Eromanga-sensei

For better and for worse (mostly worse), Eromanga-sensei is the successor to OreImo and its themes of sister-banging. But where OreImo had some interesting things to say about the otaku community, Eromanga-sensei possesses nothing, and is nothing, puerile and creatively bankrupt.

Eromanga-sensei in many ways represents everything that is bad with light novels. It is a story (I guess, if we put aside its flagrantly incestual nature) of a group of twelve-to-fifteen-year-olds who are famous artists, as if adults do not and cannot exist. If Eromanga-sensei was taking inspiration from the scribbles of a bunch of middle school students, its rubbish writing would actually make ... a great deal of sense.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: the protagonist and a sexy lady, both being inexperienced in the affairs of love, try to imitate romantic situations with one another as a source of creative inspiration. No? How about the protagonist's rival conveniently being revealed as a cute girl who is desperately in love with him? Or the heroine angrily retreating to her room and screaming "bakaaa!" as the camera pans away? See, Eromanga-sensei isn't an anime that is particularly concerned with sharing anything you haven't already seen in dozens or hundreds of other equally brain-dead romantic comedies. (And seriously, if I have to watch another anime with a hikikomori heroine who is portrayed as some goddess of attraction, I'm going to have an aneurysm.)

I suppose the difference here is that Eromanga-sensei is neither romantic nor comedic. It sure as hell is not funny (unless you are the type who thinks burping is the pinnacle of comedic genius), and its 'romance' is merely a thinly-veiled attempt to make it seem somewhat less like masturbation fodder. Fodder which, by the way, has a regularly sexualised heroine who is only twelve-years-old. Let that sink in for a second: twelve-years-old. She is twelve, and the anime frequently displays detailed shots of her ass, her panties, her naked body, and so forth, and even thinks it is amusing to have her friend (who is the same age, by the way) howling about how she loves penises. Yeah. Really.

Even if lolicon pornography does not bother you, it would be an impossible task to claim this contributes to the story or the characters in any meaningful way. It actively sabotages whatever emotional value it tries to create between Sagiri and Masumune's relationship, and makes it impossible to take seriously anything that happens or could conceivably happen. For example, the anime will reveal Masamune's tragic past in the span of about one minute, and then immediately open the next episode with a girl clad in her bikini and flirting with him. Eromanga-sensei doesn't even do the incest part right since it is more concerned with creating some periphery harem for Masamune than it is with developing his feelings for Sagiri beyond "hey I like you lol." It is stupid on the level of KonoSuba and yet has the audacity to pretend without a hint of sarcasm that it is some touching story. No.

It is actually a fairly sad result when compared to the author's previous work, OreImo. OreImo, flawed and infuriating as it was, actually put a great deal of time into making Kirino and Kyosuke's feelings for one another feel meaningful. Kirino was no doubt insufferable, but by the end, you could at least look at her as something more than an assortment of tropes and incest appeal. Likewise, it also went into a fair amount of detail with regards to the life of a stereotypical otaku. It represented Comiket, eroge, offline meetings, and the conflict people can have when they possess hobbies they are ashamed of. It was no Genshikan, but OreImo did at least try to contribute something to the industry with more appeal than "well, gee, banging your sister sounds like a fun idea."

The same cannot be said for Eromanga-sensei, which does and says nothing about the industry. Any moment when it does display the struggles of Masamune's career, it is extremely, unbearably dull, and often propelled by silly plot devices like one of his love interests offering all their royalties in return for Masamune becoming their slave. The whole premise of being a light novel author is an accessory that may as well not even exist. If you stripped all the fanservice away, all that would expose is the show's unsightly skeleton.

I can't think of any situation where Eromanga-sensei could come as a recommendation. It is asinine dreck, without so much as a modicum of creativity. I suppose its colourful art and catchy opening animation may lead some people into thinking the anime is more than it truly is, but it is best to be honest: the sole reason anyone likes this show is because they want to bone the twelve-year-old heroine.

Now how much merit is there in a story like that?

I'd wager not a whole not.

Something I find hilarious is that no one can explain why Eromanga Sensei is a good show. I see people giving this an 8-10 rating and saying it's a good show, but not once I've seen anyone mentioning any legitimate good quality about Eromanga except for: "it's cute", "Sagiri is so cute", "it has cute girls", "incest is wincest". This may be unfair since I shouldn't be trashing on anyone's likings and I believe people have the right to enjoy whatever the hell they like, but I cannot shake the annoyance that some people are just satisfied with anything at this point. Trust me, I ... like cute girls and lolis as much as the next guy does, but somewhere somehow we need to draw the line and notice when our intelligence is being insulted. Does the only thing that an anime needs is for it to have cute girls, some type of incestuous relationship, a copy/paste generic protagonist (that took no effort to create), a bunch of terribly forced memes and loli fanservice for us anime fans to be all over it on social media and be supporting this garbage? If this isn't an insult to the viewer's intelligence then I don't know what is.

For those of you who do not know, this story was done by the same people who made the highly controversial Light Novel (later adapted into an anime), My Little Sister Can't be this Cute (better known as OreImo). Apart from targeting a niche audience with the sibling romance subplot, OreImo is infamous for receiving harsh backlash from fans upon its completion for its trash ending. Details were revealed that the LN editors did not allow Tsukasa Fushimi to go through with a full incest ending.

Keeping this in mind, it becomes very apparent that Eromanga Sensei is trying to be OreImo. Not only does this series do a terrible job at copying all the elements that made OreImo successful, but it makes sure to establish the single fact that led to the downfall of the show. It utilizes one of the most used loopholes sibling romances do to get away with what they're doing by making sure everyone knows that the two main characters ARE NOT BLOOD-RELATED. Did you hear that? THEY'RE NOT BLOOD-RELATED. The previews make sure you know this, the manga makes sure you know this, the anime makes damn sure you know this.

I find it hard to believe anyone genuinely thinks Eromanga Sensei will not have the brother & sister get it on at some point. It only takes a fraction of knowledge about the author, OreImo and its history to know this has been created just because the author hasn't gotten over his sister fetish. Even so, there are a bunch of other female characters (not)worth mentioning. The thing is, none of these characters seem remotely interesting or feel like real people. They're walking anime tropes that will only exist for the purpose of having the main guy hang around with other girls than his sister and to let the audience have a bit of variety. I have checked the manga and there is no indication they will get interesting enough to carry this bad comedy.

I found it very sickening how cynical and shamelessly Eromanga Sensei tries to bait the siscon/lolicon audience. Countless promising shots of the girls (especially the FREAKING 10-YEAR-OLD) are shown to obviously excite the viewer and trust me, I don't want to be the normie guy who trashes the sexualization of kids in anime, but these are literally middle schoolers. Like, this show is WAY too in your face with fanservice shots. Only 4 episodes in and we've basically seen the little sister naked at least 3 times already. It doesn't even try to hide the fact that they want to attract "that" type of audience, and what bothers me is that they're so out of place. Eromanga Sensei does this so much I'm kinda creeped out that full grown men have such cynical mentality to attract people into their mediocre show with a few ass/breast shots of little girls (if this was an ecchi series I could understand, but Eromanga is not). Every episode gets so much worse with the fanservice it reaches to a point that is just absurd, even for modern anime standards. I honestly feel like I need to call the cops ASAP while watching Eromanga Sensei, just for witnessing the amount of pedophilic vibes this series gives off. If you're into that stuff, then knock yourself out I guess...

Let's talk a little bit more about the characters: they all suck. Every single one gets on my nerve, and the one who doesn't (the black haired who works as a librarian) is so uninteresting it's shocking. First off, the main girl is the lolicon's/siscon's dream imouto, a ridiculously cute, empty shell of a girl who's only noteworthy characteristics are that acts like a tsundere, refuses to leave her room and draws porn for fun. The main guy is generic MC #198,567 (he's voiced by Kirito ffs) who has a terrifying obsession with his sister. People accuse Kyouske of being a terrible siscon, but Masamune is on another level. When he's not screaming, he's ranting on how beautiful his 10-year-old sister is and you can just feel this guy wants to bang her brains out. OreImo at least had the decency to slowly develop the sibling romance, and most of the side characters were interesting and felt like real people (Kuroneko alone makes OreImo a better show btw). The other characters in Eromanga Sensei are stock templates and not worth mentioning.

People criticize OreImo for being a bad anime with nothing new to say, and solely aimed at the siscon/lolicon otaku audience. I find these allegations funny because I've seen those same people dare to claim this is better than OreImo. Unlike Eromanga Sensei, OreImo HAD something to say (nothing that hasn't been explored, but nevertheless it was something). In part, OreImo's first season had a couple interesting themes like the exploration on otaku culture in Japan, the difficulties of liking something that is heavily looked down upon in society and those around you, and the evolving friendship (ultimately romantic interest) between two different types of siblings. Eromanga Sensei, on the other hand, is a soulless, empty copy of its predecessor that could only appeal to the type of people it is obviously intended for.

One of the things that bothered me the most about Eromanga Sensei is that it tries so damn hard to create memes. This show is just asking, BEGGING to be the next meme on Twitter. From having a character's first trait being that "SHE LOVES DICKS", to having the main loli have a cute (completely out of character) dance at the beginning and opening themes that is begging you with red letters to make a gif out of it and share it with your friends. The show constantly has looping, cute or "funny" moments that are obviously intended to be the laugh of the week (this isn't Konosuba, so it doesn't work). Since the show is trying so hard to be a meme, I propose we treat it as such. The meme of the season.

