Eromanga Sensei

For better and for worse (mostly worse), Eromanga-sensei is the successor to OreImo and its themes of sister-banging. But where OreImo had some interesting things to say about the otaku community, Eromanga-sensei possesses nothing, and is nothing, puerile and creatively bankrupt. Eromanga-sensei in many ways represents everything that is bad with light novels. It is a story (I guess, if we put aside its flagrantly incestual nature) of a group of twelve-to-fifteen-year-olds who are famous artists, as if adults do not and cannot exist. If Eromanga-sensei was taking inspiration from the scribbles of a bunch of middle school students, its rubbish writing would actually makea great deal of sense. Stop me if you've heard this one before: the protagonist and a sexy lady, both being inexperienced in the affairs of love, try to imitate romantic situations with one another as a source of creative inspiration. No? How about the protagonist's rival conveniently being revealed as a cute girl who is desperately in love with him? Or the heroine angrily retreating to her room and screaming "bakaaa!" as the camera pans away? See, Eromanga-sensei isn't an anime that is particularly concerned with sharing anything you haven't already seen in dozens or hundreds of other equally brain-dead romantic comedies. (And seriously, if I have to watch another anime with a hikikomori heroine who is portrayed as some goddess of attraction, I'm going to have an aneurysm.) I suppose the difference here is that Eromanga-sensei is neither romantic nor comedic. It sure as hell is not funny (unless you are the type who thinks burping is the pinnacle of comedic genius), and its 'romance' is merely a thinly-veiled attempt to make it seem somewhat less like masturbation fodder. Fodder which, by the way, has a regularly sexualised heroine who is only twelve-years-old. Let that sink in for a second: twelve-years-old. She is twelve, and the anime frequently displays detailed shots of her ass, her panties, her naked body, and so forth, and even thinks it is amusing to have her friend (who is the same age, by the way) howling about how she loves penises. Yeah. Really. Even if lolicon pornography does not bother you, it would be an impossible task to claim this contributes to the story or the characters in any meaningful way. It actively sabotages whatever emotional value it tries to create between Sagiri and Masumune's relationship, and makes it impossible to take seriously anything that happens or could conceivably happen. For example, the anime will reveal Masamune's tragic past in the span of about one minute, and then immediately open the next episode with a girl clad in her bikini and flirting with him. Eromanga-sensei doesn't even do the incest part right since it is more concerned with creating some periphery harem for Masamune than it is with developing his feelings for Sagiri beyond "hey I like you lol." It is stupid on the level of KonoSuba and yet has the audacity to pretend without a hint of sarcasm that it is some touching story. No. It is actually a fairly sad result when compared to the author's previous work, OreImo. OreImo, flawed and infuriating as it was, actually put a great deal of time into making Kirino and Kyosuke's feelings for one another feel meaningful. Kirino was no doubt insufferable, but by the end, you could at least look at her as something more than an assortment of tropes and incest appeal. Likewise, it also went into a fair amount of detail with regards to the life of a stereotypical otaku. It represented Comiket, eroge, offline meetings, and the conflict people can have when they possess hobbies they are ashamed of. It was no Genshikan, but OreImo did at least try to contribute something to the industry with more appeal than "well, gee, banging your sister sounds like a fun idea." The same cannot be said for Eromanga-sensei, which does and says nothing about the industry. Any moment when it does display the struggles of Masamune's career, it is extremely, unbearably dull, and often propelled by silly plot devices like one of his love interests offering all their royalties in return for Masamune becoming their slave. The whole premise of being a light novel author is an accessory that may as well not even exist. If you stripped all the fanservice away, all that would expose is the show's unsightly skeleton. I can't think of any situation where Eromanga-sensei could come as a recommendation. It is asinine dreck, without so much as a modicum of creativity. I suppose its colourful art and catchy opening animation may lead some people into thinking the anime is more than it truly is, but it is best to be honest: the sole reason anyone likes this show is because they want to bone the twelve-year-old heroine. Now how much merit is there in a story like that? I'd wager not a whole not.

