By Dustin Cabeal
I will never understand how three people from the same family can have three different hair colors and look different from each other, but that’s manga/anime in a nutshell. The story behind Amagami Sisters is easy to sum up. An orphan by the name of Uryu Kamihate has aged out of the orphanage he lives in. The caretaker of a shire has agreed to take him in, but when he gets there… there’s a catch. He must marry one of his granddaughters and take over running the shrine.
Now this wouldn’t be much of a story if all parties were onboard with the plan. Kamihate has turned his back on the gods due to his mother dying of an illness when he was a child. It’s alluded to that he did a lot of shrine visits, folded a lot of cranes and basically did all the things the “gods” said to do in order to save his mother. Now he only believes in medicine, especially since his surrogate mother is a doctor that raised him.
The sisters, Yuna, Asahi and Yae all have different feelings on the subject, which become clear as they begin going on marriage interviews. The youngest Asahi seems to be interested in getting married, even if she’s fourteen and he’s seventeen. The middle daughter Yuna seems to be our main character of the three and she’s the same age but doesn’t like Kamihate and yet is willing to take a bullet for the other two and marry him if it’ll keep the shrine going which is all she cares about. Then there’s Yae, a very inconsistent character that seems a little perverted at first and then comes across depressed and unconfident by the end of the volume.
A lot of the situations the teens find themselves in are typical of the genre. Our very first meeting has all three ladies in their underwear and of course Kamihate barges in and gets a face full of boobies before having salt thrown at him over and over by Yuna. Kamihate tries to get along with the girls and even does their chores for them, which leads to the typical joke that he’s better at domestics than they are combined.
For most of the story, it really felt generic and typical cheesecake. Then during the marriage interviews and one instance in which Kamihate returns to the orphanage, we end up getting this rich backstory for his character. It didn’t make me root for him and love, but it did make me curious to see Kamihate’s journey with the shrine. He’s a lapsed believer and suddenly he’s being thrust back into the lifestyle that he studies and believed in so much as a child. It’s a neglected connection to his mother that’s been reopened. Frankly, that was more interesting than the marriage interviews. Asahi seems to be the only one ready for marriage and she’s three years younger than Kamihate. Yae was an interesting character until her wedding interview in which she makes a sharp turn away from what’s been introduced.
As strange as this will sound, there’s not that much fan service and at times it felt like the story could use some to break up the mundane elements being laid out. Otherwise, the artwork is solid from start to finish. It’s well polished but does feel a little dated. The art isn’t bad, but it doesn’t stand out in a sea of manga. Even still there was something about the main character that was always enjoyable. The site gags are spot on, and the use of shadowing and grey tones fits the story and looks skilled.
When I first started planning my review for Amagami Sisters, I initially thought it was more on the average side. The longer I put off writing the review the more I couldn’t help thinking about the parts that I enjoyed. The main character’s back story is compelling and realistic. It gave his character a different layer and overall sense to the character when he was dealing with his possible brides. The dynamic changed everything about the story and really made me curious to read the next volume. While I’m only moderately interested in who he picks as his bride (not that it will ever commit or force him to choose), I’m more interested in seeing how he navigates his relationship with the girls.
Marcey Naito
Translation: Devon Corwin
Lettering: Arbash Muhal
Editing: Thalia Sutton
Kodansha Comics