However, Eromanga-sensei prefers to stay in Oreimo's shade, hampering the show in the process. The goal of this piece will be to examine how Eromanga-sensei fails as a spiritual successor. To do so, we'll be taking a look at three areas Oreimo handles well, but Eromanga-sensei doesn't; its setting/plot, its presentation, and its characters.
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Saying one show is better than another just because they share some setting and plot elements is unfair. However, their standalone quality can be judged on the merits of their writing and direction.
The setup for Oreimo is Kyousuke finds out his little sister Kiriho is a closet otaku, obsessed with the anime Meruru and little sister eroge. Antics ensue.
While it is outlandish, its juxtaposition of otaku culture with ordinary Japanese society is what grounds this series. The goofy and awkward otaku side is exemplified by Kiriho, as well as her friends Saori and Kuroneko. On the other side of the coin, "normal" life is personified by Kyousuke and Kiriho's parents, their childhood friend Manami, and Kiriho's school friends Ayase and Kanako.
Kiriho's double-life sets the foundation for the series in the first few episodes, and her coming to terms with it and convincing those who take umbrage with her hobby does wonders for her character. It also establishes Kyousuke as the caring older brother when he helps her to do so.
This base also helps to drive the show with little to no stagnation in its two-season run. Even the awkward jump between seasons that was covered in 4 web episodes (not readily available to watch) is resolved in the span of one episode and we're right back on track.
With the little sister thread still there, Eromanga-sensei is actually set up differently. Masamune, an up-and-coming light novel writer, finds out his shut-in little stepsister Sagiri is actually his lewd art illustrator Eromanga-sensei. Antics ensure.
Eromanga-sensei is essentially just as outlandish, but it doesn't have a proper anchor like Oreimo. Even the most normal characters still have their quirks. This isn't inherently a bad thing, but as a successor it's a shame that it fumbles the concept.
This base also helps to drive the show with little to no stagnation in its two-season run. Even the awkward jump between seasons that was covered in 4 web episodes (not readily available to watch) is resolved in the span of one episode and we're right back on track.
With the little sister thread still there, Eromanga-sensei is actually set up differently. Masamune, an up-and-coming light novel writer, finds out his shut-in little stepsister Sagiri is actually his lewd art illustrator Eromanga-sensei. Antics ensure.
Eromanga-sensei is essentially just as outlandish, but it doesn't have a proper anchor like Oreimo. Even the most normal characters still have their quirks. This isn't inherently a bad thing, but as a successor it's a shame that it fumbles the concept.
Without an anchor (whether it is with plot or with characters), Eromanga-sensei meanders around with convenient plot points (i.e. Masaume and Sagiri living together with a guardian who is never home) or even more serious plot holes.
The worst of these was in episode 6. Masamune, having gotten approval from his editor, is unable to publish his new book until next year because another popular author, Muramasa-sensei, took his place. His editor gives him a chance to compete for a publication spot with amateur writers in a magazine contest by pulling a few strings (since he's an established author at this point). However, this is interrupted by none other than Muramasa-sensei herself, who wants to see Masamune's dream fail.
How does this veteran artist with 14.5 million light novels sold plan to do this? By entering the same contest as Masamune.
Even though it was just established literally a minute earlier that Masamune's involvement was already stretching the rules.
Plotholes like these are compounded with the bizarre sense of time in Eromanga-sensei. Sagiri locked herself away for the past year, yet had been working with Masamune for the past three years. Muramasa's fandom and dissapointment when Masamune ended her favorite series spurring her to write obsessively and sell millions of books in at most two years.
If there are reasons behind these discrepancies, it doesn't seem apparent in the show. Ultimately, Eromanga-sensei is content with sweeping these issue under the rug while focusing on the moment-to-moment events. I'd be fine with it if these could carry the show, but it's a disappointment when Oreimo handles this much better.
Considering that it's over 5 years old at this point, the first season of Oreimo has a charming roughness to its presentation. Voice acting and the art quality were alright, but the animation is what carried it. It was great for weekly broadcast anime, and consistent throughout the show. The 2nd season got a bump up in art quality, but luckily the animation didn't suffer as much as I expected.