Eromanga-sensei is a culmination of everything I hate in lazy, insipid, vacuous, pandering entertainment. Now, to clarify, first of all, I don't believe that just because an anime, or any piece of entertainment, panders towards a certain demographic, that it is inherently bad necessarily. There has been plenty of anime that pander towards the otaku audience while, at the same time, remaining fun, and some instances, good shows, but Eromanga-sensei is not such an example. It's a show that lives by the convention in terms of its plot structure, comedy, character archetypes and dives head first into trashiness at any moment it can get. Whatcould have been an interesting look into why and how people who shut themselves inside their homes live on a daily basis, akin to something along the lines of Welcome to the N.H.K or something, the show just decides to opt out instead for loli fan-service instead, ditching anything that made Oreimo, somewhat enjoyable, and, in some parts, decent. Before I continue, I'd just like to clarify that I am not hating on this show just because the original creator also created Oreimo. As I just said, I found that show to be decent (until the ending anyway) but it also had a few things that I could appreciate when it comes to meta humour about otaku and the anime industry as a whole. Eromanga-sensei has none of that. It's pointless, empty and has no value as a show at all. It's trash in every sense of the word. Now, before I dive into the numerous reasons as of why I believe this show to be as poor as I think it is, let's discuss the plot first of all. Masamune is a somewhat successful, trashy light novel author who has been writing for several years now to support his younger step-sister, Sagiri, a shut-in, t, who refuses to go out and stamps on the floor of her bedroom whenever she wants anything. While Masamune writes these books and even has illustrations done for him, he doesn't actually know who this illustrator actually is, who goes by the name 'Eromanga-sensei' who actually turns out to be Sagiri herself! That's right! A 13-year-old girl draws erotic pictures! Oh boy! Anyway, the rest of the show sees Masamune and Sagiri begin to bond and grow closer together, while splicing in some romance between the two (because that's needed between siblings, am I right?) while Masamune is challenged by numerous other light novel authors in the business for slots in magazines, eventually becoming their friends and going along their merry way. The show's narrative is incredibly simple and boring to boot since there is no objective or even direction in the story. It moves awkwardly from scene to scene with no sense of flow or reasoning behind any of the characters and the entire show just feels like one big filler arc from a long-running shounen series or something. Now, I'm not saying that all anime need some kind of story, especially if it is going for comedy, but Eromanga's comedy in itself is poor, repetitive and so predictable, mostly derivative from seeing characters becoming embarrassed at removing their clothing, or from juvenile misunderstandings. One such example is a joke centred around a gay misunderstanding, in which another light novel author believes that Masamune is gay and has the hots for him, resulting in some of the most dreadful gags in the show. It feels like a 14-year-old wrote the entire thing, which is ironic, considering that I can only imagine that demographic finding this sort of weak comedy actually funny. Sagiri's problem of being a shut-in was the only, the ONLY thing that the show had going for it and it throws it out so fast! I was genuinely interested to see what the show may do with this element; perhaps comment on the bigger picture of shut-ins in Japan perhaps, or delve into the psychological reasons behind this character's reasoning for why she has to say inside, but nope! They ditch this element and Masamune doesn't even try and help her with this issue at all and instead panders towards. He doesn't try to make her see why this is a problem, nor does his try to help her go into the outside world or anything. Sagiri is there just to be cute and that's it! We hardly learn anything about her as a person and she is such a brat that I can't stand every moment that she is on screen. Like most bad shows, the anime attempts to throw incest into the mix, and it comes across as so forced and disgusting. As someone who has three little sisters myself, one of which isn't actually related to me by blood, the thought of Masamune and Sagiri entering into a romantic relationship generally disgusts me to no end and all I hear people shout is "INCEST IS WINCEST" constantly, actually hoping the two will get together in the end. I also just hate the general excuse of "oh! They're not related by blood, so it's fine!". No, it's not. It's just as creepy and strange. To me, this aspect of the show baffles me, and I've never understood the appeal of little sisters in anime. This problem is also highlighted by the fact that we have young 13-year-old girls proclaiming that they love dicks out in public, just for all of the filthy weebs to rub their dicks at the thoughts of seeing this in action or something. One of the things the show has received a lot of flak for is the excessive amounts of loli fan-service all around; most of the cast consists of young girls, who are consistently put into revealing swimsuits or underwear. Now, I don't necessarily have any problem with fan-service in a series, as long as it serves some kind of purpose or is not intrusive on the narrative at any point. It feels like Eromanga-sensei's fan-service scenes were made for the sole purpose of padding the episodes out and the whiplash from seeing a bunch of kids half naked, to a heartfelt speech about love is so jarring that it makes each one of these scenes an absolute chore to watch since you know that nothing is happening and is just killing time. Not only that, but the situations the show sets up for its fan service feels just as equally as contrived and weak, and it's not like the fan-service by itself is even that alluring either as the animation and art style is rather generic and uninspired. While not a good show by any stretch, the currently airing Sin: Nanatsu no Taizai, is a much better example of a fan-service vehicle since it is full frontal with its trashiness and doesn't try to hide underneath the pretence of being any more than that like Eromanga-sensei does with its terrible attempt of sounding more emotional and deep. The show has a plethora of more emotional moments and speeches between each of its characters, all of which are generic, but the main problem is that they feel like a cheap attempt at making these characters have more depth than they actually have. Nowhere is this more evident than in the penultimate episode of the show, where we learn that Masamune and Sagiri were contacting each other over the internet even before they met and formally became