Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side (2nd Season) Character Introduction - Amachi Shota
Amachi Shota. His eyes raised to meet the heroine's, softly, temptingly, unyieldingly. She could not help but shelter him under her umbrella. For but one rainy afternoon. The sweet, angelic junior.
Or so she thought.
But enough with the prose! Which so describes the first time you encounter Amachi in your second year. As a kouhai, he has to come in later, after all. It brings back memories of the first game with energizer bunny Hibiya. *shudder* Amachi is a good step up from Hibiya, who is at best creepy. The former, however, displays a sense of innocence and faultlessness for a good part of his route.
That is, until he reveals his other side.
He doesn't have multiple personality disorder (MPD), but he does have a tendency to toe the line between sweetness and snark.
In one particular CG, Amachi hides out in an empty classroom, tasting cupcakes baked by his schoolmates, and blatantly rating them, littering them with not-so-nice comments. Upon discovery by the heroine, his feeble attempts at salvaging his facade meet with skeptical naivety.
More instances at the beach, during a short nap on the sand, expose Amachi after he mumbles, with a snicker, a few thoughts he has about the heroine.
I guess the game developers really tried to assimilate the graphics with his route, because you may often find, in the course of the game, that Amachi's dusty pink hair tends to curl up at the corners... almost reminiscent of devil's horns, especially when he has a mischievous grin on his face. The beauty mole near his chin almost seems to sparkle with glee...
Or maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it is an interesting thought.
The thread unravels as Amachi, torn between impressing the heroine with his niceties, and his consuming infatuation with her, culminates in a heart-rendering cry at the unfairness of fate, that he would have to be born a year later than her.
I may have over dramatized a bit with my description of Amachi in the earlier paragraphs, for the sake of comedic value. ;)
There are plenty of bits with genuine Amachi goodness in them. He's not entirely taken over by his greed for the heroine's love, and can be sincere and sweet, with an almost child-like demeanor.
His internal (external ?) battle might be Konami's way of dealing with the issue of the innocence of childhood VS growing up / the awakening of a man in a young boy. This is all just speculation, but it seems likely. Much.
Amachi is my favourite kouhai to date. I usually don't like them for all the squeaky immature upheaval they cause to the heroine, but Amachi has none of that. Or at least, he has it in a tolerably lovely way. In fact, I would say he's in the spectrum of one of my favourite otome game guys.
As usual, credit the pics to the official site.