Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru

Alright, here's the deal.

Well, there's no deal; not for a certain lucky or rather unlucky guy named Eita Kido anyways. The thing is, he gets blackmailed in the most embarrassing way possible. Now he's nothing more than a little boy toy to a certain admired beauty at school. But hey, at least he's getting a hot girl with a manipulative personality yet someone “cares” about him in some way right? That's not what it seems to be...

Wait, this is a bit too fast. Let's start from the beginning.

Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru (God damn that is a long name, so I ... will call it 'Oreshura' instead), is an anime series that debuted in 2013 based on the LN written by Yuji Yuji. The Japanese title literally translates to:

“My Girlfriend and Childhood Friend Fight Too Much”

YA THINK?

Well, the series does display that theme quite a bit. For starters, we got this kid named Eita Kidou who is in his puberty years in high school. He's a normal high school student with a healthy body. At that age, most boys would think about girls, right? No, in his case, the only thing is in mind is to study, study, and study. In fact, he hopes to become a doctor. (for a friend's sake) Well hell, if anyone tries to make that into a goal, we should all envision on the journey to get there. It's not an easy task being a doctor and saving lives, not to mention the amount of education you need to obtain the occupation. This also came from some bad memories from his past related to his parents. (poor kid) And beyond that, he has decided to eradicate the thought of “love” from his thoughts. In other words, the only focus on his mind is to achieve his goal, with absolution regardless of the costs. Oh but life just isn't so easy for this kid because there's one BIG problem:

Masuzu Natsukawa

She's a mysterious transfer student where after nine long years came to his school all the way from Sweden. She has silver hair and in anime logic, we all know that's an attractive trait. In real life though, that's probably bizarre. But at any rate, this girl quickly becomes the talk of the school where boys instantly becomes attracted to her. On the other hand, Eita is just being Eita there with no second thoughts related to her. That is of course till one faithful day. After a certain incident, it seems that Eita becomes blackmailed by a certain notebook (Death Note reference anyone?) and now is literally forced to play the role of a “boyfriend” for Masuzu. It's basically an offer he can't refuse!

Of course, in today's anime industry, the concept of the 'fake boyfriend/girlfriend' theme is not new. It's literally a palm in the face at occasions where we watch a fake couple doing fake things that are expressed as fake romance. It's overused all over the world but hey, it's still here. The fact that Eita and Masuzu are a “couple” means that they are the talk of the school and among other things, an obstacle for both Eita and his childhood friend Chiwa Harusaki. That's because Eita promised to become a doctor in order to help her with the injury that she endured during her times as a kendo specialist.

Now regarding Chiwa, this girl gave the word 'annoying' a whole new meaning. With a lack of any sex appeal, an annoying mouth, and obliviousness to a lot of things, she plays the mascot of the show. In fact, she is even nicknamed as Chiwawa as a pun for chihuahua. This is because her petite figure and hairstyle resembles those of a puppy. Well, let's not forget about her mouth of course because a puppy barks when annoyed and Chiwawa here is no different. Sorry Chiwawa fans.

She brings on some early drama in the series after finding out about the whole fake 'boyfriend/girlfriend' ordeal. Being herself, she lacks the knowledge of “romance” and its ideas so she tries her best to break them apart. With her persistence, she often tries to interfere during their moments of “romance”. However unlike Masuzu, Chiwawa lacks confidence. Unfortunately for her, it seems that Eita only sees her as a childhood friend although at many occasions, he seems to put her in high regards and does truly care about her. Among other things though, Eita-kun also meets other girls which puts Chiwawa on even more stress when she realizes the many rivals to love.

Those rivals would be Himeka Akishino who self-proclaims herself as Eita-kun's “ex-girlfriend”. Her introduction invokes the wrath of not only Chiwawa but also Eita's fake girlfriend Masuzu. It becomes a battlefield and Himeka portrays herself as the “Burning Princess Saint Dragon Lady of Dawn”. It all happened after a certain event and after being a witness, she is determined to prove to Eita that she is his destined one. Too bad destiny doesn't land her well on the side of love. Speaking of which now, destiny presents another girl, the all loveable pink haired girl Ai Fuyuumi. She seems to play the role of the antithesis with her tsundere like features and delusions. In fact, she even has a little cute history but that would be spoilers. Watch the series and you'll see.

With these girls and Eita-kun in the mix, we have the formula for a harem. They all have different colored hair too but with different physiques. It also seems that at the same time, Eita can't seem to pick which one to choose. In fact, he still wants to escape from the idea of love and pursue a dream as a doctor. Well tough luck to Eita kun because this kid can't ever catch a break. From some of the episodes, he gets humiliated by the notebook, beat up by thugs, and caught up into countless misunderstandings in what some may see as an unwanted harem. It's a battlefield for all the girls and everyone to themselves. It also seems that at some occasions, Masuzu may generally care for Eita in a more romantic way as opposed to their fake relationship. Still though, it doesn't avoid the typical harem themes. We have the jealousy from the girls that often results from misunderstandings, the stalkers on dates to “observe” what Eita is doing, and hell, even the traditional CPR scene. It gets old and overused . Let's not also forget the “transfer student” theme, the childhood friend relationship, and even a case of the naked apron idea. It's Harem with a capital H.