siblings. This twist feels needlessly convenient and lazy. That's the best word I can use to summarise this show: it's lazy. Speaking of the characters, every single one are essentially archetypes of already existing characters that have been done to much better effect in the past. As such, I often inadvertently find myself comparing them to similar characters, even when I dislike doing so as I wish to treat each piece of media as its own thing. Masamune is your generic main lead, who has a kind soul, is a hard, earnest worker, has a soft voice while getting embarrassed and flustered whenever a girl is revealing any clothing within his proximity. Oh, and every girl falls in love with him, just because the plot demands them to do so! Sagiri, likewise, has very little to offer in terms of character or personality. As I have already mentioned, I disliked this character, with a burning passion! She is so selfish, and acts so much like a brat, screaming "ONII-CHAN IS A BAKA!" at the top of her lungs that I feel like reaching through the monitor of my laptop and slapping her in her face. While, yes, she does warm up to her big brother to a certain extent (a little too much if you know what I mean) her character is just incredibly stale and unoriginal. She has no merits at all, and as I have already discussed, any possible potential for her development in regards to her shut-in problem is thrown completely out the window because the show is too lazy to even have one decent idea. We do learn the back-stories to both Sagiri and Masamune, something I can appreciate, it feels so tacked on and forced that it leaves no impact, and, instead, feels like, again, a lazy and cheap way for the audience to care about these two without building up their characters at all. A sad and tragic back-story is a good way to make a character feel tragic and helps the audience empathise with them, but the character also has to develop too and, at the same time, be well written, which this show fails at. Despite my hatred for Sagari (and little sisters in anime in general), even she is nowhere near as bad as Yamada Elf! She is another light novel author, only this time, stuck up her own ass, believing she is the greatest thing that has ever walked on the planet. She is also extremely selfish, but also EXTREMELY annoying to watch, due to her actions and her voice actress. Hell, one of our earliest introductions to her character is when she is playing the piano in her house while also being completely naked at the same time! Thanks, Eromanga-sensei, I am, as everyone else is, now on the FBI watch list. Oh boy. While her character does eventually confess her love for our dry-as-wood main protagonist, her character arc (or lack of character as a whole) goes nowhere. Her only point in the narrative is fan-service, and that's it. She is not interesting, fun to watch and every scene she was in only drew me closer to kicking the chair from beneath my feet to taste the sweet release of death from this shitty world. The only somewhat decent character is Muramasa, another girl who falls for Mr Light Novel Guy (our protagonist) and the only character who has some reasoning and justification into her love for him. As a whole, the characters themselves are very weak and the comedic chemistry the show attempts to build between them doesn't work at all, and, again, feels so trite and forced to boot. The overall aesthetic is just fine, very typical of what you'd expect from A-1 Pictures. The character designs were somewhat cute (so much so that one of my friends said he would 'destroy' Sagairi if you catch my drift) but it just feels so mundane and 'safe'. The same thing can be said about the music too. While the opening and ending track were both fine (especially the ending track which was both catchy as hell, and, admittedly cute seeing Sagairi dance despite how much I hate her) the music as a whole is horribly generic, which, at the very least, is consistent with the show. Now, one thing people may say in defence of the show is that you're supposed to just enjoy it and not take anything seriously since the show doesn't really take itself seriously at all. With its outlook on the workers of the light novel industry, it presents its characters as all being rather incompetent and it seems to acknowledge, to some degree, that these writers are indeed bad, but tries to excuse and justify this by claiming that the stories are interesting to read. This philosophy presented in the show may also arise in arguments in favour of the show, which, I guess is fine, but I didn't find anything about this show interesting at all, and certainly not entertaining. The comedy is extremely weak, the characters are boring archetypes that go nowhere and the entire show sexualises young girls to ridiculous degrees. Yes, the show is somewhat self-aware of how trashy it is, but just because it is so, doesn't make the anime any good. In fact, it only makes it worse since it does nothing else to subvert or go against these troupes presented in the show, and instead decides to go down the lazy route, and just appeal to the lowest common denominator. Now, I want to make it clear now, that I do not begrudge anyone for actually enjoying this show, as the tone in this review may suggest otherwise. I honestly am glad if you managed to find enjoyment in a show that I found so repulsive, and more power to you because of that. But, for me, this show was abysmal in every possible way, and I'll be seeing you all in prison when the FBI eventually tracks us all down...

[1/10] _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Oh no. Oh no... I was holding off on publishing a review until I finished watching. Not for any hope that something like this would get better, but simply due to the fact that I couldn't bring myself to write about whatever this is. Eromanga-sensei is everything wrong with the anime industry. And you know what? That's not funny. I see so many jokes about that concept. How viewers laughingly remark about this series' and how horrible it is but eat it up regardless, promoting this utter shit until it becomes the most popular non-sequel of the season. And it is. Eromanga Sensei is the most popularnon-sequel in Japan. Can you believe it? A show about a fourteen year old trying to fuck his twelve year old sister while she molests other twelve year old girls is the most popular program in Japan. It is probably the most popular program amongst western anime fans too. It baffles me. Coming from a western background, series like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad steal that limelight. Sure we have duds like The Walking Dead drifting about with their cable appeal, but even that is understandable to me. At least that has elements of redeemable quality. Eromanga has none of that. Eromanga is the mutated lovechild of everything that's hate-able about this industry and the sole reason why anime series' won't ever be taken seriously. For every angered fan of anime that realizes that their favorite show or non-ghibli film will never see the light of day in any extended theater run or any major awards show; this is why. Eromanga Sensei is hopefully the worst series I'll watch to completion. That's because as a viewer I've mostly stuck with some of the most popular anime. I've made my way through the highly-touted projects and ignored the seasonal popularity. Well, this is my first time delving deep into it and it yields an unforgettable, but totally forgettable product that fails at even the most basic storytelling. This will have spoilers. If you are reading this and haven't seen the show, good. Don't watch it. It isn't worth it. It's not funny, or engaging, and the memes you have seen about it don't give a holistic representation of the insane tedium which this show revels in. This show isn't "so bad it's good." Far from it. Eromanga-Sensei is just fucking garbage. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ [A Dancing Girl and a Pedophile] This series follows a harem protagonist on a mission to fuck with a plethora of forgettable girl archetypes that you've seen a million times in a million different anime. The girl that he will end up being with is Sagiri, his twelve year old NEET sister who has not left her room in years. He also happens to write shitty light novels, much like the ones this series is based on, and his artist just so happens to be the twelve year old non-blood related sister living upstairs. What a coincidence! And of course he finds out and helps her hide her identity. Then we meet a few other girls who are also light novel writers and play no role other than to create fanservice scenes that aren't just of the main girl. Honestly, the first ten episodes of this series really don't matter. The eleventh episode provides some much needed backstory which just renders the rest of the series up until that point completely useless. Anyway, Eromanga is just a series of empty husks waddling around on screen. It is a collection of sexual gifs that patrol the internet. From the totally inexplicable character writing to the horrendously boring direction to the non-story that is told throughout this series, Eromanga struggles to get anything right. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ [Visuals] The visuals are probably the most positive aspect in this series, and even they are incredibly uneven. You see, A-1 hired a unique key animator for Sagiri, the little sister, and only Sagiri. So her animation is often much more fluid than the rest of the characters. This creates an animated whiplash of epic proportions. You go from a well-animated movement to a seizure-like stutter within the same scene. So even if her animation is good, this show has a tendency to skimp out on everything else. Some highlights are absurdly off-model characters that kind of look hilarious. Really egregious oversights, even in the shows forgettable OP. A-1, like they do, put the minimal effort required into making this show palatable to look at while forgetting to actually give it direction. It looks like any generic as all hell sitcom. Bad. Every episode is mostly just a compilation of characters sitting around talking exposition for minutes on end before they get to the two minutes of fanservice that peppers the internet for the next few days. They virtually just include the last eighteen minutes for no discernible reason. This could've been just two minutes of soft-core porn and I think the fans would have been just as happy, if not more so, with this series. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ [Sound] It's bad. The OP is forgettable but not painful, the ED I already forgot. The show has a seasoned atrociousness, as it's unfunny and bland writing is often back-ended by painful background music. Now this ranges from "fat guy walking" tuba to "Squidward playing the clarinet" and it was initially funny that this series had such abrasive background music. But it got tedious really quick and ended up just making me angry by episode four. What can I say. This show sounds horrible. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ [Characters/Story] Now lets get to the meat. And by meat, I mean the meat of a bunch of underage girls that are endlessly used as tools to turn on a bunch of creepy fucking virgins watching this series to get off. I get it, it's okay to imagine children naked if they are fake. And i'm a supporter of the notion that thought-crime shouldn't be illegal because it doesn't harm anyone. I don't honestly care what you think about on your free-time and I care even less if it is totally fictitious and not exploiting anything. So my problems with this series isn't that it sexualizes kids. That's nothing new in anime (as disturbing as that is) and it is far from its biggest fault. It's pedophilic and gross, and I often felt ornery watching this series due to the kind of framing devices it used to express its sexuality. For example, instead of diagetically forcing fanservice on us, the director made the 'brave' choice of literally just having shots of characters from below. It felt like a pedophiles hidden camera every time a character was talking. Whether the show is being serious and dramatic or light-hearted and unfunny, the fanservice never ends. Character is being cute? Show them being cute with a below-the-skirt shot. Character crying? Have it framed so their still developing tits take up half the shot. It's cringe. It is a repulsive way to shoehorn this nonsense into your show. But on the other hand, this is the only thing this show has going for it anyway. It is riddled with plot-holes and totally clueless characters that defy any logic whatsoever. In one scene it is established that Sagiri cannot draw girls with big tits. Why? Because she uses herself as a model for all her drawings and she is twelve. So her brother, being the great, enabling guy he is, tells her to look up idols on google to discover how to draw big tits. It works! She can now draw big meatsacks. However, two episodes later she regresses back to not being able to draw titties because... a girl showed her, her panties on skype. Let me get this straight, seeing panties made you unable to draw tits. But it gets better. The way she says she can resolve this issue is if her brother literally lures girls into her room and has them show her their panties. Not only is that fucking creepy, but more importantly, how does drawing panties even relate to drawing tits? Why are glaring issues like this not resolved in the initial adaptation phase?! This would be fine. Well, no it actually wouldn't, but not as bad if it didn't lead to one of the most genuinely disturbing scenes i've seen in anime. Now i'm not one to be disturbed, although I am definitely one to cringe. But her brother does it. He finds a girl and drags her to her room, ties her up and blindfolds her and has Sagiri draw her panties. But get