Oreimo Anime Review

Let's begin this blog with our first entry, the anime that started the blog. FYI, this is not the anime that made me an otaku, I have watched quite a number of anime before. However, I have so much to discuss about this anime, I decided to create a blog. 

Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai usually abbreviated to Oreimo is a romance, comedy anime. It is an anime about the protagonist and his sister's relationship. That's the key idea of the anime. It is a story about a guy who had been neglected by his sister and his journey to repair their relationship, or that was what I originally thought it would be...

What I like about the anime?

I really like how the anime develop their characters. In fact this anime is actually a character driven anime and it does a very good job at it. The anime takes its time to build their characters yet they still do it in an exciting way. Each episodes aim to build the characters more and more as the plot progresses. This anime, while it has a lot of small plots, it all serve the purpose of building the characters and it contributes to the main plot entirely in the end of the show. That is what I like about the anime, it is a has well-written character based narrative that serves a purpose.

What do I not like about the anime?

I don't hate the anime, in fact it is hard to find something to not like about this anime at least in the first season. However, eventually, it came to me. The greatest flaw of this anime, is actually its greatest strength. Character development. In fact I would say, it is an over-development of characters so much so, it destroys the character. The anime eventually reach a point where the characters did not look like how they should be, or what I perceive them to be. 

I do think that is all about the general spoiler-free review of this anime. For more in depth discussion please proceed below. 

Overall Judgment: B

From this point onwards... SPOILER ALERT!

Now, let's dive deeper on the anime. I really feel that this anime deserves better grade, but the last 3 episodes just destroy it. Yes, and it's about the incestuous relationship between the protagonist and his sister. Not exactly because I am against it, but more like, the anime will be better without it. They kind of forced this aspect into the anime which destroys the entire character building they have done in the first season and the second.

Characters

In general this anime has a great character development but I am not giving a high grade on this criteria because in the end, they destroyed all these character building.

Kyousuke and Kirino Kousaka

These two characters are the main character and the sibling in which the story revolves around. They are developed in the same manner, how they started off ignoring and hating each other but a series of event gives them the opportunity to interact with each other and repair their relationship in the process. Kirino made his brother an otaku, and along the way they made new friends. They would laugh together, sometimes they fight, but it all builds the character and eventually it comes to the point where they actually respect each other as a sibling. This is actually at the end of Season 1, regardless of good ending or true ending (yes, there's actually two route here). This is actually beautiful.

However, things go sideways... Season 2 started with Kyousuke and Kirino feeling that they can't live without each other. At this point of time I have that feeling that I should stop watching because I kind of know that they are going with some sort of incest and sadly, it is not how I perceive the two siblings to be. Anyway, the Season progresses with more character building, this time more towards Kyousuke and his friends. They started to delve deeper into the romance part of the anime and Kyousuke began to date other characters, Kuroneko in this case. Ayase, Kirino's best friend, also begin to show a soft side towards him and in the end she does confessed that she likes Kyousuke. However, guess what, Kyousuke decides to turn all of the girls who confessed to him down, just to be with her sister. Turns out, before Kirino hated Kyousuke, she actually adored him and is in love with him, because Kyousuke used to be an over-achiever and passionate in what he does. So in the end, they got married as a sibling, pseudo-married. After which they throw the relationship away, and decide to just be normal siblings. 

This is bad... It's not because the concept of incestuous relationship is bad (yes it's against social norms, but it's an anime guys...) but because how the anime wants to force this concept, which in the end, destroys all the relationships the two siblings had made with the rest of the characters. Yes it's true that they are still "friends" in the end of the anime, but come on guys, after all that had happened, I am sure that they won't be seen the same as before.

The Otaku Club

It consists of this goth loli girl who called herself Kuroneko and this nee-san who leads the club named Saori. They were one of the greatest achievement the siblings had done together, as they became one of the closest friend of the two protagonists. The anime did a great job on how the two siblings build their relationship around this group. There's nothing much to say about this group except for the fact that it did a great job which is to bond the two siblings closer together.

