English Dub Review: Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister “The Real Reason For Staying Up Late ~Prelude~”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Uryu goes with Yae to a mixer and gets a peek at her ID, which says a completely different name: Reiko Ichijoji.

OUR TAKE

Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister returns for the new year with the beginning of another three parter! They sure do love their multi parters, don’t they. But unlike the last one, this time will pretty much entirely be focusing on Yae over Yuna and Asahi, though they will get some moments in these episodes to hint at further development down the road. Asahi gets a cute scene where it’s clear that she is forming her own crush on Uryu, and Yuna gets one as well to further bolster her own feelings, but make no mistake, this story arc is not about them. Oh yeah, and we meet Makoto, Yae’s childhood friend who goes to the same university that Uryu is trying to get into, and that is really all that is worth mentioning about her for the remainder of this arc. Instead, let’s talk about the Secret Childhood Friend trope that pops up a lot in harem shows and why it seems to be very heavily implying it will be in this one! See, instead of a vision about things to come, as Uryu has been mainly getting before a story arc occurs, this time it’s a dream about a time he had long forgotten: helping a sad little girl who just so happens to have the same color hair as Yae.

This doesn’t necessarily mean they are automatically the same person, but that’s usually how this trope tends to go. At the beginning of the series, the male protagonist is meeting his romantic options like they are total strangers to him, but then he’ll remember a mysterious girl from his youth who he either knew for a long time before she moved away or something OR only met once or a few times but those were still significant and special enough to leave a lasting impression in her heart all this time. And since we are absolutely not revealing new character Makoto to be this nameless girl, the only option is really Yae, who for some reason used to go by Reiko Ichijoji. I am once again forced to draw comparisons to Quintessential Quintuplets, which also used this trope but dragged it out WAY too long and used its big reveal as really the only basis for its chosen quintuplet, which made for a pretty unsatisfying ending, at least to me. Maybe the fact that this show is getting it out of the way is a sign of better things to come in the future.