The great philosopher Peter Griffin once promised the world in song
that he was a man who positively could do
all the things that make us laugh and cry
And if you’ve seen the show lately you know that’s complete bunkum. Forget making us
cry, Family Guy can barely do one thing that makes us laugh. Am I right? Those Nonsensical
cutaway gags. Much like this one Oresuki is a harem comedy anime about a surly
teenage asshole masquerading as a Nice Guy (with a very big TM next to it) who wants
to do a sex on every girl in his school’s postal code, and also quite possibly his best
friend. It’s a raunchy, goofy, zany, cynical, self-aware genre parody that could honestly
give Konosuba a Run for its money. And it’s also very nearly brought tears
to my eyes more than once. It hasn’t quite done ALL the things that
make me laugh and cry – it’s only 12 episodes long and that’s a lot of things – but
it’s done some. This show wins laughs with hysterical fourth wall breaks, sharp parodies
of harem tropes, and impressively animated sight gags. But at the same time, it delivers
more than its share of tense drama, romantic catharsis, and even some genuinely heartwarming,
emotional moments. Oh, and of course, some quality fanservice, too.
Juggling such disparate tones so effectively is damned impressive, and both Rakuda (the
author of the original light novels and the screenwriter for the anime) and director Akitaya
Noriyaki deserve immense props for that, and their excellent work here in general. Every
episode, it seems, Oresuki manages to take me places I never expected it to, all without
losing its comedic edge, somehow. That has made it especially difficult to place
my finger on the show’s pulse, and figure out exactly what it’s trying to say. But
I’ve had plenty of fun letting it surprise me. And now that (I THINK) I have a handle
on it… it’s shaping up to be one of my favourite love stories in all of anime.
But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Firstly, I’ve gotta let you know that this
video is sponsored by crunchyroll, where you can watch Oresuki and a ton of other great
anime on demand, in English, the same day they air in japan. Stick around the end of
the video to learn more. Now secondly, if you don’t know what Oresuki’s
all about, lemme get you up to speed. This will spoil the first three episodes, but I’ll
keep my discussions of everything thereafter vague:
The show is set in a typical Japanese high school. Our hero, Amatsuyu “Joro” Kisaragi
fancies himself a future harem protagonist, and diligently plays the part of an unassuming
nice guy™ to make it happen. When he’s invited on back-to-back weekend dates with
his bubbly childhood friend, Aoi “Himawari” Hinata, and the cool, beautiful class president,
Sakura “Cosmos” Akino, he seems set to hit a harem home run. But, sadly, fate decides
to put him on The Bench. He does hear passionate romantic confessions
from both of them… it’s just that they’re both directed at his best friend, the school’s
baseball ace Taiyou “Sun-chan” Oga. The girls only want Joro as a wingman.
That might have been the end of things if he were really the nice guy he makes himself
out to be – but in reality, he’s a calculating, manipulative, self-centered liar. You know,
the kind of guy who’d actually try to have a harem in real life. And not content to be
a horny hanger-on to the blossoming harem of his handsomer pal, he hatches a cunning
scheme – he’ll give both girls equal assistance in their romantic pursuits, then swoop in
to pick up the loser when the dust settles. And he might have gotten away with it too,
if not for the meddling of the titular “only one who loves him:” the school’s creepy
student librarian, Sumireko “Pansy” Sanshokuin. Pansy mostly shows her affection by stalking
Joro constantly, and thanks to that hobby, she’s privy to his plan to play Cosmos and
Himawari against each other. Knowledge she uses to blackmail him into spending lunch
with her. That’s bad news for him, because while both
of the girls that Joro likes are crushing hard on Sun-Chan, Sun-chan – good guy™
that he is – only has eyes for one: Pansy. Which really puts our hero between a rock
and a hard place: does he keep his promise to Himawari and Cosmos, or betray them both
and try to convince Pansy that Sun-chan is the guy for her?
The first few episodes follow Joro on an intense downward spiral, as the tensions between all
of his friends’ conflicting desires begin pulling their relationships apart at the seams.
Eventually, things come to a head when his many deceits are revealed, and Himawarai,
Sun-chan, and Cosmos all turn their backs on him. With a bit of prodding on Pansy’s
part, though, Sun-chan admits that he actually laid a trap to ruin his own friend’s reputation,
as petty revenge for both Pansy and his middle school crush choosing Joro over him.