Well, I have nothing more to say in this unorganized rant. I really needed to get this anger I have towards this show off my chest somehow and hopefully open some eyes. If you have nothing to watch this season, maybe you would want to check out Eromanga Sensei. Watching one episode a week is more easy to pass than when a series is completed (it's the only reason why I might watch some more; also to possibly rant about it some more in the future). However, expect a "moe-blob" of a series that shamelessly copies its big brother and all the cliches of the industry. As I indirectly suggest throughout this review, if you want to watch a similar show done by the same people and with the same ideas, watch OreImo if you haven't and do not waste your time on this. It has a more refreshing and interesting cast than Eromanga, it connects much better with the ideas it's trying to present and is overall more presentable than this garbage. The thing that bothers me the most is that Eromanga Sensei is becoming extremely popular amongst anime fans. To my understanding, it has been very successful in preorder sales in Japan and it is very talked about in online communities. Yes, all those meme attempts have been working so far, and people are loving the ass shots of Sagiri and Megumi saying she loves dicks. This motivates the industry into producing more of this quality of anime, and we all know anime deserves much better. All I can say is that I really hope Eromanga Sensei gets forgotten after the season ends and it's remembered as the cheap theatrics it is, or at least I hope so.

This series is my proof that every day we stray further from Kamisama, and that Miyazaki-sensei was right about anime all along.

Eromanga-sensei is a culmination of everything I hate in lazy, insipid, vacuous, pandering entertainment. Now, to clarify, first of all, I don't believe that just because an anime, or any piece of entertainment, panders towards a certain demographic, that it is inherently bad necessarily. There has been plenty of anime that pander towards the otaku audience while, at the same time, remaining fun, and some instances, good shows, but Eromanga-sensei is not such an example. It's a show that lives by the convention in terms of its plot structure, comedy, character archetypes and dives head first into trashiness at any moment it can get. What ... could have been an interesting look into why and how people who shut themselves inside their homes live on a daily basis, akin to something along the lines of Welcome to the N.H.K or something, the show just decides to opt out instead for loli fan-service instead, ditching anything that made Oreimo, somewhat enjoyable, and, in some parts, decent. Before I continue, I'd just like to clarify that I am not hating on this show just because the original creator also created Oreimo. As I just said, I found that show to be decent (until the ending anyway) but it also had a few things that I could appreciate when it comes to meta humour about otaku and the anime industry as a whole. Eromanga-sensei has none of that. It's pointless, empty and has no value as a show at all. It's trash in every sense of the word.

Now, before I dive into the numerous reasons as of why I believe this show to be as poor as I think it is, let's discuss the plot first of all. Masamune is a somewhat successful, trashy light novel author who has been writing for several years now to support his younger step-sister, Sagiri, a shut-in, t, who refuses to go out and stamps on the floor of her bedroom whenever she wants anything. While Masamune writes these books and even has illustrations done for him, he doesn't actually know who this illustrator actually is, who goes by the name 'Eromanga-sensei' who actually turns out to be Sagiri herself! That's right! A 13-year-old girl draws erotic pictures! Oh boy! Anyway, the rest of the show sees Masamune and Sagiri begin to bond and grow closer together, while splicing in some romance between the two (because that's needed between siblings, am I right?) while Masamune is challenged by numerous other light novel authors in the business for slots in magazines, eventually becoming their friends and going along their merry way. The show's narrative is incredibly simple and boring to boot since there is no objective or even direction in the story. It moves awkwardly from scene to scene with no sense of flow or reasoning behind any of the characters and the entire show just feels like one big filler arc from a long-running shounen series or something. Now, I'm not saying that all anime need some kind of story, especially if it is going for comedy, but Eromanga's comedy in itself is poor, repetitive and so predictable, mostly derivative from seeing characters becoming embarrassed at removing their clothing, or from juvenile misunderstandings. One such example is a joke centred around a gay misunderstanding, in which another light novel author believes that Masamune is gay and has the hots for him, resulting in some of the most dreadful gags in the show. It feels like a 14-year-old wrote the entire thing, which is ironic, considering that I can only imagine that demographic finding this sort of weak comedy actually funny.

Sagiri's problem of being a shut-in was the only, the ONLY thing that the show had going for it and it throws it out so fast! I was genuinely interested to see what the show may do with this element; perhaps comment on the bigger picture of shut-ins in Japan perhaps, or delve into the psychological reasons behind this character's reasoning for why she has to say inside, but nope! They ditch this element and Masamune doesn't even try and help her with this issue at all and instead panders towards. He doesn't try to make her see why this is a problem, nor does his try to help her go into the outside world or anything. Sagiri is there just to be cute and that's it! We hardly learn anything about her as a person and she is such a brat that I can't stand every moment that she is on screen. Like most bad shows, the anime attempts to throw incest into the mix, and it comes across as so forced and disgusting. As someone who has three little sisters myself, one of which isn't actually related to me by blood, the thought of Masamune and Sagiri entering into a romantic relationship generally disgusts me to no end and all I hear people shout is "INCEST IS WINCEST" constantly, actually hoping the two will get together in the end. I also just hate the general excuse of "oh! They're not related by blood, so it's fine!". No, it's not. It's just as creepy and strange. To me, this aspect of the show baffles me, and I've never understood the appeal of little sisters in anime. This problem is also highlighted by the fact that we have young 13-year-old girls proclaiming that they love dicks out in public, just for all of the filthy weebs to rub their dicks at the thoughts of seeing this in action or something.

One of the things the show has received a lot of flak for is the excessive amounts of loli fan-service all around; most of the cast consists of young girls, who are consistently put into revealing swimsuits or underwear. Now, I don't necessarily have any problem with fan-service in a series, as long as it serves some kind of purpose or is not intrusive on the narrative at any point.
It feels like Eromanga-sensei's fan-service scenes were made for the sole purpose of padding the episodes out and the whiplash from seeing a bunch of kids half naked, to a heartfelt speech about love is so jarring that it makes each one of these scenes an absolute chore to watch since you know that nothing is happening and is just killing time. Not only that, but the situations the show sets up for its fan service feels just as equally as contrived and weak, and it's not like the fan-service by itself is even that alluring either as the animation and art style is rather generic and uninspired. While not a good show by any stretch, the currently airing Sin: Nanatsu no Taizai, is a much better example of a fan-service vehicle since it is full frontal with its trashiness and doesn't try to hide underneath the pretence of being any more than that like Eromanga-sensei does with its terrible attempt of sounding more emotional and deep. The show has a plethora of more emotional moments and speeches between each of its characters, all of which are generic, but the main problem is that they feel like a cheap attempt at making these characters have more depth than they actually have. Nowhere is this more evident than in the penultimate episode of the show, where we learn that Masamune and Sagiri were contacting each other over the internet even before they met and formally became siblings. This twist feels needlessly convenient and lazy. That's the best word I can use to summarise this show: it's lazy.

Speaking of the characters, every single one are essentially archetypes of already existing characters that have been done to much better effect in the past. As such, I often inadvertently find myself comparing them to similar characters, even when I dislike doing so as I wish to treat each piece of media as its own thing. Masamune is your generic main lead, who has a kind soul, is a hard, earnest worker, has a soft voice while getting embarrassed and flustered whenever a girl is revealing any clothing within his proximity. Oh, and every girl falls in love with him, just because the plot demands them to do so! Sagiri, likewise, has very little to offer in terms of character or personality. As I have already mentioned, I disliked this character, with a burning passion! She is so selfish, and acts so much like a brat, screaming "ONII-CHAN IS A BAKA!" at the top of her lungs that I feel like reaching through the monitor of my laptop and slapping her in her face. While, yes, she does warm up to her big brother to a certain extent (a little too much if you know what I mean) her character is just incredibly stale and unoriginal. She has no merits at all, and as I have already discussed, any possible potential for her development in regards to her shut-in problem is thrown completely out the window because the show is too lazy to even have one decent idea. We do learn the back-stories to both Sagiri and Masamune, something I can appreciate, it feels so tacked on and forced that it leaves no impact, and, instead, feels like, again, a lazy and cheap way for the audience to care about these two without building up their characters at all. A sad and tragic back-story is a good way to make a character feel tragic and helps the audience empathise with them, but the character also has to develop too and, at the same time, be well written, which this show fails at.

Despite my hatred for Sagari (and little sisters in anime in general), even she is nowhere near as bad as Yamada Elf! She is another light novel author, only this time, stuck up her own ass, believing she is the greatest thing that has ever walked on the planet. She is also extremely selfish, but also EXTREMELY annoying to watch, due to her actions and her voice actress. Hell, one of our earliest introductions to her character is when she is playing the piano in her house while also being completely naked at the same time! Thanks, Eromanga-sensei, I am, as everyone else is, now on the FBI watch list. Oh boy. While her character does eventually confess her love for our dry-as-wood main protagonist, her character arc (or lack of character as a whole) goes nowhere. Her only point in the narrative is fan-service, and that's it. She is not interesting, fun to watch and every scene she was in only drew me closer to kicking the chair from beneath my feet to taste the sweet release of death from this shitty world. The only somewhat decent character is Muramasa, another girl who falls for Mr Light Novel Guy (our protagonist) and the only character who has some reasoning and justification into her love for him. As a whole, the characters themselves are very weak and the comedic chemistry the show attempts to build between them doesn't work at all, and, again, feels so trite and forced to boot.

