Eromanga-sensei

One year ago, Sagiri Izumi became step-siblings with Masamune Izumi. But the sudden death of their parents tears their new family apart, resulting in Sagiri becoming a shut-in which cut her off from her brother and society.

While caring for what's left of his family, Masamune earns a living as a published light novel author with one small problem: he's never actually met his acclaimed illustrator, Eromanga-sensei, infamous for drawing the most lewd erotica. Through an embarrassing chain of events, he learns that his very own little sister was his partner the whole time!

As new characters and challenges appear, Masamune and Sagiri must now face the light novel industry together. Eromanga-Sensei follows the development of their relationship and their struggle to become successful; and as Sagiri slowly grows out of her shell, just how long will she be able to hide her true persona from the rest of the world?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Izumi, Sagiri Main

Fujita, Akane Japanese

Izumi, Masamune Main

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Yamada, Elf Supporting

Takahashi, Minami Japanese

Senju, Muramasa Supporting

Oonishi, Saori Japanese

Jinno, Megumi Supporting

Kido, Ibuki Japanese

Takasago, Tomoe Supporting

Ishikawa, Yui Japanese

Sagiri's Mother Supporting

Iguchi, Yuka Japanese

Gokou, Hinata Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Yamada, Chris Supporting

Yamashita, Seiichirou Japanese

Shidou, Kunimitsu Supporting

Shimazaki, Nobunaga Japanese

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Kananiwa, Kozue Producer

Miki, Kazuma Producer

Niwa, Masami Producer

Reviews

Jun 24, 2017

HaXXspetten

Recommended

I don't normally tend to point fingers at people, but just this once I feel like I need to get some things off my chest here.

Almost every single season nowadays, it seems there has to be a scapegoat. An anime which you are somehow obliged to publically hate on or you'll be looked down upon by the community and no one will take you seriously. I'm honestly sick of this kind of group pressure/bandwagon mentality. We're now halfway through the year 2017 and yet hating on popular stuff over the internet is somehow still considered to be the coolest and best thing since sliced bread. ... *Especially* when it's gross, creepy and immoral shit made for closet pedos, am I right? Shows like this really bring out the most toxic sides of the anime community.

When you have an anime which totally wears its heart on its sleeve and doesn't try to hide its true intentions in any way, why is it that so many people seemingly insist on still making themselves watch it even when it's clear as day that they're not going to like it and that they're not part of the target audience? Eromanga-sensei is one of the most blatantly polarizing series in the last few seasons, and quite frankly you should be able to easily figure out whether you will enjoy it or not just from reading the synopsis and by considering the fact that it is written by the same author as Oreimo.

In short, Eromanga-sensei features the following:
- A glimpse into the life of a young, aspiring light novel author in Japan
- Lots of references to other anime, light novels, the industry itself and more
- Pseudo-incestuous relationship themes (they're not actually blood-related)
- Somewhat trope-filling and eccentric characters
- Cutesy moe-style heroines
- Frequent suggestive shots of various middle school girls
- An abundance of romcom clichés and sexual gags
- Memes
- Cameos of characters from Oreimo
- The perfect setup for providing tons of juicy ero-fanart and doujins

Now if you have a problem with several of these themes, you don't need to watch this anime. It really isn't any more complicated than that. It is clearly not for you, and you don't need to go out of your way to force yourself to watch it just so you can go on a lengthy rant afterwards about how trashy it is, how it is "pandering to otaku", label it as "pedo-bait" or anything along those lines. If you're not even part of an anime's target demographic then quite frankly you have no business trash-talking it for not adhering to your own standards—the problem lies entirely on your end in that case. Criticizing an anime for its execution is logical—criticizing an anime for merely belonging to a certain genre is not. You don't need to go on the aggressive from the safe place behind your monitor just to feel better about yourself. If your sole reason for watching an anime is to make fun of and insult the people enjoying it, you really need to get your priorities straight. Even more curious are some comments I've seen basically saying "i-it's not like I enjoy watching this terrible anime or anything, don't get the wrong idea, baka!", as if implying that either their morals or the group pressure is preventing them from admitting to themselves that they actually like it. Give me a break already.

On the other hand, as someone who actually does enjoy those kinds of themes and absolutely loves imoutos in general, Eromanga-sensei is a pretty solid anime that does just about all the simplistic things I could ask of it. It's cute, light-hearted, decently funny at times, has a lot of sexy shots of ero-kawaii and energetic moe girls, and is just plain fun and enjoyable in general. And as a result, what you have is a thoroughly entertaining anime despite everything. Yes, that is in fact all that's needed, as shocking as that might be for some people to believe.