Eromanga-sensei has the opposite problem. The direction surpasses Oreimo's 2nd season with fantastic art, impeccably cute character designs, and great voice acting. In the literal sense of audio and visual presentation, it's excellent.
As a victim of the modern anime production boom, however, this comes at a cost. Besides the occasional flourish, Eromanga-sensei lacks sophisticated animation. Even for a genre where that isn't really necessary. Composed of nearly static frames and an over-reliance on shot/reverse shot and reused animations, the show lacks the consistency that Oreimo has.
Other animation techniques detract from this too. While Megumi's 3D cuts in episode 6 were only noticeable because they were too perfect, Sagiri's rotoscoped scene in episode 5 is the yin to that yang. I won't be too harsh on this aspect because times do change, but it's clear that the focus of each show's direction is different. This change is made for the worse in my opinion.
While it'd be unfair to judge 1-to-1 between Oreimo and Eromanga-sensei's characters since Oreimo has so many more, it's at least fair to look at their quality. This is easily Oreimo's biggest strength.
Each side of Kiriho's life has strong characters to support the spectrum. Ayase stands out as someone that finds otaku culture abhorrent who eventually becomes accepting of her best friend's hobby. Kuroneko is a reserved chunibyo that befriends Kiriho through their otaku arguments and learns to be true to herself with her feelings towards Kyousuke.
Even side characters like Manami and her family get humanization and fleshing out as characters for what limited airtime they get compared to the main cast. Overall, there are some that I'm not a fan of (I really don't like Kiriho in general), but even these are still well-developed characters.
One would think that Eromanga-sensei's limited scope should help it to focus on characterization to a much better extent. Fortunately, that is definitely true with Masamune and Sagiri. Masamune's affection for his little stepsister being (mostly) paternal as opposed to the overdone "I'm in love with my little sister!" trope is a nice change of pace.
Sagiri's timidness and trauma are a tad overblown, but you can't help but find her adorable. Her quirky side when donning her Eromanga-sensei persona also adds some levity to her nature. Her classmate Megumi is also rather amusing, playing the pervy schoolgirl angle as fashionable and hiding her shy and embarrassed side. While not as strong, Megumi is at least inoffensive.
As for being on par with Oreimo, however, that's as far as it goes. While Elf and Muramasa are ever present, their don't hold a candle to even the worst of Oreimo's characters.
With Elf being this series' chunibyo, her pompous attitude as a rival writer gets some laughs. I would even say that I really liked her in the first half of the series. Once it was established that she actually likes Masamune (shocker), she devolves into a romance option in the harem.
It could be worse. At least it takes a few episodes for Elf to get to that point. With Muramasa, it only took one-and-a-half episodes for her to go from stoic and determined to flustered and infatuated. This does get played for laughs as for how creepy her obsession with Masamune can be, but she meets the same fate as Elf.
I guess you could say that Elf and Muramasa are at least characters. The same can't be said of Shido, another writer and one of two other male characters in the whole cast. He was in the same contest as Masamune and Muramasa and thinks that Masamune and Eromanga-sensei (mistaken to be male) are in a relationship.
That's it.
That's all of the characterization that Shido gets in the 3 episodes he's part of the gang in.
His character was so weak that he was the only one I had to look it up when writing this because I had forgotten their name. Needless to say, Eromanga-sensei doesn't have the chops for good characters. Even the strongest characters still have downhill slides, and that's a shame.
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So what's the takeaway from this? Eromanga-sensei's the old busted and Oreimo's the new hotness (ironically)? If you enjoyed Eromanga-sensei over Oreimo, you're wrong? If you don't like either show, what's wrong with you? No, of course not!
I still enjoyed watching both shows. I even got giddy at the episode 11 crossover! This piece is less about the merits of these shows and more about analyzing them. There are a lot of negatives pointed out here, but I think that it's important to be critical even of the things you love.
While Eromanga-sensei fails as a successor to Oreimo, it's still one of my favorite shows of this season, and I'd love to see a season 2.