The overall aesthetic is just fine, very typical of what you'd expect from A-1 Pictures. The character designs were somewhat cute (so much so that one of my friends said he would 'destroy' Sagairi if you catch my drift) but it just feels so mundane and 'safe'. The same thing can be said about the music too. While the opening and ending track were both fine (especially the ending track which was both catchy as hell, and, admittedly cute seeing Sagairi dance despite how much I hate her) the music as a whole is horribly generic, which, at the very least, is consistent with the show.

Now, one thing people may say in defence of the show is that you're supposed to just enjoy it and not take anything seriously since the show doesn't really take itself seriously at all. With its outlook on the workers of the light novel industry, it presents its characters as all being rather incompetent and it seems to acknowledge, to some degree, that these writers are indeed bad, but tries to excuse and justify this by claiming that the stories are interesting to read. This philosophy presented in the show may also arise in arguments in favour of the show, which, I guess is fine, but I didn't find anything about this show interesting at all, and certainly not entertaining. The comedy is extremely weak, the characters are boring archetypes that go nowhere and the entire show sexualises young girls to ridiculous degrees. Yes, the show is somewhat self-aware of how trashy it is, but just because it is so, doesn't make the anime any good. In fact, it only makes it worse since it does nothing else to subvert or go against these troupes presented in the show, and instead decides to go down the lazy route, and just appeal to the lowest common denominator. Now, I want to make it clear now, that I do not begrudge anyone for actually enjoying this show, as the tone in this review may suggest otherwise. I honestly am glad if you managed to find enjoyment in a show that I found so repulsive, and more power to you because of that. But, for me, this show was abysmal in every possible way, and I'll be seeing you all in prison when the FBI eventually tracks us all down...

[1/10]
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Oh no. Oh no...

I was holding off on publishing a review until I finished watching. Not for any hope that something like this would get better, but simply due to the fact that I couldn't bring myself to write about whatever this is. Eromanga-sensei is everything wrong with the anime industry. And you know what? That's not funny. I see so many jokes about that concept. How viewers laughingly remark about this series' and how horrible it is but eat it up regardless, promoting this utter shit until it becomes the most popular non-sequel of the season.

And it is. Eromanga Sensei is the most popular ... non-sequel in Japan. Can you believe it? A show about a fourteen year old trying to fuck his twelve year old sister while she molests other twelve year old girls is the most popular program in Japan. It is probably the most popular program amongst western anime fans too. It baffles me. Coming from a western background, series like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad steal that limelight. Sure we have duds like The Walking Dead drifting about with their cable appeal, but even that is understandable to me. At least that has elements of redeemable quality.

Eromanga has none of that. Eromanga is the mutated lovechild of everything that's hate-able about this industry and the sole reason why anime series' won't ever be taken seriously. For every angered fan of anime that realizes that their favorite show or non-ghibli film will never see the light of day in any extended theater run or any major awards show; this is why. Eromanga Sensei is hopefully the worst series I'll watch to completion. That's because as a viewer I've mostly stuck with some of the most popular anime. I've made my way through the highly-touted projects and ignored the seasonal popularity. Well, this is my first time delving deep into it and it yields an unforgettable, but totally forgettable product that fails at even the most basic storytelling.

This will have spoilers. If you are reading this and haven't seen the show, good. Don't watch it. It isn't worth it. It's not funny, or engaging, and the memes you have seen about it don't give a holistic representation of the insane tedium which this show revels in. This show isn't "so bad it's good." Far from it.

Eromanga-Sensei is just fucking garbage.

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[A Dancing Girl and a Pedophile]


This series follows a harem protagonist on a mission to fuck with a plethora of forgettable girl archetypes that you've seen a million times in a million different anime. The girl that he will end up being with is Sagiri, his twelve year old NEET sister who has not left her room in years. He also happens to write shitty light novels, much like the ones this series is based on, and his artist just so happens to be the twelve year old non-blood related sister living upstairs. What a coincidence! And of course he finds out and helps her hide her identity.

Then we meet a few other girls who are also light novel writers and play no role other than to create fanservice scenes that aren't just of the main girl. Honestly, the first ten episodes of this series really don't matter. The eleventh episode provides some much needed backstory which just renders the rest of the series up until that point completely useless. Anyway, Eromanga is just a series of empty husks waddling around on screen. It is a collection of sexual gifs that patrol the internet. From the totally inexplicable character writing to the horrendously boring direction to the non-story that is told throughout this series, Eromanga struggles to get anything right.

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[Visuals]


The visuals are probably the most positive aspect in this series, and even they are incredibly uneven. You see, A-1 hired a unique key animator for Sagiri, the little sister, and only Sagiri. So her animation is often much more fluid than the rest of the characters. This creates an animated whiplash of epic proportions. You go from a well-animated movement to a seizure-like stutter within the same scene. So even if her animation is good, this show has a tendency to skimp out on everything else.

Some highlights are absurdly off-model characters that kind of look hilarious. Really egregious oversights, even in the shows forgettable OP. A-1, like they do, put the minimal effort required into making this show palatable to look at while forgetting to actually give it direction. It looks like any generic as all hell sitcom. Bad.

Every episode is mostly just a compilation of characters sitting around talking exposition for minutes on end before they get to the two minutes of fanservice that peppers the internet for the next few days. They virtually just include the last eighteen minutes for no discernible reason. This could've been just two minutes of soft-core porn and I think the fans would have been just as happy, if not more so, with this series.

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[Sound]


It's bad. The OP is forgettable but not painful, the ED I already forgot. The show has a seasoned atrociousness, as it's unfunny and bland writing is often back-ended by painful background music. Now this ranges from "fat guy walking" tuba to "Squidward playing the clarinet" and it was initially funny that this series had such abrasive background music. But it got tedious really quick and ended up just making me angry by episode four.

What can I say. This show sounds horrible.

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[Characters/Story]


Now lets get to the meat. And by meat, I mean the meat of a bunch of underage girls that are endlessly used as tools to turn on a bunch of creepy fucking virgins watching this series to get off. I get it, it's okay to imagine children naked if they are fake. And i'm a supporter of the notion that thought-crime shouldn't be illegal because it doesn't harm anyone. I don't honestly care what you think about on your free-time and I care even less if it is totally fictitious and not exploiting anything.

So my problems with this series isn't that it sexualizes kids. That's nothing new in anime (as disturbing as that is) and it is far from its biggest fault. It's pedophilic and gross, and I often felt ornery watching this series due to the kind of framing devices it used to express its sexuality. For example, instead of diagetically forcing fanservice on us, the director made the 'brave' choice of literally just having shots of characters from below. It felt like a pedophiles hidden camera every time a character was talking.

Whether the show is being serious and dramatic or light-hearted and unfunny, the fanservice never ends. Character is being cute? Show them being cute with a below-the-skirt shot. Character crying? Have it framed so their still developing tits take up half the shot. It's cringe. It is a repulsive way to shoehorn this nonsense into your show. But on the other hand, this is the only thing this show has going for it anyway. It is riddled with plot-holes and totally clueless characters that defy any logic whatsoever.

In one scene it is established that Sagiri cannot draw girls with big tits. Why? Because she uses herself as a model for all her drawings and she is twelve. So her brother, being the great, enabling guy he is, tells her to look up idols on google to discover how to draw big tits. It works! She can now draw big meatsacks. However, two episodes later she regresses back to not being able to draw titties because... a girl showed her, her panties on skype. Let me get this straight, seeing panties made you unable to draw tits.

But it gets better.

The way she says she can resolve this issue is if her brother literally lures girls into her room and has them show her their panties. Not only is that fucking creepy, but more importantly, how does drawing panties even relate to drawing tits? Why are glaring issues like this not resolved in the initial adaptation phase?!

This would be fine. Well, no it actually wouldn't, but not as bad if it didn't lead to one of the most genuinely disturbing scenes i've seen in anime. Now i'm not one to be disturbed, although I am definitely one to cringe. But her brother does it. He finds a girl and drags her to her room, ties her up and blindfolds her and has Sagiri draw her panties. But get this, Sagiri, the twelve year old girl, rips that other twelve year old's panties off. She literally molests another girl. And it isn't really played as anything either, that girl is genuinely uncomfortable and so was I. Get this. They become great friends afterwards too. Talk about Stockholm syndrome.

I wish this was the only ridiculous inanity that occurs, but it isn't. A character called Elf exists. She has pointy elf-ears for literally no reason. It is never explained or mentioned. She just does. Her characterization is as confusing as she is repulsive. Very much so. She shifts between big-sister-esq and comforting to childish and annoying to a complete tsundere from episode to episode and it makes virtually no sense. She is also a part of our protagonist's harem.

