Following my usual style, I was unsure what I was getting myself into when I hit play for episode one of Amazing Stranger. Below are my quick impressions of the first five episodes in the series. The breakdowns honestly follow my thoughts throughout the episodes, so they are a tad jumbled and kinda spoilery. I did not spoil everything but I did give some things away.
Episode 1
An anime figurine coming to life in an otaku’s home. So far have learned that she is from an anime, he has no interest in real women and she is overly trusting. A bit of this anime so far is reminding me of Angelic Layer. I like the upbeatness of the intro song. Their introduction was amusing and I appreciate the way he first assumed she was really well created and then jumped to AI before moving onto, she is really alive. His lack of panic though was interesting. Plus, if I were him, I would probably have already started a social media account to post the pictures I took…think of the possibilities!
Episode 2
I’m rather glad that they did not drag out the lie and that she found out quite quickly that she is actually a figurine. Him being happy at her for getting mad at him was a surprise. Plus her finding the marriage registration form with her name on it and then using it to troll him and get her way was brilliant! I am really starting to like her. Although, I feel he took her as being his waifu a tad too literal. The episodes are going by really quickly.
Episode 3
I love how the sister just rolls with what is happening. Plus I question whether trying to recreate whatever brought Nona to life is really the smartest move at this moment. Especially with the random assortment of things that he has assembled. Him telling her he was going out on a date on Christmas was a tad childish but the way she is learning about everyday life through the TV is friggen funny. I loved that he met up with a fellow otaku to discuss anime. It’s nice to see the relationships starting to develop and to get a broader understanding of the characters,
Episode 4
And then there were two, well at least in Haruto’s apartment. Oooh a new black haired look to Nona. Their ‘battle’ was rather cute, I had flashbacks to one of the battles in Ant-Man with the Thomas the Train. Hmm, I’m not sure how I feel about the ‘ecchi’ scenes of this episode…although I do wonder what the meaningless swimsuit looked like. I admit I’m confused. Wait did he just enter the game?! Okay, I’m looking forward to the next episode now.
Episode 5
Yes,he really did enter the game and his pervy side has once again been revealed. Plus now there are three…Honestly,I did not really get the point of this episode. I felt that my excitement from the ending of the previous episode was let down. They could have done so much more with this episode. While I could see what they wanted to do and achieve, the character development kinda failed in this episode.
Will I be sticking with Amazing Stranger or dropping it? While I have enjoyed the first five episodes I am not desperately needing to know what happens next. I’m mildly curious about why they were brought to life. Plus I do want to see the otaku friend again but it’s just not quite enough to keep me anticipating the next episode. If it was fully released and I could binge watch it all in one sitting, I probably would. However, I won’t be following the weekly release. Perhaps once it is completed I may sit one afternoon and complete the story.
Surprisingly there were some rather heavy lines of dialogue in the above episodes, even though the episodes, on the whole, were more comedic.
What are your thoughts on Amazing Stranger?
This one I can’t decide if I like it or not. There are some genuinely fun moments and then there’s everything else. Fortunately with the short episode length I’ve been mostly happy sticking with it and while I’ll probably forget it as soon as it ends, I’ve certainly watched worse.