So… it turns out he’s not such a good guy either. Which doesn’t go over so well
with either Joro, or the other girls listening in (pansy’s good at this shit). And that’s
a pretty common theme in this show. Unlike the heroes of other romcoms like Gamers, who
are mostly content to let the winds of fate (in the form of absurd comedic misunderstandings)
carry them where they may, the characters in Oresuki are fairly proactive in their romantic
pursuits, and none of them are above lying and cheating to get their way.
Where the vast majority of anime look at high school through rose-tinted lenses, Oresuki
frames it from a much less… flattering angle. Joro’s school is a superficial den of vipers,
where nobody’s who they pretend to be, and pretty much everyone is out to fuck someone
else. In... uh… both senses of the term. Sometimes both at once!
Outside of a title or thumbnail, where nuance is kind of impossible, I wouldn’t exactly
call this show “realistic” – it’s a bit too theatrical and exaggerated for that
– but it does accurately reflect A reality of high school that other anime tend to ignore:
namely, that teenagers kinda suck, and their raging hormones often make them do really
shitty things to each other for no good reason. Paradoxically, though, High School’s also
a place where ironclad friendships are forged, and where, even through all the bullshit,
many people manage to make memories that last a lifetime. And what makes Oresuki so special,
in my eyes at least, is that it’s found a way to reflect BOTH of those realities.
Joro is a hot garbage person in a lot of ways. But skeezy ulterior motives or not, he is
also generally pretty helpful to those around him and sensitive to their feelings. And above
all, he does genuinely want to see his friends be happy. It’s just that he also wants to
see a lot of them be naked. Pansy is only able to blackmail him in the
first place because he really values Sun’s friendship, and he doesn’t want his best
friend to know what kind of guy he really is. And even once everything’s out there,
and everyone’s feelings are badly hurt… he still values that friendship, along with
the friendship of Himawari. Oh, and also Cosmos, even if it does slip his mind for a bit.
For all the damage done to their pride and trust, the thing that hurts Joro and his friends
the most ends up being the distance their fight puts between them. And, spurred on by
Pansy’s advice, they end up closing it by just… forgiving each other and saying they
want to be friends again, in a series of scenes that absolutely caught me off guard with how
heartwarming and sincere they turned out to be.
I really wanted it for them as I was watching, too. Because as shitty as these kids are to
each other at points, they’re also fantastic, entertaining characters who have wonderful
chemistry with each other. And while none of them are great people… they’re not
all bad either. Sun-chan is, like, a bit of a bro, y’know?
But he’s also, like, a TOTAL BRO. He’s always cheerful and positive, doing his best
to encourage those around him. When Joro needs him, he steps up to the plate every time (except
the one really bad one), and as much stake as he puts in his pride, he’s pretty much
always willing to endure a bit of embarrassment if it means helping out a friend. He and Joro
clearly have a blast whenever they’re together, and it’s really fun just watching them interact.
Which is not something I can say for 99% of all male friendships in Harem anime, so that
alone sets this show apart. Not every character stands out, mind you.
Himawari is probably the most conventional out of the main cast – a cheerful, energetic
genki girl almost through and through. At her worst, she’s annoyingly peppy and oblivious,
but at her best, she’s adorably peppy and oblivious. And the lines between the two often
blur, like when she gets all excited and hugs Joro real tight, and it’s super cute, and
also he can feel things squishing into other things…
did I mention the fanservice in this show is pretty good? Because it’s pretty good…
but then… she did JUST tell him she has a crush on his best friend, so at the end
of the day, all of that’s more frustrating than anything. Himawari’s just as liable
to make an awkward moment worse by failing to read the room as she is to lift everyone’s
spirits with raw moe energy, and that makes her a fun wildcard in pretty much every scene.
She’s not the brightest in a lot of respects… but she does have a strong intuition, and
she’ll always go all out for her friends, so she shouldn’t be underestimated.
Where Himawari’s an air-head, Cosmos is actually pretty smart. At least on paper.
Unfortunately genius-level academic performance doesn’t always translate to common sense.
She’s got very little concept of what’s “normal” – when they’re all studying,
for instance, she thinks nothing of asking everyone to do 6000 math questions in an afternoon
– and she tends to flounder when things don’t go according to her meticulous plans.