The series is labeled as romantic comedy and surprisingly, it does have its comedy side. The idea of “love” is really played out during many episodes is weak though as I've yet to sense that feeling of real romance from any of the character. However, I admit that the comedy of the series is done surprisingly well.

Let's see, there's the fun references of chuunibyou presented in many episodes involving Himeka and Eita. They imagine themselves as the “Burning Fighting Fighter” and “Burning Princess Saint Dragon Lady of Dawn” respectively. But of course, this theme isn't new to the anime industry especially in terms of romantic comedies. Yes, I'm looking at you, Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Other little fun gags in the series revolves around Masuzu who presents herself as a hardcore Jojo fan. In fact, she often uses references and quotes throughout the series to make humor. These often puts Eita in an embarrassing situation but amusement for Masuzu herself. It's not surprising though given her manipulative personality. Additionally, there's the idea of 'obvious lies' involving Ai. It's so obvious that her “boyfriend” doesn't really exist that it should be a big sign for anyone. Additionally, her strict policy of being a “hall monitor” contradicts her personality as she herself seems to want fun. Yup, I personally found these little gags here and there amusing or at the very least presents comedy in a fun way.

Unfortunately, it seems that not all of these doesn't work out too well in the end. There's still fan service and the typical beach episode, the festival at night (with yukata for decoration), the obvious love triangle/square, and Eita being oblivious to certain things in life despite his intellect. I also personally found that Eita is a bit annoying to watch. Being a nice guy, he often wants to help others by putting himself at risk but I feel like he's not using his brain much. Although I admire his care for the other girls, I find that his actions presented are a bit weak to my liking. Additionally, I also find that Himeka's character to be way too blend and hardly stands out at all. In fact, at some occasions, I forget her existence in the show just like her delusions that are nonexistent. The love triangle is also weak too in my opinion. It seems that Eita doesn't wants any of them as a real girlfriend. In fact, it seems that the only thing he would marry would be a career and that is of being a doctor. Maybe, one of the girls should pursue a career in medicine or something to stand a better chance.

In terms of visuals, I had a hard time adjusting myself to watch this. Even being a manga fan, I would have to say that A-1 Pictures dropped the ball on this one. The characters are generic, washed out, and not to mention most of the scenes from this series are so bright that one might need sunglasses to get a true experience. The girls themselves also lacks any realism at all. Well, I guess some of the more humorous scenes are presented better visually but ultimately, this series only gets a '5' in the art department. I'm disappointed.

I don't have too much complaints about the music/soundtrack of the series. However, that OP song "Girlish Lover" by Mizukara wo Enshutsu Suru Otome no Kai is like a buzz to my ears occasionally. It's very girlish (sticks with the title) and really tries to tell the viewers that this series is what it is: a romantic comedy with a harem. It's also funny how Eita doesn't seem to be in the OP song at all. It's almost if the girls in this show is the more dominant characters, not the guy. This is especially true for Masuzu. As regarding the background music, I find it just fine and sometimes amusing especially during a few of the guitar rhythms during those 'notebook scenes'.

Ultimately, I will give this show a '6'. It's definitely a threat towards to a '5' scale though with its lack of characterization in Eita's harem. The main male protagonist, despite being kind, lacks any distinct features from what I see him as. As for the drama, it is presented in a more causal way rather than anything too serious. With seemingly no real winner in fact, this series is just a romantic comedy with a harem that our friend Eita-kun can hardly stand. Well, I could barely stand this series at many times but if you want to find some fun with its comedy parts, Oreshura might be worth a shot. If you want to pursue a doctor career yourself though, then save that precious time that you'll never be able to buy back; not even with blackmail.

OreShura
I didn't enjoyed this as much as i wanted to and this wasn't boring neither but i just can't find out why i didn't like it that much, maybe i was tired of seen harem comedies or because i didn't like how this ended but yeah i cannot find out exactly why.

Story
A simple story in this, just that a girl (Masuzu) that is seen as the most beautiful girl of the school wants to construct a lie by extorting this boy (Eita) and telling him that he must be her boyfriend so the boys at school stop asking her out but, he just wants to ... keep studying because he thinks that love doesn't exist and he accepts because of the extortion and his childhood friend Chiwa heppens to love him (obviously) and is like that every episode till the end where it really was good but personally i hate endings like that and i mean the last 5 minutes.

Art & Animation
This was really beautiful, it has light colors, it was catchy to the eye and it was colorful but in a light way, just beautiful and well drawn characters and the landscape too.

Sound
It was good, it really matched the situations but it wasn't amazing, the voice acting was good.

