Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai

Title:Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai
My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute
Oreimo
俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , , , , ,
Notables: NAKAMURA Yuuichi
R1 License - Aniplex of America
TAKETATSU Ayana
For several years, Kyousuke's relationship with his sister Kirino (she is 14, he is 17) has been cold, to the point that they only share greetings. But one day, Kyousuke finds a DVD entitled "Let's Make Love with Little Sister!" (rated R-18) fallen in their entry hall. His interest piqued, he looks for the owner, only to realize it belongs to Kirino. He's shocked, but more surprises lie just ahead...
[12 TV episodes with a first ending, plus four more DVD episodes being announced (12b & 13-15) and said to provide a different ending, splitting the story path somewhere during episode 12 and providing the "True Route" of the story. See also: Animated Commentaries and Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai Dai 2-ki.]

As of 2011, the original light novel (summaries) has 8 volumes of which the first 4 cover the True Route of the anime (almost no significant new characters in volumes 5-8, Kuroneko becomes ever more important). Also, a manga of the story has started as another remake of the story; the first 4 volumes cover the story of anime episodes 1-5 plus one side story about Manami.

1:00 Min trailer Youtube video.
Episode Details 
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 9 8 8 7 7 7 Ggultra2764 [series:2393#1552]
Oreimo was a bit of a tough sell for me at points special thanks to the interactions between lead characters/ siblings Kirino and Kyosuke. The former proved to be quite the annoying brat on a number of occasions with how she interacted with her brother and the latter was too spineless to at least try correcting his sister's behavior while trying to get used to being her cohort in her otaku fandom.

Considering this series is trying to go for the slice-of-life approach in exploring the life of an otaku like Genshiken, this series does do some things right in believably exploring life as an otaku. The series does acknowledge that being an otaku is quite frowned upon in Japanese society and the mass media paint misconceptions to the mainstream about otaku becoming criminals with exposure to anime, manga, eroge, etc. Kirino is painfully aware of this at the start of Oreimo and fears others rejecting her because of her otaku interests. The series also does a solid job of exploring life in Akihabara and attending conventions. However, Oreimo usually tries to cover elements to otaku fandom that don't come across too naturally with exploring the everyday situations faced by Kirino and other characters. Not to mention with the eroge element to Oreimo being mostly used for comedic situations, the series isn't as grounded as Genshiken in believably exploring life as an otaku.

The supporting characters to the series also prove to be quite the likeable and diverse bunch with Kirino having both her "normal" and otaku friends, as well as Kyosuke having occasional interaction with childhood friend Manami. The series does take some time to focus on many of these characters, particularly Kuroneko in the OAVs, where we get enough sense of the type of people they are beyond their outward facade as anyone "normal" or as an otaku.

But as I've discussed above, Oreimo's two lead characters aren't exactly the easiest characters to connect with. Kirino's behavior against her brother is a bit extreme and she seems depicted as an archetypal tsundere with how easily jealous she gets of Kyosuke's interactions with other girls. I also found it to be a bit absurd that someone of Kirino's age could get access to and be interested in playing adult-rated versions of eroge games. As for Kyosuke, I got irritated at points with how easily he accepted his sister's short-fused behavior towards him.

Presentation-wise, Oreimo is a great-looking series visually with rich color and plenty of details with scenery and character designs. Many female characters are drawn to be cute-looking which helps to enhance the likeability of the supporting characters seen throughout Oreimo. Music wise, Oreimo is notable for featuring plenty of musical tracks throughout its run, notably having a different ED song in each episode. But with many of the songs being energetic J-Pop tracks, there wasn't anything that really stuck out for me with the soundtrack.

Overall, Oreimo was tough for me to watch at points thanks to Kirino's behavior and while the otaku theme has its moments where I could connect with it, it isn't as smoothly developed and grounded as Genshiken. Still, the supporting cast for Oreimo were likeable enough and there were enough notable moments where I could care for what developed with the characters. This is a decent show to check out, though I still don't believe it knocks off Genshiken from its perch in delivering a quality slice-of-life title that explores life as an otaku.

Last updated Thursday, November 24 2011. Created Thursday, November 24 2011.
Watch 8 8 9 7 8 8 Dreamer [series:2393#2279]
My God our protagonist (the sis) was an annoying little bitch! I wanted to slap her around a few times.... but alas, this is just an anime... lol. Ok, so besides our annoying sibling, how does the the series fair?

Art, Animation & Character Designs
Artwork was nicely done. So was the animation actually. Colors were rich, details were good and the overall feel was great. Character designs were also well done and well rounded. Our girls were all kawaii. Kuroneko (the goth girl) was just the cutest thing. Loved her character.

Music
Intersting here. Each episode got it's very own OP/ED was a nice touch. Somehow, not a single one caught my attention. They were mostly pop pieces of the typical mundane flavor. The rest of the soundtrack was equally unimpressive.

