Oreimo

Overview

Oreimo, also known as My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute, is an anime about some guy who discovers that his little sister is a hardcore otaku (a Japanese person who is into things like anime and manga). However, unlike many anime, the protagonist himself is not an otaku.

I’ve only seen the first season so far, but I’m pretty sure I know where the series is going to end up considering the emphasis on the relationship between the protagonist and his younger sister. That said, the best parts of the anime had nothing to do with the sister or other otaku girls.

Episode six only has brief scenes of Kirino, the younger sister, and instead the protagonist, Kyousuke, spends most of the episode with his friend Manami and her family. This episode was wholesome and actually funny unlike most of the rest of the season.

If I were to rate episodes individually, episode six of Oreimo would be a 10/10, so it’s a shame that the rest of the series isn’t just like that. However, that’s not to say that the rest of season one is bad, it’s just not as good as it clearly has the potential to be.

Another 10/10 scene comes in episode 12 when Kyousuke and one of his friends run into each other at a midnight release for eroge games. Both boys are there to purchase 18+ games on behalf of their little sisters, and agree never to speak about their encounter there ever again.

It’s scenes like this that remind me this anime could have genuinely been a great comedy, but instead is actually a harem, fan service anime instead. And as far as the fan service goes, it’s generally all implied rather than seen, meaning the fan service comes in the form of it simply being a harem anime instead of being ecchi.

Characters

As previously mentioned, the protagonist is Kyousuke Kousaka, a high schooler who’s overall pretty bland. This may be in part so that viewers/readers can easily project themselves onto him, something that I don’t particularly like. I like my characters to have a bit more character.

I’m fairly certain that in the end Kyousuke is going to pick his younger sister, Kirino, but honestly he already has a perfectly good girlfriend in the form of Minami Tamura. She’s the daughter of a Japanese confectionery-making family and has been Kyousuke’s friend since childhood.

Minami also has a crush on Kyousuke, and her entire family likes him too. Speaking of her family, they’re the reason why episode six was so good. Her grandparents constantly try to get Kyousuke to see Minami as his future bride, and her brother is just an all-around funny character.

However, Kirino Kousaka, Kyousuke’s younger sister, is likely to be the girl he picks in the end. Gross. Kirino isn’t that bad of a character, but she’s not really a likable person. She has her quirks, such as how she’s into eroge games involving younger sisters even though she is a younger sister, but she’s also a brat.

Kirino’s otaku best friend is simply known by her screen name in season one, Kuroneko. Kuroneko is like Kirino’s opposite when it comes to both taste in anime, as well as behavior. She frequently dresses in what amounts to cosplay and appears to suffer from chunibyo.

However, she’s not a bad person like Kirino is. In fact, she’s a pretty good person and cares about her friends despite putting on airs to make herself seem “cool.” Kirino’s other best friend, the “normie” best friend, is just as different from Kirino as Kuroneko is, just in the opposite direction.

Ayase Aragaki is Kirino’s best friend from school who hates otaku culture and finds Kirino’s hobby to be deeply disturbing. While Kuroneko shares Kirino’s hobby, but not her personality, Ayase is the opposite. She’s a terrible person, just like Kirino, but they don’t like the same things.

When Ayase was first introduced into the series, I was pretty sure she was going to end up being “best girl” until she showed that she’s actually crazy. Maybe she’ll get better in the second season, but for now I think Minami is my “best girl” pick.

The final character I want to mention is Saori Makishima, the leader of a group for female otaku that both Kirino and Kuroneko are a part of. Saori typically dresses and speaks like a stereotypical otaku, which doesn’t really help their image. However, it’s hinted that she’s actually an extremely refined rich girl who can swap between her two personalities.

While none of the other characters know about this other side of her yet, I’m hoping it’s revealed in the second season. I’d be completely okay with her doing away with her stereotypical otaku persona because it’s fairly annoying if you ask me.

Conclusion

From what I understand about the second season of Oreimo, it doesn’t actually line up with the conclusion of season one. To fix this, some specials were released after the first season which include an alternate ending which then progresses on to Oreimo 2.

What this means is that I’ll be watching and reviewing the Oreimo Specials before Oreimo 2, so there’s going to be even more Oreimo content posted to the site in the near(ish) future.

The first season of Oreimo was a 7/10 for me, which is actually higher than I expected going in. Maybe it doesn’t really deserve that score, but I’m sticking to it. Even so, I don’t think the specials or second season will be any better than the first, so those will likely get a 7 at the highest as well.

The OP for Oreimo is available here.

Which reminds me, in the series, Kirino has a novel she wrote turned into an anime, and one of the things she wanted is for every episode to have a different OP and ED. Well, while Oreimo only has one OP, every episode has a different ED which I thought was a nice reference to itself.

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