Though when they do, those plans almost always get results.
So, they’re both kinda idiots, but they’re very different KINDS of idiots. And their
idiocy expresses itself in very different ways. Perhaps best exemplified when Joro asks
the them to “act natural” as he sets up “coincidental” encounters with Sun-chan
for them. Himawari’s the type to awkwardly stammer
her way through the bit, fumbling lines and mixing up directions,
while Cosmos has a tendency to overact like she’s on stage at the local Kabuki theatre.
Both dynamics make for some excellent comedy, but to me, Cosmos is particularly hilarious
because she seems to genuinely believe her acting is convincing and, by Kabuki standards,
she’s actually not half bad. In between the ditzy genki girl and the disconnected
genius, there’s Pansy. Quiet, sharp-tongued, and standoffish, she spends most of her time
watching people – ESPECIALLY Joro, but no just him – and as a result, she’s pretty
good at reading them. Despite both boys’ efforts to hide their true selves, she easily
saw through both Sun-chan and Joro. Deep enough into the latter to see some goodness he’s
not even aware of. She’s creepy. Borderline terrifying at times.
And she has no sense of boundaries. But Pansy really GETS Joro, and she loves him not just
in spite of his rough edges, but for them. The show manages to make that affection feel
touching and genuine, even as it’s playing their worst sides off each other and making
jokes about how she’s constantly stalking him. And much as she might bother him, she
does help him a lot too. It’s only because of her that he was able to reconcile with
his friends after their big blow up. I mean, she did make that Blow-up bigger than
it might have been, but the blast also served to clear the air between all of them. When
the series begins, Joro has to hide his cynical, cold side from everyone around him – he
can only really let his guard down around Pansy, who already knows his secret. But after
he makes up with his friends, he can be himself around them too, and they can all do the same.
Which ends up bringing them closer together, instead of pushing them apart as he feared.
Eventually – without spoiling things – Joro helps lonely Pansy become an integral part
of the group, too, and they quickly come to accept her for her quirks. As the series goes
on, and these friends are thrown into ever more turbulent social upheaval by other horrible
teenagers (many of whom make great additions to the harem in their own rights, but I’ll
let you discover that for yourselves) Joro, Sun-Chan, Cosmos, Himawari, and Pansy all
help each other through it. That dynamic, I think, points to the trick
behind the show’s tonal juggling act. Oresuki is able to balance cynical irony and sappy
emotional sincerity so effectively because its core message contains a bit of both:
Where many love stories try to find catharsis in how love makes us feel, Oresuki explores
how love makes us grow; Specifically, by developing a sense of responsibility to our loved ones,
learning to be open and honest with them, and learning from all of the stupid, awful
mistakes that we make because we’re in love, and just because we’re human. That process
can be really, really funny, but also sad, painful, and touching sometimes. Just like
this show. And that’s why I’m loving it so dang much.
If this video’s made you want to check out Oresuki for yourself, remember you can do
so using today’s sponsor, Crunchyroll. Crunchyroll is North America’s premiere anime streaming
service, where you can watch a massive back catalogue of older shows, along with the latest
episodes of brand new series – like Oresuki, My Hero Academia, Ascendance of a Bookworm,
and Assassin’s Pride, just to name a few – simulcast in English (and many other languages)
the same day they air in Japan! With apps available on just about every device
you can think of, from game consoles to smart tvs, Crunchyroll is one of the most convenient
wasy to watch anime out there, and their fantastic queue feature makes it easy to keep track
of everything you’re watching… speaking as someone whose job often leaves him juggling
over a dozen seasonal anime at once, I dunno how I’d live without it.
To get started with crunchyroll premium, and see for yourself how simple and easy watching
anime can be, click the link in the dooblydoo or head to crunchyroll.com/basement to sign
up for a 14 day free trial today! But before you go, lemme know in the comments
below what you think of Oresuki, if you’ve seen it, and if not, which Harem anime are
your personal favourites! And if you’re gonna be sticking around on youtube for a
while longer, consider checking out my Animelee analysis of the incredible fight between Tanjiro
and Rui in Demon Slayer, which has FINALLY been released from copyright jail after over
a month. I’m Geoff Thew, Professional Shitbag, Signing
Out From My Mother’s basement.