This is a story about two students Kohinata Hikari, who's nickname is Pikari, and Ooka Futaba who is given the nickname Teko by Hikari. They are both in Class 1-2 Shiuzuoka Prefectural Amanchu-ya High School. Hikari loves Scuba Diving and is very open. Futaba Has just moved from Tokyo and is very reserved. Hikari sits in last desk by the Windows behind Futaba. I found this animé to be Very enjoyable to watch. I plan on making revisions as this show progresses.

Going in I was expecting to get a relaxing show set in a rural Japanese town starring girls who bond through scuba diving; what I wasn't expecting was the Muppet face.

Amanchu!'s has a pretty art style that suits the overall theme and nature of the show quite well, however it is hard to appreciate thanks to the constant Muppet-esque expression of the main character. When I say constant I mean constant. It happened so often it started to feel like the artists were using it as an excuse to not draw a more detailed facial expression.

The worst part about the constant use of the Muppet face is that there are numerous instances where not only would a more detailed expression be more appropriate/impactful, it also ruins the few moments when the Muppet face could have shined as a way to show the preppy nature of the character.

Also, while I've not seen many anime with long-style school girl uniforms, the ones in Amanchu! look heavy and uncomfortable. If I were a girl and had to wear one of those on a hot day I would probably die of heat stroke.

Overall this is just a 1st episode review, so the show still has the potential to be something worth watching. The interesting theme and art style (minus Muppet face) will keep me watching at least until episode 3, hopefully Amanchu! lives up to its potential.

So... a Scuba-centric vaguely lesbian-baiting kinda-sorta-love-story-but-not-quite coming of age story.
With a pace as slow as Tanaka-kun is Always Listless and Flying Witch, this is yet another 'Crunchy Roll and Chill' series trying to get folks to settle down and relax, (Which is quickly becoming my favorite genre, as I often have a random anime playing on one monitor with my work on the other, and 'chill out' anime is easy on the ears) only with 60% more yuri content.
Problem is that with Tanaka-Kun and Flying Witch, you had characters who were suitably low-key for the most part, and in that respect, the incredibly bizarre Hikari taking center stage feels incredibly out of place, and not necessarily in a good way. I'm certain that it was fully intentional to make the 'peppy' Hikari stand out as the nonconformist that only the quiet outsider Oki understands, but she's like pure honey; a little goes a long way, while a lot goes way, way too far. There's quirky, and then there's psychotic. Hikari strikes me as being off her damn meds, not 'eccentric'. She's supposed to be endearing, but honestly, it was a little too much and I found myself wishing the story would just move ahead faster so more screen time could be shared with OTHER characters to balance things out. Hikari so far isn't just chewing the scenery, she's having a full course meal of it.
We've seen friendships like this before, though this one will be the first to have scuba diving as the main backdrop, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still looking forward to seeing the actual scuba sections, because this series is drawn beautifully. Characters are nicely designed and animated when they're NOT pulling emoticon faces, a trope they abuse just a bit too much as other reviewers have pointed out, and the pastel palette is very soothing. Seeing how the animation team handles the underwater world will be a treat.
As it is, the first episode, which featured almost no underwater segments, failed to really impress beyond a few glimpses of what's ahead, but I have more stars ready and waiting the moment this anime shows us the real goods.
I'll have to revisit this review after a few more episodes are available, because as it is, this one was only a tease.
Final verdict: This season's chill-out anime of choice for yuri fans!

Other recommendations:
Tanaka-kun is Always Listless, Flying Witch, Lull in the Sea.

Usually I can tell if an anime is decent or is crap by the first episode. Whether it's going to hold my interest, by the second. Well the second episode of Amanchu! took the modest ideas of the first episode and made it magical. "Peppikari" has this unique spirit, she's so goofy and upbeat that it's totally hilarious and cute at the same time.
First episode was okay, after the second this show went from a 3 star 'not sure' straight to five. I guess I should explain why:

Not every anime needs to have a linear 'plot' with a bad guy to fight. But if you're going to do a slice of life, there's a lot of things you have to do to hold my attention. Maybe by complete accident, Amanchu! sort of does them all.
Hikari marches around her house squealing with joy at the sunshine for no apparent reason, blowing a whistle, leaving the house early- sounds kind of dumb at first but I promise you it's very funny to watch and not in that standard-anime-humor kind of way. She's unique. Add to that the voice actress playing her is a perfect match- as is her round-funny face that oogles and giggles at everything for no reason, she ends up jumping off the bus a few stops early with her teacher- who is glad to see her! At first! And as she tries to walk faster and faster to get away from Hikari until the two of them are running- it will have you laughing.
They do a really good job in how Peppy Hikari introduces diving to her new-found friend. And the goofy funny faces soon give way to absolute beauty and elegance in the water, even if the detail of the water itself isn't completely believable.
I'll reiterate again that I love the girls' school uniforms, so nice to see something classy and different in an anime and it fits the mood and intent of the show a lot better than sailor suits with short skirts, which I'm really tired of. The real appeal though, is the diving suits- and they take plenty of time showing how they fit, how they work, and are beautifully detailed.
The girls develop a sweet friendship very fast, with promises of more people being added to the group by the opening. After two episodes I can say I'll be watching this show every week without fail. It's relaxing, beautiful, funny, and a truly positive escape for 20 minutes from an increasingly violent and uncertain world outside.