Ayase Aragaki

Poor Ayase. When I first saw this character, I know for sure that she had a crush on Kyousuke. It's not because that Kyousuke is a super handsome fella, but Ayase saw the kindness in him. She is more like a minor character in Season 1, her only job is to show how the siblings strive to make friends with a person who hated Otakus. In season 2, however, she took a more major role, being one of Kyousuke's love interest. The two interacted more, Ayase asked more help towards Kyousuke in order to get closer to him and Kyousuke seeing her more than a "masturbation-material" (Yea lol it's creepy that he actually browse for her pictures to ease his mind when studying). I was actually rooting for the two to get together because they are cute together, but... she got turned down just because Kyousuke likes his sister. 

Manami Tamura

I used to think that this anime has no antagonist, but if I would say that there must be an antagonist, then Manami would be one. She started the feud between Kirino and Kyousuke which leads them to drift apart for years. She made Kirino believed that Kyousuke had a girlfriend and broke her heart, making her hating her brother for it. Oh well, this plot is ridiculous. That's the whole role of Manami actually, to be perceived as the antagonist of the anime. A childhood friend of the protagonist who stole his sister's love. Sigh.

Plot

I am actually grading a low mark for the plot. This anime has a very weak climax point. The entire season one was about building and building, the climax was when Kirino decided to go to America, which was actually saddening because she is getting separated from his brother whom she just made up with. But they quickly dismiss this fact and head on to season 2. So I kind of considered it as a mini plot just to end season 1 in a good note, and it actually does a decent job. Season 2 focuses more on the main plot, which was the romantic relationship between the siblings. However, it is a ridiculous plot to be honest. The first half of the season builds the relationship of Kyousuke and the other characters like Kuroneko, Ayase and the weird Merumeru cosplayer girl. It does a great job but then it comes to the climax, where Kyousuke destroys the feelings of all these girls he had bonded with, just to be with his sister. Then there's a plot twist where actually, Kirino has liked his brother ever since she was a little kid. In the end what you get is a haphazard mess, where the entire thing that you build since season 1 just got dismissed in 3 episodes. Oh yea, and it's controversial as well since it's incest. 

So why did I say that this anime does not need the incest part? In fact, I believe that this anime would be much better if they end it in Season 1 and did not continue at all. The thing is, even without having a romantic relationship between Kyousuke and Kirino, I already felt that these two are sweet. These two are there for each other as a sibling and that they have successfully repair their relationship. The fact that they throw in the entire plot twist on how Manami ruins Kirino's first love and all that is really a turn down for me because while I expected that it will eventually come to incest, I'd rather believe that they did not. The anime can just end with the two having their relationship repaired and their journey recorded. That's great! However, they must go on and on extending on unnecessary relationship. Maybe the creator believed that this concept would be appealing and feels awe for the viewers but it actually became a backlash that destroys the entire build up.

Coherence

Coherence wise, this anime deserves a high mark. There's a lot of mini plots along the way but the anime managed to connect the dots from one to another. It is capable of utilising all these mini plots together to serve a purpose, character building. There aren't exactly any choppy scenes in the anime and it is easy to understand, so good work there. Probably the part that is choppy is when they are trying to connect season 1 and 2 together, I feel that it's rather abrupt but they still do a good job at it.

Effects

It's decent. Animation is great, it's not bad but there are no particular standouts as well. Soundtracks are fine as well, though I feel that some of the soundtracks used in some scenes does not exactly fit. However, they do a decent job in this criteria and I really have nothing much to say in this regard.

Emotions

The emotion I got from this anime was at the end of season 1 where it's actually quite saddening to see that Kirino is leaving her brother after all 11 episodes of bonding session. I did not cry but there's some sadness within me and that is a + mark. Some scenes are also hilarious as well and it made me laugh, which is great because it's not easy to get me amused. However, the end of season 2 made me keep saying "Why?". Maybe it's intended by the creators, but I doubt so. By the end of season 2, I got so confused that I don't know how to feel about the anime anymore.

Conclusion

To conclude, I like the anime, especially the journey on fixing the broken relationship between the siblings. On that journey they made new friends and fix more broken relationships. However, the anime over-extends its comfort zone and ends up in a haphazard mess left for the ending.