this, Sagiri, the twelve year old girl, rips that other twelve year old's panties off. She literally molests another girl. And it isn't really played as anything either, that girl is genuinely uncomfortable and so was I. Get this. They become great friends afterwards too. Talk about Stockholm syndrome. I wish this was the only ridiculous inanity that occurs, but it isn't. A character called Elf exists. She has pointy elf-ears for literally no reason. It is never explained or mentioned. She just does. Her characterization is as confusing as she is repulsive. Very much so. She shifts between big-sister-esq and comforting to childish and annoying to a complete tsundere from episode to episode and it makes virtually no sense. She is also a part of our protagonist's harem. Which leads me to the third character. Muramasa. Who's probably the most well-designed of the bunch, but has the personality of a grapefruit. She's a best selling light-novel author yet it is revealed that she was inspired by our harem protagonist's work ever since she was young. Well, younger. This was an element I guessed the second I saw the character simply because you can't have a character in a harem that is better than the male protagonist. You just can't. This is a power fantasy series for lonely kids and adults that want young girls to flock all over them in their dreams. So you can't have them be worse at anything. You need them to be virtually perfect. And our protagonist is. These days, i'm developing a blase attitude towards the inherent sexism showed in anime. Which is a bit sad because I do love me a strong female character who "don't need no man". But you know, when the entire medium is marketed towards teenage boys it kind of makes sense to have every male be the best and every women be a toy to be played with. Even if it is obnoxious and kind of distressing. This show is obviously not any different. In one titular scene we have our protagonist chat with the big brother of Elf, and when he discusses the great things about Elf the only thing he can say is, "She's nice and is a good cook." Wow. What a charmer. And this isn't even played off as a joke, this was a genuine scene with sappy, saccharine music in the background. This kind of character writing extends throughout the series, too. The character writing is so bad that it feels like our protagonist is maliciously playing with these girls, since he's shown to be so oblivious that it becomes hard to believe. He rejects a girl, but obviously she keeps pursuing him, but then he proceeds to invite her to plenty of social events, as if it won't be awkward as all hell for her. It truly is a baffling kind of attitude. I get the excuse, too, that he's just a "stupid teenager", and he is. But you know what? Using character stupidity as a plot contrivance isn't good writing. It doesn't make the protagonist or the story any better knowing this dude might actually be handicapped. It just makes it even more frustrating. We are getting front row seats to this idiot fucking with these girls. And it isn't funny. Whether he understands that he is doing this or not, it's happening, and it is the least funny thing in a show that is already aggressively unfunny. If it was well-written comedy then it could be played as dark humor, but it isn't, it's just a bunch of girls yelling "baka!" really loudly. To refer back to that scene of our protagonist talking with Elf's brother, who by the way asked him to marry her in that very scene. Get this, marrying a fourteen year old. He says that he would if he wasn't in love with someone else, referring to his twelve year old sister. However, the episode before he actually told the sister he would be with Muramasa if he wasn't in love with 'someone', as he puts it, since he's unable to admit his love of his sister, sometimes. So this entire scene played as a total contradiction, unless the protagonist was supposed to be a total lying scumbag fuck. I don't think that was intended, though. ... When it comes to script writing this show is a masterpiece. Much like a Michael Bay script, Eromanga has a tendency to describe everything that is shown. I'm not talking about emotions, i'm talking about literally shown. In one scene they are goofing off instead of working, and when the brother of Elf walks in to catch them in the act of goofing off, Elf stands up and literally explains what he is seeing. It is this baffling mixture of having to exposit a moment and also badly adapting dialogue from the light novel. You are seeing everything she is saying. It isn't even the whole "show don't tell" rule, that doesn't apply. That's a criticism for bad writing. This isn't bad writing. This is like the a new universe of writing. It is so abysmal that it bore it's way out of the crust of her earth and floated off into space. This kind of writing extends to multiple different episodes too, often times characters restate their purpose multiple times and it still leads to nothing. For example, the entirety of episode ten was about how Muramasa loves the protagonist, but that's been established since her second introductory episode. She literally just reuses the dialogue she used that episode. It is a special kind of absurd. ... [Speed Round : This show is shit!] * After a one-episode tournament-esq arc finishes, there is an after party to which everyone who participated in the competition established gets to come. Elf ends up going, even though she wasn't in the competition and this wasn't addressed at all. It was just an excuse to bring all the girls together. * Everything ties back to the MC for virtually no reason but to make him the focal point of every characters lives. Every character backstory has something to do with our main character and it might be the most contrived bullshit I've ever witnessed on screen. And I watched the entirety of SAO. * The backgrounds lack any detail whatsoever. We are in a character's room but their room doesn't have any personal mementos or knickknacks. In fact, the only room that has detail is Sagiri's, but she's a NEET with the cleanest room I've ever seen. * To piggy-back off that. She's a NEET hikikomori, stating she hasn't left her room in years. Yet her room is perfectly clean. There is also no bathroom in her room. How does this even work? Does she shit out of the window? This entire show plays this seriously negative affliction as totally okay. * Uninspired character designs. The parents of our two protagonists are virtually just the same characters but aged up. It is lazy as all hell. * This show lacks any timing whatsoever. Not only for it's comedic punchlines, but for its fanservice as well. Fanservice can strike at any time and it is distracting and undercuts any potential catharsis this show is trying to establish. * Episode eleven changes the entire story of the series and renders the past ten episodes totally irrelevant to where the conclusion is heading. * The finale was completely and utterly pointless, playing