Which leads me to the third character. Muramasa. Who's probably the most well-designed of the bunch, but has the personality of a grapefruit. She's a best selling light-novel author yet it is revealed that she was inspired by our harem protagonist's work ever since she was young. Well, younger. This was an element I guessed the second I saw the character simply because you can't have a character in a harem that is better than the male protagonist. You just can't. This is a power fantasy series for lonely kids and adults that want young girls to flock all over them in their dreams. So you can't have them be worse at anything. You need them to be virtually perfect. And our protagonist is.

These days, i'm developing a blase attitude towards the inherent sexism showed in anime. Which is a bit sad because I do love me a strong female character who "don't need no man". But you know, when the entire medium is marketed towards teenage boys it kind of makes sense to have every male be the best and every women be a toy to be played with. Even if it is obnoxious and kind of distressing.

This show is obviously not any different. In one titular scene we have our protagonist chat with the big brother of Elf, and when he discusses the great things about Elf the only thing he can say is, "She's nice and is a good cook." Wow. What a charmer. And this isn't even played off as a joke, this was a genuine scene with sappy, saccharine music in the background.

This kind of character writing extends throughout the series, too. The character writing is so bad that it feels like our protagonist is maliciously playing with these girls, since he's shown to be so oblivious that it becomes hard to believe. He rejects a girl, but obviously she keeps pursuing him, but then he proceeds to invite her to plenty of social events, as if it won't be awkward as all hell for her. It truly is a baffling kind of attitude.

I get the excuse, too, that he's just a "stupid teenager", and he is. But you know what? Using character stupidity as a plot contrivance isn't good writing. It doesn't make the protagonist or the story any better knowing this dude might actually be handicapped. It just makes it even more frustrating.

We are getting front row seats to this idiot fucking with these girls. And it isn't funny. Whether he understands that he is doing this or not, it's happening, and it is the least funny thing in a show that is already aggressively unfunny. If it was well-written comedy then it could be played as dark humor, but it isn't, it's just a bunch of girls yelling "baka!" really loudly.

To refer back to that scene of our protagonist talking with Elf's brother, who by the way asked him to marry her in that very scene. Get this, marrying a fourteen year old. He says that he would if he wasn't in love with someone else, referring to his twelve year old sister. However, the episode before he actually told the sister he would be with Muramasa if he wasn't in love with 'someone', as he puts it, since he's unable to admit his love of his sister, sometimes. So this entire scene played as a total contradiction, unless the protagonist was supposed to be a total lying scumbag fuck. I don't think that was intended, though.

...

When it comes to script writing this show is a masterpiece. Much like a Michael Bay script, Eromanga has a tendency to describe everything that is shown. I'm not talking about emotions, i'm talking about literally shown. In one scene they are goofing off instead of working, and when the brother of Elf walks in to catch them in the act of goofing off, Elf stands up and literally explains what he is seeing. It is this baffling mixture of having to exposit a moment and also badly adapting dialogue from the light novel.

You are seeing everything she is saying. It isn't even the whole "show don't tell" rule, that doesn't apply. That's a criticism for bad writing. This isn't bad writing. This is like the a new universe of writing. It is so abysmal that it bore it's way out of the crust of her earth and floated off into space. This kind of writing extends to multiple different episodes too, often times characters restate their purpose multiple times and it still leads to nothing. For example, the entirety of episode ten was about how Muramasa loves the protagonist, but that's been established since her second introductory episode. She literally just reuses the dialogue she used that episode. It is a special kind of absurd.


...


[Speed Round : This show is shit!]


* After a one-episode tournament-esq arc finishes, there is an after party to which everyone who participated in the competition established gets to come. Elf ends up going, even though she wasn't in the competition and this wasn't addressed at all. It was just an excuse to bring all the girls together.

* Everything ties back to the MC for virtually no reason but to make him the focal point of every characters lives. Every character backstory has something to do with our main character and it might be the most contrived bullshit I've ever witnessed on screen. And I watched the entirety of SAO.

* The backgrounds lack any detail whatsoever. We are in a character's room but their room doesn't have any personal mementos or knickknacks. In fact, the only room that has detail is Sagiri's, but she's a NEET with the cleanest room I've ever seen.

* To piggy-back off that. She's a NEET hikikomori, stating she hasn't left her room in years. Yet her room is perfectly clean. There is also no bathroom in her room. How does this even work? Does she shit out of the window? This entire show plays this seriously negative affliction as totally okay.

* Uninspired character designs. The parents of our two protagonists are virtually just the same characters but aged up. It is lazy as all hell.

* This show lacks any timing whatsoever. Not only for it's comedic punchlines, but for its fanservice as well. Fanservice can strike at any time and it is distracting and undercuts any potential catharsis this show is trying to establish.

* Episode eleven changes the entire story of the series and renders the past ten episodes totally irrelevant to where the conclusion is heading.

* The finale was completely and utterly pointless, playing more like an OVA than a finale. It was nothing. Much like the rest of this series.

* Girls get embarrassed for virtually no reason. As in, in one scene our protagonist is getting hit on by Elf on the beach as she asks him to spread some sunscreen on her back. Then once he repeats her orders she gets embarrassed about it. Why? Why is girls being embarrassed about inane shit such a cliche in anime?

* In one episode of the series Sagiri makes Elf and Muramasa her models so she can draw them in revealing positions. Yet, to describe the positions, she draws them. So they are models she already had drawn... so why did she even need them to model in the first place? It made no fucking sense.

* Muramasa was often played as the really "cute" one, as in, the characters acknowledged how pretty she was. However, since she has the same kind of body-type as any other girl, apart from bigger tits, it wasn't convincing at all. The usual anime presentation of "same-body, different standards" that makes no sense.

* If you've noticed I haven't actually said what our protagonist's name is, and that's because it doesn't matter.

* Every girl is a fucking slut.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[The state of anime]


My biggest gripe with this show isn't that it is bad. Well, it is, it's abhorrent in every way. But the biggest problem, and perhaps the most upsetting issue, is that it is so incredibly popular. It is, undoubtedly, in the mainstream. A show like Eromanga is the mainstream in anime. That is so fucking confusing to me. I tried to explain this earlier but the people who genuinely love this show seem incredibly insecure about their love for it.

They explained to me that I'm simply being bias and that I'm "trying" to hate this show. When that isn't true at all. I actually discovered this show through a meme, which is ironically why it is popular in the first place, because it's made to be a meme, and I thought the meme was kind of hilarious and I decided to watch the series. Sure, once I realized it is awful I went into every episode expecting nothing but terrible nonsense, but that's logical. You shouldn't go into a snake pit, get bitten, and then go into a snake pit again expecting not to get bitten. Maybe i'm just a masochist, but I feel like I needed to finish this series simply to experience the most awful possible thing.

However, to many people from what I've seen, this is far from the most awful possible thing. I was constantly told that this is just a "mediocre" show. That i'm over-exaggerating it's awfulness. To that I say, if this is mediocrity to you, then you might have the most incredibly low standard for television. If this is "mediocre" for anime, then anime fucking sucks. If this is "mediocre" for anything, then that anything is the worst.

It is paramount we criticize it too. Supporting a product like this will help fuel more products like this. In 2014, Miyazaki said something incredibly poignant about anime as an industry, and the fans, instead of taking it seriously, decided to take it as a joke. He made it clear that as an industry, anime is spiraling out into nothingness. There is an endless loop of self-inspiration that will never actually prompt original or groundbreaking content.

As an industry, anime is otaku driven, and as a people, according to Miyazaki, otaku's aren't usually capable of understanding how people work. And if you are writing characters to represent people and don't understand how people work, your characters will take roles that are wholly unrealistic. We already see this in anime constantly. Completely stupid character archetypes that simply don't exist in the real world, from Tsunderes to the concept of a pure, yet sexual girls that seems to inhabit essentially every anime with inherent, childish sexuality in it.

So when these totally unaware shows become popular and are roots for inspiration, they spawn more shows like them. Much like SAO did, much like Re:Zero is doing, much like Eromanga sensei will do, and it is a constant loop of something getting worse and worse. It's not funny. It isn't worth joking about. It genuinely makes this industry look awful. I care because I love animation, and while anime and I have mixed feelings about each other, I can't help but support animation as a medium and I want to see it succeed and be utilized to its full potential. But as it stands, anime is hardly scratching the surface and it will continue to scratch less and less as this loop of uncreativity continues. Which is deeply saddening.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Conclusion and Criticism]


Criticizing something is important. Critics help spur movements and change notions and promote something of quality. Look no further than the French New Wave, the most influential movement in film history which was spawned in the palms of upset critics that wanted to change the status quo. This movement permeated throughout the world and ended up inspiring the greatest films and directors in of all time. Without the French New Wave, some of the greatest anime wouldn't even exist. Satoshi Kon wouldn't have edited like he did. Monogatari wouldn't have its signature style. At its base, this starts with a criticism. Bringing attention to something. It is incredibly important to fight for the kind of television you want to see.

I get it, though, not everyone wants this in their television. Some viewers just want to see cute girls prance around on screen saying random shit and yelling "baka!" loudly. I get it. Some people don't care about a narrative, or characters, or even visuals half the time. This show being popular makes that clear. However, on behalf of everyone that does care. That does want television, specifically anime to push itself further away from the stigma regarding the quality of the medium, I ask you to perhaps watch a series with cute girls but in a narrative that actually exists. Characters that are actually there. And there are plenty of shows like that, too. You don't have to settle for something like Eromanga-Sensei.

