Oreimo Anime review

Ok so not the greatest idea to start my blog with this kind of review, but I'll explain myself first. This review has gotten a lot of flak. This is especially true from casual anime fans/ people who haven't delved into the weirder stuff. That being said this anime is pretty mainstream, meaning a lot of people have seen it. So the point of this review is not to try to increase the show's popularity, but merely to make it less creepy than it actually is...er that came out wrong. To judge the anime for what it actually is regardless of what kind of themes it carries. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Oreimo, at first glance it’s a creepy otaku incest slice of life. At second glance however, it still is an incest slice of life. Yet as much as I hate to admit it, it is a pretty good show certainly for the first two seasons. Now my first reaction to this anime went along the lines of—this show is only for people who have a sister complex, but I decided to watch because A: it had gained enough popularity that I could no longer convince myself that it was just a show for people who had incest fetishes and B: I wanted to see what people liked about the show . In other words just got curious. Now imagine my surprise when twelve episodes had gone by and I was still being entertained. Why? well I’m hoping to answer that in the next few minutes.

Story- I’ll get to the point, it’s slice of life—Next! No seriously there isn’t much of a plot here. The basics are as follows. Brother and sister have a bad relationship Brother finds out sister is an otaku, adventure!

Animation-Let me just say that the animation isn’t going to blow you away. The art style isn’t anything spectacular, especially on the environments, but it doesn’t need to be. The character art style is good and the animations on characters are good when they need to be. A nice little touch is that since this is an otaku based anime, there sometimes are sometimes anime playing in the background. They don’t even emphasize them. It’s a little touch, but a nice one.

Soundtrack-solid openings and endings, If you like electronic, synthesized stuff you’re going to enjoy it. The soundtrack accurately matches what’s going on onscreen, and it certainly is different. It’s a weird soundtrack. I mean of course it has the typical piano in the sad parts, but overall it’s weird, but really good. I mean it strikes a good balance between being distinguishable and unique while also not being distracting. Voice actors are very good, with standouts being Saori Hayami as Ayase and Kana Hanazawa as Kuroneko. The voice actor for Kyosuke was good, but didn’t get the heart wrenching scenes that both the actress had the opportunity for. The only annoying voice actress was Manami, who sounded like a barbie doll.

Characters-Characters are where this anime is supposed to shine, and for the most part it does. Each of the characters was fleshed out to the extent that they were likeable and understandable, yet none of the characters feel like they are the center, save for Kyosuke for obvious reasons. In this way none of the characters vying for Kyosuke’s affection are fiends who you would wish would get the the hell out of the anime *cough* Siesta *cough*. I found the only character that falls through in this amazing cast is Kirino. Now sting me up for this one, but of all the characters, I simply couldn’t like her. She comes across as your typical tsundere and doesn’t have much development until the end of the series. I found myself getting tired of her crazy mood swings and snappy insults. Not many of her lines were very witty, and I think her scenes could have been made a lot more enjoyable by throwing some slapstick in the mix. As I said she does get fleshed out towards the end, but before that she doesn’t hold a candle to other characters.

I don't think I even need a caption here

Romance-Since this is in fact a Romance comedy, the real question is whether or not the Romance is any good. Well the answer is yes and nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I am going to give no word on the matter of the incestual themes this anime has and instead focus on the Romance itself. Kyosuke goes through hell for his sister, from getting her to make otaku friends, to standing up for her hobbies to her father, to helping resolve a conflict between Kirino and her best friend. Other hints of pairings pop up in the form of Kuroneko or Ruri, Ayase and to a lesser extent Manami. Each character gets a few episodes to have their moments with Kyosuke and none of them are annoying, my personal favorite being Ayase, whose Psychopathic tendencies can be hilarious, plus slapstick. Now excuse me as I get a little serious here and a little spoilerific, though it’s a spoiler you should see coming a mile away. At the climax of the anime Kyosuke defends his love for Kirino. Now don’t take this the wrong way, I Do not support incest, however the arguments that Kyosuke presents are thought provoking and begs the question: how much can society limit us? How important is our societal standings compared to our emotions and core beliefs. I will not spoil the ending for those of you who are going to watch the series from start to finish, but in my opinion it is the worst ending to a romance anime I have seen thus far. It doesn’t make sense and makes the events of the last five or so episodes utterly pointless.

Overall I enjoyed my time with Oreimo. There! I said it! It was a fun comedy romance and I think that if only it had a better ending it would be one of my favorites. I recommend this anime for the excellent characters, fantastic soundtrack, and some good comedic moments scattered throughout. I say give this a try. I mean, if you can ignore the incest stuff then I’m sure you’ll love it. If you can’t get by that, then I think that you should at least give it a try. It’s not for everybody, and as I said, the ending ruined the anime for me, but it’s a fun ride for most of it. So a decent recommendation from me this anime gets.  

Thank you for reading this review!