3 March 2013: "What was this show about again?" revisited
Still the Oreshura Best Girl.
Because Mazusu accomplished her only known goal before the end of the first episode of Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru, it leaves the subsequent episodes of Oreshura with a troubling lack of direction. Since Masuzu hasn't stated any other objectives, the viewer is sort of left watching stuff happen instead of being engaged in wondering what will happen.
Head tilt.
This is particularly problematic for viewers like me who consider Masuzu the only girl in the show worth rooting for (although Ai is starting to grow on me now that she's willing to also be honest with Eita). So even though Masuzu is the only character in the show I can actively root for, I can't actually do it because I have no idea what she wants. This in turn makes it difficult to follow Oreshura because from a narrative standpoint it no longer has anything worth watching. It has Masuzu spending all her free time fucking with people, but that's not a narrative. I suppose you can kinda describe Eita's efforts to reconcile with his chuunibyou past a narrative. Some may also call it "symbarrassing," but I just don't care.
I like the cuts on Ai's sleeves.
I think the real problem with Oreshura is one common to many harem comedies in general. I think the author was inspired to develop ideas for various female characters that he really liked, expecting that they would be very popular, and subsequently shoehorned them all into a single show. [Episode nine spoilers for the rest of this paragraph: I think the idea of a childhood friend who—instead of being treasured forever like every other osananajimi ever—was forgotten entirely and, in fact, vilified upon reunion is sympathetic enough to support a show on its own.]
SHIT? SHIT? SHIT? MIDNIGHT! TONIGHT!
The problem here is that when it comes to determining which girl will prevail, the answer ends up being none of them. Had Oreshura simply been about one girl and her relationship with Eita, it would probably be a much better show, but having so many individual characters competing with each other simultaneously diminishes all of the characters collectively. At least this is the case with Chiwa, Masuzu, and Ai. (Not Hime because she sucks and and would remain dead weight regardless.) A show about Eita and one of those three falling in love despite his general-principle opposition to romance would be much better than having him pulled in different directions by all three and going nowhere.