more like an OVA than a finale. It was nothing. Much like the rest of this series. * Girls get embarrassed for virtually no reason. As in, in one scene our protagonist is getting hit on by Elf on the beach as she asks him to spread some sunscreen on her back. Then once he repeats her orders she gets embarrassed about it. Why? Why is girls being embarrassed about inane shit such a cliche in anime? * In one episode of the series Sagiri makes Elf and Muramasa her models so she can draw them in revealing positions. Yet, to describe the positions, she draws them. So they are models she already had drawn... so why did she even need them to model in the first place? It made no fucking sense. * Muramasa was often played as the really "cute" one, as in, the characters acknowledged how pretty she was. However, since she has the same kind of body-type as any other girl, apart from bigger tits, it wasn't convincing at all. The usual anime presentation of "same-body, different standards" that makes no sense. * If you've noticed I haven't actually said what our protagonist's name is, and that's because it doesn't matter. * Every girl is a fucking slut. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ [The state of anime] My biggest gripe with this show isn't that it is bad. Well, it is, it's abhorrent in every way. But the biggest problem, and perhaps the most upsetting issue, is that it is so incredibly popular. It is, undoubtedly, in the mainstream. A show like Eromanga is the mainstream in anime. That is so fucking confusing to me. I tried to explain this earlier but the people who genuinely love this show seem incredibly insecure about their love for it. They explained to me that I'm simply being bias and that I'm "trying" to hate this show. When that isn't true at all. I actually discovered this show through a meme, which is ironically why it is popular in the first place, because it's made to be a meme, and I thought the meme was kind of hilarious and I decided to watch the series. Sure, once I realized it is awful I went into every episode expecting nothing but terrible nonsense, but that's logical. You shouldn't go into a snake pit, get bitten, and then go into a snake pit again expecting not to get bitten. Maybe i'm just a masochist, but I feel like I needed to finish this series simply to experience the most awful possible thing. However, to many people from what I've seen, this is far from the most awful possible thing. I was constantly told that this is just a "mediocre" show. That i'm over-exaggerating it's awfulness. To that I say, if this is mediocrity to you, then you might have the most incredibly low standard for television. If this is "mediocre" for anime, then anime fucking sucks. If this is "mediocre" for anything, then that anything is the worst. It is paramount we criticize it too. Supporting a product like this will help fuel more products like this. In 2014, Miyazaki said something incredibly poignant about anime as an industry, and the fans, instead of taking it seriously, decided to take it as a joke. He made it clear that as an industry, anime is spiraling out into nothingness. There is an endless loop of self-inspiration that will never actually prompt original or groundbreaking content. As an industry, anime is otaku driven, and as a people, according to Miyazaki, otaku's aren't usually capable of understanding how people work. And if you are writing characters to represent people and don't understand how people work, your characters will take roles that are wholly unrealistic. We already see this in anime constantly. Completely stupid character archetypes that simply don't exist in the real world, from Tsunderes to the concept of a pure, yet sexual girls that seems to inhabit essentially every anime with inherent, childish sexuality in it. So when these totally unaware shows become popular and are roots for inspiration, they spawn more shows like them. Much like SAO did, much like Re:Zero is doing, much like Eromanga sensei will do, and it is a constant loop of something getting worse and worse. It's not funny. It isn't worth joking about. It genuinely makes this industry look awful. I care because I love animation, and while anime and I have mixed feelings about each other, I can't help but support animation as a medium and I want to see it succeed and be utilized to its full potential. But as it stands, anime is hardly scratching the surface and it will continue to scratch less and less as this loop of uncreativity continues. Which is deeply saddening. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ [Conclusion and Criticism] Criticizing something is important. Critics help spur movements and change notions and promote something of quality. Look no further than the French New Wave, the most influential movement in film history which was spawned in the palms of upset critics that wanted to change the status quo. This movement permeated throughout the world and ended up inspiring the greatest films and directors in of all time. Without the French New Wave, some of the greatest anime wouldn't even exist. Satoshi Kon wouldn't have edited like he did. Monogatari wouldn't have its signature style. At its base, this starts with a criticism. Bringing attention to something. It is incredibly important to fight for the kind of television you want to see. I get it, though, not everyone wants this in their television. Some viewers just want to see cute girls prance around on screen saying random shit and yelling "baka!" loudly. I get it. Some people don't care about a narrative, or characters, or even visuals half the time. This show being popular makes that clear. However, on behalf of everyone that does care. That does want television, specifically anime to push itself further away from the stigma regarding the quality of the medium, I ask you to perhaps watch a series with cute girls but in a narrative that actually exists. Characters that are actually there. And there are plenty of shows like that, too. You don't have to settle for something like Eromanga-Sensei. Kyoto Animation specializes in cute girls but with engaging characters, exceptional directing, and spectacular visuals. If you are looking for porn, look up porn. If you want to watch a series, make the sacrifice of watching something that at least has an element of positivity past sexualizing its objects. This'll promote series that will actually create maybe something a bit more interesting and original. Eromanga-Sensei is genuinely a saddening experience. It is so incredibly bad in just about every way, yet people really love it. It is so popular that it will spawn plenty of sequels and shows copying its already cliche formula that it truly makes me upset. An industry that is already a mecca for unoriginal concepts that virtually just copy one another will just continue to be an industry of looping inspiration and nothing to break up the tedious formula. Eromanga-sensei is truly the worst.

