Simplicity in Amanchu

I love plots with heavy meaning, full of depth that I can spend hours of my idle time breaking it down.  That’s one of the main reasons why I’ve claimed Puella Magi Madoka Magica as my favorite for so many years now and why this blog was originally intended to be about Planet With.  Planet With is easily one of my favorite examples of, well, almost a dozen separate themes all coming together into this beautiful gray space, rivaling that of Gundam OO, Concrete Revlutio and even Death Note for my money.  However, that all came crashing down when I watched Christopher Robin.  Yes, the live-action Winnie the Pooh movie.  The movie does nothing special and really only has two core values:  Family is more important than work and everyone needs to take time off and simply relax and exist.  The latter is kind of encompassed by the former, but I feel it’s different enough to merit its own mention.  Though simple, these themes are simultaneously powerful and well explored and made me want to write about something just as simple, powerful and sweet.  After that exceptionally long explanation and introduction I’m finally getting to the actual show I’ll be writing about:  Amanchu! And specifically, how it delivers its rather simple, yet powerful, messages in its own simple, powerful and sweet ways.

Loving a plot heavy narrative with tons of meat to chew on does not mean that I don’t absolutely love simple stories that executes on a few, or singular, themes very well.  Quite the contrary, I’d rather have a charming children’s story than a bloated, dark story.  One thing I noted about myself earlier this year was how far my tastes had changed over the years; when I was younger I judged everything on arbitrary scales of how cool they were but then after watching Mary and the Witch’s Flower it occurred to me the highest praise I’d given any movie recently was that it was “charming.”  At the climax of Mary and the Witch’s Flower I remember vividly telling myself, “I have the wrong goals.  I don’t need to make dark, philosophical stories, I need to be making children’s movies.”  Because it just hit me so hard how well done the entire movie was.  Even though it didn’t have many themes that would leave me up at night thinking about, it knew what its themes and messages were, it knew what it was and how to convey what it wanted to convey without burdening itself nor the audience.

The drawbacks to having simpler and fewer themes is that the creators run the risk of beating a dead horse or over-inflating the theme (just like I’m doing).  That was my main gripe about Concrete Revolutio.  While I enjoyed the entire show, I dropped it near the end of the second season because I was tired of every single arc being a conflict of “my justice is greater than your justice.”  Not that it’s a bad theme, but it became more repetitive as the story went on.  Usually, though, using fewer themes is a quality over quantity decision or alternatively the plot is merely a vehicle for other things, such as Pacific Rim.  I love Pacific Rim very much, but the plot was definitely not the reason anyone watched either of them.

Amanchu is a simple and peaceful show with simple and peaceful themes and values.  The story centers around our extremely shy protagonist, Futaba, after moving from Tokyo to a rural beach side town.  She still clings to her old friends and life, but meets a new friend, Hikari, who convinces her to join the scuba club because that’s a normal thing every high school has.  The rest of the plot is about Futaba’s growing friendships with her classmates, self-confidence and willingness to see things she hadn’t, or couldn’t, before.  Rather than burdening the audience with questions on morality and society, we are instead given universally relatable themes and values which are explored through the on-point metaphor of the dark bottom of the ocean.  Amanchu could very easily take some philosophical high ground and critique the social structure and alienation we feel while socializing in an unfamiliar territory.  The staff prefers to give us a much more wholesome story about togetherness and beauty in the unknown.  The ocean is full of terrifying things, it’s cold, it’s dark and can be considered a terrible place to be.  The version we are given is indeed, dark, but only until you reach the bottom with your buddy.  Once there and adjusted to the darkness we see that the ocean floor is teeming with all sorts of beautiful life.

It's very important that this type of show takes a slower pace, considering it is a slice of life.  The pacing is a juggling act that the staff handles exceptionally well, never screeching to a halt but never going too fast that we lose any meaning.  One of the themes is to enjoy one’s youth and takes an atypical approach to dealing with it, and the pacing helps illustrate that perfectly.  Most stories center around the characters going out and accomplishing something with their limited youth, Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and A Place Further than the Universe spring to mind as examples.  Amanchu, however, sends the message of, “Enjoy your youth, but slowly and your own pace.”  At no point do any of the characters rush each other, they all merely enjoy what they have while they have it.  Even if you fail your test, you can take it again soon.  Even if you can’t go diving right now, you can go later.  In the meantime, let’s ride the train to see the beautiful flowers on this one single cliff-side.  The pacing is deliberately kept slow to hammer that point, to enjoy what you have while you have it, home without making it a painful experience for the audience.

Amanchu is a beautiful and wonderful show that is definitely worth watching.  It never pretends to be something it isn’t, nor does it overly explore its own themes.  It’s simple and clean, nothing more nor less than a wholesome time about good characters enjoying the beauty that can only be found in the depths of the unknown.  The beauty that can only be found if you are willing to dive in.

Thanks for reading, this one was really tough to write and its entirely my own fault.  This one took Star Driver's place since I had similar things to say about both of them having beauty in simplicity.  I'll come back and revisit this idea again later on.  Next week I'm planning on making another more personal blog about A Place Further than the Universe and why I became an animator.  If not that, then one about Patlabor and viewing classics through a modern lens.