The second season of Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai (or OreImo for short) has been a long awaited hyped-up sequel to the first season which had gained much notoriety through the theme of otaku acceptance. So does this season have the potential to match that of its predecessor? Well then, let's find out.
At the start of the season, I wasn't sure if the story was going to change much throughout the course of the anime after the first season but as I continued on, It turned out that I was wrong. There were major changes to the whole story shortly after the beginning. The main theme of the first season was promoting otaku acceptance which it had did very well. But what I had surprisingly discovered is that the second season seems to stray away from that theme, especially halfway through to focus more on romantic relationships and the usual cliches of the slice-of-life genre. In other words, Kirino's anime and eroge obsession has been kept at a minimum to focus more on Kyousuke and his relationships with other girls. The whole change to the story was kind-of disappointing in my eyes because I was expecting much more from the success of the first season (much like anyone else). It felt like I was in a "been there, done that" territory of the entire genre. Although I do not think the story is terrible or a massive failure, I do feel that it has lost all of its potential due to the fact it was straying away from its original theme. To put it simply, the story itself had become one big cliche of slice-of-life.
The artwork and character designs hasn't changed much from the first season, only this time it has far more crisper quality. But that doesn't change the fact that the art still wasn't as appealing as other anime art designs. As I mentioned in my previous review of the first season, the artwork by Hiro Kanzaki is not bad but nothing too impressive either because it has been trying to stay as much realistic as possible. What I mean by this is that although the characters are good to look at, they're to put it simply just plain. Nothing special about them to be honest. This was fixed however with the inclusion of varied art styles in the first season but because the story strayed away from its original theme, those varied art styles were almost completely absent throughout the season. To sum this up, the art designs hasn't changed much but it is still decent for this anime's standards. The animation pretty much mimics that of the first season but everything still runs smoothly to the frame rate. There are some scenes where the frame rate was a little off but that is hardly a major problem so the overall animation is still good.
I'm not going to say much for the background music as the second season reused a majority of soundtracks from the first season. The soundtracks are basic and average which is nothing too impressive but they do fit their scenarios quite well. The new opening theme by ClariS is very impressive and I can see the effort and potential put into it but in my honesty, it paled in comparison to the first season's opening theme which was done extremely well. It seems that ClariS was trying too hard to top their previous masterpiece but the theme is still good nonetheless. The wide variety of ending themes were also a nice touch but there were way too many of them for me to keep track and critique them properly. All I can say is that they are still nice ear-catching compositions. Now for the voice acting. Again, I'm not going to say much as the second season reused all of the previous voice actors from the first. So far the quality of the characters' voices hasn't slipped and they are still very decent and good to comprehend. Needless to say, the voice actors did a very good job with their characters.
Now for the characters themselves. For the most part, some characters are likable but I've noticed some major changes with the characters along with the story and I'm not impressed with most of these changes. So now I'm going to list them specifically. I felt that the character Saori was losing her spotlight as she appeared less times in the second season and had less of an impact. Sure there was an entire episode dedicated to Saori's backstory but that didn't make much of a shift in her spotlight and to see one of the original key characters of the first season reduced to a mere background character was depressing. Speaking of spotlights, Kuroneko has gained a large leap from her original status to become part of Kyousuke's developing relationships. Since when did the producers decide to make her the leading major character of the show? That was quite of an unexpected move considering that Kuroneko is my personal favorite of the bunch. As I mentioned before in the story, Kyousuke and Kirino had swapped roles so now that Kyousuke is the main centerpiece in order to focus more on developing relationships. Kirino's otaku hobbies are still present but they have been kept to a minimum and Kirino is still the "annoying imouto" as ever. As for Kyousuke, it looked like the producers had tried way too hard to transform him into a harem king which was far beyond his original personality. I had mixed feelings about Kyousuke in the first season but now I feel sorry for Kyousuke because the producers were exploiting too many perverted opportunities with him, making him sound like a total jerk. Lastly were Manami and Ayase. Ayase was unfortunately a victim to the whole Kyousuke relationship thing and it looked like they were somewhat making her the yandere type. Again, this was an unexpected change far from her original personality. As for Manami, there were no changes but one particular episode made me thought that she was a hypocrite to Kirino. Now that my rant about the characters is done, all I can say is that the changes in their spotlights and personalities has made a major dent in their previous reputations that made them likable in the first season. I hope the producers will learn from their mistakes and make sure they don't commit the same mistake again for another anime.
Overall, although I do not think OreImo season 2 is terrible, there are some flaws with it that unfortunately doesn't make it the same level as its predecessor. To me, I would call this anime a hit-and-miss. I wouldn't recommend this anime to everyone but if you're the type that can bare with flaws and/or are a fan of the first season, then I would definitely recommend this to you. From there on, only you can decide the outcome of OreImo season 2 from your own experience.
Final Evaluation: Flawed but still watchable.