Characters
They really were interesting, i liked them all and i think what contributed the most for me to like them a lot was how well drawn they were and their personalities, even tho i hated Masuzu most of the time, she was well made and Himeka was a surprise for me, i liked her character and it was weird to see a loli with big boobs funny and eye catchy.

Enjoyment
For some reason i didn't enjoyed it a lot, I enjoyed the art and the characters but i didn't felt this anime that much but it was a good enjoyment.

Just wanna let you know, before you start reading my review, I generally write short, on to the point reviews, simple and understandable. Hate reading overly lengthy reviews and going through every unnecessary point as some of the reviewers do, so expect this one to be short (Ironically, didn't turn out to be so short.)

Scrolling through the other reviews left me wondering.
Am I seriously the only one who thought this was such a wtf anime?

So, I loved the beginning, it sparked a great interest for me to see the rest of the anime and I liked the first half.

Then the seventh episode came along and ... things started getting... I don't even know how to describe it. I can't emphasize how weird and nonsensical the show started turning real fast..

The new girl, Himeka was introduced, there she was for one episode and was never noticable again. Literally one episode was all she got. She feels so unimportant, volumed down and received so much less screen time than the other three it makes me wonder why they even introduced her to the show. Hence, it was actually a fight between the other girls.

*Minor spoilers*
The two girls introduced at start, Chiwa and Masuzu, were going at each other in first half of the anime, then Ai came along and story mostly focused between the relationship between her and MC, main lead across 7-10 eps.
Now, that part about her crying when he promised her to heal her back injury wasn't even touched upon until practically the end and after going through the second half of the anime it felt so incredibly out of place
In fact, everything that happened in first part felt like that, as if it was all forgotten.
The pretending part was something I had completely forgotten about throughout the second part, as well as some other things I won't bring up since I already spoiled enough.* *

The last three episodes were so painfully uncomfortable and awkward for me to watch and enjoy. The relationship between the characters was so unclearly shown to me I couldn't even tell to which point did he come to with each individual girl.
You know that feel when you watch a typical harem and you know which one is going to be picked, which ones are just extras and which ones will get the short end of stick? Yeah, nothing of sort is even remotely apparent here, except for the completely discriminated one I mentioned before, himeka.

Maybe I'm being crazy and stupid. I don't know, that's just how I feel about the show as a whole.

After watching the final episode of Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru. I was kind of confused, I was wondering whether or not Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru would get a second season. When I found out that it didn't, I was kind of disappointed, as at the end of Ep 13 there were still many unsolved plot threads that needed solving. Even early episode plot threads did not get answered in Ep 13, well sort of. Though overall it's not that big of a problem and does not affect the scoring in big ways.

Another Issue I had with the ... main plot was that it lost its original goal. Being anti-love, I was expecting the main male lead to hate love for the majority of the episodes, but I guess my theories were wrong. It just turned into a classic harem story.

Though that's not to say that this anime is bad, I definitely enjoyed it. The art and animation were well done and the sound for the anime was pretty good and on sync with the animation.

Another thing that bothered me were the characters. As listed above I, I felt that some of the characters had lost their main personality trait and became cliche anime characters. This does not say that all characters are bad. I just believed that some of the characters weren't themselves from time to time in the later episode.

To wrap this up, I believe that the overall score for this anime is a 6/10 and it is definitely enjoyable. Even though I would say that this is not for everyone.

This show doesn't do anything particularly crazy or out of the ordinary (other than maybe a lot of references, mostly to Jojo's Bizarre Adventure). However it was fine for what it was going for. The light novels went further than the show, so if you're looking for your complete and definitive ending you may wanna look elsewhere.

The comedy is usually funny which is a bonus, however the art, music, and character isn't really out of this world. The show itself even makes jests at the archetype each girl portrays in a typical harem show.

This one doesn't need a long review. If you like harem romantic ... comedies, you'll like this. If you dislike that, or unfinished stories, you'll want to stay away.

Story-6
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Interesting to start, then turns into something I really didn't like, but came back together for a fun little show with an interesting ending.

Art-7
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Some characters look very good while others not so much.

Sound-7
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... Good opening and ending songs. Good voice acting as well.

Character-6
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Shallow characters, with a little bit of deepness here and there, and I'm sure you've heard this one before: a main male protagonist who can't seem to choose one of four girls who are deeply in love with him.

Enjoyment-6
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I can't say I didn't enjoy this anime, otherwise I would have dropped it(and actually came very close a few episodes). But while enjoyable I can't get my head around the flaws.

Overall-6
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I kind of want a second season and I kind of don't. It just depends on how it would be done. But if done right it could be redeeming and I'll definitely check it out. Last episode begged for second one.

