Let's get to it!
Story
I need to point out that, by hearing the title alone, most people would think that this is a hentai; for obvious good reasons. However, this is NOT a hentai, not even an ecchi. Just a harem romantic comedy.
The story follows Kyousuke Kousaka, a normal high school student. He lives normally with his parents and his younger sister, Kirino, with whom he is on bad terms. One day at home, after bumping into his sister, he finds a DVD case of a magical girl anime under a piece of furniture; he opens it only to find an eroge instead of an anime DVD. As he tries to understand how an eroge is even in his house, - since he can't imagine any member of his family actually playing them - he finds out it's Kirino's. Kirino then reveals to be an otaku and her secret passion for eroge and anime to Kyousuke, who doesn't really know what to think about it, but promises her he will keep her secret to everyone.
After that, we follow the two siblings on their lives, experiences and the obstacles on their way. Despite not being in good terms, Kyousuke acts like a good big brother and helps Kirino whenever she is in trouble, either it has to do with her friends, their parents or others. He starts playing eroge at the wish of Kirino, who now has someone to talk to about her hobby and opens a bit more to him.
As the show goes on, many different characters appear, the most important being Manami, the childhood friend of Kyousuke; Ayase, Kirino's friend who is against otaku stuff; and Kuroneko (Ruri Gokou), an elitist otaku, rival-friend of Kirino. Each of them adds a new "spice" to the anime, making it better and better. The interractions are done very well, too.
The main focuses of Oreimo are obviously otaku-anime and incest. And they are handled pretty well. The incestuous themes are present, but it is light incest, unlike Yosuga no Sora. Kyousuke and Kirino are getting closer to each other over time, and they are wondering about their relationship. As they open more to each other, there is still some tension, as Kirino is surprised that Kyousuke accepts her hobby rather easily and helps her so much. Kirino wonders why her brother supports her so much; is it because he's just acting like the caring brother or is is something else, something deeper? Same for Kyousuke... he wonders why Kirino opens up more to him, while she was hating him so much before: is it because she wants to act nice to him and give themselves a chance, or is it something more intimate? All of this is done very realistically and believable (for me, at least). This is not only incest, but also love. I was not supporting the incest, because I didn't like Kirino much, but I have to admit and point out that the whole incest-forbidden love theme was very good and well done. The 2 seasons followed that very closely and were, IMO, a success.
And then the specials happened... *Sigh* [...] Why Oreimo? Why would you do that? WHY?!?! [...]
IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THEM, BE AWARE THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!!!
Basically, the 3 specials that aired in August - that were used to put a conclusion to Oreimo, and everyone having watched the show was hyped for - trolled the entire fanbase of Oreimo; and I don't think I'm exaggerating. For an anime like Oreimo, which had already crossed the morality line, there was absolutely no fucking reason of going back! But that's what it did. [...] Oreimo chose the little sister route. At that point, Ayase and Kuroneko fans had been crushed and understood that the show did exactly what the title had announced. So at that point only Kirino fans were left unharmed, but not for long. After two seasons of greatness and the selection of the sister route, just when the long wait of Kirino fans would have been awarded... everything got canceled. How is that? Well, Kyousuke and Kirino unite, go out, go as far as to make a fake marriage ceremony at a church, with the flowers, the costumes etc, kiss AAAAAAAND... they decide to stop everything, they decide to both go their own way and live normally without any deep incestuous relations... SERIOUSLY?! If this was done in another anime, it may have worked. In a general way, that ending is not bad. But exactly because it IS the ending of THIS anime, it is bad, ridiculous and stupid. You already crossed the morality line! don't go back, hoping it will arrange everything! After two whole seasons of amazing character personality, relation and connection development, they simply burned everything to the ground. When you go for the incest, don't stop right at the end! Oreimo did just that. I'm still amazed how they managed to screw 2 whole seasons of an anime in 3 minutes.
As a conclusion to that, the ending is everything but good and satisfying and trolled you to the point you wonder why they actually made this anime in the first place.
Characters
The characters are the best part of Oreimo. The connections and interractions between them are done very well, and the way to react to different events makes this show so interesting to watch. The personalities, reactions, bonds and relations were done extremely well, something that, I'm not gonna lie, I didn't think would happen.
At school, Kirino is this beautiful, smart and perfect student with no flaws that many like and respect, although she has a strange hobby she has told no one about, except to Kyousuke at the start of the show. She is very egocentric and obnoxious when talking about her anime or eroge and acts harshly towards her brother. She is hostile to him and dislikes him a lot, but slowly starts developping feelings for him, as they spend more time together and he is the only person who supports her weird hobby. AKA, she's a fucking trundere. (and a bitch)
Next is Kyousuke, who is actually pretty realistic as he thinks logically before acting compared to other male leads. Although he doesn't care and doesn't really want to get involved into anime and eroge, he does get involve because of his family values and also because he wants to support his sister just like a good older brother. Even on bad terms with her, he is very protective of Kirino and is willing to keep her secret to himself. When others do find out about Kirino's hobby, Kyousuke will come to the rescue coming up with the most hilarious and clever excuses to protect her and turn the awkward focus away from her.