Kyoto Animation specializes in cute girls but with engaging characters, exceptional directing, and spectacular visuals. If you are looking for porn, look up porn. If you want to watch a series, make the sacrifice of watching something that at least has an element of positivity past sexualizing its objects. This'll promote series that will actually create maybe something a bit more interesting and original.

Eromanga-Sensei is genuinely a saddening experience. It is so incredibly bad in just about every way, yet people really love it. It is so popular that it will spawn plenty of sequels and shows copying its already cliche formula that it truly makes me upset. An industry that is already a mecca for unoriginal concepts that virtually just copy one another will just continue to be an industry of looping inspiration and nothing to break up the tedious formula.

Eromanga-sensei is truly the worst.

Introduction:

Yeah, I know I'm WAY late to this party. A friend requested a review though, so why not? Eromanga Sensei made quite the splash online as THE bad anime of 2017. Gigguk hyped it up famously as "The perfect bad anime" and "The ULTIMATE bad anime". He made it seem like it's so bad it's amazing and hysterical. Sadly, I must disagree. Eromanga Sensei is NOT "The Room" of anime. It isn't uniquely bad or uniquely depraved. It's just an amalgamation of the shittiest cliches and tropes from other bad echii anime.

Background:

Art in general is highly subjective, but what qualifies as "So bad it's ... good" is especially fuzzy. For me personally, the best examples either display extreme technical incompetence where the creators clearly didn’t know what they are doing, or batshit insane projects that beat all the odds by somehow getting made in the first place. Let's look at a classic bad movie with Dolemite. I’ve never seen a film where the director gave less of a fuck. The lead actor flubs a line? Who cares! Keep shooting. The sound equipment AND crew are visible? Who cares! An actor wasn’t ready and has to run to his cue at the start of a scene? Doesn’t matter. Every fight scene is our overweight protagonist awkwardly lifting his leg in the rough proximity of the bad guys and them hurling themselves backwards. The writing is astonishingly bad throughout. On a purely technical level, Dolemite makes The Room look like Citizen Kane. It’s that perfect type of mesmerizingly bad where it’s impossible to tell what was intentionally funny and what was honest incompetence.

Now let's look at some underdog stories that beat the odds just by getting made. Look at every movie made by Troma entertainment. Lloyd Kaufman graduated from Yale and had the intelligence and the right friends (including Oliver Stone) to be a major Hollywood director. However, he hated that movies were greenlit or denied by a board of executives based on how well they were projected to sell. Kaufman rebelled and founded a studio based entirely around producing the ludicrous shit that would NEVER get greenlit elsewhere. Most of these movies were indeed horrible like “They Call me Macho Woman” and “Surf Nazis Must Die”, but Kaufman’s middle finger to Hollywood gave him cult status as a kind of anti-hero. It’s thanks to people like Kaufman that we get rare indy gems like “Six Stringed Samurai”. That’s a movie about a katana wielding Buddy Holly! He’s on a quest to find the last American city after a nuclear war and claim the throne from Elvis. The soundtrack couldn’t afford to use Buddy Holly or Elvis…so they found some random Russian band called the Red Elvises, who were willing to do the soundtrack for free. The Red Elvises specialize in playing 1960s Surf Rock and Rockabilly using a balalaika instead of a guitar! Six Stringed Samurai is the kind of insane shit that SOMEHOW exists and should be celebrated for that reason alone!
Now let’s get back to Eromanga Sensei. Eromanga is perfectly fine on a technical level and was made by people who although lazy, knew exactly what they were doing. The series knew it had an audience based on the success of Oreimo and sure enough was a decent hit in Japan. It was no mistake that Eromanga got made, rather a cynical decision to milk some cash out of the lolicon otakus. Eromanga in my mind is NOT worth celebrating.

Story and Characters:

The story is about a light novel author named Izumi. He’s still in high school, but only cares about being a successful writer in the world of ero LNs. Izumi is extremely hardworking and prolific but is unfortunately a terrible writer. Izumi kind of acts as the avatar of series writer/director, Tsukasa Fushimi. Izumi’s novels only sell as well as they do thanks to his mysterious illustrator, who specializes in drawing lewd imagery. It turns out that this illustrator is Izumi’s obnoxious little step-sister named Sagiri. It ALSO turns out that their next-door neighbor is his arch rival in the world of erotic LNs. Izumi must try rise to the top of the ero LN world while also struggling with feelings of love for his step-sister. Basically, if you’ve seen Oreimo, you’ve seen Eromanga Sensei. If you’ve seen any of the dozens of shitty sibling incest echii, you’ve seen Eromanga sensei.

Overall:

Eromanga Sensei isn’t funny. It isn’t erotic. It isn’t unique and amusingly bad. It’s just trite, boring, garbage. Well, at least it’s scratching an itch for loli lovers, right? Surely it features the most naked little girls of any anime in recent memory! Nope! Thanks to changes in Japan’s censorship laws over the last few years, there is no full-frontal nudity or unobscured rear-view nudity in the entire series. If you were hoping for something uniquely perverted, this isn’t it. Go watch Aki Sora instead. I have nothing further to say about this pile. It’s just this utterly mediocre echii with no reason to exist that you shouldn’t watch under any circumstances.

Everyone working on this show should be arrested and I honestly feel like I need some jail time just for watching it. I heard it was the worst of the worst so I gave it a shot and yup. It was. Ok so the premise of the show is this high schooler finds out his 12 year old sister draws erotica for him and so they fall in love. It’s a lot worse than it sounds. There are so many shots of her ass and thighs that just make me cringe and feel disgusting. So many shots of her panties or shots down her shirt. ... If she goes to change or take a bath you bet your ass we’re going to be forced to watch. They do this with the other girls as well with bikinis, lewd poses and such. Just please Japan, please stop funding shit like this. SHE’S 12! The writing is just a horny as well. In the first episodes this bitch Megumi said this guy's dick didn’t work because he didn’t immediately fall in love with her, someone 3-4 years younger than him, and then proceeded to say that all girls her age (12) love penises. I died inside when reading the subtitles for that. I had to pause and take a breather. It took me 3 hours to get through that 20 min episode. Later this 12 year old keeps on asking other girls to show her their panties, takes the underwear off of a girl nonconsensually and in the last episode she and another girl tries to forcefully remove her brothers pants and underwear because she doesn’t know how to draw a dick. IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY?! This is Weird! The only reason this show isn't at the bottom of the list is because the other girls are ok (not Megumi). They are actually Izumi’s age and work fine as love interests. They’re not good or anything but they were a breath of fresh air compared to the atrocity that was the main plot. Elf was annoying to begin with but got better and Senju was a lot of fun after she confessed. There were a couple episodes without Sagiri that focussed on these side characters and I was actually having fun. It still wasn’t good by any stretch of the imagination but I was enjoying the shenanigans. There was a running joke where this newcomer kept thinking Izumi was gay and not going to lie. It was a genuinely funny joke that made me laugh out loud. This show isn't completely irredeemable. If they literally just deleted Sagiri or maybe had her draw literally anything else and didn’t sexualize her, this show wouldn’t nearly be as bad. It would still be shit, don’t get me wrong, but it would at least be watchable. Stay away from this show at all costs. Morbid curiosity got the better of me.

Eromanga-sensei is the portrait of an unusual comedy that plays with the morbid side of the mind. Moreover, the show salvages some ideas from other anime in search of acceptance. In the end, Eromanga-sensei only offers an unsatisfaction with an overused harem story and with some misleading sexual concepts.

The average: The anime started with a promising 8.23 and ended with a miserable 6.97. The 12 years old girl sexual behaviour. The silly and unrealistic story.

The good: Some hilarious moments and few characters.

Perhaps, the biggest mistake is the story. Even if we eliminate the infamous incest debate, we end up with an empty harem story. ... A laddie with a collection of girls between the ages of twelve and fifteen who fall in love with the protagonist, an overused story romance in the anime world. To deceive the viewer with a new plot, an erroneous perception is created in which this promiscuous group is as functional as any group of adults to the extreme where they are most successful and can take their own decisions that are not in accordance with their ages. No one has ever asked, ¿where are the adults in this series? So far you will notice two, but they are mere puppets who try to propel dysfunctional relationships. The show portrays three young characters (Masamune, Elf and Muramasa) who are famous light novels writers and a twelve-year-old lassie (Sagiri) who is an erotic sketcher known as Eromanga-sensei. The irony is that this lassie, despite her alleged inexperience has developed sexual tastes or fetishes out of nuffink that can not be explained logically and credibly. To play a little more with your mind, this lassie lives with the laddie. In addition, she is his sister, but with a small countermeasure, she is a step-sister. For some persons they can hook together for others could be a problem. It is up to you which one is your side.

Let's remove the sexual part for a bit because I need to be honest. The show is full of incoherency even for a comedy. ¿Are you going to believe that this little lassie locked herself in her room without any visual contact and this laddie never even bothered entering and see if she was ok? ¿Will you laugh after seeing a child, kid, youth locked in a room for several months without any visual contact? I bet that MOST all the persons will take the door down and see if the kid is ok or will try to seek help immediately. Don't play with our intelligence that argument is so lame that none will bite for it. Also, the irrational success case of the characters (they have published novels, and some have sold more than a professional writer).