Ok so im just going to jump right in and stat my issue with this show. The show started off with a lot of potential... but that gets thrown out within 5 episodes and becomes a boring harem. I honestly skipped to the end (only 2 eps left) because i couldn't take how the show had nothing going on except weird clingy girls doing the obvious to a clueless cliche "loveless" guy. The show would of been great had it followed just him, the "fake" girlfriend, and his childhood friend. While going deeper on each of their backgrounds and have them grow.

The other two ... girls would of been better off in just being a story for a episode or two. Having them stick around feels pointless. They aren't interesting, they are weird, and really give now growth to the show.

Overall this show was a let down from what it had in its first 3 episodes. If a second season comes it should go back to its roots and avoid the harem bs.

This anime is absolutely mediocre therefore you should totally watch it. It's your standard harem rom com where a bunch of annoying girls fight over a boring cookie cutter main character. As mediocre as this anime is it has beautiful colors, decent character designs, a good opening and ending theme song, and also Jojo references.

All of the girls are fairly annoying and chaotic other than Ai Fuuyumi aka the pink hair tsundere girl and the gamer girl aunt. I totally recommend this anime to anyone who's interested in a run of the mill rom com and just wants to sit back and watch high school ... drama with some mild ecchi humor.

edit: I've now completed this anime and I do have to say, the last two episodes were pretty good, other than the small amount of disappointment with the very ending, I really liked it and I give the story part of my rating an extra brownie point.

A tsundere, a chunibiyo, and a childhood friend walk into a bar…
Before I begin I need to say I only watched this based on crunchyroll’s Q review.
It’s a bright, colorful harem high school series with an interesting premise. It builds up the drama and tension while maintaining it’s comedic base. It doesn’t rub your face in it’s fanservice. It’s great IF you’re into this sort of thing. And I am not, hence the nature of this review.
Problem number one is Chiwa Harusaki. It is no secret that my most loathed thing in anime is characters who expect the object of their affection to return their ... feelings, without having to tell them how they feel. Plus she’s loud and annoying, but at least she was honest about why she didn’t want Eita hanging around with these other girls.
Problem number two is Ai Fuyuumi for the very same reasons as Chiwa except she she’s in denial. On top of that her motivation for wanting to marry Eita is a one note gag that gets old fast. You promised me in kindergarten we would get married. I’m picturing a 45 year old Ai Fuyuumi if she never met Eita again. A tired office lady who bores hosts then staggers home and falls asleep clutching a 40 year old note.
Problem number three is the inevitability of the show’s climax. I don’t want to spoil it here but it’s so obvious that it can be called it’s logical conclusion. It wouldn’t make sense for the series to end any other way.
Problem number four is the amount of stalking and extortion that goes on in this show. One could say that it’s done for comedic effect, but consider the premise then remember “you cannot extort those who refuse to be extorted.” I reached the same conclusion that made me drop Wolf Girl & Black Prince; you must like it or you wouldn’t tolerate it. Hence problem three.
An honorable mention goes to Mana Natsukawa. What is with her and the little sister in A Town Where You Live? Now that I think about it, those two shows and SNAFU feature a girl who’s kept as a doll for their family’s political ambitions and have a meddling sister. But that is a topic to another time.
Because this show centers around my most hated anime trope I had a hard time getting any entertainment value from it. It seems like an okay harem comedy but I’ve seen better.

This is fairy my view on this anime not much of a review. I like the concept when there's harem but the girls is not too much, i can tolerate 4 or 5 more than that is too much and the character development become much harder to put into the story. this anime is more of like 'your' generic harem school type anime (if you watching those kinda stuff of course) the story is cliche. But the main reason i like this anime is not because the harem but because characters especially the main protagonist, pretty much the background of all character is not as ... clear as we think it is. That is why i give it 7 despite of its generic type of story.

Shallow, weak characters. Weak main male character. Annoying, pretentious female lead with very little redeeming qualities. Jointed, predictable plot. OreShura is a rehash of a rehash of a rehash. And when you've gone past two rehashes, that's not a good thing. That's a very bad thing. A very, very bad thing. And normally I'd keep quiet about shows that I didn't enjoy, but I feel like some points nevertheless must be addressed about this particular show, to serve as a warning.

I was thrown off by how much I disliked the female lead (Masuzu). She explodes onto the scene and attracts everyone's attention, typical oujou-sama style. ... Her character isn't too bad looking, and at this point I'm thinking, "She must be a pretty interesting character." But I was wrong. The show attempts to make her as contemptible as possible, which I don't understand the reason for. I just didn't get it. It felt like the authors WANTED the viewers to feel absolutely frustrated with how shallow and character-lacking she was. It felt like I was watching a piece of paper flopping around and interacting with other, equally floppy pieces of paper, cut-outs of characters and their images. No special quality. No uniqueness to distinguish their place and role in the show. A bland continuation of "going with the flow" and "force the situation onto the main character". The way Masuzu just forced herself onto the main character's life was incredibly irritating and unnecessary. It created a gaping hole in her character that would not be filled for all the episodes to come, no matter how good of a relationship the main character builds with her over time. Her introduction was a failure, and her reservations and desires of the main male character were empty and unsatisfactory.