Series and Episode Story
I ended up enjoying this more so than I thought I would. The first few episodes were a turn-off, and that was because of Kirino, who was such a bitch while Kyousuke (brother) was a big wuss.... or rather, a pushover, spineless, gutless of an older brother. I totally agree with Devil Doll below... the more airtime our supporting characters got and the less Kirino got, the more enjoyable the episode(s) ended up being. Frankly, I enjoyed our supporting cast far more than our two protagonists and that's what made the series for me.

I do however have an issue with this. I wish they explored some of our supporting characters more. The one i was curious about was Saori.... the otaku with the glasses. There were a few glimpses of her life outside her otaku lifestyle, where we got a peek at her potentially being wealthy.... being that she had a few butlers. But that's all we got. Unless they were prepping the viewer for a second season. Same for Kuroneko.... wished they explored her more.

Overall, it was an enjoyable series..... eventually. If you can get over the obvious annoyance with this series, there are a few entertaining moments here and there that does make the series worth watching.

Last updated Sunday, October 23 2011. Created Sunday, October 23 2011.
Unevaluated Forbin [series:2393#1573]
I'm watching this and it's cute!

Last updated Monday, November 08 2010. Created Monday, November 08 2010.
Rent 8 9 7 8 7 8 Devil Doll [series:2393#752]
[Score: 73% = "Rent-" for TV episodes 1-12a, rated up to 76% = "Rent" when adding DVD episodes 12b-15]

More serious and otaku-themed than Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu and as such almost no comedy, but both main characters don't make a lot of sense (which kills most of the drama): A seemingly perfect but actually bitchy girl and her spineless older brother (doing egregious things to save his sister's butt while she regularly kicks his balls instead of thanking him) make this series a pain at times.
On the other hand I should mention the insane amount of effort that has been invested into this show, such as every single episode getting its own ED song, or the scenes in an anime café showing animated sci-fi action anime scenes on a TV screen in the background. With the peppy OP song that soon grew on me, and no fan-service wasting time for dialogs, this show ended up being borderline Watch/Rent despite its heavy flaws (such as having neither story nor character development but the aforementioned abysmal lead characters instead).

My reason for watching (and liking) this show is a group of four valuable side characters: Wise otaku veteran Saori, serious goth-loli Kuroneko, Kirino's principled best friend Ayase, and Kyousuke's childhood friend meganekko Manami. The more airtime they get (and the less airtime Kirino gets), the better an episode is - it's that simple.

A lot of effort was invested in this show, and in the end I didn't find enough flaws to downgrade this show (i. e. episode 1-12a) below a "Rent-", as despite both leads it had its funny and charming moments and characters.

And the development of the additional DVD episodes (based on the manga content) provides a more interesting path for this series; the "True End" variant of episode 12 is a very good start for this version (several of the new side characters there will become important later), and the whole games club arc that I like much better than Kirino's bitching (despite having similarly "troubled children" there, but Kyousuke's is used to quite a lot of stress by now). Following this path I'd watch a sequel by all means.

Last updated Saturday, June 18 2011. Created Friday, October 08 2010.
Watch Stretch [series:2393#628]
(Watch+)

(All episodes watched):

The title of this show could be translated as "There's No Way My Little Sister Could Be This Cute"--but in the opening sequence Kirino, the 'cute' sister, grabs a letter/word symbol from the Japanese title and flings it at her brother, Kyousuke, bouncing it off the side of his head. That's pretty much the way she behaves throughout this series. There should be no way a little sister can be such a bitch, but unfortunately there clearly is.

The problem with this show is that Kyousuke is so damn spineless when it comes to his sister, and I can't help mildly hating her. Their behavior continually annoyed me, and I don't think either of them ever grew much of a personality. With such a fundamental factor of a series screwed up like this, the show as a whole should have crashed and burned rightaway, yet somehow it didn't. Kirino's sort-of friends Kuroneko and Saori were infinitely more interesting and likeable than either of the siblings; I found myself wishing that the show would dispense with the miserable main characters and shift its attention to these girls. The thought occured to me that what would really tantalize me would be if Kyousuke started going out with either of them, or another character (but I knew that was never going to happen).

I must admit that despite all my complaints (see individual episode reviews for details), somehow I still enjoyed watching this show and looked forward to it. Maybe it's the bizarre situations which came about that amused me, even if they didn't make much sense and the jokes themselves were modest. I can only conclude that the makers of this show figured that viewers would find Kirino's wild anger to be amusing, and consequently would forgive her for whatever she did, especially if she offered a token word of thanks somewhere near the end of the story. Maybe they figured that her angry attitude was so important that she had to retain it to the end. But the biggest question is, why did I enjoy this show as much as I did, when the principal characters, and their plotline, was such a mess? I guess it did have amusing sub-plots, likeable supporting characters, and a general otaku theme. I guess I'll have to get back to you on this one...

My favorite line: "I'll show you my hyper-weapon!" --Kyousuke

Last updated Thursday, January 20 2011. Created Friday, October 08 2010.

Other Sites
NameURL
Official Website http://www.oreimo-anime.com/
Japanese

Community Anime Reviews

anime mikomi org