After spending about 11 and a half days relaxing on vacation in Chicago and Wisconsin, it finally came to an end this afternoon. So, I’m catching up with everything and hopefully I’ll be back on track by end of this week. With that, I want to share my thoughts about Ore no Imouto 2, which has been one of the most anticipated sequel for the Spring 2013 season. However, this sequel disappointed a good amount of people for various reasons. (Image Source)
When Ore no Imouto aired in 2010, it was a pretty good show focusing on a closet otaku who happens to be a little sister. It focused issues with the industry and the negative stigma of otaku by society. It caused a good amount of controversy in the blogosphere, but it was a very enjoyable first season. After hearing that there will be a second season, I was excited. After watching a few episodes of the sequel, I was proven wrong as several things tugged me in the wrong way.
Compared to the first season, which focused a good amount of issues Kirino faced if someone else learns about her otaku hobby, the sequel is more like a harem romantic comedy. Because of this, this sequel loses pretty much everything that made the prequel enjoyable and replaces it with hints of incest. I admit that I wouldn’t mind it if it wasn’t Kirino since she is the most unpleasant character in my opinion. She just abuses the crap out of her brother to extreme levels. However, I can’t hate her completely as her determination to return her brother to his former self by becoming a successful and popular student.
On the other hand, I disliked Kyousuke more than Kirino because he became a typical spineless male lead, but 10 times worse as he gets dumped by Ruri and outright rejects Ayase for his sister. Since I wanted Ruri to win, I was very disappointed by the second season. Despite that, the show still gave me a bad impression from the way the adaptation handled the breakup of Ruri and Kyousuke along with Kirino’s fake girlfriend upsetting her brother. It was abrupt and made it feel too obvious in hinting that Kirino has romantic feelings for Kyousuke, more so than in the first season.
Overall, I was disappointed by the second season of Ore no Imouto as it lost things that made the franchise enjoyable to me such as the Anime references and the closet otaku thing. Instead, I felt disappointed while watching essentially every episode of this show because my preferred pairing (Ruri/Ayase and Kyousuke) didn’t win. If you take the shipping out of the equation, this show is below average considering that they basically threw most of the show’s strengths and poorly handled the other girls that liked Kyousuke by outright giving them the bad ending. What the producers should have done is to use the omnibus format for the second half so that each girl wins instead of shafting all of them in favor of the sister.
While the sequel is a big disappointment, I don’t think Ore no Imouto as a whole is terrible since the title already suggests incest. At least they managed to stick to their guns by not saying that they are not blood related. Then again, maybe our expectations were too high, which is probably why a sizable group of people felt disappointed by the second season.
Overall Rating: 6.4/10, D, Below Average ¶
I will give you a sneak peek at my review of Oreimo 2. I think it will not surprise you but here it is: This second season should have never existed. Stay tuned for more details in the near future.
I think the second season could have done better if it had an omnibus format so every girl can win, but screwing over all the girls and giving a false sense of hope to shippers kind of ruined it for me and most people in the end. But overall, I will check out what you have to say about the second season in the near future. 😉