Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon SuperS Gaiden: Ami-chan no Hatsukoi

Ami's First Love is one of the other specials of Sailor Moon SuperS, with this one playing right before the Sailor Moon SuperS Movie. This one has a sweet premise: focusing on Ami and trying to build off her personality to be more than that of a simple bookworm by introducing....a love interest, in case the title didn't give that away. Personally, I think this is good; barring a few episodes related to swimming or chess (and I do mean LITERALLY "a few"), Ami's entire character has more or less been: studying, asking the girls to study with her, or studying during an episode's events, ... so it was a really great idea to have her branch out, especially since Ami has been the least involved with love of all the Senshi, by a long shot.

Unfortunately, they can't stray too far from Ami's roots, so they give her a study rival interest who has a lot of mystery built around him, as well as a creature called Bonnon which seems to prey on Ami's "selfish desires" of love. The execution of this is both good and bad for all involved: on Ami's part, it comes off really well because it gives her some much-needed depth while also relating to one of the core aspects of her character, even though it in practice doesn't change much about her at all, despite their best efforts. Mercurius (her rival) had potential to be extremely well-written; while I like the aspect of keeping a character's true motives and identity itself hidden or ambiguous (and Sailor Moon pulls this off exceptionally well 90% of the time), this just isn't the place to do that in a special like this. There's not nearly enough time in a 15 minute episode to flesh out a character like this meaningfully (even Umino took several episodes to come into his own), even if he isn't that interesting of a character, because the special is BUILT around him and why Ami is attracted to him. So it's important to know more about him, keeping in mind the special is 15 minutes. Meaning, he gets less screentime than a standard victim of the day in a generic filler episode. Also, Bonnon, the secondary antagonist, suffers from some one-dimensionality as well; she's barely on-screen for more than three minutes of meaningful screentime at absolute best (she is also silhouetted and not revealed immediately), which makes her nice as cannon fodder and for Ami to unleash a new attack, but gives her practically no development in doing so. Still, it's really nice to see that Ami got an episode to herself and that this turned out fairly well, given the time constraints. It's definitely worth a watch if you can handle its few shortcomings, as other than the criticisms listed, it's quite enjoyable; the humor is as clever as always, and they deliver on the action and tension that is present. 7/10.

This short is based on a side-story from the manga. Similar side-stories were written for all the Sailor Senshi in the manga, but only Ami's was made into an anime short. As is usual with Sailor Moon, the visuals are stunning, with crisp colours, good conveyance of emotion, and a touch of surrealism. The story itself is not bad; it is a nice character exploration for Ami as she takes centre stage in this short. While the plot is what one would expect from a Sailor Moon filler episode, this has a different feel from the usual filler episodes because while most filler episodes focus ... on Usagi, this one focuses on Ami. Overall, this short is very enjoyable, and it's worth watching!

Released along side the Super S movie, Ami-Chan’s First Love is a fun little romp through the Sailor Moon story. Clocking in at about fifteen minutes, including the new ending theme, which is rather catchy and fun to listen to, it is pretty much a little deviation from the main story. This turns out to help and harm this anime at the same time.

Whereas the TV series focuses mainly around Usagi, it is Ami that is at the center of attention this time around. She even starts off the movie by telling about what she likes and dislikes, as well as her hobbies and home ... life. As everything progresses, more of Ami’s personality is shown; everything from her serious scholarly attitude to her comical and light-hearted side is shown in this short amount of time. It’s nice to see that at least one of the other senshi has a deeper personality than what is shown otherwise. That’s not to say that the others are left in the complete background. Everyone does their part to make this anime a nice little treat. The way the others try to help Ami is just as any friend would try to do, and it never fails to put a smile on my face and make me chuckle when I watch them. Though the plot may seem to be a little bit on the simpler side of the spectrum, it doesn’t need to be complex at all. There’s something in this anime for just about anyone: A nice story about friends, a little love thrown in, and plenty of light-hearted comedy.

At the same time, however, there just isn’t enough time to make much anything else happen with the given amount of time. In essence, this is a mini episode of Sailor Moon, complete with transformation and attack, though none of this comes from Usagi at all. With that in mind, fans of the show and/or Sailor Mercury will get the most enjoyment out of this one, though just about anyone should be able to get some kind of enjoyment out of this anime. On the technical side, Ami-Chan is no slouch at all. The art and animation receives a nice boost, as colors are much brighter here than in the TV series, and though the music is the same from the TV series, it does its job just fine.

If you’re a fan of the series or just in need of a fifteen minute deviation from life, give Ami-Chan’s First Love a go. Who knows, maybe you’ll remember how you reacted to your first love too.