Eromanga Sensei / First Impressions

「二人の出会いと未来の兄妹」 (Futari no Deai to Mirai no Kyoudai)
“How They Met and Future Siblings”

I was feeling awfully conflicted about this week’s episode until that sweet, sweet cameo right at the end of the episode. Oh, and MASAMUNE FINALLY DODGED SAGIRI’S DOOR.

General Impressions

Overall, I thought this was a pretty good episode and a pretty darn good episode for all the Sagiri fans out there. Instead of your typical flashback episode, it was nice to see the story jump back and forth between the past and the present as it tried to paint a clear picture of what brought Masamune and Sagiri to the point that they’re at right now. From glimpses of both their parents to watching the pair fangirl over each other without realizing they were actually fangirling over each other, it felt like we were taking a leisurely cruise down memory lane. One of the biggest things for me though had to be when we found out Sagiri already had a problem leaving her room. If we’re being honest, I never really liked the whole “I’ve experienced trauma so I won’t leave the house” idea. Not only does it undersell the value of a character, it also paints them as someone who gave up and I personally can’t stand quitters in anime. But if that same character was already like that in the past and the trauma just pushed things to the breaking point, it turns into a unique trait that you can hope they’ll eventually break free from. Which for me personally was a welcome surprise since I’ve been trying to find a good reason to like Sagiri.

That said, on a personal level, I was really disappointed with this week’s episode. As someone who is still fighting for this show to have a rebound, I’m not sure it has enough time left to do so. With a prime opportunity to really tug at our heartstrings and really set things up for the “official” pairing, we were instead given a lukewarm explanation behind Masamune’s first light novel whose first fan just happened to be Sagiri. And not only did the flashbacks lack a big emotional hit, the pacing of it all felt so slow that I was concerned the timeclock on my media player was running at half speed. All-in-all, I was hoping for a lot more than we got and I think it’s a shame since there was so much potential.

So, with only a few episodes left before the end to our Eromanga sensei shenanigans, I’m really hoping something special happens soon. Luckily, with all the main girls out of the way, maybe the story will finally be able to return to its normal format and have everyone interacting together. In any case, I’ll catch you guys next week. See you then!

P.S. THAT CAMEO AT THE END WAS PURE GOLD. God, when I saw Kirino’s hair, I think I almost fell off of my chair. But then to also see Kuroneko, Saori, AND KYOSUKE? God, I nearly died when Kyosuke and Masamune made eye contact since it was like the same character staring at each other. Man, if there’s one thing Eromanga sensei is good at doing, it’s using its other IP to get us all riled up.

End Card

27 Comments

  2. The Imouto Cinematic Universe is starting! (inter-related anime universe where MCs have little sisters whose smiles must be protected). Haha. The best thing about the cameo is that it’s canon from the Oreimo PoV – this happens post Kirino x Kyosuke ending.

    Okabe_Rintarou
    Reply

  4. Neat bit of trivia: that scene where Kyousuke looks at Masamune is apparently a scene from the Ore Imo light novels. Something about Kyousuke seeing a weird guy walking around with a tablet.

    Aside from the Ore Imo fanservice, I was pretty cold towards this episode. It heaped another contrivance on the setting which is darn lazy.

    Snippy
    Reply

  6. those cameo appearances from oreimo surely make everyone of us happy… to see kuroneko 2 times (in TV and now), and now kirino is like a gift to us who followed oreimo. i just really hope eromanga makes an OVA where everyone meets up. just like how REZERO and KONOSUBA got a crossover

    PS — now, I WANT AYASE (saori hayami) to show up. its not fair that kanako (via those advertisment tarps(?) in building), and those computer club nerds got a bit of appearance but AYASE dont get even just 2 secs of cameo appearance

    Jeffers
    Reply

  7. I don’t see the problem with things being “contrived”. This is drama (in the classical sense), so of course it’s contrived – the author creates the characters and the setting in order to achieve the desired dramatic purpose, be it tragic or comic, and any consideration of how realistic anything might be is secondary.

    It’s like food, when you taste a particularly good flavour in a dish, you don’t complain about how unlikely it is that a specific herb or spice could have fallen into it during preparation, you compliment the chef on having put it in.

    Angelus
    Reply

  13. The problem with the whole thing about Sagiri just choosing to be a shut-in as opposed to there being some sort of trauma that lead to it is that the present time made out Sagiri to somehow be “incapable” of leaving her room herself unless she REALLY pushes herself to do so (they even show this at the very beginning of this episode) which, of course, would lead one to believe it must have been something that really mentally and emotionally affected her that made her that way.

