Unlike the last three episodes, some people in the anime blogosphere went gaga over this one fanservice scene. I wondered about it when I watched this episode. Fortunately, I did not get the same reaction from that scene. I probably did not react to it as much since I saw the comedy value in it, not the naughty side of things.
We know that Kyousuke and Kirino are not on good terms with each other. Kirino forces him to play her games that he refuses to play. In addition, Kirino badmouths her brother in front of her friends in her room. That and her tsundere personality added more to the fire. It seems that everything went haywire after Kyousuke receives a package from Saori. Kirino takes the package from him with excitement. When he discovered that the package had porn, he barges into his sister’s room and takes it away. As a result, Kirino goes ape shit on Kyousuke. They accidently fell on each other during their fight over the package.
The fanservice scene caused some discontent in the blogosphere. Some are saying that the scene was distasteful and disrespectful towards women. I do not get the disrespectful towards woman part from that scene. Since when groping a girl’s breast a sexist thing to do? Perhaps they are confusing it with Bakuman, where most of the content continues to be sexist towards females. I just do not see it with the blatant panty shot and Kyousuke groping his sister’s boobs accidently. I suppose people would not overreact if Kyousuke done this on a girl that is not part of the family and not blood related. Also, you cannot compare this scene with the ones in Nogizaka Haruka Purezza since Purezza’s fanservice is shitty.
After that incident, he gets to talk to one of Kirino’s best friend, Ayase. She was a pretty nice girl that was so surprised over the whole incident. I do not blame her; I would feel that way if I saw them doing that sort of thing.
The second part of the episode is the Summer Comiket. Kirino forces her bother to go along with her friends, Saori and Kuroneko. They buy stuff at the Comiket until she found out that the SisCaly disk was sold out… Fortunately, there was a contest to win one. Out of nowhere, Kuroneko tries to beat the staff member in a fighting game contest and she was surprisingly good. Eventually she beats the crap out of the staff member’s character and wins the limited edition SisCaly disc. She gives it to Kirino in the end since she knew that Kirino wanted it.
Unfortunately, when they are heading back home, Kirino’s best friend, Ayase accidently finds out about her secret. I guess Kirino did not hide her love for anime and eroge so well since she was carrying merchandise that was obviously from the Comiket.
In the end, the episode rather entertaining even though the fanservice scene could have been better. I felt that way since other animes such as Amagami SS had the male lead falling onto the girl and his hands landing on the breasts. I think that they could have come up with something more original.
As for Ayase knowing about her best friend’s secret… I guess we have to wait until the next episode to find out.
A lot of hoo-ha over nothing. If fanservice and blatant pandering become so prominent that they interrupt and/or stall the story like they did in Nogizaka Haruka, then it’s a problem. But a single fanservice scene that was forgotten by the characters all of 30 seconds after it happened is hardly indication of that. As far as pointless shitstorms that the aniblogosphere has had, this one ranks somewhere in the middle.
I think the last three episodes only had a few seconds of fan service. After that, there is really no fan service after that. I highly doubt they will up the ante to the level of Nogizaka Haruka… So I have to agree, it’s complaining over nothing.
Also, Nogizaka Haruka Pureza failed not only because of the fan service… It’s because the male lead was too indecisive over Haruka and the story didn’t get anywhere. No conclusion what so ever. It was a big mess in my opinion.
I haven’t yet seen (read) such reactions in the blogosphere but honestly it wasn’t that big of a deal. For someone who had just gotten into anime, started watching OreImo and then saw that scene I can imagine it being preposterous. However, having previously known the nature of this show and where it might lead, along with a bit of experience with romance/slice-of-life/comedy anime this didn’t strike me as something incredibly surprising (quite the opposite actually, I somewhat expected this sort of thing to come up sooner or later). Which doesn’t mean I approve of it in any way of course – it’s just that as an anime fan, you have to grow a thick skin, learn how to cope with these situations and distance yourself from the characters and the whole 2D world. You don’t have to go moe for every single thing in order to consider yourself a true fan if you get to like a show. For example, I wasn’t that crazy about the occasional incestuous/homo/lesbian/pedo moments in CLANNAD (~After Story~) but that doesn’t mean I don’t adore the anime with all my heart. If it doesn’t cross the line they can be even be taken as funny (by us non-alternative-non-otaku regular Joes). Granted, the nature of OreImo is a good deal different but hey, we all knew what we were getting ourselves into and things haven’t been that bad so far. All about the perspective and the anime balancing the fanservice.