Okay I'm going to be the saving grace of the MAL entry. Everybody only really likes to see positive and negative reviews. So this is going to be a pretty niche one. Kinda why every review for this show is less than a 3 or more than an 8 and I'm going to be the confuting force and say they're both wrong because it's not good or bad. It's the purgatory of mediocrity that is not bad enough for hell but isn't good enough for even a taste of heaven. Now I understand why people give this a high/low score 1) They thoroughly enjoyed it 2) Theyinstantly liked the characters so all the interactions were good for them 3) The anime didn't impress them and usually people don't know how to react to something so middle of the road, so since it didn't impress them it was an instant fail in their book. 4) Every video about this show is like a rant, or a about why it's trash but they love it. I will bring up Oreimo. As the shows have some relation and are made by the same author. I wanna be constructive and see if you can see improvement of the authors work. So there's the preface. Let's get to review. Story: 2/10 The story is just used to get the characters into an entertaining situation. It is stuffed with episodes that have the theme but a shred of the plot. Like this is nothing to write home about. I am extremely happy this slice of life refused a school setting though, as theyre usually pretty boring and extremely cliche. The premise is the lead male, Masamune is a light novel writer who collaborates with an artist he discovers is his shut in step sister he very rarely interacts with. His step mother died and the father is out of the picture. Which gives him a feeling of loneliness. This makes Sagiri and Masamune basically two kids who just happen to live in the same house. Masamune has had very few interactions with Sagiri. Which makes it easier to stomach than Oreimo's romance between siblings. You see with the removal of incest this show loses a very prominent theme Oreimo had which was; what is deemed taboo by society and morality and accepting yourself for who you are and wanting to be what you want. Now I actually like that this theme was removed because even though it gave point to the blood related relationship and the exploration of otaku culture in Oreimo... Kirino and Kyousuke's relationship wasn't written interestingly and felt more like pandering to fetishists. Now the pandering part is debatable BUT Kirino and Kyousuke's romance was unfortunately poorly written. And since Kirino and Kyousuke were so poorly written and unlikable it makes you root against their relationship. As its seen as a very toxic thing that emotionally wounds the cast. It could've been handled so much better. Something about the story that I actually think is good for now is that Sagiri and Masamune don't get together and that creates more opportunities to expand on the dynamic of the relationship. While Sagiri was cute and they could've focused the show on them working their relationship out. I find the route that was taken to be an entertaining one to an extent. Its not always I get to see a seasonal or light novel be ballsy enough to not force in a romantic relationship that is weak and underdeveloped or not have it happen by the end of the show. The reason the story still gets a low score is because despite its premise. The love rectangle(?) is the only thing tying the story together. They go to the beach, there's like a one episode long light novel writing tournament, the plot isn't weaved together very well after episode 6... The drama of the show is kind of forced. For example, Sagiri should cry when opening up to Masa about her mother as she's never let it all out before. Its a sympathetic backstory that justifies why Sagiri lives with Masamune and why she's so shut in and emotionally reserved. It's not handled that well though. I'd say since its a comedy and comedies stories shouldn't always be the breaking point but it's all very cliche in how it plays out and how Masamune rejects other girls and says he loves another. It's not just a comedy, it's still a story and the plot doesn't really have a statement, the story arcs are usually episode length, the pacing is too fast, and gets side tracked a lot. The finale could've also easily have been the story of Sagiri and Masmune's meeting online or could've been the resolution to the climax which was their meeting but the build up falls to nothing and dents the story very heavily. Feeling empty and giving the story no conclusion. With fanservice filler being disappointing finale. It is just an episode of the girls playing lewd twister for Sagiri and them trying to unclothe Masamune. Like I said this show cannot escape the purgatory of mediocrity. And it is because of the botched final episode. Art: 7/10 The palette is a very pastel. It's pretty. The art is important to the comedy as the facial animation on the comedic contortion is executed well so the quick sharpness of the visual reaction is funny. The animation is good and it's very clearly made by A1. A1 is a double edged blade though. As the direction for the scenes and the art sometimes gets cringe worthy. Some of it just being BORINGLY simple. And some of it making me scared someone was gonna walk in. Of course even though I have not fully read the source material, I know these scenes were there so by adapting some of these I cannot blame A1. To get to it... there are several angles that do nothing but show of the bodies of the characters. They sacrifice legitimate scene direction WHICH THEY ARE CAPABLE OF for a nice shot of a girls ass. It's fan service I guess. I'm not gonna not bring it up too much because even though it is a problem, its clearly intentional. Sometimes the direction is unintentionally lacking too but it's not gonna put you to sleep. The character designs are all distinct and some give you a bit of a look into the character's persona. Such as Sagiri herself and Elf Yamada. Sound: 7/10 The voice actors were surprisingly good. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka the voice for characters like Kirito , Otau from Galko, and Hanazawa from Mob Psycho shows how good he is at leading. His acting is great, he's emotive and fun to hear. Akane Fujita despite not having too much experience does great in this role and I'm glad to see her career is only growing. Minami Takahashi is really good to hear again. She's a great actress and I'm glad to see her as a lead in more seasonals. Saori Oonishi was good as Muramasa. (Man its so weird how like all the leads were characters in Galko) Now to the music: Eromanga Sensei has a great op and ed. The Op has good direction, good animation, charm, and is very catchy. The ed while not being directed that well and is just Sagiri dancing is a very high energy, cute, and is honestly a catchy song. Like even if I hated this show I'd still dig the music of the opening and closing. As for the the soundtrack of the show... it's kind of forgettable and repetitive. They have this same song that they always play when it gets "wacky" and it is not enjoyable the 100th time ( and after ) you hear it. It's played sometimes twice an episode. It doesn't help that the other slower pieces aren't half as memorable as this. There's no flavor to the slower energy tracks. It's very standard for the most part. There are exceptions but stick to the op and ed if you wanna listen to music from this show. Characters: 6/10 Every good comedy depends on its characters so I feel like this could have broke Eromanga Sensei's back. The main male lead, Masamune is irritatingly dense and it leads to the plot solely being changed from its route because of his irrational ignorance. His dynamic of not wanting a lover but a family is