In short, Eromanga-sensei follows the lives of a high school light novel author named Izumi Masamune and his hikikomori little sister Sagiri, who somewhat secretly works as an erotic illustrator for his novels amongst other things under the pen name Eromanga-sensei. The story follows both their struggles with their respective jobs as well as their relationship with each other as step siblings. There are also a number of other girls involved in one way or another, primarily the eccentric Yamada Elf who is also a top-selling light novel author, as well as the even more successful Senju Muramasa who on top of being an author is also Masamune's biggest fan. There's also Sagiri's pushy classmate Jinno Megumi who keeps trying to find ways to convince Sagiri to leave her room and go to school for once. It's a simple setup overall, but it serves as an easy way to get the protagonist and the various girls intimately involved with each other on both a personal and professional level, which is a good thing since the main selling point of Eromanga-sensei is the characters' interactions with each other.

As you can probably tell, it is all quite similar to Oreimo in not just the incestuous themes but the type of chemistry between the main characters and the side characters as well. And as it happens, they generally fulfill somewhat similar roles too. Just like Kirino, Sagiri is here the otaku imouto with a rather perverted hobby who is also quite obviously in love with her Onii-chan. In terms of personality though, they're very different from each other. Whereas Kirino was an outgoing honors student and a rather extreme tsundere, Sagiri is shy, reclusive and more of a dandere than anything, and she gets embarrassed easily whenever she's not hiding behind the mask of her online Eromanga-sensei persona. But perhaps most importantly, just like Kirino, Sagiri is incredibly sexy. The vast majority of the show's fanservice is centered on her in the form of various suggestive shots of her inside her room, but it's done in a rather smooth and natural way so it doesn't feel out of place. It's the type of eroticism which greatly enhances an anime's enjoyment value in my mind; the kind that makes you repeatedly pause the video to rape the screenshot button for academic purposes. I appreciate it quite a lot. It's no wonder that Sagiri has already been crowned the clear ero-fanart queen of the season by the Japanese portion of the internet, as is quite evident if you go visit just about any major anime image board at the moment (which is also a bit ironic considering that drawing such pictures is literally what Sagiri does for a living herself).

Similarly, if Sagiri is supposed to be "the new" Kirino, then you'd also have to argue that Elf is the new Kuroneko. Elf is the energetic and weird yet funny girl of the show, being an immensely talented writer but also a rather lazy one who only sees her work as a hobby, and thus only writes whenever she feels like it, much to the dismay of her editors. Furthermore, she's also a bit of a chuuni nutcase who consistently does stupid things for the amusement of all. As a result, while she's not quite as sexualized as Sagiri is, overall I would still say Elf is the most likable and entertaining girl of Eromanga-sensei due to how enjoyable her personality is. In other words it's pretty much the same story as with Oreimo where (in my opinion) Kuroneko was ultimately the best girl even though Kirino was sexy as hell. For all the old Ayase fans out there though, I'm sorry to say but there isn't really a replacement for her in Eromanga-sensei. Instead we have Muramasa taking the role of the third love rival, but she's not particularly similar. If anything she's the most publically affectionate towards Masamune out of the trio, but for rather... questionable reasons.

As far as the story itself goes, the viewers are pretty much told from the beginning that this will eventually head down the pseudo-incest route as Masamune and Sagiri are evidentially in love with each other and Masamune makes it quite clear on numerous occasions that she is the only girl he has eyes for. While he is still a little bit dense at times, Masamune at least has the guts to confess that he is in love with Sagiri from quite early on in the series, which is pretty commendable considering their relationship. However, it will probably take a while before that ship really sets sail, because in this (first?) season alone, there isn't really much in the way of romantic progression beyond that confession. It is more of a standard romcom in terms of execution thus far, but certainly not a bad one. Meanwhile we also have the ongoing subplot of the siblings trying to create the supposed "greatest light novel ever" together where Masamune writes the story and Sagiri draws the illustrations. It reminds me a bit of Bakuman in that sense, but of course it's not quite as forefront about it here. However, this subplot is most certainly something that really asks for a sequel one day.

