Dreaming Sagiri and Summer Fireworks
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):
I believe I have mentioned it before, but I don’t particularly like main protagonists in romance anime. The reason is because they’re stupid. This doesn’t just apply to the heroes like Masamune, but also to the heroines like Sagiri. At the beginning of this episode, Masamune once again tells Sagiri that she is the person he loves the most, that he loves her. And Sagiri? Well, she flips out and tells him that he’s stupid. She neither confirms nor denies his feelings. Thus, this ridiculous romance is extended.
The problem is that it doesn’t have to be.
If these two openly communicated with each other, expressed their feelings honestly, and came to terms, this entire issue would be a non-issue. I do understand that expressing your feelings is sometimes difficult. However, the hardest part in confessing to someone is telling them how you feel because you’re afraid they won’t like you back. That isn’t the case here. Masamune loves Sagiri. He has confessed several times. Sagiri might be a shut-in, but that shouldn’t make either accepting or denying his love for her too difficult. The entire romance revolving around these two is being purposely forced into this stagnant loop, detracting from the romantic focus of this anime.
Leaving the idiocy of these two aside, I do admit that it was fun watching Sagiri go through her daily routine after Masamune was gone. It also felt realistic. I could imagine a shut-in acting the same way she did as she went about locking doors, closing curtains, and waiting for the delivery guy to leave. Actually, watching Sagiri wait for the delivery man to leave, only to discover that he had come to deliver an erotic figurine she bought, had been one of this episodes highlights for me.
One of the main focuses of this story is the way the dynamics between characters change. Sagiri and Masamune aside, it seems Masamune’s relationship with Yamada and Muramasa are constantly shifting. The same holds true for the relationship with Yamada and Sagiri, and the one between Yamada and Muramasa. All sense of romantic tension may have evaporated, but if nothing else, I’m pleased that character relationships outside of the main pairing are constantly evolving.
There were a few surprises in this episode. Cameos. The second greatest highlight of this episode was the appearance of several well-known fictional characters: Tatsuya (The Irregular at Magic High School), Holo (Spice & Wolf), Kirito (Sword Art Online), and Kuroneko/Guri who is actually a character from My Little Sister Can’t be This Cute?!, which is another light novel written by the same author as Eromanga Sensei. It was kind of fun seeing these characters, especially Kuroneko, who was my favorite in the Oreimo series.
In Summary:
This episode had a lot of mixed feelings for me. I liked some parts and hated others. The most interesting were, of course, the dynamics of the characters surrounding Masamune. The most frustrating part of this episode was watching the way Masamune and Sagiri dance around each other. I’m beginning to think that this series would be better off if they just forgot about romance entirely now. I’ve seen the stagnating forced romance too many times to be interested in it.
Grade: C+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
