Minori Suzuki -- Crosswalk/Maaya Sakamoto -- Hello, Hello（ハロー、ハロー）

Was happy to know that there would be a second season for "Amanchu!"（あまんちゅ!）titled "Amanchu Advance"（あまんちゅ！～あどばんす～）. The first season back in 2016 was this very gentle slice-of-life anime about the budding friendship between two high school girls in the city of Ito as one helps the other in the hobby of scuba diving. "Amanchu!" was just the show to watch at the end of an all-day anime session to help digest dinner although I'm sure the producers had never meant it to be a visual digestif.

Still, as the formerly timid Teko advances through her scuba studies in this second season, it looks like the show itself has taken on a more supernatural quality. In fact, the last couple of episodes I witnessed last night actually had me thinking of another anime series that I had enjoyed in the season before the first season of "Amanchu!" premiered.

(short version)

Although I think the opening and ending themes for the first season are still the better ones, the opening and ending themes for "Amanchu Advance" are pretty nice to listen to and keep to that gentle tone of life in a seaside town (although Ito is officially a city).

Minori Suzuki（鈴木みのり）sings "Crosswalk", and at first, I had thought it was the seiyuu Eri Suzuki (鈴木絵理...who plays the zany green-haired Pikari) singing this due to the identical last name and the fact that she and co-star Ai Kayano（茅野愛衣）had performed the first ending theme "Futari Shojo"（ふたり少女）. However, it is actually the same singer who performed the high-energy opening theme to "Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san"（ラーメン大好き小泉さん）as her debut single. "Crosswalk" is a much more sedate affair as her 2nd single. It was released in May 2018 and has so far peaked at No. 14 on Oricon. Maaya Sakamoto（坂本真綾）wrote the lyrics and Katsutoshi Kitagawa（北川勝利）took care of the melody.

Sakamoto is back to perform another theme song for "Amanchu!". Compared to the opening theme for Season 1 that she also did, "Million Clouds", which was ethereal and epic, the ending theme of "Hello, Hello" is a nice and grounded pop song that was also written and composed by the singer-songwriter. To me, whereas "Million Clouds" kinda presented the beginnings of a magical journey, "Hello, Hello" is a pleasant ride through Ito. Sakamoto's 28th single was also released in May.

(short version)