OreShura thoughts

Episode 6

God damn, this show is getting better and better, and I'm getting more and more confused. I now love Chiwa, Masuzu and Hime equally and I simply can't choose between them, no matter how hard I try. What is even more confusing is that I don't just like Masuzu and Hime more, I love Chiwa a little bit less, because she came off as a bit of a brat most of the time in this episode(I know, burn me for being a heretic and all that jazz).

But the nice thing is that I have someone to hate again(yay). Mana is nothing but a little bitch, and no matter how much her character will turn into "I'm sad because my mom is gone and I just want my sister back", I will not like her, unless something revolutionary happens. I might end up liking that bodyguard, though, if he becomes a regular guest. Bodyguards usually turn out to be good people, at least in some TV shows.

I wonder if I'll like the hall monitor girl, though. A 4-way tie would be even more confusing than the current situation.


Episode 7

Well, this certainly took a very weird turn, at least in my head.

Chiwa lost points again for not doing anything interesting and being slightly to very annoying all of the time.

Ai gained some points, but I'm still not sure what to think of her. Tsundere characters always annoy me a little, but in this case, it might work out. Will have to see about that next week.

Hime gained points for being adorable and also for not being completely shameless(the "it was my first time" scene), i.e. being human on some level.

Masuzu is on completely different level now and she will be the driving force of the entire plot now that Chiwa has essentially been demoted to a side character. And the Star Wars reference was great.

So, here's the ranking list:

* Sith Lord: Masuzu

* Lowly peasant #1: Hime

* Lowly peasant #2: Ai

* Lowly peasant #3: Chiwa

I still have no clue who's going to win.


Episode 8

Ok, so following up from last week, Masuzu is still in full Sith Lord-mode. All that manipulation is really growing on me, though, because she is not a bad guy. If this story has a good ending, it will be because Masuzu makes the story good.

Ai is great. I'm still annoyed by the fact that she doesn't outright admit that she likes Eita, but she's just so cute when she's flustered. Ai continued her trend of gathering lots of points this week.

Chiwa surprisingly also got a lot of points by not being a complete bitch for no apparent reason like in the past few episodes. Also, during the movie scene, she showed some character by defying Masuzu and not just not accepting the plan but actively fighting against it.

Hime was pretty boring, though, so she lost some points. Not much to say about her, except for the fact that on some level, I still hope for an ending where Eita loses his mind, goes full chuuni and rides off into the sunset with Hime.

Kaoru still continues to be a completely smooth bro, which is refreshing to see compared to Eita, who seems to get dumber and dumber by the episode(but he might just be feigning ignorance). However, the Eita flashback was hilarious and sad at the same time, and it was definitely not a bad part of the episode.

So, here's this weeks ranking list(it makes even less sense this week because I made up new ranks):

Girls:

* Sith Lord: Masuzu

* Princess Leia(same level of tsundere): Ai

* Lowly peasant #1: Chiwa

* Lowly peasant #2: Hime

Guys:

* Han Solo: Kaoru

* Jar-Jar Binks: Eita


Episode 9

This is probably my favourite episode so far, lots of hilarious moments happened.

At first, I was annoyed by the fact that there was no Masuzu in this episode, but that was rectified the moment I heard the ringtone. Ah, that reference is still funny to me. As was Masuzu's moment of dere. I'm still not sure if that was genuine or a part of her master plan, but that's what I like about Masuzu, the fact that I'm still not completely sure of what her goal is. In any case, she is still the only sith lord for me.

Chiwa, on the other hand, did appear a few times but she was pretty forgettable in this episode. But she did get mentioned quite a lot by Ai, so she was actually sort of relevant without having memorable scenes. I'm hoping the fight for "best childhood friend" becomes an interesting one.

Hime got more points though, mostly due to the spinning, but also because she is relevant to the whole chuuni-situation. In addition, I thought the "Do you want to start calling me 'meat'?" was hilarious, even more so because I love Haganai.

And then there was Ai, the center of this episode. Well, she finally revealed everything to Eita(what, did he suffer a stroke or something, how can you forget that much about a person that close to you?) and went full deredere on him. Eita's and Ai's scenes were by far the best in the episode(almost obviously) and probably my favourite scenes overall. And the references, they were good. The scene on the hill almost had me rolling on the floor.

Kaoru, even though he had no screen time, is now an even bigger bro not only to Ai, but also to Eita, considering how he objected to helping Ai because he didn't want to betray Chiwa. God, it's not even fair to Eita anymore, Kaoru is eclipsing him almost completely when it comes to being the most likeable guy.

