Looks like we’ve settled into the main theme of the series: trolling the hell out of Chiwa.

What They Say:
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The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The first episode of Oreshura set things up pretty plainly for a series of its kind. We got the catalyst for all the future events, but were left with no real idea of how the series would use that concept or what those events would be. Of course, with no more real setup to do, this episode can get right into that, and maybe give us idea of a trend that will continue for at least the first part of the series.

The only thing that obviously had to happen as soon as possible was Chiwa confronting Eita and Masuzu about their supposed new relationship, and there’s certainly no time wasted on that front, dealing with the issue nearly as soon as the episode begins. However, it also seemed pretty likely that her jealousy would be a central part of the story, and that works out pretty much exactly as expected. Chiwa and Eita are childhood friends; she needs to be around him at all times, she can’t let him be taken away by this random girl, etc. I thought that Chiwa might end up being little more than an obnoxious obstruction of the potential for better storytelling, but as it turns out, the degree to which Masuzu uses her childishness and obliviousness to her advantage actually makes for a delightful little comedic theme.

Once Masuzu invites Chiwa to her club to make her more popular, the fun really starts. Masuzu whips out Eita’s chuunibyou notebook and treats it as a bible, spouting out his ridiculous nonsense with sarcastic conviction that Chiwa totally takes to heart, using its word as gospel to increase her own popularity, while Masuzu sits back and tries not to die of laughter. There are loads of great references thrown in here, like when Masuzu tells Chiwa that, to be a true (fake) “guitarist”, she has to pretend she only likes Western music, and when Chiwa says she’s not familiar with any, Masuzu tells her just to list off the names of Stands from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Although she got this idea from Eita’s notebook, Chiwa having never heard of JoJo’s seems to offend Masuzu so much that she may in fact be a closet otaku, something I wasn’t entirely expecting, and something that could provide a great source of humor in the future, especially for those of us who love those kinds of references. Of course, Chiwa’s actions are hilarious in every way: how they succeed with unlikely specification, how they fail in such a grand way, and how far Chiwa takes things when she becomes overwhelmed by the results. And of course, Masuzu is living it up at Chiwa’s expense, making it all a very amusing scene to see.

There is a little bit of seriousness sprinkled in there for good measure as well. Chiwa has probably been the most consistently used for comedy relief of the main cast so far, or at least to a more ridiculous extent, but we start to learn that there’s more to her character than that, and like most of this series, it’s very unoriginal, but the ideas are still presented impressively enough.

In Summary:
After a good enough setup episode, we start to see where the story plans to head with everything in place. Chiwa’s interference was expected, and in some ways not entirely appreciated, but Masuzu makes up for this by taking advantage of the situation to keep Chiwa busy and keep things very entertaining in the process. Fortunately, this entertainment carries over to the audience pretty well. There’s still not much originality, but at least the execution makes up for it.

Grade: B-

Streamed By: Crunchyroll

Review Equipment:
Custom-Built PC, 27” 1080p HDTV.