OreShura – Series Review
If you think about it, being a harem lead is not unlike being a Pokemon trainer.
Hello there. As we’ve yet to be fully acquainted, I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you about a love-hate relationship I’ve been in. In one corner, me. In the other? None other than Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru. Or just OreShura if you don’t fancy longcat titles. Or perhaps “My Girlfriend and Childhood Friend Fight Too Much” if you like your localisations. But I’ll stick with the second for the most part in this post. As it wasn’t covered in weekly episodics after First Impressions at the beginning of Winter, I took it as my duty to do a series review on it.
If you’ve been watching OreShura, you’ll have to suffer me briefly outlining the general synopsis. So, to make things marginally fun, try reading the following in one breath. “My Girlfriend and Childhood Friend Fight Too Much” is a harem anime about a generic male harem lead proving that generic male harem leads can in fact be intelligent and get good grades if they work hard for the sake of their childhood friends, but even getting good grades cannot mask the fact that he is still a generic male harem lead and thus utterly and completely oblivious to love even when he does not appear to be. Still with me? Good. Now before I continue, I would like to first dispel any notion that I am here to dump excrement on this show. I may sound facetious, and in fact I am being facetious, but OreShura is not a show deserving of ridicule. Nor do I generally enjoy ridiculing things.
That said, I shall now endeavor to explain what I feel OreShura has done well, and what it has done poorly. Being a harem anime immediately puts the show at a disadvantage, as I’m sure a multitude of more vocal aniblog figures will not hesitate to lambaste OreShura as the umpteenth mindless, brain-numbing, unsophisticated, and generally dull harem anime.1 And truth be told, they would not be all too far from the truth. But OreShura at least does some things well. The gem of the show undoubtedly is Masuzu, the titular “girlfriend”. What sets her aside from the rest of the flock is that she’s not just another pretty girl longing for harem lead’s trouser snake for no other reason than to make us envious of the lucky guy. While most other harem shows typically conjure up some insubstantial reasons for the haremettes to pine for the harem lead, OreShura actually gives us a surprisingly complex character in the form of Masuzu.
Having read around some of the more unsavory parts of the internet (i.e. MAL forums), I’ve seen others accuse Masuzu of being a conceited attempt to give the show some depth and complexity. I have to disagree. To provide some more background, I should first describe the situation between her and the harem lead, Eita. That is, she blackmails him into being her “fake”; a boyfriend for show. Most of us would think, “she sounds like a terrible person”. And Masuzu herself freely admits this, even going so far as to call herself a b*tch. But she doesn’t just remain some detestable character for the rest of the show. As most of us would anticipate, Masuzu gradually warms up to Eita, to the point where it’s fairly obvious that she likes him. The question, then, is “did she like him all along?” I’ve tried many a time to answer this question over the course of the show, and the only conclusion I’ve reached is that this is a deceptively hard qustion to answer.
Masuzu’s motives remain most opaque until quite literally the finale. And some crucial history about her is also strategically withheld from the viewer. But even with everything laid bare in the end, I’m still not entirely convinced of the answer that I’ve finally settled on. This is a question I feel you should answer for yourself to really enjoy the show though, so I will refrain from elaborating any further. Let it be known that Masuzu stands as an example of how complicated and ugly love can be, and to me this is more than enough to set OreShura apart from the rest.
So now that I’ve covered the ups of the show, it’s time for the less pleasant downs. I think I’ve made it rather apparent, but I’ll say it outright. I don’t like Eita. He had promise. He had potential. He could have been the savvy harem lead that we’ve been waiting for; the messiah who will carry the harem genre out of the reputation pit that it’s unfortunately fallen into. But he’s not. What’s especially frustrating is how he appears to fit the bill initially. He’s motivated and capable; he’s at the top of his grade and he actually has a career plan that involves being more than just a part-timer at a family restaurant or convenience store. More importantly, it seems as if he’s sharp enough to notice the feelings of the girls around him. Except he’s not. An attempt is made to pass off his ignorance as conscious avoidance (see: Kodaka of Haganai), but if you’ve watched both Haganai and OreShura, it should be very clear that Eita is no Kodaka.2 Being anti-love does not excuse being a dense dolt.
Also disappointing is the route OreShura takes in the end. What could easily have been an end where the harem lead actually picks one of the girls is painfully obviously avoided. It wouldn’t be incorrect to say the show makes a sudden swerve away from a proper end and hits the harem end in the last few minutes of the finale. It really is unfortunate that the harem end has essentially become the standard for harem anime (in spite of the appropriate naming scheme). I personally believe that having the harem lead pick someone is much more interesting than him loafing around with a gaggle of girls, but I suppose his ability to do so would be directly related to his emotional sensitivity. Which, most harem leads are severely lacking in.
Despite all these grievances, however, OreShura honestly isn’t a bad show. As with most other shows, it has its moments. I just would have liked for it to be more consistent, at least with its presentation. Getting our hopes up about a savvy harem lead and a proper end, only to dash them, is just cruel and unusual punishment. Ok, so I exaggerate. But OreShura really had the potential to be much more than it ended up being. All in all, I wouldn’t condemn the show; but I wouldn’t highly recommend it unless you happen to be looking for some slightly above average harem action.
But that’s enough about anime. Who cares about that stuff anyway? Obviously you’re all here to read about me. So, I will gladly oblige by providing a brief introduction. I’ve skulked around3 Metanorn for about half a year now, and during my tenure as a (not so vocal) reader, I had amassed a whopping 5 comments or so. And to be fair, those weren’t even in anime-related posts. I have been writing about anime for roughly a year now though, and I’ve also been watching anime for perhaps eight years. So it’s not like I’m completely new to the anime scene. In any case, I can’t express how excited I am to be a part of the Metanorn family. I look forward to a good time with you all, and hope you’re willing to put up with my ramblings. They can be quite ramble-some at times.