Having said that, I do like Eita a lot more after this episode, because it's obvious that he isn't completely brainless, he's just mostly in denial and also maybe slightly insane. He was capable of creating both sweet and hilarious moments, and I thought that was great.

Here's this week's ranking list(hoping I will get to mix it up even more next week):

Girls:

* Sith Lord(for now): Masuzu

* Princess Leia(at the end of Return of the Jedi, i.e. just dere, not much tsun): Ai

* Spin to win: Hime

* Lowly peasant(I really hope she makes a comeback): Chiwa

Guys:

* Better than Han Solo: Kaoru

* Jar-Jar Binks after receiving a somewhat functional brain: Eita


Episode 10

"Oh damn, shit just got real". Though cliché, I feel that that line is just right for this situation.

Starting off, the scene in the club room basically just served the purpose of reminding the audience what kinds of relationships the characters have with each other. Chiwa dislikes Ai, Hime likes and admires Ai, Masuzu seems to be slightly jealous of Ai, Chiwa and Hime are neutral to each other, though quite friendly. After this and some important stuff(which I will get to later), the episode turned into full-on fanservice for most of the duration, with some important things in between. And then after the credits, the revelation happens.

Hime served the purpose of comic relief in this episode by being delusional all of the time. She was funny most of the time, but that doesn't win her many points because she still needs a lot of character development if she is to be relevant to the ending of the show, and that didn't happen. However, in spite of all this, Hime did contribute to Masuzu's character development by telling her about the "past life relationship" with Eita, which seemed not only to surprise Masuzu but also shock her a bit.

Back in the spotlight for another short moment, Chiwa was quite relevant in this episode. Up until now, it seemed like her complaining about other people taking away Eita from her was genuine, but now it appears that she wasn't really worried before, because she thought that as Eita's childhood friend, she had a unique relationship with him. This became apparent during Ai's revelation that she also used to know Eita, because it really did throw Chiwa off balance. The fact that this resulted in Chiwa becoming genuinely defensive when it comes to Eita appears to have been noticed by Masuzu, because unlike her previous ways of messing with Chiwa, in this episode she really started putting on the pressure and harrassment. Chiwa got some points for this episode, because she was very relevant to the story moving forward.

Compared to the previous episode, Ai didn't change much in this episode. Despite this, she wasn't irrelevant at all, which I hopefully already made apparent. Her joining the club and being so openly in love with Eita served as the catalyst for most of the eventual character development in this episode. She joined the club basically just to be with Eita, without caring about her rivals, but her rivals definitely noticed her, because they reacted. Especially Masuzu, because for the first time, she was unmistakably jealous. For this episode, Ai lost some points because her deredere-mode is getting a bit old(at least to me), but she also gained some for being relevant to story progression, just like Chiwa.

As you may have noticed, all of the above paragraphs lead back to one person, Masuzu. Masuzu went through the most character development this episode, because the opaque shell covering her feelings finally cracked. Jealousy, envy, maybe even affection, they all showed in this episode. What I got from this episode was that Masuzu is jealous of Ai's ability to show her feelings so openly, envious of Chiwa's long history with Eita and at least a little bit affectionate towards Eita. In addition to all of this, the nature of her relationship with Eita was revealed to the others at the end of the episode, and that if anything forces character development. Masuzu was my second favourite character in this episode, because my opinion of her changed once again, probably for the 5th time during this season. She is, in my mind, no longer a mastermind planner whose agenda is to get Eita a relationship, both for fun and to prove to herself that people like them can find love. Now, she's just a girl who felt attracted to Eita(because they were similar), but instead of just asking him out, she started a weird fake relationship because her natural love of trickery got the best of her, but that backfired in this episode.