A bit strange to talk about the main character after the lead female, but this is the crux of the issue. As with many harem shows, this main character is nothing more than the embodiment of what I refer to as, "personality in the gaseous form". That is, the character is so devoid of its own characteristics and decision-making abilities that it fails to impact the plot in any major way. Not solid, or even liquid, but pure gaseous. It seeps through events, almost blending completely into the background, and only when the plot needs a push does he perform "the right thing". The viewer is unable to penetrate the veil of ambiguity that is the main character, which defeats the purpose of a clearly told story. While I understand it's a harem and that anything can happen in a harem, the story does not even attempt to make the viewer even a little emotionally invested in any of the characters, or anything that's happening. The MMC is a combination of weakness and head-strong personality, the worst mix possible. I felt like throwing up whenever he played his "Because I'm righteous" card. Give me a break.

The conflicts, which would normally serve as the jumping points for emotion, plot progression, character development, and a shift in the flow of the events, are also forced and trivial. Petty. Unsubstantiated. Unreasonable. They held little meaning to me, especially when the antagonistic forces were as equally trivial as the protagonists. Or perhaps, it was simply because the main character was, again, quite weak.

Hah. I just realized who some of the characters remind me of. So like, Masuzu is probably a scaled down, much less interesting version of Chitoge, from Nisekoi, and Hime (the third harem member introduced, because that is where I stopped), is also the equivalent of a scaled down, much less interesting Rikka, from Chuunibyou. I don't know about the childhood friend.

The reason I gave it a 6 and not a 5 (as tempted as I was) was that, it is understandably difficult to flesh out every single character in a 13 episode show. The artwork wasn't too shabby. And admittedly, there were a few moments when I thought my mouth would give a ghost of a smile.

A combination of poor character development, poor characters in general, petty conflicts, and lack of motivation to care about the characters, however, all contributed to making this quite a disappointing 6-episode trial and a waste of time.

As a viewer of quite a few rom-com anime, this story was very bland and the characters were not very fleshed out. They all had a vague backstory and their reasons for loving mc were very vague as well. This story lacks body and character development. The plot is not very clear and the story doesn't really go anywhere during the course of the anime. I love the art style of this animation. The character tropes/tropes in general used in this anime made it hard to watch as it followed the same format as most other rom-com anime and didn't give a unique take on ... the genre. I think the idea was great, but the execution lacked story elements and didn't contain an in-depth story with character development.

TLDR: If you turn off your brain you can semi-enjoy the anime, but don't go into it expecting a unique take on the genre.

Honestly this anime is terrible, the drama is horrible. Too much harem is in this series. The Story is just a full drawn out bullshit love thingy which I cannot spoil but is completely immature and not worth watching. The art is great but the characters just get hell bent over such stupid stuff and makes it not very fun to watch. There was barely any enjoyment except when the stuck up girl fits into the picture. Honestly this anime felt very incomplete and the main plot towards the end was just a downwards spiral.


Other words, watch another anime, this one is the worst I ... had ever watched.

Oh come on...

---Story---
'Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru' (Oreshura for short) is a romantic comedy harem anime about a small club formed to help female students become popular. This club, however, slowly shifts into a group of female students who want to date Eita, our main character.

---Art---
The art is very bright and cheerful. The animation is pleasant to watch and there was never anything I would classify as poor quality.

---Character---
Easily the best part of the series, and no doubt why you'll keep watching more. No character feels two-dimensional (ironic), and it's a blast watching them interact with Eita and with eachother throughout the ... series; by the end, you won't know which girl to root for.

---Enjoyment---
The show was fun and cute, however the few dramatic plot points felt very forced, almost as if they were trying to sway the audience's opinion on which character Eita should end up with. My opinion never changed, and that's the main problem when it comes to most harem anime: no matter how the series ends, you'll either have one party of individuals satisfied with the main character's final choice and leave every other party pissed off, or you end the series with the main character not making a choice and leave everyone unsatisfied. Given my review score, the "Oh come on..." at the top of this review, and lack of complaining up until this point, it should come as no surprise that I belong in the "pissed off at the final choice" group.

---Overall---
I honestly don't know what to say here; there's something in Oreshura for everybody (cute girls, romance, comedy, drama), but the combination of all of that might not be for everybody. It also helps your enjoyment if you root for the right girl from the get-go, which I certainly didn't do. Sounds like I need to go dig up some alternate ending fanfiction.

I don't write too many reviews because I mainly think that going into a new anime completely blind is the best way to do it (and also that no one is going to ever read this, so why bother?). This review will contain spoilers, so if you're watching it or haven't decided yet, proceed with caution.

OreShura starts off with an interesting premise, with the whole blackmail thing and "I used to roleplay because I'm a loser" whatever, but it quickly turns into a boring, predictable and frankly saddening display of a guy who kind of sucks at making reasonable decisions and has no charm ... whatsoever.