Now the sexual part, the main topic of the comedy. In one hand, the relationship concept misleading the meaning of relationship or "romance" expressed in the constant sexual insinuation of a twelve years old girl. I need to repeat it, a twelve years old girl. The continuous story twist hidden under the timid face of a kid "Brother, you are an idiot and a pervert" twist "I want Elf's panties." Scenes that play with the morbid desires of the mind, pushed by every panty angle in search of spectators. Second, the sexual misleading "you are a pervert, but I like drawing erotic scenes" or "Can I see your penis?" Third, the overused harem concept. All these ideas continuously resemble the fetishism introduced in this anime, and if you don't like them, then you will feel this anime as an immediate failure. I am not saying that this anime is a total waste, there are some exciting scenes and they could have used that scenes a bit more (final episode 9).

About the characters, nothing is relevant. A guy and lots of lolis that love him or want to have a relationship with him. Most all them are more successful than any adult, and some have unexplained sexual desires. If we let Sagiri's relation out of the spectrum then we can appreciate some characters like the promiscuous and introvert personality of Elf Yamada to the timid and polite nature of Muramasa but sadly if we add Sagiri to the equation, Masamune's relations are unbalanced and in some cases forced.

The art isn't bad. The definition of the characters was good. However, you will enjoy it just if you like the story if not the art will be irrelevant.

The OP and ED songs are good. The OP was part of the J-Pop Billboard and the Oricon ranking. About the score, it is simple and matches the comedy moments.

Finally, I don't suggest this anime for kids. It has some sexual concepts that aren't explained and can lead to a misconception if you don't understand the difference between the joke and the reality.

I somehow watched Eromanga Sensei to completion, including the OVA. Here are my thoughts:

Basically, this anime has a ton of sexualization and not much else. If you want ecchi cumbrain garbage, here's your jerk material. There's no other major selling point here.

Most of the main characters in this are writers or content creators in some form – I thought this might be an interesting dimension to explore. Unfortunately, this show does not deliver any kind of interesting story whatsoever. The supporting cast, despite being composed of artists, are mostly treated as sex objects, and the scriptwriting reflects this accordingly. I was initially hopeful for the ... content-creator perspective of this story, but they never really provided anything substantial in this regard. The male MC is a writer, but otherwise he is a spineless idiot with zero personality, as usual. In fact the entire cast is unlikeable for various reasons, as well as lacking character development in general.

Eromanga Sensei has very little entertainment value besides arousing your poor abused weary foul fap-blistered septic basement-dweller chode. When people say they hate anime, this kind of show is what they are thinking of. Frankly, it's the textbook definition of garbage. It has plenty of lewd content though, so it may be able to assist in draining your sweaty hairy sensitive delicious lustful intoxicating voluminous nutritious testicles, which perhaps is an advantage depending on your perspective. There's not much else of value here. Of course, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that; boys will be boys ;)

Seriously though, there are some funny moments, but I wouldn't recommend watching this unless your primary motivation is sexual in nature. This anime really is shameless cumbrain material. Some of the (usually sexual) comedy did get some laughs out of me. Also, if you're one of those people obsessed with shipping and who wins the MC's affections, or someone who sees love triangles as a glorified horse race to place bets, then you might personally find this show entertaining. There are multiple female candidates vying for the male MC's attention. The OVAs in particular focus on this aspect of the story.

I can see why this show spawned so many memes. Unlike the characters themselves, the meme material is quite fertile. There are also a lot of screencap-worthy facial expressions. In some ways, this anime feels engineered to be shitpost material.

Although the soundtrack is nothing special (aside from maybe the OP/ED tracks), the voice acting in this is not bad – I thought all the female leads were distinctive and performed their roles well.


My personal overall rating: 3/10
Eromanga Sensei is utter garbage but it did occasionally get some laughs out of me. Above all else, this is a highly sexualized anime meant to arouse the viewer – if you're into this material then feel free to shamelessly enjoy; I'm not judging anyone. There is also loads of sexual humour in here, which some people may find appealing as well. Furthermore, this show has a lot of fertile meme material and this is probably a major reason for its infamy; all publicity is good publicity I suppose.

Despite me not being a very shameful person that doesn't have problem with liking trashy incest shows full of loli fanservice and thus making it often questioning my life decisions, this one is far too much even for me to handle.

Oreimo had everything above but it also had more to say. If you ignore the shitty ending it was a very enjoyable show with decent characters and development in which they put all the trashy elements for us to enjoy - and it kinda worked out (till last OVA ofc). Eromanga is only that trash and nothing else.

Characters are blant with no development ... just for a sake of being there, story is missing, whole "12 year olds writing novels" thing feels retarded, MC is freaking Ki-ri-to (yup, as they couldn't make MC more generic and dense, they even hired Kirito VA) and yes, our imouto had a major upgrade with result of the most cute and unrealistic girl ever - shut-in loli imouto that draws eroge and loves onii-chan [did I mentioned that THEY ARE NOT BLOOD RELATED, for some reason show likes to remind you this] - yeah, they are still pussies for not going full incest but atleast we have all the trash as compensation.

That's it. And don't get me started on other girls. Especially Mrs. Filthy Frank "Ore wa ochinchin ga daisuki nandayo". You know who is gonna win this so what is the point of having any classic harem "competition". Hint - SHE IS NOT BLOOD RELATED TO KIRITO-JESUSU. In the end even (unlike in Oreimo) the main romance isn't very developed.

There is no development or explanation why they end up liking each other so much. It's like author knows that you have been through that in Oreimo so they just skipped to the part where they just want to f-ck each other. WHICH IS ALL RIGHT BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT BLOOD RELATED. Please help, this is autistic...

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS THAT YOU SHOULDN'T GIVE A SH*T ABOUT

this abomination is the ultimate incest trash, it's so generic in terms of atmosphere, in terms of characters, in terms of story that i am shocked how this thing crushed my lowest held expectations for a generic anime, or even a consistent anime

i just finished this anime and i don't even know how should i even describe what i saw but i'll try my best

story and setups: so the story is about a shy girl who locks herself in her room and her brother who is trying to make her open her leg...i mean ... heart, open her heart, however it turns out our super shy and tsundere girl is into drawing ass, after this revelation the brother will try to help her! in various ways
first off: what an irresponsible piece of garbage MC is, this is an under-aged child exposed to pornography and MC helps her!
second off: how come a girl at her age is the leading artist in terms of ecchi drawing?
and ofc there is no plot, i mean we all know what the "plot" is, it's so bad that if the brother went netflix and chill with her sister i would be happier because now we have character development! at least our characters changed themselves or something was accomplished in the story

and ofc the fucking incest, it's one of those anime where the "Big Brother" says i love you to the younger-sister-who-my-mother-and-father-entrusted-her-with-me-and-now-are-gone-for-plot-convenience-reasons and the younger sister get's happy but then the big brother adds "it is a big brothers job to love her sister in a non sexual way" and the sister gets all sad and her hair covers her eyes and silently we hear her say "baka" and big brother says "sorry i didn't hear your mumbling, did you say something", but this time she says "no, it's nothing" with the fakest smile imaginable

doesn't this scenario sounds familiar? for fuck sake, we keep seeing this in every hentai and anime we see, this is the most generic incest anime ever, nothing original, you've seen it before
the character are all copy pasted from some hentai or other anime

the MC: he gets kicked around by a slutty under-aged girl who uses the word "dick" around MC a lot, he is absolutely clueless about what is going on with her sister suddenly getting mad at him, he has his harem, and his memorable quote is "i love my sister...because we are a family",
and his name won't be remembered by anyone, i just finished this anime and i don't know his name, it would be really funny if his name turn out to be "yota" or "yuki" or some overused name like that

the sister: keeps getting shy when his brother gets near her, keeps wearing half naked clothe around him, BAKA, shuts doors really hard, baka, gets jealous when other girls talk to MC
this is it! oh and he calls his brother hentai a lot, even though she literally draws hentai!

soundtrack and opening weren't anything special, it was quit obvious the team behind the sound effects were either underpaid or lazy

art: wasted on this garbage, it was decent

don't watch this, hentai is better than this

Eromanga-sensei is an insult to the medium. Everyone has their own tastes and that is fine if you want to make a show about an incestuous relationship then I would have just moved on. It is not the premise of the show that is the problem. Eromanga-sensei could not be more cookie cutter if it tried to be.

Story:
Basically OreImo but this time they are half siblings (implicitly from the very beginning). MC is your generic shouting bland guy, little sister is a bi-polar loli. The story starts off being mildly interesting but eventually deteriorates into contrived reasons for different characters to be in provocative positions.

Art:
The ... palate is generic cutesy colours and the characters are all designed to make you think they are cute. The art is quite jarring as the forced cuteness really just makes it feel emotionless, like a randomly generated character was created by picking cute features out of a hat.

Sound:
I don't really have much to say about the sound. It wasn't bad and it wasn't outstanding, it just served its purpose.

Character:
Character dynamics start out quite interesting, but quickly deteriorate into just being another excuse for the fanservice. It is less like the characters are creating a narrative through their interactions and personalities and more that they become whoever the story needs that single person to be. The characters themselves (besides their physical features) have no distinguishing qualities about them. The only memorable character is the loli sister who is a walking contradiction, it's almost like the anime is trying to make fun of people with traumas in their life.