    However, the flashbacks clearly showed that Sagiri was more than capable of not only leaving her bedroom (shown numerous times outside of it), but even easily leaving on her own whenever she wanted with her actually leaving and going to her school and such after chatting with Masamune, so it makes all that “drama” in the present involving Sagiri being a shut-in, like with Megumi and her attempts to get Sagiri to come out, or Sagiri pushing herself just to leave to do her own laundry, completely pointless in the end.

    It’s pretty inconsistent and contradictory of how her character was presented. Even an explanation as little as her becoming shy because of moving to a new neighborhood, into a new house, with a new sibling and such would have been better overall.

    And even with all the flashbacks, I’m still just not getting any sort of feeling of “development” with Sagiri given…well…all of that was in the past, not done at the present like with Emily and Hana. Hell, the story with the flashbacks is pretty much JUST LIKE Hana’s development from her episode; being an anonymous fan who truly enjoyed Masamune’s stories. The only real difference being that, unlike Sagiri, Hana didn’t have constant, indirect contact with Masamune.

    As I mentioned last episode, it feels like this is more or less just handing Sagiri the win rather than Masamune and Sagiri “earning” such a relationship like Emily and Hana did. Like, whatever even became of Masamune’s next big story that he and Sagiri were going to work on together and that he had been sent to do all that “research” for while on that trip? That could easily have been used as a way to give them mutual development. Instead, it seems like we’re just being expected to cheer for Sagiri to win based on little more than moe factor or whatever.

    So I’m still completely on the Emily ship unless there’s another season that really makes up for it.

    HalfDemonInuyasha
    Reply

      1. First of all, that’s never actually explained in the anime itself (you can’t expect everyone to have read the source material beforehand). We’re only left to assume such a possibility, but it’s never actually confirmed or denied in the anime. That’s a failure of both show AND tell and only further works against the series.

        Second of all, that may be a reason for a short-term bout of depression and holing up in one’s room, but to do so for as long as Sagiri did? And even with her mother’s death, how does that explain her just never leaving the room at all, to where she had to push herself just to do her own laundry and to even greet Masamune at the front door? Unless she was just SO clingy to her mother that her mother being at home is the very reason why she chose to never leave, then I don’t see why her mother’s death would result in such an extreme situation. If there is a deeper reason, then again, the anime doesn’t bother trying to show or tell it.

        I’m not trying to sound insensitive as I’ve lost very close relatives when I was a young child which made me hole up in my room, depressed and grieving, but only for a couple days at most, not for over a year, and if I did try to remain holed up like that, there would certainly be MUCH more of attempt by people to get me to come out rather than just 2-3 lighthearted tries, then everyone just accepting it and start bringing me food and everything.

        HalfDemonInuyasha
        Reply

  15. From glimpses of both their parents to watching the pair fangirl over each other without realizing they were actually fangirling over each other, it felt like we were taking a leisurely cruise down memory lane.

    It’s pretty heavily implied that the only person who doesn’t realize this is Masamune: especially when Sagiri straight out name-checks his first novel to start the entire flashback. Which is why Sagiri gets so frustrated with him all the time and puts a lot of other earlier events – “I already love someone”, “From the beginning he was mine!” – into a different perspective.

    Dave
    Reply

  20. Ep 12: (some kind of my own review)

    Eromanga-sensei…. Your most ecchi and sexy thoughts in your mind will boiling a lot of steam, in this Episode. Muramasa-sensei’s “save” was really well played. Seems like the Director not only worked on sexy and ecchi pictures, but also in how to show it to us, without breaking rules…

    My guts feeling are saying that the manga-ka is a female. Because all ecchi and sexy scenes was not “showing” just flesh, no they also keep their innocent. Most “dirty thoughts” just happen inside the viewers mind, and i think this is Eromanga-sensei Manga and Anime Secret. They do not cross the line, and even if they are about to trans pass it, they play a reasonable “save” card…

    Well Played

    Also, the body where drawn realistic, that also help a lot here. view in the right angel and so on, as if the Manga-ka made take pictures from himself/herself as reference

    10/10, without crossing the Border like some “Deadly Sin” light Hentai anime

    or in other words, if your Parents get inside your room while you watching, you do not need to become red of shaming 🙂

    Worldwidedepp
    Reply

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