Lets get straight to the point: Oresuki fucking sucks. Although initially a fresh unqiue take on the genre it gradually spirals into a reminder of why so many mock the genre in the first place. Its the epitome of a cliche uninspired harem with almost nothing to differentiate itself from the sea of poorly written troperidden shows out there. With that preface out of the way Ill break down the negatives and admittedly few positives this anime had to share. SPOILERS AHEAD. Story 3/10 The story starts off with two girls confessing their love for our protagonists best friend and said protagonist undergoing a major shift in character as a result of it and Ill admit that in spite of some flaws I actually quite enjoyed it at first. It was humorous enjoyable and left me curious as to how the rest would unfold. Add in the ugly librarian confessing to the protagonist himself in spite of his wishes and I think youve got the setup for a solid romance. But no. They went straight south from that. Instead of learning to love this girl he once shunned she instead turns out to be the stunningly beautiful girl he saw the year prior. With big tits. The show really feels the need to emphasize that last point. The scene where she reveals this is somewhat disconcerting but even then I could look past that. Only problem is that there wasnt much past that. Enter the awfully convenient flower dance. One boy dances with three girls in front of the entire school one of which hes destined to marry. Of course in spite of constantly stating that hes a background character our protagonist is chosen as the boy and the main three heroines the girls. How convenient. From then on I was really starting to pick up onto the shows bullshit. Then much later theres the much anticipated beach episode. Yeah. Its about as bad as you can imagine. All in all they attempt to create a heartwarming story but end up making something gross obnoxious and painfully oblivious instead. The qualms I have with it are surprisingly few but thats because I believe the vast majority of anime in this genre are characterbased. And thats where Oresuki really fucks up. Characters 2/10 Lets start with Joro the main character of this story. Joro is initially a kind docile individual that would fit the role of any harem protagonist but is quickly unveiled to be foul and mostly selfcentered. Or so the show would have us think but as it goes on he reveals himself hardly different from the former. There are splashes of that darker nature to be found but theyre terribly inconsistent. In fact the only thing that stays consistent with his character is his perverse nature because thats the level of comedy you can expect from this show. Oh and his obnoxious tendency to consistently state that hes nothing but a background character even after hes established his brutally apparent harem. Then theres his best friend Sunchan or so hes called. Sunchan is similar to Joro in that he pretends to be a friendly likable individual but is actually crude and egocentric and of course ultimately turns out to be no different than what he was pretending to be. At one point he threatens to rape the main heroine upon rejection only to be stopped by Joro who had heard unbeknownst to his knowledge. But the main heroine and the rest of the characters proceed to pretend like this never happened and express no discomfort towards him whatsoever. What the fuck. From then on he transforms into the classic best friend character that exists for the sole purpose of lifting the main character up. Believe me when I say that there are absolutely no traces of that darker side to be found. Good character writing. Moving on to the heroines theres Cosmos and Himawari. I actually dont have much of a problem with Cosmos but Himawari is... painful. Everything about her character is unlikable and annoying. I kid you not when I say the only good thing about her is her appearance and even that cant save her. Shes loud obnoxious and extremely childish. Except the show is oblivious to that last part. Good character writing. Finally the main heroine Sumireko Sanshokuin or Pansy as shes typically called. Shes the ugly quiet librarian who confesses to Joro because she... loves how much he cares for his friends or something? God I dont know but the gist of it is that she thinks hes a really good person. Her interactions with Joro were actually interesting at first and if hed gradually learned to love her it couldve made for a strangely wholesome romance. But we cant have nice things. Pansy is obsessed with Joro and the scene where she confesses to him is... uncomfortable. Shes very flirtatious with him in private and even stalks him at first but other than that Id say shes just fanservice bait. And heavens is there ever a lot of fanservice. The beach episode really proves this. One thing that really ticked me off is the final few episodes and her reaction to Yasuo Hazuki. Hes a nice guy and she admits this but to her hes her demon. She acts extremely uncomfortable around him more so than even the guy who threatened to rape her. I was convinced that surely he must have assaulted her in some way but as it turned out he saved her life from being hell in middle school. So why is he her demon? Because despite his good intents he accidentally sometimes doesnt consider the feelings of others. What the FUCK. She didnt want to tell him because of all hed done for her but if she bothered to consider the feelings of others shed do just that. What a goddamn hypocrite. That would be fine if only the writers werent completely oblivious to it. I guess we know why her names Pansy. As far as some of the side characters go we have Asunaro and Tsubaki whom are both inexplicably in love with Joro. The former started off as an interesting character right until the big twist behind her was revealed to be just that and the latter wasnt annoying in terms of personality but made absolutely no sense whatsoever. She liked him because he helped her out and bought a bunch of her tonkatsu one day whilst also expressing great care for his friend apparently thats enough to promise to love someone unconditionally and do anything for them. Theres also the tsundere. Her name doesnt matter. She isnt a character. Her sole purpose is to educate naive viewers on what a shitty tsundere is. She is also in love with Joro because he gave her a bit of advice one time. Good character writing. Oh and finally The best character of them all. Joros mother. Shes shown only once at the beginning of the beach episode but she gave me a good laugh. Search her up and see if you can find a clip of her voice. I promise you she does not sound like whatever it is youre thinking of. Art Animation 6 If theres one thing I cant complain much about its the art. Although not particularly outstanding its a pretty style and they animated what was necessary. The amount of fanservice was extremely annoying but the art itself isnt at fault. I think there could have been a little more movement in the characters and the eyes couldve been less wonky in certain scenes but thats just me. Other than that I liked it. It makes the show look appealing and its pretty much the reason why I started it in the first place. Sound 7 The sound was also quite good. I recall thinking several times throughout the show how surprisingly good the music was and although I cannot remember any specific tracks I think it served its purpose very well. The op isnt really my taste but catchy nonetheless too. Enjoyment 4.5? In spite of how much Ive bashed this show I actually... didnt hate watching it. I think it was mostly the art and music that kept me watching but other than that it was somewhat entertaining. Its fun to bully. I liked seeing what it would fuck up with each episode even though I always went in with some amount of optimism. Although Ill admit that a good chunk of the time it was kinda painful to watch mostly due to Himwaris screeching. All in all its the type of story that panders only to people who like generic harem anime. To which if youre into that kinda stuff you do you. But if you want a good harem then Id recommend Gotoubun no Hanayome the manga is better than the anime or Saekano.