Amnesia: Do you like abusive and unhealthy relationships? Well, here you go.

I swear, every one writes it eventually weather it's for games, film or books.  The character looks up with a blank look in their eyes unable to remember a thing.  It's the dreaded AMNESIA!  oh no!  Horrible cop-out writing at it's finest.  It usually happens at the beginning of a game like rune factory so you get to "become" that character and uncover the story with them.  In shows and movies, it's just there to add drama at the very end.  On the other hand, the wildly popular Otome dating game Amnesia takes it in a very interesting direction.  Just last year it was adapted into a 13 episode anime and that is what I'll talk about today.  While I won't spoil the ending because I'm still trying to understand it, I will spoil some of the huge plot twists because I HAVE to talk about them or I will implode.

-The Story-

The show starts off with our unnamed heroin passing out one day at work only to awake to the sound of a little fairy boy with horns telling her that he's trapped inside her soul and blocking her memories.  He also advises her not to tell anyone about him or her condition or she will end up in the hospital which will send her into a state of comatose.  From here we are introduced to all of the men who work at the maid cafe with her.  Two of them happen to be childhood friends and notice something is wrong right away and help her get home.  Day to day she tries to live as nothing is wrong, pretending that she remembers people and dates.  Things really get interesting when she begins to experience deaths and awake seconds later to find that it's August 1st again and again but as different lives.

THE GOOD
Amnesia really takes the concept of Amnesia and bends it in new and interesting ways.  You questions if any of what she is experiencing is real or if they are all one reality.  I realized that when you put amnesia as the central point of the story and not as some cheap catalyst, it becomes really deep and interesting.  There are some real surprising twists and I was pulling at my hair shouting "get out of there lady!" so many times in this show.

THE BAD
The ending is really unsatisfying and you don't get all your answers.  To me it felt a little like a cop out.  Also, it's so short that you don't get the chance to root for one character.  In the end you feel isolated from them more than anything.  None of the relationships feel natural and half of them are down right abusive.

-The Characters-

Hey, a show with people my age!  Not only that, but they act like people my age.  At the beginning of the show, you have your favorites.  You predict their personalities and most of the time you are right but each of the men hold a horrible secret.  The main girl will be hard for most of you to like because of how little she talks and how "stupid" she acts.  (while I don't see her as stupid, I'd be just as confused and awkward in such situations.)  If you're not patient, this character will get on your nerves fast.

 Orion on the other hand was a very refreshing character to have in such a serious show.  He stood as a voice of reason through out the time he was with her.  However, if the main character would have listened to him more, she would have gotten out of some of the worst situations of the show.  While I think you can choose him in the game, he takes a back seat to romance in the show.  He's just your annoying fairy partner screaming "hey, listen" every few seconds.  ( I still don't get that, I loved Navi.  I guess men really don't like to be nagged.)  He's a mystery because he sometimes disappears without explanation.  Not even in the end do they explain why he did that.

The first life after her first death is with Shin as her boyfriend.  Honestly, I don't remember much about this boy, only that he was a total jerk.  Oh, he just has a rough past.  He's allowed to push girls around.  Feel bad for him and his huge chest moles.  Now that I think about it, Shin might have been the best guy out of all of them.  Good grief.  I was so dead set against him when he first showed up.  At first the main heroin is afraid of him because of a flash of the future.  I was certain that he had some deep psychological problem but that's not till later.  He's a 0 on the crazy meter.  Just wait... That crazy meter escalates a little too quickly as the show goes on.

Her next life is with Ikki. Ikki is one of those characters with a crazy fan club of obsessive women.  A lot like the one in Kimi ni Todoke where they all agree to share the guy.  Of course he's clueless.  He can't understand why girls only seem to date him for 3 months then break up.  Lets throw a girl with amnesia into the mix shall we?  Drama ensues as our main character has no idea that she's suppose to break off her relationship with ikki.  Eventually this leads to her next death of drowning in the lake because of the fan girls.  Ikki on the other hand is seriously the best guy.  Holding her bag, walking her to work, calling her up when he's drunk.  (okay, I admit it.  I melted when I heard his drunk voice.  So smooth.  and that chuckle he does.  It was like listening to magic.)  Too bad he's such a womanizer.



After Ikki, she awakes in a world where she's dating Kent.  Kent is an odd fellow.  I was convinced that he was a robot when I first saw him.  He has a hard time understanding people's intentions and emotions.  He graduated from college in something that has to do with math.  He and Ikki are actually really good friends, sending puzzles back and fourth.  Poor Kent though, only gets an episode and it doesn't do much for him.  He was really boring in the show when he could have been a really good character.  He was the only one that Orion trusted.  He was the first to figure out that the main character had amnesia and even sat down and "talked" with Orion without judging or thinking that they were crazy.  His technical side begins to soften and then the real nightmare begins.

