After last week’s episode of Oreimo, where I continued to emphasize my disappointment with the show, I was advised that I should quit “torturing” myself – that I should drop it. But despite all my issues with the series, there’s one particular thing that keeps bringing me back – I really like most of the characters on this show. This week’s episode focused on Ayase – one of the show’s most surprising characters. She really cracks me up.
Ayase, who like Kirino, fronts with a “perfect girl” vibe, quickly becomes jealous when her best friend is more eager to spend time with her video game girlfriend than with her. In turn, Kyousuke tells Ayase that she should be like the Love Plus Love Touch girl, spouting similar lines in similar ways.
Of course, Kirino finds this…creepy. And in the end, despite Ayase’s breakdown, this is exactly the answer she wants, isn’t it? Kirino is telling her – don’t be like this other (digital) girl – be yourself. I love you as you.
In relationships, it’s easy to get into the mode of trying to change for someone else to gain their approval – even in long-last relationships, particularly when some challenge comes along. This isn’t to say we shouldn’t change – life is about growth and in a friendship or romantic relationships, we should grow for the sake of the other person. But as with Ayase, we shouldn’t change our very personalities to appease someone else.
When it comes to God, the normal thing, perhaps, is to try to please Him by changing ourselves. More on the point, we may do good deeds to try to curry favor, or maybe in terms that anime fans are likely to relate to, to redeem ourselves (see Kenshin or Trigun or a variety of other series). But God loves our for who we are. We will grow and we will become more loving people – this should be true of any healthy relationship. But our personality, our humor, our quirks – these things that define us remain the same, and they are accepted and loved by the Father.
Even if we have yandere tendencies.
Glad you’re sticking with the series! Looking forward to some more insightful posts.
Yeah, I’m sure I’ll see it all the way through. I’m much too invested in the characters by this point to abandon it!
[…] on Beneath the Tangles has been posting about struggling to get into the second season of Oreimo, a series I hadn’t heard of before. Partly out of sympathy, partly out of desire for new […]
I finally got to watching this. I don’t know man, this episode had a lot of bad things.
The scene where he’s at the dinner table and his family is ignoring him to talk to Kirino actually hurt; it’s fifteen episodes (+ 4 I can’t see) and he seems to be getting worse. The scene where he actually berated Manami over Love Touch was bad, because she’s really the only thing he has good for him without drawbacks. And he actually came across as creepy without misunderstanding when he dealt with Ayase too.
Ayase-it seems they want you to take that she has a yandere vibe, but Kirino is ignoring her to her face over a text from a video game. It’s weird, because for all the showing of the otaku here, it’s starting to come across that being an otaku is actually bad for you rather than a facet of a personality.
Kind of like your point; Kyou suggests Ayase changing because Kirino is actually changing him too, so he becomes another otaku for her to talk to. It’s not a matter of patching a relationship, but she seems to be dominating him.
Thanks for the great insight! If I was smart (or had time…or enough interest, hehe), I would have watched the first season again before coming into this one, knowing that it was possible I would blog the second season on a regular basis. I’m glad to get your comments particularly since the show is so fresh in your mind.