AMANATSU ~Perfect Edition~ is a slice-of-life, romance visual novel developed by Azarashi Software, with an English translation published by Shiravune. AMANATSU aims to deliver a relaxed, coming-of-age love story in a sleepy seaside town, but how well does it deliver on this appealing premise?
Slow Life, Take It Easy
AMANATSU’s story focuses on our protagonist Haruto and his move from the city to the seaside. Haruto decided to transfer to a new school in a quiet seaside town in order to escape his oppressive life in the city, which has been dominated by studying and pressure from his parents. It’s an appealing fantasy that many people, myself included, can relate to. There is something innately appealing about leaving all the hustle and bustle behind to live a slow life by the sea.
Haruto is, by virtue of this relatable fantasy, an immediately compelling character. Though it takes quite some time before we learn more about him and get a grip on his personality, I found that I was able to quickly get immersed in his perspective of someone slowly transitioning into a new, simple life. Of course, his experience becomes somewhat less relatable as he is soon beset by three beautiful women who are all immediately drawn to him, but we’ll get to them a little later on.
AMANATSU makes wonderful use of its setting to appeal to that familiar yearning for the slow life. By making use of some gorgeous background art and well-fitting music, the game sets a smooth, relaxed, and almost whimsical tone. It does an excellent job of making the player feel at home and at peace in this lovely little town, which provides a great foundation for meeting its equally charming inhabitants.
New, Old Friends
As I mentioned, as part of his new life Haruto meets AMANATSU’s three heroines: his cousin Kazuha, the shrine maiden Yashiro, and the energetic Kogane. Of these three, the player will choose one to follow their route and see their romance with Haruto unfold. Fortunately, AMANATSU’s common route offers us plenty of time to get to know the heroines and the extended cast of characters that populate this seaside town.
I think AMANATSU’s common route is one of its greatest assets. It’s here that we get to really indulge in the unique atmosphere of a seaside town and the extended cast we meet all fit in quite well with the theme of returning to a simpler time, though in their own quirky way. We meet Mitsuru, a man out of time as a 90s otaku stereotype, Kou, a simple musclehead, and Iori, a rather horrendous retro gay stereotype.
Now, those characters may sound rather exhausting, and indeed exhaustingly overdone based on my quick description, but I think AMANATSU does something well with these archetypes. Iori in particular sets off a few hundred red flags, being born of the misconception of gay men having ‘female souls’, but AMANATSU’s treatment of Iori I think helps to smooth out that very rough edge and fits in well with the theme of the game. What is nice about the presence of Iori, Mitsuru, and Kou is that these three disparate characters have all found each other in such a small town. It’s heartwarming to see these personalities interact in a positive way, absent any bigotry or poor treatment, aside from some early interactions with newcomer Haruto that do scan as quite cruel.
There is perhaps some debate on authorial intent versus my reading of things, but I’m happy to give AMANATSU the benefit of the doubt. Rather than invoking these stereotypes out of cruelty or laziness, I think AMANATSU instead uses them to highlight the value of community and found family. Your mileage may vary on this, particularly when it comes to Iori where the additional element of homophobia might well put some people off, but I would encourage you to give it a try regardless.
Kazuha
Our first heroine, Kazuha, is Haruto’s cousin (just overlook that, the game does) who he ends up living with alongside his aunt. Mark your bingo cards now, Kazuha is a red-headed tsundere who regularly lashes out at Haruto but is also kind and caring when she’s composed and can hold back her pride. I would describe her as tsundere-lite as her outbursts are quite short and AMANATSU doesn’t drag them out into larger misunderstandings, which is always appreciated.
Though I found Kazuha to be the weakest of the three heroines, her and Haruto living under the same roof at least added some unique potential to her route versus the other girls. The banter between her and Haruto was also something I found entertaining, with plenty of solid and well-delivered bits. Kazuha’s voice actress also did a fantastic job, with plenty of range and energy that helped elevate the script.
Unfortunately, along with, and perhaps as a consequence of, being the weakest heroine, Kazuha also has the weakest route in AMANATSU. There is a theme across all three routes of the game running out of steam after the confession and first kiss. Without any tension left to carry the story, we just flit between different slice-of-life scenes that culminate in some reaffirmation of love, or of course, sex if you are playing with the patch. This happens to varying degrees in every route, but it is by far the worst in Kazuha’s. The route takes some time to deal with overcoming her tsundere pride, but that is a dead horse so thoroughly beaten that it adds almost nothing to the experience in my view.
Yashiro
Onto better, but still not the best, we have Yashiro. A quiet, mysterious girl with a surprising funny streak. Of the three heroines I found her humor to be the most appealing, a sucker as I am for silly things said in a straightforward manner. These gags by the way are delivered perfectly by Yashiro’s voice actress. She’s also written to have a kind of motherly appeal (not in a weird way) where she dotes on the comparably inept Haruto. I wasn’t certain whilst reading the common route that I would buy the two in a relationship though.
