The first season of this anime was good, I really liked it, which is why I am so surprised at how this all ended, and am taking the time to write this. The first season had a strange but funny story, with interesting themes to it, and entertaining characters. The second season, and then these last three episodes in particular, completely strip all of that away. Kirino is a conflicted person, she lives a hidden life, and the first season explores this. It looks at a portion of the population that thinks, feels, and enjoys different things differently, and asks: Why do we ostracize them? Why do we treat them the way we do? Is it right to treat them that way? Are they all the same, or is there a sliding scale? Can a person live in this dualistic state, both a part, and not a part, of that group?
Well, toss that out in the second season. Focusing on interesting themes and ideas is hard. Why not just appeal to emotion at all times, and really focus on fabricated filler drama?
What about the interesting story of a brother trying to help his sister? A brother trying to rebuild a relationship that he hadn't really noticed had died, and almost completely withered away? A story where someone needs help, where they cannot continue to live their life the way things have been going, and they need an outside source that will help them sort things out, fix things, and protect them as they go through all of this?
It is gone in the second season. Everyone knows about Kirino's secret, and almost everyone themselves is either an open or also a secret otaku. The conflict between the main characters, the supporting cast, and the world as a whole is gone. With no conflict, there is no story. At least, not an enjoyable one.
What about the characters then, at least we can still enjoy the fantastic characters that were created in the first season? Both yes, and no. Some characters do get their backgrounds explored, they do get fleshed out, and they become more enjoyable then before, but then they too also undergo changes which turn this anime into something it should not have been, and which was horribly ham-fisted in: a harem. Literally only one female character does not fall for Kyousuke. I will go into detail about the characters: (so stop reading if you don't want spoilers)
Kyousuke's character just gets straight up assassinated. What was once an interesting, thoughtful, multifaceted character turns into nothing more than the boring protagonist of your run of the mill harem anime. Anything you thought he was, or wanted him to be, is dead by these three last episodes. He was being pulled in a multitude of directions, his love for his sister and his need to protect her and fight for her, his strange fascination with Ruri and the way she was changing his life in weird and interesting ways, and his desire for a calm, peaceful, normal life with Manami. All of that ends. He throws both of those relationships away to be with his sister, which I suppose would be fine, if there wasn't a 'haha jokes on you' moment at the end when you find out it was all a game of pretend. When you find that out, and realize just what he threw away regarding those two, well, that is where the hatred starts.
Saori gets an interesting (but ultimately pointless) exploration of her background, and how she came to be an otaku. In the second last or last episode (I can't remember) the entire conflict between her and her older sister, whom she hated and who she felt ripped apart her life and her friends, gets resolved in a throw away line. Literally one line where she says they fixed it while they drive in a car looking for Kirino. What was the point? Why waste time exploring her development from a shy child into a shamelessly otaku adult, and her relationship with her family, if in the end it comes to nothing? Like I said above, it feels like this series wasted my time. At least she doesn't become the older, big breasted part of the harem. She keeps her dignity.
Ruri is elevated for a time from a minor secondary character, to almost a main character, in the OVAs of season 1 and start of season 2. She confesses to Kyousuke, and this relationship is the only one in the entire series (other than Manami) that actually feels earned or real, and that is due to the end of season 1. Not anything season 2 did. In fact, season 2 ruins what ever real character Ruri had, and what ever plans and motivations she was hatching. Why date the main character and break up with him, hinting that there is something going on, only for it to end with, again, nothing? Her character goes from background, to main, then right into the background again, like something interesting was planned, but there wasn't enough time, because there needed to be more cute girls added to the harem. They even break up a second time, while already being broken up, in one of the most needlessly dramatic, and character rending moments I have ever watched. Ruri as a character is turned into scrap.
This brings us to Ayase, and even more confoundingly, Kanako.
Ayase hates Kyousuke, and loves Kirino. What she wants most in the world is what makes Kirino happy, and believes that her brother has corrupted her. So why does she fall in love with him? The fact that she spent a month cooking and cleaning for him just makes it seem like some kind of weird Stockholm syndrome to me. There was no point in this anime previously where she expressed any romantic desire toward him, when he came to her house she would put him in handcuffs. She was not a Tsundere, she was just disgusted; then in love? What? I don't understand this. She even starts to become some sort of Yandere, with a knife and everything. At one point there is someone taking photos of Ayase and Kyousuke, and you wonder, is this how he gets her to fall in love with him? Does he protect her, show her that he really is a good guy? No, nothing happens, it never comes up again. She doesn't even find out that he lied about playing erotic games to cover for Kirino, which is what literally caused him to become scum in her eyes. She doesn't even mind the erotic figurines Saori gets him as a housewarming gift. She loves him anyway, and for no discernible reason, other than 'because harem.'
At least Ayase gets somewhat better treatment than Kanako, Kirino's other friend. By better treatment, I mean more screen time. Kanako literally meets Kyousuke three times, I counted, three times in the entire anime, before she falls in love with him. She meets him once at the start of season 1 and thinks he is a pig due to a misunderstanding, and then twice IN DISGUISE, as Ayase's manager. Then in season 2 she starts coming to his house to make him lunch, literally out of nowhere. I wanted to laugh at how absolutely ridiculous it was, because I thought it was building to some sort of joke, or a fiendish plan on someone's part. It wasn't. They needed to add a loli to the harem, and that was the best they had! Oh dear lord, how did this anime fall so far?
Kirino is essentially the same. You either like her or hate her.
Then it gets to the most disappointing part: Manami. This show should have been, in the end (because he can't ACTUALLY have his sister, come on) a love triangle between Manami, Kyousuke, and Ruri. Manami is everything Kyousuke wanted, the 'Queen of Normal' as he calls her, the epitome of a quiet life. That is what he states he wanted, what he always ever wanted, throughout the series. She is his childhood friend, the person he had slowly fallen in love with naturally over time, and who came to know him better than he knows himself. In the second season she becomes some sort of manipulative bitch, who seems to have been toying with and plotting against Kirino since their early childhood? What? She was the sweetest, most understanding character. She encouraged Kyousuke to help Kirino, it was at HER urging that he took up Kirino's fight, and throughout the series it is because of her that he continues. Why would she do that if she was plotting to have Kyousuke to herself from the start? She should have been driving the wedge between them in further, at every turn! It was a complete 180, out a the blue, and ended with Kirino and Manami literally coming to blows, punching and slapping each other. What is worse, it is Manami, one of the sweetest, most understanding and compassionate, most pacifistic characters I have ever seen in an anime, that throws the first punch! What?!
I honestly don't know how to end this review, just don't watch this. If you REALLY want, watch the first season, but stop there. If you REALLY REALLY want to watch the second season after all this,WHY? But DO NOT watch these last three episodes. Just, wow, I honestly can't believe how awful this show turns out to be, it is literally one of, if not the worst, endings I have ever seen, to anything. Seriously, don't watch this.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading my inane 6 in the morning ramblings.
Seriously, don't watch this anime.