Once Ai's character is introduced, that's when I believe the show took a turn for the better. Ai Fuyuumi is, in my humble opinion, the best girl in the show. As the episodes with her develop, so does genuine chemistry between her and Eito. Once I got to ep 10, I was actually hopeful that this relationship would take off and bring us to some kind of epic finale where Eito confronts Masuzu about the notebook and stands against the embarrassment of his past to move on...

And that's how the show SHOULD have ended. Instead, we got some half-assed moment of "true emotion" between Eito and Masuzu in the most forced confession scene I have ever witnessed followed by the friend-zone-ing conversations between Eito and the other girls. I was completely disappointed by this ending because that relationship that was, in theory, supposed to start off fake and become something real, but it just never does that. It stays a fake relationship for the entire show until the narrative forces it to change.

Ultimately, I was disappointed by OreShura. I believe that Ai was actually the best girl in the show and that it should've taken a turn towards that route, but hey, when you're the one making it, you can do whatever you want, can't you?

Oreshura was, in fact, a trashy rom-com. The characters were mostly underdeveloped and inconsistent, the plot was practically non-existent, and much of it was cringe-worthy (especially in the first couple of episodes). However, I ended up enjoying it. Yeah, Fuyuumi Ai and Hime were terrible characters and existed mostly for gags that sometimes were bad and were a bit repetitive, the interactions between Eita, Natsukawa, and Chiwa were well done (for the most part). Especially in the last few episodes, the three have a decently well-developed relationship with some complexity that feels like it develops over time. There are also like 10 references to other ... anime in every episode which sometimes makes it better. All the characters have chuunibyou qualities, and the references help build that so they can try to push a message. Though much of the anime is all over the place and some parts don't work, overall the humor and some good moments help it be overall enjoyable

Score: 6.8

date of review: 7/11/2022

Oreshura genuinely surprised me. I can only summarize Oreshura as "a roller coaster of emotions"... for all the wrong and right reasons. The anime lacked originality in its plot and development compared to other rom-com/harem anime out there. Even still, the anime was very light-hearted and enjoyable to watch at times.

I don't think Oreshura is for everyone, but I don't want to discourage people from experiencing it. For the avid anime enthusiast looking to be analytical and be engrossed in an interesting and exciting plot, I wouldn't recommend Oreshura to you. For those looking for a chill, light-hearted, and overall energetic anime, I think Oreshura ... would be an amazing title for you.

Overall Score: 7.2

Sound (9) - The musical elements implemented in Oreshura were top notch. Light-hearted moments were met with amazingly whimsical tracks. The music in Oreshura had a huge emphasis on the dynamics and pacing of the anime. A lot of the music/background music were really fun to listen to and got me excited.

Art (7) - Pastel in nature, Oreshura came off very polished and aesthetically pleasing to the eye. While there weren't too many scenes that absolutely blew me away, I wasn't ever displeased at Oreshura's visuals.

Characters (6) - More times than not, characters seemed very dense and were quite bland. Good writing assisted all of the characters, but none of the characters themselves seemed very original or inspiring at all. Every inclusion of a character was interesting and had a unique impact on other characters already established in the story, but nothing stopped them or another character from being pushed to the side the next episode.

Story (4) - As previously stated, the story lacks originality and fine-tuning. After several episodes, Oreshura became repetitive with a story that was almost predictable all the way through. The plot isn't very enjoyable, sometimes becoming uninteresting. It was only halfway through the anime--when all main characters were established--that the plot began to thicken and become a topic of interest. Disregarding the latter half of the anime, it felt as though every single episode was a filler episode to another anime.

Enjoyment (10) - Humor is a main theme in this anime. Almost every other scene can be attributed with a scene of good, light-hearted humor that eases how disappointing the overall plot is. The anime is also referential to other anime classics, alluding to popular titles like Dragon Ball Z, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and many more. The humor in this anime is one of my favorites, and every episode had me bound to laugh, but that was pretty much it. Humor was truly the saving grace of this anime and one of the only reasons I had such an enjoyable time with it.

Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru, shortened to Oreshura, is a harem comedy that I actually enjoyed and I hate the harem genre. My worst experience with the accursed harem genre so far was watching things like Girl's Bravo and Maburaho. Those almost made me quit anime altogether, quite frankly. Those disgusting, pandering, weirdly drawn boobs-in-face-every-few-seconds shows were not for me.

• Although, we know from the first episode that one of the female mains, Masuzu, goes commando. Fanservice wasn't the centerpiece of the series. I initially did not like Masuzu as much as the internet seemed to because she seemed like another ... boring, witty Senjougahara archetype, but I eventually got woed by her feminine wiles and continuous Jojo's Bizarre Adventure references.