Enjoyment:
I can find no enjoyment in this anime. The setting is boring, the characters aren't characters but vehicles for fanservice, the story is a vehicle for fanservice. The worst part is that the fanservice isn't even that good, the attempt at a moe style hinders the amount of sexiness that could be conveyed.

Overall:
I started by claiming that this was an insult to the medium, that isn't because it is fanservice anime, there is plenty good fanservice anime. It is an insult because it is a very clear cash grab. Seeing that people relatively enjoyed OreImo this has been created to pander to the same crowd. I did not like OreImo but at least I could say it was an interesting show, the characters were well defined and the story had some substance. Eromanga-sensei takes that and does away with it all so we can see more fanservice of little sisters.

If I were to describe how I feel about this show it would be that it is the type of show I feel a computer would generate. It is devoid of any sort of passion or effort and so feels soulless. It feels like an anime fresh off the mass production line. If you want to watch a show about somewhat cutesy girls in attempted sexy positions and don't really care about plot then please ignore me and enjoy to your heart's content.

Elsewise 1/10 I would recommend actively avoiding.

Sometimes I make long reviews, sometimes I make short reviews, either way I hope that this at least motivates one person to share this experience.

Yes, I like this show, and I think it's a 1/10, because it was so bad that it transcended the boundaries of trash itself, and the op was good. The art was average but not bad per se. If you watched Oreimo then just watch this for the cameos, everything else is a waste of time. That's all I have to say. Watch it.
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Story: 1
Art: 5
Sound: 6
Character: 1
Enjoyment: 7
Overall: 1

Eromanga-sensei is an interesting anime, but not because of the plot or characters, rather, this is an anime that is widely hated by many people and is also a scapegoat for this season. It's cool to not like Eromanga-sensei. While I may not think it was as bad as the community makes it out to be, it is certainly not a masterpiece by any means. However, if you are able to turn your brain off and just watch, you might have some fun. Be warned though, there are far better things to be doing than watching this show.

Story - 3

I am not going to lie, ... the story of Eromanga-sensei actually grabbed my attention before I watched the show, and was one of the major reasons that I even started the show to begin with. The description talked about how an aspiring light novel author manages to find out that his little sister drew lewd pictures for him. This sounded like it had the opportunity to be funny, and so I watched. While technically following the description, the show only uses this plot as a way to further relations between the two main characters. The story rapidly became very predictable and existed only to further the relationship aforementioned.

Art - 6

I love the art in Eromanga-sensei. However, only for one character: Sagiri. It is painfully obvious that the entire show is tailored around making Sagiri look as cute as possible to sell merchandise later on, and they actually succeed in many ways, at least as far as my opinion goes.

Sound - 5

Let me just say this: Claris sure knows how to make openings for trashy shows (see Oreimo). The background music is nothing special by any means. No tracks in this show stand out to me besides the opening, which I did actually enjoy watching. While the music may be nothing to write home about, sometimes it fits, and sometimes it doesn't. Also, characters that always speak like they are doing an ASMR video appeal to me, so props to Sagiri's voice actor.

Characters - 3

Next to the story, the characters are the worst part about Eromanga-sensei. If not cut and pasted (see Masamune), they are utterly unbelievable at best, and painful at worst. The characters behave in extremely warped ways, and are annoying to watch in general. In one scene, a twelve year old girl expresses her love for dicks. Twelve years old. While she may have been "joking", this is the level of sophistication one can expect from this show.

Enjoyment - 6

(Factored in from the listed elements as well as subjective things)

Overall

So, does Eromanga-sensei deserve the hate that it gets? Almost certainly. I would be lying if I said I hated the show, as I actually did have some fun while watching it, and it even managed to have a good moment or two at times. If you really want to watch this show, I would say do it. Otherwise, avoid it and try to forget it exists. Eromanga-sensei, while utterly failing in everything it attempts, can still manage to be enjoyable, and certainly watchable.

Never before have I seen such a poor excuse for trash in the world. This isn’t your everyday garbage. That would be insulting to garbage around the world. No, this is the MOST trashy, disgusting garbage ever to exist. I may be wrong. There’s probably worse. But I never want to be unfortunate enough to stumble upon it.

I, like everybody else, came because of the memes. I expected a bad comedy, but what I got was much, much worse.

The story is as follows: Our main character writes Light Novels. One day, he finds out that the person who does the cover illustrations for his novels ... is his 12-year old sister, whom he hadn’t seen face-to-face since she moved in with him. Now, all of a sudden, he wants to, and please excuse my vulgarity, fuck his sister. Who is 12. And also his sister. As far as plots go, this is about as dumb as they get.

The art is the best thing about this show, and it’s mediocre and stereotypical.

I was too busy being appalled by the disgusting premise of this show to really notice the sound, so it gets a 3.

The characters are all easy to hate at worst, and dislikable at best. Also, the age cap for females seems to be 12. Adding on to that, all prominent female characters seem to be over-sexualized far too often. Oh, and did I mention how the 15 year old main character wants to have sex with his 12 YEAR OLD SISTER? In case you couldn’t tell, I hate this main character especially.

I was genuinely disturbed by the ever-present romantic feelings the main character has towards all these 12 year olds and exclusively 12 year olds. In fact, I was so disturbed by the common humor and over-sexualization of the characters that any of the rare humor that didn’t try to sexualize the 12 year olds didn’t help to improve the quality of the show for me.

In conclusion: Please don’t watch Eromanga Sensei, for your own sake.

To sum it up in one sentence, watching EroManga Sensei episode after episode goes as such:
"It can't possibly get any worst"
"Oh shit it actually does"

This show is a definition of a Shitshow, more depraved and retarded than Oreimo, yes, I was surprised myself
The characters are pathetic and over-exaggerated though that was probably intended
This show is trash that transcends the idea of trash itself.
Although the animation, drawing and sound is quite good, the synopsis will just make you question just how sad we've become as a species.
Every single time the main character appears you can just smell the beta otaku looser that gets bullied by ... 12yr/old girls and you'll want to scream "get a life"
Every single episode will just make you scream "I WANT TO END IT NOW KILL ME NOW"

On the last episode, at the very last second, my VLC crashed, then explorer.exe stopped responding, then the keyboard became non-responsive, task manager wouldn't open, and suddenly blue screen of death...
And the BSOD recovery wouldn't load so I had to shut it down
It then took about 30 minutes to boot and become usable, and we're talking about a modern gaming desktop
I can't f***ing believe it, it was such a bad anime, my computer nearly died
This show will kill your morals, will to live and even your f***ing computer
Don't watch it

Pros:
1. This is Oreimo 2.0.
2. Sometimes I blew air out of my nose harder than usual, bordering a giggle.
3. The animation gets the job done.

Cons:
1. This is Oreimo 2.0
2. All of the characters ignore the morality and the implications of a step-sibling relationship.
3. Every character has a weak back story.
4. They are trying to convince me these lolis they drew are somehow mature enough to be animated sexually.
... 5. The FBI knocked on my door.
6. A-1 Pictures shoved in random shows they had a part in throughout the entire show as Easter Eggs, I guess in hopes to get last minute sales on those titles. Or brownie points. That's low.
7. Oreimo characters literally show up more than once. Some could call this a continuation, even though it's not.
8. *Spoilery*They introduced a love interest halfway through and she confessed right after being introduced, but she got turned down and they expect me to care. I don't even know this character yet.
9. The best girl doesn't win. Nobody even wins.
10. I watched this all the way through for some reason, and I think I should reflect on my actions for future reference.

If this shows concept interests you in anyway, just watch Oreimo. Same thing by the same people and done better. Otherwise, just avoid it altogether.

Another faceless insert experiences harem that glorifies incestuous relationships above all else. Airable on the technicality that no genetic connection exists between our fated lovers, this perverse work exists solely for the marginal increase of lower body blood flow of pre-teen male viewership. Sexual depictions of almost borderline children provide the majority of this shows content, and the rest is crayoned in as a pretense to not endlessly replay the same scene with the same background. None of the characters are redeeming, and no plot point has any relevance to story progression.

Art is standard. Sound is standard. Enjoyable for the sexual deviants and emotionally ... desperate.

Is there really a NEED to go into a long review of this series? I mean really, is it worth the frustration? Yes, because this series was a CHORE to watch every week with my "if you start it, you finish it" mentality I have.

Eromanga-sensei was by far the ABSOLUTE worst series I have seen anime wise in quite sometime. I mean, horrendously bad, to the point where I wanted to just throw my PC out the window because of the absolute cringe-worthy material it brought to the drafting table.

Eromanga-sensei is the story about a little step sister named Sagiri Izumi who meets Masamune Izumi ... and basically they develop a thing for each other and you see loli-panties every episode. Simple as that, there is really nothing more at all. Oh wait, they also write Light Novels, but that was completely irrelevant due to the fact it was just a way to develop feelings for the 2 siblings.

The setup for Eromanga basically used the same shit the author of Oreimo and wait for it.... HOLY SHIT BOTH OREIMO AND EROMANGA-SENSEI HAVE THE SAME F****** AUTHOR! if you didn't know this by now and didnt read all the higher rated reviews above this one, well now you know.

