Oreimo 2

Oreimo 2

Oreimo 2 anime series cover art
Oreimo 2

Season 2 Overview

Oreimo 2 (Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai. / 俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない。) is the second season of My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute, or Oreimo for short. It’s been over two years since I watched the first season, which is a bit surprising considering the imouto romance genre is one I find extremely entertaining. You’d think I would have watched it sooner.

But, while I remember enjoying the first season, as you’ll learn from this review, the second season didn’t meet my expectations. I actually knew how the series ended even before watching the first season, and yet I was still disappointed by how it played out. Somehow it was worse than everyone made it out to be.

I’ll get to everything that went wrong in this season of Oreimo shortly, though. First, since it’s been so long, here’s a quick recap of what happened just before the events of season 2. At the end of the first season, Kirino went to America in order to compete in track. Then, in the season one specials, Kyousuke traveled to America to bring Kirino back to Japan.

It’s at this point that season two begins, and it begins in a pretty awkward way. You’d think that Kyousuke and Kirino would be close from the start this time, but that’s not the case. Once again, Kyousuke has to break down the walls his sister built up around herself to keep him out.

This was a problem for two reasons. First, it made it feel like the entire first season was pointless because their relationship was basically starting over from scratch. Second, it allowed all the other, better girls to swoop in and shoot their shot for Kyousuke’s love — which only led to disappointment.

Battle of the Best Girl

There are six main girls for Kyousuke to choose from in Oreimo 2: Kirino, Ruri, Ayase, Manami, Saori, and Kanako (listed in no particular order here). So, let’s go through and rank these girls from best to worst.

The top-tier girl of the series isn’t Ruri (sorry), it’s Ayase Aragaki. There’s literally no downside to her. It’s legal for Kyousuke to marry her, she likes him, she’s a good cook and is generally good around the house, she’s cute (and a model), and she’s a tsundere. Ayase is truly the best pick.

Ayase Aragaki from the anime series Oreimo 2
Ayase Aragaki

Ruri “Kuroneko” Gokou is the second-best girl. She’s cute and wears some pretty nice outfits at times — I especially liked her white dress. Ruri also has two, cute, younger sisters who give her some bonus points as well. But, I don’t think I would actually ever want to be with someone like her. Her chuunibyo levels are just too high.

Kanako Kurusu comes in third. She’s cute, she has twin-tails, she’s short, and she’s literally an idol. In fact, as I’m writing this, I’m starting to think she might actually belong above Ruri. But I’ll leave her here.

Saori Makishima is the mid-tier option as far as I’m concerned. She definitely has some good qualities, such as being cute when she isn’t dressed as an otaku and the fact that she’s rich. But, her otaku mode definitely lowers her stock as far as I’m concerned.

In second-to-last we have Kirino Kousaka. One of the obvious drawbacks to Kirino is that Kyousuke can’t legally marry her. However, that’s not the only one. Kirino just doesn’t seem like a pleasant person to be around. She’s abusive, annoying, and doesn’t actually bring anything good to the table.

And in last place is Manami Tamura. She has short hair and acts like an old lady. There’s nothing more to say. She’s bottom-tier.

Season 2 Specials (True Ending)

The downfall of Oreimo begins within the second season, but the fatal blow is dealt in the specials that finish adapting the light novels. I’ll spoil it now: Kyousuke chooses Kirino over all the other, far superior girls (and Manami). And despite knowing this from the start, I didn’t know exactly how it happened.

So, when Ruri asked Kyousuke to go out with her, I assumed that he was going to reject her. Much to my surprise, he didn’t, and the two began dating. But, then Ruri did something that really made me dislike her. It was revealed that she dated Kyousuke with the knowledge that she was going to break up with him shortly afterward.

I’m not friends with any of my exes, but none of them did anything wrong. So to see Ruri do something like that and then still be considered Kyousuke’s friend is just crazy to me.

Kyousuke's and Kirino's wedding from the Oreimo 2 anime series specials
Kyousuke’s and Kirino’s wedding

But, the worse offense as far as I’m concerned came later, when Kyousuke rejected best-girl Ayase. And, despite how stupid of a decision that was, it wasn’t even the worst part. No, the worst part of the series was the very end when Kyousuke “marries” Kirino.

If he and Kirino actually got married in the end, I think I would have accepted everything up to that point. It is a siscon series, after all. But that’s not what happened. Instead, Kyousuke and Kirino made a deal to pretend like they were dating until the end of the school year, have a fake wedding, and then go back to being normal siblings.

Do you see the problem I have with that ending? Not only does Kyousuke not end up with the heroine of the series, but this means that he tossed aside (or got tossed aside) by all the other girls for literally no reason.

Ruri broke up with him because she wanted him to be happy with Kirino. And Kyousuke rejected all the other girls so he could be with Kirino while knowing that his relationship with Kirino was going to end. He literally chose a fake relationship with his low-tier sister over a real relationship with a top-tier girl like Ayase.

Conclusion

Oreimo 2 was definitely worse than the first season, and I have to give the series portion of the season a 5/10. But, the special OVA portion of the season was even worse, and I give that a 3/10. And despite the specials only being three episodes compared to the series’ 13, I think the ending was so bad that it brings the second season down to a 4/10 overall.

Before anyone says that I just didn’t like Oreimo 2 because my favorite girl lost to Kirino, that’s not it. The reason I don’t like Oreimo 2 is that Kyousuke threw away all these healthy, happy relationships he could have had just for the chance to kiss his sister once. That was honestly one of the most disappointing anime conclusions I’ve ever seen.

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2 Replies to “Oreimo 2”

  1. I have a lot of nostalgia for this show despite its reputation. I loved Ruri until she did that genuinely absurd and mean act of breaking up with Kyo. I wish Kanako was given more screentime. I love the episode at Kyousuke’s house when all the girls are fighting for him, it’s self insert kino. But yeah it really dropped the ball with that ending, tarnishing the entire series into infinity

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