pivotal for the show and makes Sagiri desire to be more sisterly and put her crush on him to the side to make him happy. We understand he wants a family after he believes he is rejected by Sagiri because of his brother status. He sees how unimportant a sweetheart really is to him in this period of loneliness in his life. Although this makes his motivations very confusing and contrary. As he continues saying there's already a girl he loves to characters like Muramasa and Elf Yamada, referring clearly to Sagiri. But I just came to accept that he wants a step sister who is a sister more than a girlfriend. Masamune himself does have an arc but he begins to stagnate after this and is used more as an outlet for other characters development rather than being his own fully fleshed out lead. It's good the other characters are always more enjoyable than him outside of a comedic situation plus the other characters were also my motivation for continuing the show anyway . Sagiri Izumi, the female lead, is a good character. Nothing truly groundbreaking but her character does have depth. She's lonely and she's had a crush on Masamune since discovering his self insert story when she was young. She hit up Masamune with fan art and he asked for more. She found the positive reassurance in her art from someone she liked to be very motivational. The conflicts in Eromanga Sensei are handled well when they're not forced in cheap drama. Like Sagiri's mom being dead and her lack of an emotional reaction (like tears) when opening up to Masamune about it. Also I guess Sagiri's perversion is entertaining because you wouldn't expect this young girl to be so hardcore about the woman's body and know nothing about the males. Sagiri also does try to improve herself as an artist for her step brother after seeing he needed an illustration of a voluptuous girl. Since didn't want to lose Masamune, she worked hard on illustrations for him. Therefore in her own mind she won Masamune back. Sagiri has a few conflicts with Masamune. She hates death because the person she likes isn't around anymore and she'll never see them again. This is clearly because of the loss of her mother. Though never directly stated. To relate this she spites Masamune for killing off one of her favorite characters in his novel. She learns to accept the character won't come back but it encourages Masamune to strive to make a happier ending for the characters. Because in the end death does not mean permanent unhappiness. She also shames him every time she feels his affection for her is based off physical appearance as her love for him is personal. Sagiri is also immature, she gets jealous and insecure when she's scared Masamune will leave her alone again or move on from her. So her calling out her step brother and wanting his attention may be irritating but it's an understandable and an established part of her character. In conclusion, Sagiri and Masamune are significantly more likable leads than Kirino and Kyousuke. As they are less tedious to watch, less selfish and less destructive to the more likable characters around them (like Kyousuke was to Kuroneko). Sagiri also on her own is a likable character. I literally have not met a person online who didn't love seeing Kirino get punched. The most irritating aspects of the Izumi's characters is that Sagiri is easily made jealous but it is justified as she is an insecure 12 year old and Masamune is a contradictory dumbass. A dumbass you understand and sympathize with but still a dumbass. The relationship here is less awkward as they are basically just roommates. But even though Kirino and Kyousukes relationship was poorly written, the sacrifice of blood relation basically makes the only point of the story to be Masamune waiting to get a gf/family. I want to reiterate while it's on topic... It doesn't have a statement or a controversial theme like Oreimo. Which makes this whole anime blend in to everything else and just feel like there's really no point. Time for the other leads: Elf Yamada is the pretentious, eccentric writer of this show and she was incredibly enjoyable. She rarely opens up to people and has developed a crush on Masamune even though he's the one who looks up to her. She is very supportive of him and even though she will still compete for affection she wants Masamune to be happy. Even if it means she loses the love race. She's a character that wants to show her love but will go with the flow if she's losing the race. Despite being rich she really isn't selfish. Muramasa Senju is secretly a huge fan of Masamune and is introduced during the Light Novel Tenkaichi Budokai. Unlike Masamune and Elf who write for their fans, she writes for herself. The lack of pandering is likely why she has the biggest following of all the main characters. She insensitively intimidates and riles up Masamune in order to get him to write a novel she wants to see him write. She apologized and gives up the competition despite having the bigger following as she understands how much the competition meant to Masamune. She had developed a crush on Masamune and competes for his affection. While she was a cute character she was not as layered as Elf or Sagiri. She didn't get as much exploration either. She has her role in the plot but shes the least fleshed out. Or at least she would've been... Nothing about this character is likable. She could easily be written out entirely. Megumi is the worst part of this show. She has an incredibly poor introduction that I wish I never saw and she wants to manipulate Sagiri just because she wants more popularity. She acts like she is a whore for popularity sake and talks about how much she loves dick. Which brings up the last problem and segment of this show and my review. Comedy: 5/10 The comedy is really trashy. Joking about pornography, and penises, and boobs. And since all the characters are teenagers and Sagiri is a preteen it makes it even more wilder of a ride. This could turn peopple off or since the characters subvert the creepy old male pervert trope in a very basic way it will not effect you. Girls and boys get stripped by a 12 year old pervert girl. This shit gets intense. Now the voice actors make the reactions to a lot of different scenarios funny but the amount of raunchy humor is overwhelming. Like to the extent where you just strap in for the ride. When in the incredibly sexualized situations you'll feel awkward or aroused if that's your thing, I'm judging the anime not you. At least it only happens like once or twice in a single 22 minute episode though. So that's a relief. the voice acting makes the other jokes very entertaining though. It's not all just dirty. But when it wants to be dirty it gets rough. Enjoyment: 5/10 My personal enjoyment didn't matter in this review. Maybe you'll be more adamant with your dislike of something and it'll ruin the show for you. But personally I enjoyed it sometimes. I like some of the characters, music, character designs Conclusion: 5/10 I feel like this is probably the most fair and in depth review of Eromanga Sensei you can get. I'm not saying other reviews are invalidated by mine. I'm simply saying I don't feel like anyone has cared enough about the show to write this thorough a dissection. The shows not good but it's not half as bad as people act like it is. I wanna see it get better. It's a perfectly mediocre show. It could've potentially been one of the best of the season or one of the worst. Beneath the lack luster of the show it has some solid characterization, concepts, art, and amazing voice actors. That's about it though. So even though it was flawed it was nice talking about it. Let's all hope that inevitable season 2 gets even more depth or gets even more memorably raunchier.