I was wrong however, as AMANATSU flips Yashiro’s doting nature on its head, and has her desire to also be selfish and a little bit demanding serve as a vehicle to develop her and Haruto’s relationship. It’s a wonderful little bit of narrative amongst the rest of the route that suffers from that same lack of tension as I mentioned earlier. Yashiro’s route isn’t affected as badly though, as returning to slice-of-life fuckabouts (often literally) with Yashiro is a lot more appealing because she’s just a better heroine. Funnier, has more chemistry with Haruto after the confession, and not his cousin by blood. It’s just a lot easier to relax and enjoy their relationship even absent tension.
I also found that Yashiro’s route made the best use of AMANATSU’s extended cast, with plenty of fun interactions with Kou, who is her brother, and the rest of Haruto’s new friends. The extended cast appears fairly often in every route, but I felt it made the most sense, and was used best in Yashiro’s.
Kogane
That’s it for the rest, now onto the best. Kogane’s route was the last I played in AMANATSU, because I had a suspicion it would be the most substantial. Infallible augur that I am, I was correct. Kogane is a gag-a-minute ball of energy who is so keen on Haruto that it actually seems pretty impossible for a relationship to blossom between them, and happily, her route touches on this.
Of all the heroines Kogane is the only one with anything going on even an inch above surface level, and the tension in her route is based partly on developing a relationship from her goofy dynamic with Haruto, but also partly on some personal issues that I won’t spoil, though it’s nothing too serious.
Kogane’s route is a real joy as it combines the fun slice-of-life goofing around with some actual tension and narrative development, which was sadly missing in other routes. This, combined with Kogane’s incredible energy and brilliant, dynamic voice acting work easily elevates her route to the number one spot and also elevates AMANATSU a whole lot too.
Sleepy By The Sea
AMANATSU ~Perfect Edition~ is also bolstered by some extraordinary visual work. The game’s background art is some of the most gorgeous I’ve seen in a while, and it perfectly captures the romantic ideal of a sleepy seaside town. There are of course numerous CGs, with some that collect the whole cast together to drive home those friendly fun vibes, and of course, plenty of CG work for the heroines too to boost their appeal.
AMANATSU’s sprites are beautifully drawn, and then also brought to life with the E-MOTE animation system. I’ve always been a bit mixed on this system, but I think it’s used rather delightfully here. It adds an extra layer of dynamism, particularly to characters like Kogane. Also on the visuals, I appreciated the inclusion of a high-resolution scaling option for 1440p, it helped make sure AMANATSU always looked its best on my monitor.
One final boon for AMANATSU is its lovely, relaxing soundtrack. There is a robust selection of whimsical tracks with lots of bubbly strings and piano. The music also often mixes with ambient sound like the soft moving of the ocean which helps to absolutely nail the atmosphere the game is going for.
The Naughty Bits
AMANATSU ~Perfect Edition~ is an eroge visual novel, and though I think the game would be just as good without its sex scenes, I would recommend getting the 18+ patch for the Steam version as otherwise lots of other little things are censored, like bikinis and any kissing that verges on too erotic – how scandalous! AMANATSU contains fifteen sex scenes in total, evenly divided with five for each heroine. Every scene has multiple CGs which are all pretty impressive to look at, particularly for those fond of large busts.
Sex is integrated well enough into the story of AMANATSU, occurring at a fair enough pace, though sometimes I felt the scenes came on a bit too quickly. It is also a shame that this seemed to serve as a substitute for storytelling after the confession had taken place in Kazuha and Yashiro’s route. The scenes themselves are well written, but I think some of the characterization is lost during sex scenes which is a shame.
Verdict
Whilst AMANATSU’s heroine routes are somewhat lacking, all three do manage to be pretty fun, it’s just a shame that only Kogane’s route really managed to shine. It also benefits from an incredibly fun common route, wonderful seaside vibes, and some perfect music choices. I’d say that overall you’ve got a really nice package here, even if it is carried largely by one heroine and its common route.
AMANATSU ~PERFECT EDITION~ IS RECOMMENDED
If you are looking for another visual novel, you might like to check out our reviews The Quintessential Quintuplets – Five Memories Spent With You, or our review of Aoi Tori.
Thank you to Shiravune for providing a Steam review code for AMANATSU ~Perfect Edition~.
A man described by critics as “pretty normal” and “memorable in the abstract”. He has committed his life to the consumption of anime and games, against the advice and wishes of his family and friends. Now writing about his passions, hopefully for your enjoyment.
