Amatsuki First Impression: Shinonome ish HAWT

I decided to watch this anime mainly because I miss the good old days of Rurouni Kenshin. I wanted to watch an entertaining samurai anime and for this season, Amatsuki fit the description.The premise is not unusual. High schoolers travel into a strange world and find themselves stuck there with no hope of return unless they do something heroic-like. Wasn't Fushigi Yuugi something like this? Only that anime was about a story in a novel.

Amatsuki tries to make itself different by making the main character a boy, instead of the requisite hyper-active girl in a skimpy sailor outfit. Second, instead of getting sucked into a book, the main character gets sucked into a museum of history, specifically the Edo Period, a time when samurai ran abound and bad hairdo was the mode. And lastly, a swash-buckling samurai girl (voiced by Paku Romi yay!) saves the day instead of the cooler than cool warrior dude who though destitute fights for the good of mankind and the world in general.But in spite of the high volume of derivative elements, Amatsuki manages to keep itself fresh. I particularly like the museum idea and nue and youkai and samurai girls voiced by Paku Romi. Also, Shinonome is hot so there. That's the real reason why I follow this show. I'm not making sense, I know. Sorry.

So where was I?
The first episode basically introduces us to the main character, Toki, who apparently is a laid-back dude who likes to take things easy. He's also quite stupid in history, as it turns out, and because of this, he has to attend this field trip to a state-of-the-art museum of the Edo Period in order to make up. There he meets Shinonome (asdflkj;!!), who, though not having flunked history, nevertheless has to join the field trip because of his habit of skipping classes.Since Shinonome knows more about history than Toki does, he becomes his unofficial guide. Toki, however, loses sight of him a few moments later. While wandering by himself, Toki encounters a strange creature that look like a cross between Rafiki from the Lion King and Kon from Bleach with a doll riding on its head. The doll starts talking philosophical nonsense about, uh, stuff and Toki, thinking that it is just another one of the museum's clever techno-gizmos, tries to sidestep it.
All of a sudden, the creature attacks and Toki nearly gets creamed, if not for the sudden appearance of a samurai girl who comes flying out of nowhere to slash and dice and hack the monster all to pieces. Then, she says matter-of-factly to the still-shocked Toki that the monster is a yakue and even though she already "killed" it, it is still alive. But Toki is not really listening to what this strange, sword-wielding, long-haired stick with bandaged boobies is talking about because just then he notices that his glasses -- his precious Denno glasses souvenir from his last trip to Daikoku Land -- has been shattered to pieces.

Of all the perfectly cool ways to die -- i.e. getting totally creamed by an otherwordly monster -- Toki chooses to drown in that muck they call a river. Oh, but Toki is not dead yet. Fooled ya, didn't I? He's alive! And he's dreaming about the doll from earlier. What's worse, the doll still hasn't quite shaken off its verbal diarrhea.
Then Toki wakes for real and does not notice the other person in the room with him. Instead, he notices the girl with bandaged boobies outside, washing his clothes. Of all the pleasant sights to wake up to. Thankfully, he notices the 10xhot Shinonome sitting in one corner of the room. The recognition is instant despite the change of duds and the brand new hairdo for Shinonome. And Toki is so relieved that Shinonome is still alive that he breaks down and confesses his undying yaoi love for him right there and then. Ha. You wish. None of that sort now.Later, we find out that Shinonome has been in that era for three years already, which thus explains his new duds and cute little top knot. Is it just me or does Shinonome look a bit like Sagara Sanosuke from Rurouni Kenshin? He has the same propensity for getting into fights as well and getting beaten up by sword-wielding girls with violent tempers because of it. Ah, reminisce!

But, going back to the story, it seems that the nue that attacked Toki that time stole the sight from his left eye. The animators have decided to portray this by coloring his left eye pink and the right one the normal brown. Cool. Shinonome, on the other hand, lost the feeling of his right arm when he was likewise attacked. So it seems that for every person who travels back to this period, they have sacrifice something -- an arm for Shinonome and an eye for Toki. Cool.But samurai girl with bandaged boobies, who finally identifies herself as Kuchiha, has like issues. And yeah, that's about it.

Amatsuki is animated by Studio DEEN, the same guys who brought us Rurouni Kenshin, Vampire Knight, and oh, the Maria-sama Ga Miteru series and you know, the art is really good, too. I, personally, have not seen monsters this cute.

The opening theme is called "Casting Dice" by Yuuki Kanno. It's nice and it establishes the traditional setting of the anime. The closing theme is "Namae no Nai Michi" by Kaori Hikita.

Does it seem like I'll enjoy this series? When I saw episode 2, I got discouraged a little by the way it turned out. If there is anything worse than forced humor, it is artificial tension between characters. But by the third episode, I was enjoying too much the exchange of banter and blows between Shinonome and Kuchiha that any lingering effects from the previous episode were forgotten.

If the opening clip is any indication, the pairing is between Kuchiha and Toki but the way I look at it, Shinonome and Kuchiha have better character dynamics. At least, they're much more entertaining to watch. Toki is too laid-back I can't find myself liking someone like that.

MORE INFO:

OFFICIAL (Japanese)
Studio Deen (Japanese)
Anime News Network
Screencaps from Amatsuki Episode 1