This brings us to my favourite character of the episode, Eita. Though quite subtle, in this episode Eita shed a lot of light on what his feelings are for each of the girls. The scene with Hime in the changing room tells us that Eita finds Hime to be very attractive, almost irresistible, but also very crazy. Due to that, I think Eita decided not to try to pursue any kind of romantic relationship with Hime. Eita's relationship with Ai is very one-sided(from Ai's side) in this episode and most of the time, Eita doesn't seem to know what to do with her. Then, when he presented her with his suggestion for the swimsuit, it seemed to me like he was saying "Look, I don't know what to do with you right now, so let's try to be friends first". Eita's feelings for Chiwa became sort of clear when they talked outside the bathroom, he simply reassured her that no matter what, she is still his best friend(besides Kaoru, who apparently is Eita's best friend lore-wise). However, if analyzed a bit more deeply, he could be saying "I'm not sure if you're just my best friend or if I love you so I don't want to make any stupid mistakes by gambling with it, but if I do love you, I will never let you go". This is just a guess, though. When it comes to Eita's feelings for Masuzu, it's pretty clear when he says "Then let's go make some [memories]". He genuinely wants to spend time with her, despite her tendency to embarrass him, cause a scene or just generally screw him over. That specific line rekindled my belief that there is a possibility of a Eita x Masuzu-ending.

This week's list(heavily revised in format, because the joke ranks started feeling childish):

 1.   Eita(for being a proper main character for once)

 2.   Masuzu(for having the most character development)

 3.   Chiwa(for making me like her again and revealing some of her true feelings)

 4.   Ai(for being the catalyst, but not otherwise very entertaining)

 5.   Hime(for only being funny, not interesting)

Special acknowledgement: Saeko-san, for appearing out of nowhere and delivering the killing blow to the biggest coverup in the story.


Episode 11

"On March 16th 2013, OreShura became self-aware":

Basically, Saeko just stole my job by pointing out every single relevant detail about every main character(though that did provide most of the comedy in this episode). Hime is too submissive, Chiwa is so friendly that she's in the friendzone, Ai is tsundere(which for some reason is the winning personality) and Masuzu is... well, Masuzu. She's too perfect to succeed. So, I think I'll focus on the characters who aren't the main girls this time, though I will still mention them quickly.

Hime was quite funny once again, I haven't gotten tired of the chuunibyou personality yet. Her answer to the "test" wasn't surprising, but it is possible that Eita learned something from it, which may have changed his opinion on Hime. Most importantly, when Hime told Eita about wanting to be his girlfriend, he didn't freak out even though everyone else was present.

It was nice to see Chiwa return to her former self instead of just whining all the time. She's not the smartest of the lot, but she is genuinely a nice, energetic and cheerful person and her relationship with Eita is still more special than anyone else's. Though she did already realize that one of her feet is in the friendzone in the previous episode, the fact that Saeko pointed it out so clearly must have affected her a lot.

Ai was her normal tsundere self, as expected, and it was funny to see Saeko making fun of her because of that. Of course, that didn't discourage Ai from showing her feelings for Eita. If anything, the results of the test encouraged her even further. Also, it was interesting to see confirmation that Ai is actually friends with both Hime and Chiwa. I was actually slightly surprised that Ai and Chiwa are on such good terms.

As I guessed last week, Masuzu was genuinely shocked and angered by Saeko's remarks and during the conversation in the park, it became obvious that she is sad about all of it too. Though she was in Sith Lord-mode for most of the episode, I did feel sort of sorry for her. Saeko was almost brutal towards Masuzu and made it seem like she has no chance whatsoever.

So, let's get to the other characters then, starting with Eita. As with Masuzu, Eita was bounced around quite a lot during this episode. A few episodes ago it became clear that Eita didn't want to, or simply couldn't, choose between the girls, and that was also reconfirmed in this episode. Saeko picked up on it too, the "harem or battlefield?"-remark was proof of that. In the end, I'm not at all sure who Eita is leaning towards, but if I had to guess, I think his empathy for Masuzu(realizing she is the only one who is alone) makes her his focus. Granted, his desire to be with her might not be motivated by romantic feelings, he may just want to be a friend to her(because he seems to be the only one who is able to tolerate Masuzu at any time), but still, I don't think there is a perfect status quo when it comes to the main girls. In addition, Eita and Masuzu do have a bond due to their relationship, no matter how fake it is, and specifically because of how fake it is. They're in it together, as Eita points out.

