Hikari Kohinata is a cheerful 15 year-old girl who lives near the ocean and she spends much of her time diving as a result. On her first day of high school, she meets a teacher who also likes scuba diving. There's also a 16 year-old classmate, Futaba, who gets dragged along in Hikari's maelstrom as soon as they meet at school.
_~~~"Whoop!"~~~_ ~~~img(https://theconartistsblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/amanchu00007.jpg?w=950)~~~ Sometimes it can be super difficult to try to put your emotions into words, and that extends not only to Pikari as a member of the main cast in Amanchu, but also to me trying to adapt my feelings about the series into a little snippet of text. Looking through some of my favorite anime, there are so many full of love from their authors and studios. Stories full of world building, character growth, mystery, and love. Amongst them are some of the most critically acclaimed anime as well, like the emotional story of Your Lie in April or an intelligent philosophical approach life, death, and moving on as seen in Haibane Renmei. I'm just now nearing the milestone of 200 total anime watched. I can't really calculate that off the top of my head, and there are no tools to do it for me easily given how I track my anime in a spreadsheet and only occasionally update MyAnimeList/AniList. But that's a long time and a lot of my life since discovering the medium that I've remained passionate about anime. The longest I've been passionate about any one thing in my life, in fact. I latched onto it immediately, and can't really be certain why. I was so opposed to starting to watch it, and just couldn't understand what the hype was about maybe just 5 years ago. I think because of this, I'm probably a relatively new anime watcher. Yet I've experienced so many stories, both good and bad. So many messages conveyed, lessons learned, and characters met. I think all of them have been impactful to me in at least some way, really. I can look back at any anime I watched and probably give a pretty thorough explanation of how I was feeling at the time, what I was going through, what my thoughts were on it, and draw a parallel to how I've grown now. Almost like a treasure chest of memories and records of my life hidden behind a pretty silly veil of 200 or so anime. But I think everyone wants that one thing to latch onto, no matter what it is. I'm at the very least happy to have found a passion for myself; one that I didn't need to be forced into or work towards out of obligation. I don't have grandiose plans for my life, but rather I'd just like to live in comfort and enjoy myself while I'm here. ~~~img(http://www.anime-evo.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Amanchu-02-10.jpg)~~~ To avoid getting too distracted... Amanchu is conceptually about another hobby that I'd love to try; diving. I've always been poor at swimming, but never properly had the passion to improve. I'm afraid of the deep ocean, yet so fascinated and captivated by it. I've had my share of lurking from the sidelines, sometimes being around people yet never being "with" them. I feel, personally, like that was how I lived my life until my final year of high school. Amanchu is a coming of age story full of emotion. We have a group of 5 characters that we primarily follow throughout, and one Cha. Within that group, 2 characters absolutely shine as the main focus. Though the arguable main character is a young girl who just moved to a new town, full of so much of the same worry and concern that I have for life. In all honesty, I don't think I can go into detail about the characters here to do them any degree of justice. Again to mention Pikari's inability to put emotions into words, this is yet another instance where I can't help but feel the same. Not a moment of the series is sad or depressing. In fact I would argue it as an entirely wholesome and drama-free anime throughout its entire run. Yet it's somehow filled with such life in its characters, so much nostalgia despite just having finished it (maybe because of reflections I've been inspired to make on my own life as well), and so much comfort. But rather than a traditionally cute and pure comfort something like Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear may bring with an cute overpowered female protagonist in a bear onesie, Amanchu is different. It's the type of comfort you may come to expect when being consoled by someone you trust when you're feeling down. It's like a much-needed hug. ~~~img(https://yuriempire.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/come-with-me-to-the-sea.jpg?w=584)~~~ Somehow I can't help but feel like this review said nothing about the series itself, and more about the reflections it inspired me to make on my life and the emotions I felt throughout it. Though maybe that's a statement towards the quality of the series in and of itself.