Oreshura

There’s a wide and deep vocabulary of visual metaphors (gags by a fancier name) for anime comedies that really takes a long time to totally grasp. There’s the obvious stuff like nose-bleeds and enormous sweat beads, of course, but then there are more subtle flourishes - - like when the color totally drops out to signify a character’s mortification. Most of the time, I’m really not a fan of this stuff (especially chibi), but I’ll tip my hat today to ORESHURA, since the moment captured above is definitely the best use of this particular gag I’ve seen so far.

In short… I LOL’ed.

These high school romances really start blurring together after a while (I literally just watched another show about a boy and girl having some semi-fantastical meet cute in the back corner of class), and it speaks to just how similar they are that the most notable difference I see in ORESHURA is that the kids’ uniforms are blue.

Actually, I do think the premise of this would be comparatively easier to transplant into an American high school flick. Give the leads’ aversion to “love” a better translation - - specifying it as an aversion to “dating,” perhaps - - and it could fit on some three decade slide taking us from RISKY BUSINESS to… say… SHE’S ALL THAT. Hell, this really does feel like the first ten minutes of set-up for a breezy romcom, and yeah, I’d be down for it.

The leads actually do have more observed characterizations. Specifically, I did appreciate how the girl really does seem like she’ll grow up into an ice-hearted femme fatale and how the guy sees right through her assorted attempts to play him. (Indeed, you’ve got to wonder if the rest of the series is going to get more raw; since she’s so predatory, you’ve got to figure that this "fake boyfriend" thing is really more so she can have a pretext to cover up her sleeping around). At the least, we’re not getting yet another custom-made masturbatory fantasy which the hapless lead character somehow doesn’t know how to handle.

Watch this episode, " The Start of My High School Life is a Battleground” here and decide for yourself.

Tom Pinchuk’s a writer and personality with a large number of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - - tompinchuk.com - - and follow his Twitter: @tompinchuk

The only thing I know about this show is that Masuzu is obsessed with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and refers to it by name constantly, which makes her a-okay in my book (every other forum I read mostly hates her and thinks the show is dull).

I.... I might actually have to start watching this one. It actually looks really interesting. And here I thought romcom anime had grown stale.

Pilot wasnt bad. But it falls off for me so much i stoped watching after 3. Its like they wanted to do Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! but could not go the distance. Could been i started to really not like the "girlfriend" an the male lead to so that left the child hood friend .. an that seemed like he was not much of a friend to her by leting the "girlfirend" embarrash her so mutch.

Maybe ill go back to it some day an watch again but 3 an done for me :/