I hope so…
Also, there are a few critical reactions from Scamp, Hirano/JPMeyer and Shin off top of my head… I guess I’m dug deep into to the aniblogosphere to hear such critical reactions. Personally, I don’t really care…
Looks like I get to take the side that the fanservice bit was mostly a distraction but one that doesn’t detract from what the series has served up so far. I’ll agree that descending to the kind of depths that Nogizaka Haruka plumbed would be the most awful thing to happen to this show short of it turning into a siscon hentai in the vein of Yosuga no Sora, but so far, the feeling I’m getting is that it’ll still be passable. Nothing great, but competent at the very least.
I hope it doesn’t go to the depths of Yosuga no Sora, or I will cry in the corner… Maybe not since it’s not a eroge game, but they have to be a bit careful with the amount of fan service…
Like I mentioned in the last comment, there are many reasons why Nogizaka Haruka failed, not just because of the fanservice…
I made a deal over it….I love those crying prinnies so much. It just really bugged me because it felt so badly forced in.
Honestly though, I don’t notice most fanservice unless it’s shoved in my face. Like the infamous ass in episode 1? Would have never seen it without many people screenshotting it to rant about it.
Come to think about it, Kyousuke falling on Kirino did feel a bit awkward. I wonder the possibility of that scene happening in real life. Perhaps it could happen, but the chances of it happening is when a blue moon shown… Not only that, but the way they fall on each other felt a big cliched… If I recalled, Nogizaka Haruka S1 and Amagami SS had those scenes too… Like I said on my post, they could have been a bit more creative…
Otherwise, that scene is really not a big deal… People get worked up over nothing just to get everyones attention… It happens, but don’t let it bother you… Being too negative is going to hurt the blogger in the end since they will have a hard time say anything positive. This is why I avoid reading overly negative anime blogs myself. (unless its satire, of course.)
No riled up over fanservice, but instead the fact they are trying to promote incestuous relationships and that is just wrong.
Okay, I have misunderstood… but I agree that incest is wrong no matter how you look at it… It makes me wonder how would people react with Yosuga no Sora and its blatant promotion of incest.
I didn’t think it was a big deal either. This anime is both playing up to ideas of sister-complex-wish-fulfillment and making fun of them at the same time. You can’t make fun of something if you don’t actually feature it somewhere in the anime. And besides, I think Kyousuke’s budding friendship with Saori, and the potential of a friendship/romance with Ayase seems to be more interesting than his relationship with Kirino, which is right now pretty one-dimensional. I’m still going to follow this series.
Not to mention, he has a girl that he is going out with in his high school… I wonder if this is going to turn into a love pentagon at the rate it’s going.
Let’s face it, the aniblogosphere is a very elitist place where first impressions last. The first few episodes of the show usually decide its fate, and once bad impressions have been made, the probability of people watching it drops dramatically.
But is the show really trying to prove anything for us to throw shit at it? No, right?
This is why we can’t have nice things…
Elitism =_=… Full heartingly agree.
This is why I don’t hang out with elitists anime bloggers, they always ruin the fun… More like killjoys to me.
The anti-bloggers are not being elitist. They are Kirino-wannabies. It is the blantant double standard or should you call it hypocrisy that is the most amusing. They follow each season’s shows as a habit, yet don’t want to admit their obivious otaku-dom. They cry about fan service and ‘morality’ of shows, anything uncomfortable is ‘commercialisation’ and ‘targetting otakus’ yet they are oh-so-above it all. To them, somehow, anime have to be associated with social commentary and have deep meanings, as if that will justify their fandom in the general publics eyes. At least Kirino got it right: don’t mix 2d with 3d, they are completely unrelated to each other. the 2d is entertainment for 3d, and that, is that.
I agree with you… I think they shouldn’t go on the high horse and complain about fanservice, morality, commercialization and targeting otakus. They know what they are getting into, so if they don’t like what they see, they could have drop it and let it be. Sadly, they just want attention to get other people in the blogosphere upset…
I approve of Zzeroparticle’s suggestion, we need a aniblogosphere rally to restore sanity in the blogosphere… Shitstorms only cause sanity and make things worse in my opinion.