I had my eye on Toma since the beginning of the show.  I knew he was going to be "the one."  Another anime boy to put in my list of favorites.  Oh, he almost made it too.  You done goofed boy.
What strange is that the main girl doesn't die when she's transported to his reality.  She just appears and then passes out.  He's all sweet to her, taking her to the hospital, being all romantic.  Saying the sweetest things and the most ship tease come from these two.  Things start going down hill when the ikki fanclub girls start threatening her and to protect her, Toma brings her to his apartment.  As she tries to go out and about with out him, she starts getting attacked.  Toma tells her that she's not allowed to leave the house and she mysteriously begins passing out.  Day after day, he looks after her.
Until... Orion tells her that he's been drugging her.  As she get's wise to his antics and stops drinking the

It's bad when a short three eyed demon guy
and a half burned android woman with a
horrible past have a healthier relationship
than two average college students

mysterious liquids all heck breaks loose and he goes full on crazy.  She passes out again and finds herself in a dog kennel.  He forces her to wear thin dresses and says that he's keeping her in the cage to "protect her."  This is NOT a romance anime, this is an episode of Dr. Phil.  None of this is okay.  Eventually he confesses that he was provoking the fanclub to attack her so that she would trust him more.  He lies and says that her cell phone is broken and monitors the messages.  Not only that but he took full advantage of her memory loss without even questioning it convincing her that he was her boyfriend.  This horrible mess of a relationship goes on for three episodes and she finally escapes due to a problem with his essay or something (Thank you based college) ... back to her apartment.  No cops, no "I was drugged and lived that last 10 days in a dog kennel," nothing.  She runs back to her apartment to see if her locked dairy has any information of her relationship with him.  that is NOT what you do in this situation.  What's even more frightening is that he followers her, gets into her apartment through the window and he's MAD.  Some how it turns out that she was going to confess her love for him on august 1st.  And suddenly everything is all hunky dory and he takes her to the hospital.  He sort of apologizes and the fanclub does too but everything felt so... empty after seeing what he was capable of.  If that isn't abuse I don't know what is.
Oh but wait, we have one more guy and they saved the craziest for last.

Meet Ukyo throughout the show, you see him being creepy here and there.  He's actually the reason she's in this mess.  I wish he would just get back into his crazy taxi and drive off.  But then again he is quite an interesting character.
While in the hospital in Toma world, Ukyo somehow gets into the hospital unnoticed, takes the sleeping heroin and drops her off the top of the building.  She awakes in what could only be described as living purgatory where everything is trying to kill her.



Ukyo is able to predict what will happen because he's died once from them.  He has the whole month memorized from a college bombing that was meant to kill the main character to a broken pipe in the maid cafe.  He says he wants her to live but then he shifts to crazy mode.  What's frightening is that I lived in a family with people who were bipolar.  You can see it in their eyes when they change and sometimes it really does get that violent.  I was at the edge of the my seat during the climax where he's chasing her through a burning church with a knife.  I really felt for this character because of how close his situation struck my life.  Because the main character is alive, he keeps going through horrible deaths and he figured that in order for him to stop, she would have to go by his own hand.  He's the reason though that this all started, because he loved her.

THE GOOD
Almost all the characters are really interesting and it's exciting seeing what dark secrets each one holds

THE BAD
Every one is psycho. Well, maybe 2 of them aren't but the rest are really bad, they should probably see someone about these problems psycho.  Also, the main character is hard to get use to because of all her ums and ahs and how quite and innocent she is.

-The Art-

Here we are at the reason I started watching this show.  That and because it was an Otome series.  Every one has stunning eyes and ambre hair.  The backgrounds when it comes to everyday world are pretty boring, especially the main character's room.  The animation is pretty limited most of the time but
when it comes to Ukyo's freak outs, the animation gets bumped up to 11.
They even began animating different mouth shapes that actually matched the words.  It really made me sit there and go ... "woah, I don't think I've ever seen it that well done in an anime before."  It kind of pulled me out of anime mode for a second.  It was a little surreal.  The costume design is fantastic.  It may be over the top for some people with all it's chains and checkers but It was just utter eye candy to me.  I love the style.  All of it.  The hair, the eyes, the
noses, the mouths, the costumes. If I ever get around to finishing my comics or animation, I have no doubts that this will be one of my influences.  I love where they place the shadows and the softness and their ability to mold the character's faces.  They really didn't hold back.  Well, I am more drawn to Visual Kei and other extreme japanese fashions so this was just a feast for the eyes.

THE GOOD
If you like over the top costumes, crazy faces and and rainbow eyes and hair, this is it.  This is your show.

THE BAD
If you can't stand over the top costumes, crazy faces and rainbow eyes and hair, this is NOT the show for you.

-Lets go to the Scoreboard-

Story: 8/10 A very interesting take on the idea of trying to live every day live with no memory.  It also switches around a bit of the common Otome tropes when you realize all the men are pretty much crazy and I guess in real life, every one's going to have their dark secrets.  The deal with the fairies though isn't very fleshed out and can be confusing at the end.  Other than that, this show was joyfully suspenseful.

Characters: 6/10 Some of the characters got little screen time and didn't get the time to be fleshed out but the potential was there.  The boys really had no motive to like the main character but then I realized that she lost her personality as well.  You don't really get attached to one pairing and most of the time you're screaming for her to get the heck out of there.  The main character is the deal breaker of this series.  You have to be able to stand her whispering "I don't understand" every five seconds.  While I enjoyed her.  A lot of people will not.

Art: 10/10 It's absolutely beautiful the whole way through.  Interesting and unique character designs and a wonderful style.  While the backgrounds may be a bit lacking at times, it doesn't detract from the look of the show.  I would suggest watching it just for the art.

-Over All Score and Final Thoughts-

8/10 While the show was short, it really kept me watching one episode after the other.  Since it's short I was able to finish it in a day.  It's not something that I would want 50+ episodes of thought, it was perfectly paced and finished when it needed to.  It was delightfully suspenseful and really shocked me a few times.  Sometimes the characters pull it down a little because you can see right through their character tropes but eventually they would do something that would shock you.  I enjoyed this show thoroughly and would love to watch it again.