All Eromanga is, is a revenge like series for the author to finally get his sister fetish some solidification, if you saw the ending of Oreimo, and were disappointed like the author of it was, he wanted to prove that you can date your sister, however all he proves is that they still don't tolerate this incestual shit from oreimo so instead he makes it step sister so now its okay.

The characters in Eromanga sensei are literally garbage, for example dick-girl or whoever the hell was that preppy retarded kid who was trying to get Sagiri to go to school, was a complete wasted character had absolutely no need, Bookkeeper girl, only sold books and went otaku nerd rage that was it, completely useless, Elf the hands down best girl was made irrelevant after her whole episode about herself, and Muramasa or whatever the stupid author is who just wants Masamune to keep writing because she rips him off and sells more then he does and makes him get called a copycat artist only the fact she is the copycat artist, is also fucking useless. Reaction-kun was also useless and had no purpose in the story besides showing his mini pc. Sagiris mom was shown quite a bit throughout this show and I always wondered why instead of making her daughter go to fucking school she decided to teach her how to draw NSFW shit and not have her daughter have an education, and Izumis dad was actually ok and seemed responsible, wish it went in depth with how they came to be a thing but unfortunately never happened.

if you really cant understand how bad the characters are by the fact i dont remember half their names, and after watching all 12 episodes, I think it shows the proof of how shit of a job it was.

The art was okay style wise but the animation was shit and they had the worst stills i've ever seen and the most fanservice shots that could make me seem like a guy into little 12 year old girls.

the enjoyment was overall at a 1 due to absolute cringe-content that was on display every episode and how none of the characters improved at all, and wasted my time for 24 minutes every Saturday.

Overall this series is terrible and not worth the watch. Oreimo was at LEAST dealable, where as this is pure trash that shouldn't even be a thing.

I had no intention of watching Eromanga-sensei. When it first aired, I saw the fan reaction, which was largely mixed but clearly indicated it wasn't for me. While I enjoyed the first season of Oreimo, the second season and the OVAs turned into a form of quicksand that sucked vulnerable viewers into bad writing and a bad ending. (There's a good reason why there are multiple GIFs of people destroying their computers/TVs after finishing Oreimo.)

Not wanting to put myself through anything close to that, I put it on my "to never watch" list. However, upon joining the MAL Discord, I found a regular user who ... continuously brought up Sagiri as the best anime girl and Eromanga-sensei as one of the greatest anime of all time. It didn't matter what we were talking about—Sagiri ended up in the conversation. As such, I became curious about Eromanga-sensei - maybe even if it's trash, it could actually have a decent story/be a guilty pleasure like, say, Citrus?

I made the proposal on Discord: "50 reacts and I'll watch Eromanga-sensei." I got those 50 reacts pretty fast, and I'm a man of my word. As such, I watched the story of Eromanga-sensei unfold over a long weekend.

I want my long weekend back.

Rather than be a humorous guilty pleasure, Eromanga-sensei is a cheap imitation of what already wasn't great to begin with, with a bit more of a smut push stretching MAL's "PG-13" rating as far as it will go. (Even still, I'm pretty sure no parent would want their thirteen-year-old watching this.) Eromanga-sensei isn't even the Great Value version of Oreimo; it's the Always Save version of Oreimo. That bright yellow logo always assures you're in for a cheap disappointment.

A good place to start breaking down what exactly makes this series so bad would be the characters. After all, characters can really make or break a story, rather the premise is fantastic or not that exciting. (Why do you think so many people watched a series about girls in a high school music club who more often than not end up not practicing and eating cake?) Eromanga-sensei has a bland male protagonist who for reasons of plot has fallen madly in love with his ear-grating, bipolar wench of a sister.

Through the entirety of Eromanga-sensei, I couldn't figure out what the true purpose of Sagiri was. Was she a self-insert character for hikikomori who fantasize about lolis? Are some people so into little sisters they'll take even the most insufferable little sister imaginable? Or is this series self-aware of how bad Sagiri is and rubbing it in our faces? "Screw you, we don't even have to try, we'll make money selling otaku this garbage."

Sagiri and her brother aren't the only characters in this series. In fact, her brother builds himself a bit of a harem. However, this series has completely stripped any sort of fun out of the harem genre by making it obvious who's going to win just by the camera angles. No other girl gets as much attention from the camera as Sagiri. She's shot like a model for an especially skeevy company that's convinced her she's going to be a star as they take intimate photos of her naughty bits.

The best characters—a bookshop worker who defends LNs with all her heart and Elf Yamada-sensei's brother—are sadly minor characters. I did appreciate how Elf Yamada-sensei grew less annoying from her introduction and became the character I was rooting for...unfortunately, things obviously aren't going to go my (or her) way if a season 2 ever occurs.

The show suffers from a ridiculous plot hole in that Sagiri bares her legs, clearly feminine figure, and her voice to her livestream in the very first episode, yet there are still people in her chat calling her "old man" for the rest of the series. There's no way a leak like that wouldn't be all over the Internet. Within 24 hours, someone would have been able to identify who the true Eromanga-sensei was. This may be a minor thing, but it pissed me off and affected several aspects of the series. "Oh, who is this Eromanga-sensei?" Well, that should be obvious!

In conclusion, if you can enjoy a can of Always Save pork and beans for dinner, maybe you have the bar set low enough to enjoy Eromanga-sensei. Otherwise, don't waste your time.

siblings
a word used to describe the beautiful relationship shared by two people , who are bound the mutual feeling of love and respect. But can this unconditional love develop into something past this sibling bond? Perhaps not ... in real life.. but hey its an anime .. that too a one written by Tsukasa Fushimi( yes, the one who wrote oreimo) so we can expect somthing out of the oridinary... right?

So, Eromanga sensei is an anime based on a Light novel of the same name written by, as i mentioned before, Tsukasa fushimi. Now you must have known bout this guy because of ... his previous work, Oreimo... and don't get me wrong , I am a Big fan of Oreimo, its one of my favorite Light novels of all time. But even I am not sure why would
he write such a trash for his next work.

Now, the story follows Isumi masamune, a high schooler who is also secretly a Light novel author. He lives alone with his 12 year old S-T-E-P sister, who is a hikikomori doesn't come out of her room. The illustrations for his novels are done by a artist named "Eromanga Sensei", and as his nme suggests.. he is famous for drawing erotic illustrations.. tho refuses to acknowledge the fact. So one day , through one of his live streams , Eromanga sensei's identity was revealed to Masamune.. and guess who was it ... It was his little sister Sagiri( woo.. i would've never guessed that). He also meets various other light novel authors and, surprisingly all of them are High schoolers (because... anime). We then follow a story which seems to go nowhere and has all the cute girls falling for masamune for no reason but he still want his sister..( because ...anime)

Now, I think that that characters are the best... or rather the least worst thing in the anime. The main protagonist, Masamune is a part time light novel author and a full time siscon and wishes to go full time on both. Jokes aside, he is one of the generic dense characters with no personality at all but he has a talent for writing.. tho most of his work gets rejected. Thus he has very low self esteem but has a believe that one day he will make money out of writing and can support his sister independently .He really isn't a bad character and also has a strong sense of responsibility in him tho he still is dense as fuck.

Sagiri..... Now this character was quite popular for being extremely cute and moe... but fuck.. i don't like her.She is one the worst female leads i have ever seen. Besides being cute, i can't think of a many good thing about her.. she is somewhat of a tsundere and has a brat like personality.. she knows that masamune loves her but still acts this way towards him ( but i guess thats how tsundere are) . She is good at drawing erotic illustrations ( hmm.. a 12 year old loli drawing lewd illustrations... seems legit) and she also has a weird fetish for looking at other at other girl's panties.. but she can't leave her room so orders her Nii-san to do it.She speaks really soft and needs to use a mike for speaking to people.And tho both she was even confessed by masamune... she rejected him for some reason and now .. when she actually starts to like him.. she wants him to confess to her and doesn't want to say it herself. Trust me i Can't ship them.. i just can't.

Yamada elf was a really interesting character and TBH my favorite in the entire anime. She is a famous light novel author who started living next door to masamune. At first she was bit brat like... but later her attitude changed when she befriends masamune and they start spending a lot of time togather. She is really passionate when it comes to writing and often gives tips to masamune too. She eventually falls for him and even confesses to him in episode 9...(watch that episode.. you'll love her .. trust me)
Tho masamune really likes her but he says he is in love with sagiri so he can't reciprocate her feelings. Muramasa is another light novel author who has sold around 10 million copies. She says that she was inspired by masamune for writing and doesn't care about her sales and just wants to write for fun. She also loves masamune and had confessed to him.... ho was rejected.

The art of the series is really good.( as expected of A1) . But they really got lazy when it came to character design. most of the characters seem like a cheap copy of the ones in oreimo (might be because the illustrator was same for both series). The sound track is pretty OK with really nothing to praise or complain about.

In the end... Eromanga sensei is really a crappy series with little to no good points. The story is just shit.. most of the characters are too. TBH i was a big fan of Oreimo and had a lot of expectations from this series and it turned out to be like this. I would not really recommend this series to anyone unless you are really big fan of moe.. but still i don't think you will like anyways. But hey.. at least its STEP sister this time.