1Or this might not be the case. I confess should really read more aniblogs.
2Kodaka himself is no harem lead saint either, for that matter. What was that?
3I’m far more active on our IRC channel, so just ping me there if you want to chat.
About Sumairii
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 175 comments
well give i did watch series & decent fine to watch give og sorts.
main guy is anti-love person with chuubiyou past yet focus on study due to help a person & etc til here come the harem.
masuzu aka TROLL-suzu give bit troll also yet planner give ways doing give family probs yet deep down more about her to watch.
chiwa small yet can make big bite of it all give she back prob yet she still handle herself.
himeka game girl with also a chuubiyou past also shy girl yet want to have be normal.
ai really either tsundere, large ham, etc really want main guy to stamp her marriage paper.
overall series main guy has enlisted to a HAREM BATTLEFIELD.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Good post, Sumarii. You have managed to capture the theme of the show quite well.
Being anti-love doesn’t excuse being a dense dolt
Oh, how true this is. But I don’t think he was all the way there. He had a few good moments with each haremette.
I thought the end was rather telling in a few ways. I think we all know that Eita in no way is capable of putting up with Masazu’s personality for long. He was totally going for Chiwa there, until the b*tch came along. But, was she there just to put the fire in the belly of the male lead? Or for other reasons?
And I had better cut this short or Spammy will eat it. He loves to keep my comments short…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I am squarely of the opinion that Masuzu was always in love with Eita, from before she fake-confessed to him, but being the calculating smart girl she is, she knew that his professed anti-love tendencies would nix any attempt she made. Thus, when the gift of his chuuni notebook fell into her lap (which had to be a complete coincidence), she took the opportunity to make / blackmail a connection with him. I come to this opinion because she turned dere really fast with him, and to me, her attitude felt like she had to cover for her affection with walkbacks and “Oh I was just faking”, rather than having to work up to acting like a girlfriend. And her jealousy towards Chiwa and Hime was definitely genuine. Why did she fall for him in the first place? Maybe just what she said: He wasn’t interested, maybe the first guy she met who wasn’t interested. There’s definitely a pull there. Plus, he seemed to have a girlfriend, and that does tend to make guys more attractive to other girls.
Honestly, throughout the whole series, Masuzu was the girl I favored. I really didn’t care for Ai at all, she was good for comedic moments, but her whipsaw tsundere really tired me, and her stalker “I’m going to hold you to this fake marriage contract from a kindergarten class we were in 10 years ago” plan was just creepy. Hime was too much of a clingy cipher, too ready to change herself to whatever Eita wanted. And Chiwa was definitely the second best, and did elicit some moments of “Man, I feel sorry for her” especially with her backstory and long history dealing with Eita’s obliviousness.
Comparing to other harem shows this season, I thought OreShura was some distance behind Haganai and Sakurasou, but well ahead of Da Crapo III (talk about terrible harem ends, sheesh). I too would much rather see some girl win instead of a harem end, both because it’s much less sequel bait and because I want to see couples. I’m guessing we’re seeing this trend because we’re getting more LN adaptations and fewer VN adaptations.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Awesome series review post Sum!
For a harem series I knew what I was getting into when I booted up the first episode, but for the life of me I can not stand Masuzu! I hated her since day one and will continue to hate on her. Using blackmail to win a boyfriend was possibly the worst storyline of all anime time! Yeah it is “new” but didn’t we see this in Chu2koi? While Yuuta’s secret in that series wasn’t to gain a lover it still felt the same in the end.
Eita yes WORST FREAKING MAIN GUY EVER and since this is harem obviously he is dumber than a box of rocks and by the time episode 5/6/7 rolls around I think his deal with his Chuuni syndrome was thrown out the window! Not like anyone would really care if it was revealed because we never really saw him hang out with anyone but the girls and his ONE guy friend >.>
Chiwhaha deserves to be with Eita because I feel she has the most “story” with him even though he is still a dumbass, maybe get rid of Eita and switch OreShura into a full blown yuri series? I could go with that xD
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I think we all know who deserves to be happiest in the show.
Kaoru.
What a bro, what a wingman. Helping Ai like that, when you know he wants most to push her out of the way and confess to Eita himself. Or is it herself. We don’t really know. Either way, most deserving of happiness (and why go after Eita in that case? Find someone better!!!).
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
Yes I have to agree. Poor Kaoru. T_T I did a quick google search because I was curious and apparently Kaoru is a girl in the light novel.
And now I’m wondering why she is dressed up as a boy to begin with…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Good post, Sumairii.
I’ve been watching OreShura weekly and even though it’s bumpy at times with a blockheaded male lead, it’s a fun show to watch. Out of so many harem leads I’ve seen, Eita must be the most dense candidate ever. He’s definitely no Kodaka but he’s better than OniiAi’s Akito by a mile.
The focus for me was Masuzu, the remedy for the usual haremette syndrome. She was bitchy at the start, a little devil to say the least but my opinion of her changed when it was revealed that she was basically self loathing because she had to play the perfect daughter for her father. Her personality may be mean spirited because of her agendas but she’s the perfect fit for Eita since they’re both rotten in their own way. She has an effect on him that the other girls don’t. Like Highway said, she got interested in him because he wasn’t like the other guys drooling after her.