Oreimo Season 2

Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga nai Season 2:  B

For those of you with short memories or who haven't read the entirety of my reviews, the series' title translates to "My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute," and I gave the first season a B.  It was better than I'd been expecting.

A good second season, deepens and adds complexity to the relationships between the characters and give us a greater sense of depth and development.  And in that sense, Oreimo's second season succeeds.  For the most part, we learn the motivations and desires of each of the characters, and not too many new characters are introduced to dilute the action.

You may notice I'm not praising it particularly strongly.

Oreimo, both seasons, are not bad.  They are in fact, good, and there are a number of situations and scenes that I really, really liked.

But a lot of it is uninspired.  What started out as an interesting story about otakuism, coming out, and trying to make things work with your family evolves into a harem series.  A harem series with minimal fan service, well-written situations and high production values, but ultimately feeling weak due to the series' need to give every girl her own shot at the main character.  Several gain leads, and the interactions of the girls are humorous, characterful and interesting by turns, but the series vacillates a little too hard between comedic violence and serious characterization for my tastes.

If you liked the first season, you'll like the second.  The characterization continues, there are a number of truly excellent situations (the Kuroneko arc in the middle of the series is one of the most brilliant I've seen anywhere), and frankly, you'll probably have a difficult time criticizing it unless you're just not into otaku jokes or have been spoiled by truly amazing character development and writing.  If you were on the fence about the first season, the second will push you into liking it if you fixate on the high points and hating it if you fixate on the low points.  If you didn't like the first season, the second definitely won't fix everything for you.