Below is what I wrote after the first episode-
So this is about Kohinata Hikari (I sort a like that name!) a bubbly and cute high school age girl who goes scuba diving, a new girl is in town for the first day of school, and Hikari is immediately intrigued by her. How sweet! It's not clear yet what it is she's so excited about. Perhaps she wants to share her diving hobby with someone new. Anyway the show promises lots of underwater action with girls jumping in, swimming, and holding hands under water. This is a very cool idea, but I'm not sure its creators really know enough about diving to pull it off. There are some issues, which I've outlined below.

Amanchu's opener- which gives wayyyyy too much away before we've seen 5 seconds of an episode- shows girls laying on the bottom of the sea and being able to see through the clear blue water up to the sky. In a later scene, Kohinata has a bucket under the water which she uses to breathe.
OK, hold it right there: first of all, laying on the bottom of the sea like that is pretty much impossible unless you do certain upward strokes in the water- and even then you won't stay flat-back on the bottom. The only other way is to tie an anchor to your waist like Houdini and then figure out how to untie it in time to come up for air...probably not a good idea! Secondly, bringing a bucket under water upside down WILL NOT work- I repeat- will NOT work, is impossible- it will never stay there, it will resist you even bringing it under water and will flip in your hand, and will not stay effortlessly on the bottom with you!!!! I wouldn't mind them using this kind of gimmick in an anime taking place on another planet or some future world- where you can get away with bending some rules of physics. But in a show that clearly establishes itself as a semi-realistic slice-of-life drama- this just doesn't hold water. Another annoying pun, sorry. The bizarre thing is they show scuba equipment all over the place, yet the characters do not seem to use it- I suspect it's because somehow they think a breathing apparatus would get in the way of the girls' pretty faces... which is not a good reason.
On the plus side- there is some very correct realism with how Futaba (her soon-to-be new friend) is shown standing on a rock by the ocean staring constantly at her phone, and not really paying attention to the beautiful [cgi] world around her. This is a 100% correct assessment of young people today, and hopefully a statement that won't be lost on too many viewers, though I'm sure it will be.

Throughout the episode is gentle piano or guitar music playing, which is sort of like the old Peanuts movies although Non-non Biyori (and surely some others) do the same thing. One thing I appreciate is the girl's school uniforms. I'm frankly sick of seeing super short pleated skirts and stockings with sailor shirts- it's gotten woefully overdone; the long dresses actually look kind of good, and it takes the focus away from sexualizing young women's legs and lets us focus on other things instead. Although I have to say those lace-up boots would be mighty uncomfortable for a whole day of school!
Some people are complaining about the overuse of funny faces, it's a fair criticism. But perhaps more pertinent to point out the male characters are basically bland gray ovals with no detail whatsoever in contrast to all the crisply detailed females... The teacher looks suspiciously the same age as the students, although I really felt this was just the creators wanting to insert another pretty female character. I don't get what the ugly and totally contrived animal is supposed to be. A dog? A cat? It looks like neither and doesn't do anything convincing- hopefully he has a more believable shape in the episodes to come!
After one episode this hits the middle of the road, and hopefully will get better as it goes along. It has a unique idea, a really bubbly protagonist who is so outrageously cheerful it will make you laugh with disbelief at times- and an overall nice mood. We'll see.

Most healing type anime (the recent Flying Witch for example) have very relaxed characters and pacing, Amanchu, well, not so much. That's not to say it's paced very fast, it isn't, but of the two lead characters one is a massive ball of energy that explodes about once a minute so it certainly feels faster paced than it is.
Futaba (Teko from now on) is a girl who just moved to a sea-side town and is all too clearly a shy girl who feels torn away from evertything she knew meets Hikari (or by her nickname Pikari) a super energetic, supre exitable girl. They are polar opposites, which is perhaps why they attract each other and get along so well (there is some light yuri subtext hinted at).
I said the show feels fast paced but that doesn't detract or take away from the level of detail that is hidden in each little thing. Pikari for example is a mixture of Hikari (or light) and Pika which means bomb and pikapika which is glitter and sparkle and that name so embodies everything about her. Even her family name, Kohinata (which means small sunlit place) is telling us about her. The same is true for Teko, her name Futaba means sprout or bud, which just shows how much she can grow from here on as a character. Her last name is also fitting, she is very tall and it means big tree.
Besides that the animation is really excellent and personally I like the emotiocon faces that the characters pull off, though I can certainly understand why some would be put off by them (certainly considering how often they are used).
3 episodes in we have only met the two leads and a single teacher who is obviously going to be plot relevant, as she is the diving club advisor. There is also a creature called Cha who is supposedly a cat, though he looks like no cat I've ever seen.