Next come the two most liked characters of the show: Kuroneko (Ruri Gokou) and Ayase Aragaki.
Kuroneko is an elitist otaku, who disagrees with Kirino's opinions, watches serious anime and always have clashes with her, putting down Kirino's anime and interests. Every time they had an argument, it sound like Naruto, Bleach and One Piece fanboys doing a battle to the death, which is unbelievably hilarious. She is one of the main love interests of Kyousuke and for the whole 1st season she was my favourite character. Her constant cosplay, the fact we don't learn her real name until the 2nd season, her arguments with Kirino, her cute and/or funny moments and her love for Kyousuke made me like her a lot. She also has the cutest moments with Kyousuke, IMO.
However, all of that changed with Ayase. As I mentioned in my "Top 10 Female Anime Characters" article, she is my 5th favourite female character. She is beautiful, kind and caring, elegant and works as a teen model, just like Kirino. She is a best friends with Kirino and looks up to her, but is totally against perverted things, as well as anime and eroge which she finds indecent; and it lead to some difficulties with her relation with Kirino later on. Due to a come-to-the-rescue-of-Kirino of Kyousuke, her relationship with him wasn't all that good at first, but it slowly got better, even going to Ayase having feelings for him. IMO, she was the one with the best chemistry with him and also had the best development as a character. She is also a very good comical relief, especially with her yandere mode, which was fucking hilarious.
Other enough important characters include Manami - Kyousuke's childhood friend - who is probably the most hated character of the series, which, on one hand, I can see why, but on the other hand, I think she gets too much hate, simply because she is the representative of overall society and of what is considered normal - as an otaku is far from being considered someone normal; Saori, a cheerful, kind and a bit happy-crazy otaku girl who wears strange glasses; and Kanako - the loli of the show - a friend of Kirino and Ayase who also works as a teen model.
The rest is pretty much unimportant, but still interesting.
Sound
On the musical aspect, Oreimo has an overall average-good score. The soundtracks aren't bad, but don't really stand out either. I personally liked both openings songs of both seasons, just without loving them. For the endings themes, I don't really remember anything that stood out to me, except one; the 14th ending theme of the 1st season: Shozukai no Serenade. Man, I love that song so much! Good job, Kana Hanazawa. True story, Kana is also the voice actress for Kuroneko and she does an amazing job there, too. The voice acting is something Oreimo is really good at. Ayana Taketatsu for Kirino, Saori Hayami for Ayase, Yuichi Nakamura for Kyousuke and Kana Hanazawa for Kuroneko did a perfect job. The emotions and moods of the characters were clearly voiced well and felt like it was real.
Animation
On the technical aspect now, each season was produced by a different studio. The 1st season was done by AIC, while the 2nd one was done by A-1 Pictures. On both cases, the animation was done pretty well. The former was before known most notably for "Ah! My Goddess", "Amagami SS" and "Sora no Otoshimono", while the latter was known for "Black Butler", "Fairy Tail", "Sword Art Online", "Magi" and "Blue Exorcist". Just from that - especially A-1 Pictures - it would have been very surprising if the animation was bad; and it wasn't. During the whole show, the animation is very smooth and consistant and is overall good. It isn't however as good as their previous works; although I have to give credit for detailing each character's facial expressions. They are done very well, either the character is happy, angry or depressed. All their facial expressions matched each scene and set the tone and mood to the series.
Final Verdict
Story: 6.8
Characters: 8.5
Sound: 7.1
Animation: 7.8
Enjoyment: 8.7
Total: 7.78
Oreimo is overall a good anime until the 12th episode of the 2nd season. It is a nice light-hearted and weird comedic anime, with a very well-executed and well-portrayed view at the otaku culture, where, we the fans, are Kirino, as her passion for eroge is the same passion we have for anime. The characters are without a doubt the highlights of the show, and the story, animation and sound are overall good, with a very good voice-acting. However, is this show for everyone? No, it isn't. If you are new to anime, you should NOT watch this, otherwise you may be turned away from anime due to Oreimo. If you are an elitist who can't take Slice of Life shows, or if you have strong self-righteous morals and can't take insestuous themes in anime, don't watch it and you can also go fuck yourself :) . Oreimo is for people who have a good experience in watching anime, are open to what they watch and know anime can become weird while still remaining good and entertaining. In that case, I suggest you giving Oreimo a shot, since you will probably somehow like it in one way or another. If you decide to watch it, before episode 13 of the 2nd season, just make sure you take away all fragile items around you, tie yourself to your chair and prepare to rage, especially if you are a Kuroneko or Ayase fan.
Because: Fuck the ending, Fuck the ending and Fuck that ending.
This ends my 11th anime review. I hope you enjoyed it. Make sure to like if you enjoyed it and to comment in the comment section below, if you want to express your opinions on this anime. Thank you for reading.
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