Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai (or OreImo for short) is a rather intriguing slice-of-life anime released to date. Rather than tackle the generic tropes of the slice-of-life genre, it instead tackles the inside story of otaku culture in hopes of promoting otaku acceptance in Japan, if not, worldwide. So does this anime help to enforce the theme it is trying to convey? Well then, let's find out.
The story is mainly about Kyousuke: an average high school student, and his sister Kirino: a middle school model, who basically live their lives with little regard for one another. That is until Kyousuke discovers an anime left behind in the house and after some investigation, finds out that the owner of the anime is none other than his sister Kirino. The discovery prompted Kirino to enact "life counseling" and brings Kyousuke to her room to show him her stache of anime collections hidden in her closet, revealing to her brother that Kirino loves anime as well as eroge PC games. However seeing that otaku are frowned upon society, Kyousuke agrees to help keep her hobby a secret and in the process gets involved in Kirino's otaku-related errands throughout the rest of the anime. The story in terms is very basic and seems to develop ways of engaging the viewers in unexpected ways. Although nothing impressive like you would find in other genres, the story is well built and actually helps to convey the reality of otaku culture rather than stereotype it frequently to the point of humor. There's enough good content within the story to keep the viewers entertained from the beginning to the end.
I'll be bluntly honest here. The art designs of the characters didn't really appeal to me that much. Not that Hiro Kanzaki is a bad artist, in fact far from it. I actually find him a decent artist but it's just that the art style of the anime is nothing too impressive either. The art style (despite being moe in nature) seems to rely heavily on being as reality-based as it could get. Because of this, any pizzazz like you would see in other genres is almost completely absent. Luckily though, OreImo doesn't rely on one style alone. I have seen various and eye-catchy character designs for the in-anime anime such as Stardust Witch Meruru. The wide variety of art styles found in this anime is enough to make up for the lack of impression of the main style. As for animation, pretty much basic and average but everything still runs smoothly to the frame rate. The in-anime shown in the background is actually a very impressive touch done by the animators so kudos to them. My issue with the animation though is that some scenes will show background characters with hardly any movements at all, failing to portray an actual public situation. It is a problem that I find common in almost every anime I watched so far. Despite this, the art and animation are decent but still good.
The music that plays in OreImo is again nothing too impressive. I'm starting to notice a pattern of just how realistic this anime is actually trying to be. As far as background music goes, the only excitement I felt from it was during the Meruru song but that's pretty much it. Overall the background music is basic but it does fit their scenarios quite well. The opening theme by ClariS is one of the best themes I heard so far and so I was really impressed by the effort put into it. And the wide variety of ending themes is a brilliant idea to break away from the usual tropes of them having to be replayed after every episode so it's nice to see a change. The ending themes are very well done. The voice acting is also superb and each actor portrays their character personalities very well. So far, no mess ups for this category but I haven't watched the dubbed version yet so there's little I can say for the voice acting at this point.
Now for the characters. With all do respect, the majority of characters are likable but there are some instances where these characters can sometimes become annoying. I'm specifically talking about Kirino. I understand that she's supposed to be the centerpiece of otaku acceptance but some times, she shows her "annoying Imouto" trait and that's when I can't stand her sometimes. Especially when confronting her brother about eroge. Even Kyousuke himself shows a display of annoyance whenever he overreacts about something related to eroge. So far I have mixed feelings of the main protagonists but the rest of the characters are good and likable. My personal favorite is Kuroneko for her nonchalant personality. With that said, the characters are likable only with a few exceptions but that doesn't stop this anime from having a good decent cast.
OreImo may be basic but because it is trying to convey otaku culture into slice-of-life, the entertainment factor is enough to keep any viewer enjoyed all the way to the end. With its fair share of comedy, drama, and entertaining flow, this anime has done a good job trying to convey the main message it was trying to bring out. If you're an anime fan and you're proud of it, I recommend you give this a try.
Final Evaluation: Worth the watch.
