Showing posts with label oreimo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oreimo. Show all posts

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Review FOLLOW UP: Oreimo and Fractale revisited

Okay, I am starting to get sick of writing about anime. This is not because I am sick of anime itself, but I am primarily a manga fan, so it can grow tiresome chatting about a secondary interest, even it is one I could rant about for hours. So, aside from my ongoing review/analysis of Evangelion, this will be my penultimate post on anime for a while, with the final being some thoughts on the winter streaming season later this month.
Oreimo

She sure looks happy about something.

Once upon a time there was a little otaku. This otaku was also a blogger, and was really bored. He was on vacation in New Jersey, of all places, where the gods of destiny had dumped a ton of snow outside, leaving the poor little otaku with nothing to do but fart around Anime News Network, looking for something, no, anything to do. Then he noticed something in the videos section with the little "new" logo on it. And that was how he found Oreimo.

He loved it. It was funny, the characters were cool, and it reminded him of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, a really fun show. Minutes after finishing the twelfth and final (for now) episode, the little otaku rushed to his blog to write a detailed and glowing review of whatever that show's name was again, never looking back in the month's that followed except for one update saying that he may have exaggerated a bit. Then, bored again, the little otaku decided to watch the show again. Oops.

Not only was Oreimo, a horrible, disgusting show, it was also stupid. The main character, after all, is a little sister who plays sister complex ero-games (self-explanatory, I think). EEEEEWWWWWWWWWW! However, it was entertaining, so the little otaku placed it under his mental file of brain-melters. Here is another example of a brain-melter:

The little otaku thinks you get the idea.

Fractale Episodes 2 and 3

Flying machines? In anime? That is soooooo new!


After a brief fansubber scare, Fractale is back, and better than ever. In my previous review, I was mainly positive, but noted the criminal robbery of Castle in the Sky and other classic Miyazaki films. This has yet to change, but it should be noted that it now reminds me of another show, and in this case, it's a good sign.

The show in question would be Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, a show that Hideaki "Evangelion" Anno made before he got depressed and stuff. At the beginning Nadia is a straight forward and fun tribute to Miyazaki (There are aero-planes! AERO-PLANES.), who Anno once worked with, but as the show progresses, Anno begins to flex his creative muscles and show of his unique directorial skills. More on this show another time.

Anyway, the same happens with Fractale. Not only does the show begin to display director Yamakan's unique love of eye-catching bizarre antics, but something deeper, within the Fractale system, a communist technology religion, to put it bluntly. It seems that ripping of The Master made Yamakan feel quite self-important, and through that began to tell a really cool story, and then killed everyone. I mean, the mysterious girl may be the villain! This has a lot of potential, and I can't wait to see where it goes.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Review: Oreimo



 It is a well known fact that two of the most popular otaku genres (discounting old classics like the giant robot) are Moe (pronounced mo-eh), and self-parody. Self-parody is popular for obvious reasons, namely the fact that we otaku love talking about ourselves. Moe (AKA cute young girls doing stuff that is cute) is a bit more complex, and I do not feel like delving into that can of worms at the moment. Nice examples of self-parody series include Genshiken and Welcome to the NHK. Examples of Moe that did not make me retch are Azumanga Daioh! and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The anime I am about to tell you about today is an amalgamation of the two, a "Genshiken Daioh!", a "Welcome to the Melancholy of Haruhi". It is titled "Ore no Imooto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai", or in English, "My Little Sister can't be this Cute". Let's call it "Oreimo" for short.
  One day, average Japanese teenager Kyousuke Kousaka discovers an ero-game lying around the house. Later that day, his younger sister (do you hear that sound? It is fan boys drooling) Kirino kicks him out of bed, asking for advice. She lead him to her bedroom, and reveals to him her...rather large collection of ero-games (the joke is they're all little-sister games), expensive merchandise, and magical girl anime. Kyousuke never knew it, but Kirino is a major otaku! And so, despite his lack of interest in the otaku community, Kyousuke takes it upon himself to help his sister figure out how to live with her niche hobby.
 I found Oreimo to be very similar in mood to Haruhi, which, like Oreimo, is based on a light novel. The world is bright and cheery, laughter is infectious, the cute girls are cute, and Kyou-kun is the exact same character, not that there's any problem with that. At the same time, the show gives a true to life depiction of the otaku lifestyle (with the exception of some oddities) up there with Genshiken. Surprisingly, the two styles do not clash, nor do they neuter each other. The only place where it felt even slightly mismatched was in Kirino's obsession with gal-games,and that was taken seriously enough within the story (not to say it isn't played for laughs sometimes) to not affect my enjoyment of the series. Perhaps it even raises a good (if unintentional) point about otaku culture's often confused sense of sexuality. Why ARE little sisters so popular? Is there some deeper meaning to the perseverance of gender swap and harem shows? Who cares?
 Anyway, I found Oreimo to be a fun, smart, rollicking good time, though the people reading my blog (i.e. my family) may disagree. I'd make a closing statment, but I have a feeling it would change, just like the end credits did every episode. OK, done!
Oreimo is currently streaming HERE on Anime News Network

Update: I was right! My opinion about the show DID change. Not Genshiken. Not Hrauhi. This is nothing but crass entertainment. But you know what? I was entertained, so I'm okay. But you should avoid this. It is the Two and a Half Men of anime