Perhaps the biggest problem with Eromanga-sensei though is that despite everything, Masamune and Sagiri aren't actually blood-related. The main appeal of incest in anime to me is the general taboo feeling of it, you know: "it's forbidden, therefore it's exciting" and all. Making them step-siblings instead is thus both a bit of a boner-killer as well as a cop-out move by the author, and it kind of feels like the anime goes out of its way to remind the audience of this annoying fact a few too many times. However, if you're familiar with the infamous ending of Oreimo and more importantly the backstory behind why that happened in the first place, this was most likely a conscious decision by the author in order to make sure the same thing won't happen a second time around. Oreimo was kind of ruined by its terrible ending, so having the knowledge that at least Eromanga-sensei won't suffer the same fate is a bit of a relief. I just wish he didn't have to sacrifice part of the show's main appeal to ensure this part, but I guess SJWs are unfortunately just that powerful in today's society.

You probably shouldn't compare everything to Oreimo though—after all this is just as much of a standalone work as that was—but considering that even the main characters of Oreimo makes appearances in Eromanga-sensei, they're not only similar but evidentially also take place in the same universe and time span. For what it's worth though, minus its ending I would still probably say Oreimo was slightly better not only because of the blood-relation issue, but there was also more of a struggle there due to Kirino's conservative father being fully against her otaku hobbies, whereas in Eromanga-sensei, Masamune's parents are both conveniently absent from their house. It all feels a bit easier in Eromanga-sensei, which is not inherently a bad thing mind you but I think it makes it a little bit less unique. Then again, as they say: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

As far as the production values goes, the animation (done by A-1 Pictures) is... okay, I guess? Nothing out of the ordinary but enough for the girls to always look attractive, which is about all that's required in this case. On top of that, both the OP and ED of Eromanga-sensei are honestly great; they're both incredibly catchy tunes that easily stand out as among the best from this season.

Overall, Eromanga-sensei is a simplistic, cliché and quite lewd romcom which will surely turn off a lot of people due to its themes, but it excels at doing the exact things it sets out to do for its own specific target audience, and thus at least for me it was one of the more enjoyable shows of the season.

I also find it a bit ironic how other shows like New Game for example (which I also really liked) get to receive general praise from the community for doing nothing but showing cute moe girls working in the entertainment media industry, mixed with comedy and fanservice, yet Eromanga-sensei is receiving so much hate for doing basically the exact same thing? Hypocrisy at its finest. Are the incest themes really *that* big of a deal? Or is it the supposed ages of the girls? I mean really now? I can't help but feel legitimately sorry for people who let something like that ruin their enjoyment of an anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Aug 26, 2017

Kak1

Mixed Feelings

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) They ... instantly 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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jun 24, 2017

Veronin

Not Recommended

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 make ... a 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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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I'd rather watch Krusty the Clown in HD from The Simpsons

by NaruMembrane

43 Entries · 1 Restacks

PTW 11/21

by nlfz

45 Entries · 1 Restacks

Sibling Romance, Incest and Moe - Tier 3

by TrustTheFungus

22 Entries · 19 Restacks

Q2 2019 Anime & Manga Licenses [Update 6/13]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime and manga licensed in the first quarter (April-June) of 2019. Spring 2019 anime which were licensed be...read more

Apr 2, 2019 10:30 AM by Snow | Discuss (21 comments)

North American Anime & Manga Releases for August

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for August Week 1: August 7 - August 13 Anime releases Black Clover Part 1 Blu-ray & DVD Combo Digimon Adv...read more

Aug 6, 2018 2:33 PM by Sakana-san | Discuss (0 comments)

	Poll: Eromanga-sensei Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Apr 29, 2017	166 replies	by MaybeKris »» Nov 13, 11:49 PM
	Poll: Eromanga-sensei Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Jun 24, 2017	333 replies	by Kingofallkings »» Nov 12, 7:50 PM
	Poll: Eromanga-sensei Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Apr 15, 2017	206 replies	by zDjent »» Jul 30, 6:16 PM
	Poll: Eromanga-sensei Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Jun 17, 2017	218 replies	by animetian »» Jul 6, 2:16 PM
	Poll: Eromanga-sensei Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jun 10, 2017	119 replies	by Matheus050 »» Jun 17, 1:36 PM

In Numbers: The Best Anime of the Decade

What's the #1 anime of the 2010s? Which year was the best? What studio had the most hits? We have the answers to all these questions and more!

by Shymander

645,782 views

Prominent Singers and Voice Actors Gather at Animelo Summer Live 2019

We've got all the details and lots of photos to share from the world's largest anisong event!

by MAL_editing_team

28,342 views