Kaoru still brings a smile to my face every time he appears, because of how kind he is towards everyone. He is the best wingman and biggest bro of all time, even going as far as putting his own feelings on hold to prevent Eita from having to deal with an even bigger burden. And, on top of that, he is still apparently keeping his position as Ai's wingman. I wouldn't be surprised if Kaoru became an extremely important character in the last few episodes. I have 3 theories for this: 1. Kaoru makes a plan with Ai to force Eita to make a choice during the beach episode because Kaoru doesn't want Ai to have to act so tsundere all the time. 2. Kaoru gets into an accident of some sort, prompting Ai to have a breakdown which drags Chiwa and Hime down too, leaving Eita and Masuzu to try to resolve the whole situation entirely. 3. Kaoru and Saeko conspire together to force Eita to make a choice when they return from the beach(because while some girl may win the contest Saeko is putting up, it's clear that Eita will disagree with the conclusion. He won't just pick someone because they won a contest). Also, I'm going to have to drop the bombshell here: I think Kaoru is actually a girl. Sure, he could just be gay, but he does have a feminine voice and appearance and him wanting to keep it a secret could be why he doesn't want to tell Eita about his true feelings. Now, I know feminine and androgynous males aren't unusual in anime, but what if OreShura isn't just genre-savvy about itself, what if it's meta-genre-savvy?

The source of most of the comedy, as I already mentioned, is Saeko, but she also provides more opportunities for character development for the main characters than anything else I've ever seen before. Her way of going about it is very interesting too. Though slightly cliché, the fact that she makes everything a game actually works here, because just like me, Saeko made a list of who is the best girl. This is probably her abundant genre-savviness in action again, because who doesn't mentally rank the girls in a harem show? Saeko's true motives aren't as clear as her genre-savviness, though. We don't really know why Saeko is doing all of this, nor do we know whether she is actually helping Eita or not. In addition, we don't know if Saeko wants a specific girl to win and if she does, we don't know why. Maybe she has her own reasons for wanting to make Chiwa happy, or maybe Ai(she could have met her back when Eita and Ai knew each other). She's mysterious, that's all I can say for sure.

As for this week's list, I objectively agree with Saeko completely, Ai has the best chance followed by Chiwa, Hime and Masuzu, so here's just my personal preference:

 1.   Chiwa

 2.   Masuzu

 3.   Ai

 4.   Hime


Episode 12

Huh, this episode was a lot less climactic than I thought it would be, but it was interesting nonetheless.

If the previous episode was about reminding the viewer what each girl is like and what their personalities are, this episode was focused on exploring the realm of Eita's feelings towards each girl. And in that respect we learned quite a bit. Eita's inner monologue about Hime's non-chuunibyou moment tells us that he is still interested in her(besides physical interest) on some level. Maybe not romantically, but he can definitely not ignore her. Masuzu's mention of Eita's promise to Chiwa, and especially Eita's reaction to it, tells us that Eita still does have more than friendly feelings for Chiwa, while Ai's conversation with Masuzu in the kitchen tells us that even though Eita may have been ignoring Ai a lot(the "huh?"-scene on the beach showcases that), he at least acknowledges that she likes him and that maybe he likes her too. And finally, Eita's conversation with Masuzu's sister tells us indirectly that he loves Masuzu, at least on some level, and his action afterwards confirms that directly.

Hime again didn't have much screen time, which is regrettable because I've come to like her personality for the comedy it causes. But she did do something new in this episode, she laughed mischievously in the water, so that was at least a little redeeming. I think it's clear to everyone that Hime can't win anymore(unless maybe there is a second season), not that she ever really had a chance, but she had a good run and I don't dislike her character.

Sadly, Chiwa also had very little presence in this episode(most of the Chiwa-related story development being told through conjecture). I really wanted to see more of her because she's still a contender in this battle and there hasn't really been a resolution between her and Eita. But I'm guessing that will eventually happen in the next(and last) episode.

Ai was relatively relevant in this episode, but especially in one scene. Seemingly having absorbed Saeko's superior intuition, Ai reveals to Masuzu that she has figured out the truth behind Masuzu's and Eita's "relationship". Most importantly, her statement that if it wa true she would never be able to forgive Masuzu showed that Ai isn't just deredere, she genuinely cares about Eita's feelings. And that's why she's still in it to win it, and she does have a slim chance of winning if this show goes into a second season.

Lastly, and unsurprisingly, Masuzu was the main focus of this episode. There were two very interesting scenes that explained a lot about Masuzu. Firstly, the conversation between her and Eita about how to convince the others about their relationship ended with Masuzu giving Eita a choice, something she has never done before. It showed clearly that she cares about Eita's feelings and it also had the very powerful effect of making Eita realize that he too cares about Masuzu's feelings. Secondly, the scene in Masuzu's bedroom showed that no matter what Masuzu is talking about, it's impossible to tell if she is lying or not, and that makes her one of my favourite characters of all time. After 12 episodes, she's still as unpredictable and unreadable as in the first episode. The way this episode was structured made it more obvious than ever that Masuzu is the favourite when it comes to the battle for Eita, but I think it was also meant to explain why it's ok if she and Eita do end up together.

