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CHARACTER: Ooki Teko Futaba (Amanchu)
https://myanimelist.net/character/19561/Futaba_Ooki
Voiced by: Kayano Ai
TOP 100 RANK: 75th

SPOILERS FOR AMANCHU

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zrjd-KOHM0

That video clip is from when Futaba first meets Pikari and gets her nickname. Despite being slightly touched at the attention, shes mostly just weirded out by the strange girl picking a nickname based on the thickness of her eyebrows of all things. This scene made me grin during my rewatch, though, because its the perfect way to start their friendship. Teko wants to be left alone, but she gets dragged along. Pikari, meanwhile, doesnt like it when things are ordinary. She gives a girl she just met a random nickname, just because. And, while the new girl meekly protests at first, it isnt long before she enjoys the nickname and wears it with pride. Thats their dynamic in a nutshell. Pikari pulls, Teko resists, but in the end Teko is always glad she got dragged along.

Ive mentioned in a few previous character write-ups that I was shy as a kid, so I relate to Teko a lot. Like her, I was often scared of new places. I also spent a lot of time hiding from the world because I was afraid of what was out there. Whenever something goes wrong, Tekos first instinct is to blame herself, shut down, and give up, and man do I ever relate to that. Thankfully, Teko quickly met Pikari, and their friendship pushes her to experience new things.

I could talk a lot about all the little moments between them, but these write-ups are going to be long enough as is. Ill just talk about my favorite arc involving Teko. She takes lots of pictures of beautiful things she wants to remember. Her phone is set up to display a random image every time she opens it, and she loves reliving those memories. Thats why she nearly breaks down when her phone hits its storage capacity. For most people its an easy fix, just transfer old pics and clear some space. For Teko, though, that would mean picking which precious memories to abandon. She never outright says anything to the others, but she doesnt need to. By this point, Pikari can tell when something is wrong with her best friend. And she has the perfect solution.

The diving club bands together and buys Teko a present, a digital picture frame with the same image-shuffling function as her phone. She wont need to forget anything, she just needs to put them in her treasure box, as Pikari calls it. Its a wonderful moment between those two, because it shows how much Pikari understands Teko, and how much everyone cares about the shy girl who was once afraid she wouldn't make any friends.

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CHARACTER: Kohinata Pikari Hikari (Amanchu)
https://myanimelist.net/character/18057/Hikari_Kohinata
Voiced by: Suzuki Eri
TOP 100 RANK: 8th

SPOILERS FOR AMANCHU

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0AVUlTBeY0

In my write-up for Teko, I talked about how I relate to her shy timidness. I cant relate to Pikari at all, but shes a character I really admire. Shes strange, often reacting with a cute whoop!, sometimes communicating with a whistle, and always running off on adventures. I like how all these things are acknowledged as strange within the anime, too. Pikari explains that she uses the whistle because she struggles to vocalize her thoughts. She seemingly had no friends before Teko, and its easy to imagine her alienating them. She admits she often drags people along and then it turns out they werent having fun. Its something Pikari is vulnerable about, and its so humanizing. She makes sure to check in with Teko to confirm they arent going too far.

No one embodies the themes of Amanchu better than Pikari. The video I chose for her is just her and her teacher walking from a bus stop to school. Its a basic thing. For Pikari, though, it turns into an adventure. They both decide to make it a race, and that keeps escalating until Pikari is cutting through a forest and leaping off a wall. In another episode, her and Teko decide to follow a cat, and that leads to them discovering a kitten and going on a heartwarming journey where they look after it and eventually find an owner. The message Amanchu imparts to the viewer is that the world is filled with beautiful, fun things. A lot of us are so caught up in our routines that we miss most of them. Pikari is the kind of person to wander new roads for no other reason than because theyre new, so shes always finding something.

In one episode, a suspicious Katori-sensei follows Pikari onto a train, wondering where shes going. It turns out the train passes some gorgeous flowers. They only bloom for a short time, and the train only passes them for a moment. Its the kind of thing a lot of commuters, even ones who take that train every day, would literally never notice. For Pikari, though, theyre worth riding the train back and forth a few times in one day, just to see those flowers.

Finding that level of enjoyment in the little things in life is so alien to me. Even as an adult, Id probably never go outside if I didnt need to. Still, as I mentioned at the start of this write-up, I admire someone like Pikari. She enjoys every moment, and shes always seeking out new ones. Everything in her life turns into an adventure. She isnt perfect, and she has a few things shes vulnerable about. However, she never lets them hold her back. Teko may be the character I relate to, but Pikari is the one I think we should all aspire to be, at least a little bit.