More harems, oh the
joy. Actually, this one was pretty interesting.
I didn't think I would like Oreshura (what ever happened to keeping anime names short and easy to remember? I'm seeing more and more series with nicknames because of it) very much when I first heard about it. I made my point on reverse harems for Amnesia, and while I do prefer male-centered harems, I don't necessarily go looking for them either. It was with curiosity and a push from all the interesting reviews I read on the first episode that I finally brought myself to watch it, and I came out with a much better opinion than when I went in.
I don't know if
chuunibyou is the new thing (though I've heard that this light novel came before the
Chuunibyou one), but in
Eita Kidou (
Ryouta Ohsaka) we have yet another protagonist who is suppressing his inner dreamer. He's decided that he wants to attend medical school and that he has no time for silly things like love and fun, and part of his reasoning makes quite a bit of sense.
His parents got divorced and each ran off with a respective lover (sound like fantasy? Nope. Same thing basically happened to me and my parents, both of them, except that I got to stay with my mother and stepfather), turning him off love as something irrational and unneeded (I totally get you, Eita). As a result, he focuses only on his studies, ignoring the obvious signs that his childhood friend, the cutesy
Chiwa Harusaki (
Chinatsu Akasaki), is in love with him. It isn't until the transfer student from overseas,
Masuzu Natsukawa (
Yukari Tamura), becomes popular and is seated next to him that his world starts changing; she confesses to him in the middle of class one day and asks him to walk her home. He reluctantly agrees but suspects something else is up and confronts her about it on the side of the road. As it turns out, Masuzu is just like Eita, detesting the idea of love and relationships, and she wants to use him as a fake boyfriend to keep the hoard of her admirers away. Eita refuses, only to get himself blackmailed by her; she's bought a secondhand book of his and it's full of his
chuunibyou dreams as the knight "Burning Fighting Fighter". He unwillingly agrees to be her boyfriend, and the stage is set for Chiwa and Masuzu to fight over his affections.
I think the most interesting part of this for me so far is the pessimistic outlook that Masuzu and Eita have on love and the reasons for why that's so. Eita I can understand, but we've yet to see why Masuzu has turned out the same way. In any case, it's nice to see a male lead who's not oblivious (he knows full well what Chiwa feels for him but chooses to pretend its not there) and who has a concrete goal in life and the determination to see it through. He does have that chuunibyou to worry about, and who knows if he can keep it bottled in for long (just look at his ridiculous reaction to whether or not Masuzu is wearing panties), though he does have the sensibility to realize when he's gone over the top ("sorry, I may have been overthinking that"). Chiwa is probably the more conventional character here, and she didn't particularly stand out; she's too childish and moe for me. Of course, since this is a harem I doubt we'll stop at two girls (there's four in the opening), but so far I'm leaning toward Masuzu as the more obvious choice (and the more interesting; let's face it, the childhood friend rarely wins).
OP "Girlish Lover" by Mizukara wo Enshutsu Suru Otome no Kai
Episode 1 Screencaps: "The Start of My High School Life is a Battleground"
ED "W:Wonder tale" by Yukari Tamura
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