enough for some viewers to lose heart and conviction in watching this series to completion.
But say you’re the type who cares little for romance altogether so none of this affects you. It’s still objective to say, then, that this second seasons took a turn for the whimsical and fantastical rather abruptly with dreams. I personally liked the arc, but it did drag on for a bit too long and the tone is just so different compared to that of the first season.
Still, the fact remains that it is a pleasure to see Teko grow so much as a person. To me, that’s what keeps you invested in the series. So many people related to Teko as an anxious wreck, and it’s just so satisfying to see her come such a long way. Sure, she makes some mistakes and missteps just like Amanchu! Advance itself fumbled how it handled the situation with Kokoro. But, the journey – t’was grand and lovely.
I also really appreciated how some of the supporting cast received some love and attention. Mato-sensei, I’m looking at you.
Aaaaand I suppose it was for the better that some new characters were introduced, too. Some more than others, for sure.
tl;dr – if you like yuri at all then proceed with caution or pretend this season doesn’t exist. Otherwise, be prepared for drastic and unexpected tonal shifts, especially when compared to what was going on in the first season. Seeing Teko’s growth helped balanced the scales nonetheless.
The Lily Garden 
I took a breather from the show due to events in the manga and fans losing their minds over it. It annoyed me. However, I will see for myself how “THAT SCENE” was handled and whether it is cause for concern or not.
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I toootally dropped off once I heard about all the stuff going on with the manga, but after I saw some of the screencaps of the dream sequences I realized that this season was doing some really neat things, despite not being what *I* wanted. It’s disappointing, and I specifically waited to watch more because I was so disappointed, but yeah, it still turned out to be a pretty excellent show in the end.
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Right? I really really relate to what you’re saying here. You’re not berating others and you still managed to enjoy the show even though it went in a different direction many of us wanted.
Thank you so much!!
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I still have one episode to go with this before I review it myself. I quite enjoyed the more fantastical elements on dispaly this season, though I owuld ahve liked a little mroe diving given that that was what set the whole story up in season one. As to the scene in question, it’s an odd one. Teko’s jealous reactions throughout still seem to be too strong to relate to friendship to me. I think it can certainly be vieweed as a denial of the shipping, but whether that sticks or not in the long-run, I don’t know. I stil think Teko and Pikari are a sweet couple, and I find it hard to imagine that they wouldn’t end up together in the end, even if it takes another season. That being said, I’ve not read the source material, so how it ends up in there, I don’t know.
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I was also a fan of the fantastical developments but more diving certainly couldn’t have hurt. Still, the last episode should be a pleasant surprise for you.
Honestly I don’t know how their relationship will develop either. Maybe at this point Teko is trying to out her feelings aside whereas Pikari is caught between Teko and Kokoro? I’m not sure…
Guess we will have to wait.
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Oh, and looking forward to reading your thoughts on the series later!
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I must admit, the more that the season has gone on, the more I’m thinking Pikari is bi. Who knows though? I don’t think the manga has an official translation as yet, and I have no idea if there will bea thrid season.
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This was a solid continuation for Amanchu!, and for me, I brushed off the scene for the simple fact that it was not explored further, indicating it was meant as a slip-of-the-moment thing. Were it relevant to the plot, the consequences would have necessarily been explored in more detail. Speaking freely, the reaction in the community is akin to the Szechuan Sauce debacle of Rick and Morty: what the writers intended as a one-off became blown out of proportion. For me, fiction is a mode of escape, and I believe that while it can be thought-provoking if done well, it is not worth losing sleep over these elements (nor would it be fair to dismiss an otherwise excellent series for one shortcoming).
I understand that not everyone agrees with this perspective: I’ve even received my first death threat from TV Tropes for my particular view on the matter, but I remain steadfast in my conviction that people can do with their time and opinions what they will.
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You are certainly entitled to your opinion. Still, the relationship between Teko and Pikari is quite pivotal to the entire series so it doesn’t take a rocket sciencist to see why people were invested and then disappointed.
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After season one ended, the message that I got out of Futaba and Hikari’s friendship was that the two complemented one another and simply had difficulties expressing how thankful they were about things. Yuri is something that fans bolted onto the show, and this is the part that eludes me: it sounds to me like people saw Amanchu!, decided that yuri was significant, and then expected that the series followed through with their own wishes. When these expectations did not materialise, anger resulted.
The question I have is thus: what indicators from within the thematic aspects of Amanchu! would have shown that yuri is not just sufficient, but necessary, to the series’ ability to convey the idea that Futaba and Hikari’s friendship results in a synergy that helps both characters grow?
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