• I grew up with things like Tenchi Muyo!, Ranma, and Saber Marionette J, so I guess a part of me wasn't completely opposed to the harem genre (even though the shows themselves are like average, average, and bad; nostalgia can be an important factor). Those mid-2000's harems were just the fucking worst. If you want to see the same three-tier female archetypes with multi-colored hair, rubbing themselves up and down a normal looking guy, who everyone wants to bang, then feel free to revisit that era of anime. I dare you. Better yet, watch Eiken.

• The main character of Oreshura, Eita, is bland. He's like a less male power fantasy version of Araragi, in the sense that he altruistically tries to help girls. I barely even remember what he looks like. And besides the main two girls, the other two can be boiled down to crazy tsundere and zany chuuni girl with past life issues. Neither of them are acceptable options, in that regard. Though the main girls have their own set of issues, Masuzu being a habitual liar and Chiwa being the annoying childhood friend. I think being a childhood friend is the unfortunate curse in anime that means that you’re fated to never be loved.

• Now that we know that the background characters have only slightly more personality than those of Plastic Memories (which had the most UNIMAGINATIVE characters of all time, if you didn’t sense the overwhelming sarcasm in the last statement), let's venture into the other aspects of the show. The characters are thrust into pretty typical situations like classrooms and beach episodes, so that really isn't important. I think the thing that was good about Oreshura, aside from bland protagonist syndrome, was that the characters are dysfunctional and have problems. Somewhat resembling the real world, except living life as a real person is not nearly as sexually appealing… or pastel.

• Overall, it's enjoyable to watch. The character can be pretty typical to the light novel genre, but it was fun and there were some sweet romantic moments, as well as A-1 Pictures usually having enough cash to make something substantially good. I give it a 6/10.

Lion Tamers, Lion Tamers; let's put on on our Clive Beaty Safari Hat (we'll need it) and carry a chair and a whip. These accouterments will be necessary to prevent certain special effects from infecting and spoiling our cloths; and our self-respect.

The anime we will examine is "Oreshura", which I will use to name it in the future.

That long Japanese monster of a title, while accurate; doesn't say anything to anyone, except a die-hard english speaking Japanese language enthusiast. A true Japanese person would have trouble explaining what that monster of a title means, to anyone but another Japanese national.

I even tried to get a ... direct translation of "Ore no kanojo to osananajimi ga shuraba sugiru", which gave me "My Girlfriend and Childhood Friend Fight Too Much". After receiving this translation, I just sat for five minutes, dumbfounded; that a title as innocuous as that, actually was important enough to produce an Anime of 13-chapters.

But I digress. Oreshura translates to "I Shura". Which means the original long-monster title means something I don't care about, and the newer short title means absolutely nothing. "Shura" is not a 'person, place, or thing' in this Anime. If you are confused by all this, you can imagine how confused I was about this.
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But let's try to get into the Anime itself.

1). Firstly, let's give a way a plot point, as a means of disassembling a non-sequitor. While there is an argument between our main character fellows' girlfriend and his childhood friend, this happens so rarely in the Anime, that the title isn't anywhere near the mark. A closer title would have been; "The Lion, The witch, and the Wardrobe". Oops!? I can't use that, it's already taken by a live-action movie. Drat!

2). The girlfriend. while the show goes to great lengths to point out that our two protagonists are not interested in ordinary puppy love, but instead are just trying to create a situation where both (but mainly the female) can avoid further dating requests and the usual behind the scenes comments from fellow classmates that just happen to like these two peoples' looks. And we find that some comments are made snidely, and presented by people that aren't happy about anything.

Now let's look deeper. This Anime had a real chance to take this story into a real character based mystery and blew it. The whole reason of the female 'Mazusu' wanting to leave all that running and jumping behind, was not the constant approaches, but paranoia developed after total insanity came about while living with her father. Her father then decided she needed a change of scene, and sent her from Sweden to Japan, on the condition that she would be reported on, by her own sister, to their mutual father.

Father had brought about a situation that forced his wife, their mother, to leave, never to return; leaving the two daughters to the fathers' tender mercies. The narrative stops very suddenly, and we are never allowed to see the rest of the reasons for the tortured soul that is Mazusa.

All the above is in the Anime, and I'm told, elaborated upon slightly, in the Light Novel.

Is she sane? No. Is she dangerous? No. Is she a conniving little rat, that uses her obvious physical allure to get what she wants? Yes! Should she be able to do this at the tender age of fifteen? Absolutely not! But she does. And the unfinished back-story to her character could have easily shown us a reason for this criminal but precocious behavior.

And thereby hangs my objection to these goings on. We had a right to know how this personality evolved into the Mazusa we see in this Anime. Without that explanation, the whole story becomes weak and unsatisfying. Without it, the conflicts Mazusa creates with her rivals, becomes unnecessary. Mazusa connives in ways unusual, even for an adult of training, in the misleading of assailants (such as an espionage agent) for reasons that are unclear.

