By that I mean all those little, but important, things that the producer (A1-Pictures) decided to leave out from the source material (i.e. the light novel, LN) and the half-assed animation during small segments throughout the special OVA series. Many casual viewers will likely be confused with the ending because of those missing little details from the LN. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the entire series. But as a show with global recognition, I expected more efforts from the anime staff to make this (the specials) a standalone masterpiece depicting the hardship and challenges our protagonists have to face in their relationship. Instead, all we get is a water-downed version of the LN with many crucial scenes butchered. Objectively speaking, as a whole for the oreimo story, the theme was well explored and putting aside all those character favouritism talk, I feel the author has achieved his goal of what he wanted to portray as one of the taboo in our narrow minded society.
Love is love. Whether you like someone 10, 20, 30 years younger/older than you, or whether you like someone with a different ethnicity, or whether you like someone with a distinctive connection to yourself, there is no right or wrong to that. Fans were presented with many possible “ships” to cheer from since the start. But ultimately all good things must come to an end and someone should be crowned the winner and this is where the special OVA comes in. It wraps up the entire oreimo universe, covering (most of) the final volume of the LN. So don’t expect another season as there won’t be any.
Like us, the viewers, the girls in the show all want to know what Kyousuke is thinking, or more specifically who he claims to like so much that he even rejected one of the most fabulous yandere in recent anime history! There were scene of agony, scene of sadness, scene of brutal cat-fight, scene full of heartbreaking moments, and scene full of love. This OVA answered all the questions the fans wanted to know (albeit quite a few seems to be upset about it).
A1-Pictures, while horribly butchered certain minor plots from the final volume of the LN, they did so in favour of bringing back to the viewers some of the long missed otaku culture which this story originated from. Fans from the first season will be happy and feel refreshed to see it I am sure! With respect to the other evaluation aspects of the show, namely animation and sound, all there is to say so far (since BD not out for the special OVA) is that it is consistent with the previous works. There is no new OP though which might disappoint some fans.
Ultimately it has been a fun ride for me, both in terms of the anime and the LN. I would certainly recommend the LN to all fans who want to learn more about the characters simply because the anime was not adapted that well IMHO. In the end, regardless of who you may have shipped with our average, good-for-nothing onii-san, I hope we can view the anime objectively without being blinded by all the favouritism of the character we root for because the story itself, especially the theme behind it, is unique and certainly ain’t one you see very often in today’s anime industry where everything is moe or ecchi driven.
==========================================================
Reviewer's note: Haters gonna hate. But life does not always go the way you like, neither does anime. Ask yourself this, how many series can be so rage inducing? :D