We didn't see Kaoru and Saeko at all in this episode(3 seconds at the end does not count), which is disappointing because it basically destroyed my predictions from last week(unless they somehow happen in the last episode, which I doubt). Oh well, that can't be helped.

This week's list(I think it's set in stone by now, I can't see it changing anymore):

  1.  Masuzu

  2.  Chiwa(very close second)

  3.  Ai

  4.  Hime


Episode 13(END)

Ok, that was not completely expected. I was right in assuming that Eita would go for Masuzu because that much was obvious from how the previous episode ended, but this ending was a complete surprise to me. I should of course have known better due to how genre-savvy this show got towards the end, but still, this kind of ending is pretty rare.

Starting off with Chiwa this time, in this episode it became obvious that she is not in fact slightly yandere, she just likes both Eita and hitting things with a stick. Her confession on stage was sweet, though it didn't provide that much new information. The most interesting thing about Chiwa in this episode was her interaction with Masuzu at the very end, or should I say non-interaction. At first, and throughout the season, I lumped Chiwa together with Ai and Hime as girls who just cluelessly love Eita and can't seem to grasp that there is a chance of them losing, so it was pleasant to see that after Masuzu, Chiwa had the most realistic idea of what the situation actually was. It was sort of a surprise to actually see Chiwa realize that she just has to deal with the fact that Eita wants Masuzu.

Ai was pretty much herself in this episode, she basically just did what she does, which is being in love with Eita. The fact that she was disqualified from the contest might have been a jab at this, because what point is there to waste screen time on a character who would just be repeating herself? Now, I wouldn't assume that to be an intentional jab at the character in every case, but this show has proven time and time again that it is not afraid of mocking itself or its own genre. Other than that, it was of course funny to see Ai's overreaction to the "signing" of the marriage registration form, a romantic comedy has to have some comedy every once in a while, doesn't it?

In spite of Chiwa going showing some novel feelings, the most surprising character for me in this episode was Hime. Her confession to Eita was basically a summary of all the untold character development she has apparently gone through over the course of the season, which I honestly did not expect, and her talk of ranking lists genuinely made me think "Whoa, so the show is not just genre-savvy and self-conscious, it can actually read my mind", because up until now, I've always been a bit sad about having to place Hime on the bottom of my ranking list so many times. The one thing that didn't really surprise me was that when Eita explained his "backstory", Hime took it calmly and responded first with a joke, then with a resignation that it's ok that Eita is just Villager A and following that up with saying that she would deal with the discrepancy between Burning Fighting Fighter and Eita later. Hime was just awkward and shy most of the time, not actually delusional, and when it came down to serious stuff in private, she could handle the situation just fine. She just did everything in character, that's all.

Well, as I said, it wasn't surprising that Eita and Masuzu ended up together in the end(though the ending was technically harem). I liked the very confusing back-and-forth stuff between them because it was new to me. The moment of the confession between the two main characters who are destined to be together is usually pretty similar, it's either dramatic and romanticized or funny. In this case, you could say that it was dramatic and romanticized(because it was), but the fact that they both said "I hate you", which was definitely a twist on the regular confession scene, made it entertaining. And then, it continued. During the scene in Eita's room, it became clear to me that Masuzu and Eita are similar because it was impossible to tell exactly which parts of their conversation were lies and which were sincere. If done incorrectly, this could have been a bad thing because confusing the viewer about the most essential piece of the ending(do they love each other or not) is a sure-fire way of creating disappointment. However, in this case Masuzu's extremely deredere behaviour spoke for itself, so there was no need for additional words. As an additional note, I very much enjoyed the fact that Masuzu's backstory was not used to develop the story in this episode, because as I stated last week, I think the backstory was entirely too cliché.

So, let's wrap up with Saeko. Her role in this episode was basically to explain to the viewer what the different possible endings were, and that she did. However, her plan to get Eita to avoid the problematic endings backfired, because as we all know, he ended up with a harem. Normally, I'd be disappointed with a harem ending, but in this case, it was actually pretty satisfying to see it happen. OreShura gets a score of 9/10 from me because I enjoyed watching it, I think it was well done and the ending was unconventional but nicely handled. However, the fact that I was satisfied with the harem ending means that I can't make a ranking list because a harem is a harem, there is no individual relationship. No wait, just kidding, here's the list:

  1.  Kaoru

  2.  The rest of the girls