She offsets blame, by using blackmail against her own partner. That stress leads to confusions of meaning between the person blackmailed and other females in his social circle. She uses temporal doubts, to allow her to be absent, when she promises to be places, and then complains when her partner does not get that she is playing a ruse. In other words, she assumes her beau is just as criminally clever as she is, and gets mad when he can't see the future, as a consequence of her thinking, while she leaves him out of the planning.

Does she evolve as a personality? Slightly, but not in any way that means she won't do any of this stuff again. She even jokes about that possibility in the last episode, while laying on top of her fake beau, which of course confuses him. She is sexually adept in ways that he is not ready for, at his age. It becomes obvious that while she offers sex to him, in a philosophical way, she has no intention of actually carrying it out. Even though most of his other female friends would have no trouble completing sex with him.

Which gives us another reason to want to know what the hell the completed back story has in it, that creates this conundrum. A psychologist would probably be able to get pretty close. I'm gonna just pass something out there, and hope I get close. I'm so distressed that the story in Oreshura is so weak, that I have to offer an alternative plot that fits the conditions of the present story line, while giving us a much stronger and edgy'r product.

What if the heavily dominated and controlled Mazusa was raped by her father?

It explains his desire to place rigid and very strange controls on her, to the extent that her sanity finally cracked, and she ended up in a sanitarium for awhile "trying to please daddy". It would explain why her mother left in disgust, and was chased out of this home, in order to prevent her from creating an escape for their eldest daughter; and silence her in political ways. The wealth displayed is enormous. What if daddy is a politician? It explains why Mazusa's younger sister reports on Mazusa in a conspiracy against daddy.

But most of all, it begins to give us an explanation for Mazusa's extreme and weird behavior, especially regarding her relations with boys her own age. It explains the social competence, while also givings us a cause for the desire to feel the air between her legs. She has this thing about wandering around with nothing under her skirt.
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I place the above, as a reason to have doubts about the competence of the authors. They had a chance to make this into a true horror story, that begins as a rom/com, and ends in a tragic horror story that would have raised the hackles of everyone who watches, while never getting all the way to Hentai Anime. It might have started a new genre. But the opportunity was blown, while all the plot points are present, to try again, and make something great! And that being said, by me. A person that doesn't like horror stories, in the main.

Because the plot is watered down, the dialog is very weak most of the time. The soundtrack is adequate, but not memorable. The opening and closing music is something I hate, which is J-pop, played fast, and in the process; creates a singing voice that sounds like a squirrel being strangled. A pity, as the singers are all people that are respected voice actors. The video and cartooning is a bit weak, as it is all done in fuzzy pastels (not a resolution problem, it's intentional); to make the scenes appear mildly romantic, even when the situations are anything else.

And so I close this review, of a story with massive potential, never realized. A watered down mess, that ends with the viewer wanting to know what the future holds for our young fellow and his 4-female friends. And then their's his aunt, that told him outright, she wished he would chase her around the coffee table too. Another entire story arc, missed entirely.

I give Oreshura a weak 6.

Why do so many romantic comedies need to have a harem for its own sake? What's the appeal here? We got a standard harem show where it's blatantly obvious who's going to win from the start except it's not standard in the following ways:

- the protagonist is not perfectly average but actually the highly driven star student that is popular and well-respected but known to have zero interest in romance.
- the protagonist does not have a heart of gold at all and is in fact dismissive and uninterested about the drama in the life of others most of the time.
- the winner is not a ... normal tundere and is never verbally or physically aggressive but nevertheless openly a manipulative, selfish bitch.
- the winner starts out as winner already; blackmailing the protagonist into faking a relationship to avoid getting unwanted attention from others

The interactions between the protagonist and deuteragonist are actually very refreshing and charming this time around with the deuteragonist being completely confident rather than the usual flustered and uncomfortable with his own emotions. The rest of the harem cast however serves no function to the plot; their interactions with the protagonist are uninspired and their character designs bland. It's not interesting to watch in any way opposed to the sly manipulative behavior of the deuteragonist.

Were it just for the interactions between the two primary characters this series would be very entertaining but it's diluted into interactions with many other characters that provide no way to move the plot forward; the rest of the harem stands no chance and that's obvious from the start. The only appeal the harem adds is if the viewer actually just enjoys it for nothing more than the power phantasy of obtaining such a devoted ensemble of suitors — I don't get the appeal.

So be one looking for an excellent developing romance between a stand-offish academic overachiever and an amoral, cynical, manipulative master troll then this might be the show one is looking for; one just has to accept that it's diluted with uninteresting harem filler and that every character in the entire series except for the protagonist's guardian has romantic feelings for the protagonist not to mention the unrealistic scenario of all these suitors seemingly ignoring the fact that the protagonist for what they know is in a relationship with the deuteragonist despite the præmise of the series being that they're merely prætending.

Could I give separate ratings for the Eita–Masuzu parts they would be 9/10 and the rest stuck at 3/10.