Osamake: Romcom Where the Childhood Friend Won't Lose

rehoshi★ 3

A failed attempt at an amazing concept. Initially when looking at the shows I was potentially going to watch this Spring 2021 season, this show’s title caught me by the corner of my eye. ‘Osananajimi ga Zettai ni Makenai Love Comedy’ or otherwise known as, ‘Osakmake: The Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won’t Lose’. Sounds amusingly interesting, right? I’m sure everyone who has watched a handful amount of harem type shows has felt the pain of the childhood friend getting surprised sucker punched at the end of the series by another heroine. Osamake’s concept was supposed to be different though: “A romcom where the childhood friend won’tlose!”, is what author, Shuichi Nimaru, thought of when creating this genius idea. Or so we thought. Shortly into the series, we learn that all of the heroines are the main protagonist’s childhood friends. Touché. Touché. Now with this in mind, the whole concept of a singular childhood friend winning amongst all the other heroines is completely blown out the window. Some would argue that by knowing who the end winner of the series is, it would ultimately be a boring watch. I would argue otherwise. The concept of not knowing who is going to win at the end of the series can be exciting, yes. Cheering on your best girl/guy with other fans of the series can be massively entertaining, yes. The disappointment of that heroine losing or the excitement of seeing them win, is honestly one of the few moments I really appreciate being in this community. But of course, this is only achieved when done correctly. Here is the problem with many of these harem series: They try to take this approach, but ultimately end up failing by unnecessarily dragging the series out way too long or in some cases not even giving us a winner at the end. By knowing we have an end winner, we as watchers or readers of the series have closure that a heroine will even be chosen at the end. This concept alone would make a series stand out way more from its competitors. But because of this decision, it makes Osamake just another generic romcom thrown down the rabbit hole of many. What happened to getting revenge? This whole revenge aspect was actually something I found to be a pretty interesting concept when initially reading the synopsis. It would’ve been fun and interesting to see a show revolve around the childhood friend and the main protagonist trying to get revenge on the person who rejected him. And by doing so, the childhood friend and the main protagonist slowly grow closer together. Or so I thought this was going to be the case when reading the synopsis. The whole ‘revenge’ theme was completely chucked off of the roof as soon as it was introduced. With the recent trend of a lot of new series coming out now, many are starting to overuse this whole ‘revenge’ theme now— most notably, the recent Redo of a Healer. Osamake’s attempt at this shallow theme of revenge was poorly executed and was hardly brushed upon at all. I thought this theme was supposed and going to be built upon more. Heck, even the name of the of the Opening Theme is, “Chance! & Revenge!”. Instead, it was used as a cheap plot device to initially bait the viewer into checking out the series and keep the story going— great. Speaking of things that the show introduced, but never mentioned or touched on ever again. Osamake consistently did this, including their main selling point of the love revenge plot. At times they would bring in a major focal point as a cliff hanger, but never mention this point again (i.e. the cooking contest between Maria and Shiro). You may argue that, these scenes just may have happened in the sidelines, but if your going to make something a major point in the episode, heck even the entire anime, wouldn't you think they would at least give us 5 seconds at the beginning of the next episode to show us that the scene did happen? Initially, when looking at the art style and the character designs from the Light Novel, they were actually pretty good in my opinion. On the contrary though, the animation was just really stiff and awkward. A lot of the stills and backgrounds used throughout the 12 episode runtime, was real hard to look at in combination with the very colorful palate used. Many, if not all, of the characters movements throughout the show looked like a PowerPoint presentation, from little things like running towards or grabbing 'x' item, to the dance performances they would give. I can barely even recall any of the soundtrack used throughout the series, but the Opening Theme, Ending Theme and the insert song used in episode 9 (Paradise SOS) were some pretty catchy songs. I even caught myself re-listening to them a couple times when going out for a morning jog. The voice actors are great, and I'm sure everyone knows and agrees on that at this point. Inori Minase fits perfectly towards Kuro with her gentle and soft spoken voice, yet if needed, can go in the complete opposite direction for a cuter and energetic tone. Ayaneru is known for being able to voice a lot of energetic, soft spoken, cute or cold and sarcastic characters; so Shiro definitely fits her. Ever since Matsuoka Yoshitsugu’s role as Kirito, he has filled a lot of harem protagonist roles. Maru, if not obvious, definitely fits that description. I don’t want to fit every single voice actor, but I think you get the gist at this point. Our main protagonist is Maru Sueharu. He is very indecisive most of the time, yet very impulsive when it comes to his emotions. He is also a bit perverted, but who would blame him when he has such pretty girls all over him? He is your average harem protagonist, that the average person would find his actions and mannerisms to be pretty annoying. All of the other characters though are as generic and unlikeable as it can be. Kai Tetsuhiko: The main protagonist’s best friend with a painfully obvious foreshadowed secret. Shirokusa Kachi: typical cold exterior with cute insides type character trope. Kuroha Shida: the wannabe onesan. She doesn't give off that onesan aura at all and in combination with her very aggressive and stubborn personality, she was really hard to listen to at times. Maria Momosaka: The yandere loli, it may surprise you that she was actually one of the better characters too. Rena Asagi: Big boobs #1. Midori Shida: Big boobs #2. Everyone else from this point is barely worth even mentioning and I’m sure you get the gist. As much as I hate to use the word cringe, I have to admit that most of the dialogue between characters and their actions were indeed, cringe. All of the lines between the characters made it a really hard watch to actually get through the entire show. The dance performances given looked like they were out of a 2000s pop music video, basically all of Maru's actions were the definition of cringe, the commercials they filmed were just plain hard to look at, etc. etc. Look I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this show to anyone. There are a lot of other copy pasta shows just like this that are done twenty times better. But for anyone who is looking for a trashy harem to indulge themselves in because they have free time, here is the show for you! Although, Osamake is just your average run-of-the-mill harem/romcom show, with a majorly clickbaity title.

Natsude_tanaka★ 5

'What a mess of a show,my word' If i could summaries this show with one sentence, it would be that lets go with the obvious things, Story: when i looked over the anime that will be release this season, i usually picked the one that interest me. by what i mean, is i look over their poster because i like to watch my anime blindly. so the first ep of this show just make me facepalm so hard since it defies logic ( well for me anyway ) how could u reject someone infront of a class and not get embarrassed. the funny thing is kuro stilllikes the dude i mean wth lmao. now, lets go to the actual story that ive gathered from this show. its a abt a boy name sueharu, a child actor that retired from acting due to personal reason, and follows him as he tries to pick which of his 'childhood friend' to be his lover. yup, thats it. there's nothing to the story itself like im so confuse to the point i dont even care when im watching the episodes. The story makes no sense since its literally in their title 'Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won't Lose' and guess what all the girls are his childhood friends. Art: i mean it was okay but i do like the dance tho ( it was a pathetic attempt btw ) Sound: I dont even remember if they add sounds to their episodes... Charaters: my god, the characters are just flat and dont even have a reason to why they liked this dude, i could go on but u get the point... the only character i liked i guess is tetsuhiko. why i liked him.... no reason really i think his cool. Other than that, theres nothing to talk abt them since i didnt even care abt their existence, how can i liked them when the show just throws us many random characters 'supposedly' to be his childhood friend . Overall: Dont watch this anime. i do recommend for ppl that like to experience bad anime hahaha. Bottom line, i hate this anime since the show didnt even know what they want to be. oh yeah.... what ever happened to their cooking contest? i guess plothole lmao.... what a show