Little Sister and the Most Interesting Novel in the World
What they say:
Masamune Izumi is a high school student who writes light novels. Sagiri Izumi is a shut-in who never leaves her room. A year ago, she became Masamune’s little sister. But one day, Masamune discovers a shocking twist—The artist “Eromanga Sensei,” who has been drawing illustrations for his novels, is none other than his little sister Sagiri! His cute little shut-in of a sister, who has been living under his roof, is using an obscene pen name and draws lewd illustrations?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Queue dramatic pause. Put on your irony caps, people. Episode 7 of Eromanga Sensei is a doozy. It starts off after the shocking reveal that the girl who was introduced in the last episode was actually Senju Muramasa, the current top-ranked light novel author working in the same publishing press as Masamune. Not only that, but for reasons that only she understands, Muramasa is determined to get in Masamune’s way. She even outright stated that she’s going to crush Masamune’s dream. This naturally results in Masamune challenging Muramasa to a light novel writing contest, thus paving the way for this episode’s isolated story arc.
This episode does a good job of showing off the strong points of its characters. Sagiri’s shut-in act is exceedingly adorable, especially when Yamada shows up, but the fact that she lets Yamada into her room shows that she’s getting better at being around people. And speaking of Elf Yamada, she’s in fine form. While her role in this is mostly a mover that helps the plot move forward, watching her instruct Masamune in how to write a proper light novel was great fun, especially when she found a character in his book who was modeled after her.
While those two characters had a lot of screen time, Masamune was the one who was highlighted the most. While there’s a lot about Masamune that I don’t like, such as his blatant stupidity and denseness, I can appreciate his determination if nothing else. He’s not the kind of guy who’ll just sit on his laurels. He takes action and commits himself even when faced with overwhelming opposition. Masamune is still an irrevocable idiot, but at least he’s an idiot who doesn’t give up.
The biggest surprise in this episode, however, is Muramasa, the rival. In the first part of this episode, Muramasa comes across as a bitch—pardon my French. She’s not only rude, but we learn that she has been specifically interfering with Masamune’s ability to publish a light novel. She even went so far as to take the publication time slot that had originally been his in the hopes of crushing his dreams. Needless to say, I didn’t like her at first.
That sort of changes during the second half. While Masamune is writing his light novel, Muramasa shows up at his door in a school girl uniform, apparently hoping to garner favor from him via her outfit because she heard from her editor that boys like girls in school girl uniforms. She has a proposal. She wants Masamune to work for her. She also accuses Masamune of being the reason she can’t write anymore.
Muramasa is an interesting character from a story point of view. In terms of plot, Muramasa was placed within this anime for two reasons: to be Masamune’s rival—which is probably why she was given the name Muramasa who was said to be Masamune’s rival in Japanese legends and mythology—and to represent a different way of writing. Masamune writes for money. Elf Yamada writes for fame. Muramasa writes for herself. All of these reasons for writing our valid, but people have always debated on this particular subject. Some state writing for money is wrong and makes you unartistic, while others take a more logical approach. This is probably why Muramasa is Masamune’s rival as opposed to Elf Yamada, who’s goal of fame is often considered just as “unartistic” as Masamune’s desire to make money.
In Summary:
Episode 7 was probably the strongest episode by far. It showcased the strengths of all the characters, especially Masamune and Sagiri (towards the end). Not only that, but Masamune gets confessed to by Muramasa at the end, who, in an ironic twist, confessed to him the same way he confessed to Sagiri during his battle with Elf Yamada. Perhaps even more ironic, he responds to the confession with the same words Sagiri gave him—except this time, there’s no mistaking that Masamune loves someone else.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
