Oreimo 08 – My City: The Animation (Behind the Scenes)


We have reported last time that this episode of Oreimo has been resented by an anime producer due to the exaggeration of the courtroom, I mean, anime production meetings with the characters, and I do not see why he will get pissed. So, here are the key events on the episode and my review of it.


Kirino’s light novel, My City in which she did a research in the previous episode, has received tons of fan mail and as pointed later in the series, they all came from male fans and with that in mind, I suddenly remembered Mitsudomoe’s author, who apparently is a girl and just like Kirino, she is cute! You don’t believe me? Go Google it!


Due to its popularity, they decided to turn it into an anime with Kirino asked help with Saori and Kuroneko to give their opinions with it once they started the meeting with it. Kirino was ecstatic about her first novel will become an anime! Heck, everyone will be ecstatic if that happened!


Now the meeting begins, and after Kirino gives all of her suggestions, it all boils down to this. The producer, the director and the rest of the staff starts doing their respective, “Hate to break it to you but…” which ends up Kirino severely depressed especially with what the producer said about changing the protagonist from a girl into a boy due to its little sister theme!


So on the next day, Kirino became sick and his brother, after learning the incident decides to proxy for her sister along with Saori and Kuroneko. Same bashing begins, rada, rada, and at the end, Kuroneko speaks with her mind about the novel about being crap and all that and they creating a different anime not based from the original source. And I completely agree with her. The plot of having a big sister save little girls is weird… especially if a chick writes it!


After all the bashing, his brother starts to beg to stick with the ideas that her sister planned since that book is her work and the animators job is to turn it into an anime, not to create an original story based on source! At the end, the anime is still 13 episodes not what Kirino planned that it would be 51 episodes, most of her plans stays intact especially about the character designer and about the protagonist. At the end of the episode, Kirino said that the next life counseling would be the last one.

For a Random Review, it is rare that I will right a synopsis! Anyways, here is what I can say about this episode.


The episode was probably one of the best episodes this anime offered. I don’t care on what the producer said that it is a complete exaggeration of their work. If he is hurt with what the episode did, it simply means that all that the fans see in this episode is TRUE about producers. That they are devils that wear pale clothes that is willing to tear you apart until they are satisfied with the end result… or if they are smiling already.

Aside from that, fans now learn the trials that their favorite light novel must face for it to be turned into an anime. In Kirino’s case, aside that this title was “rushed” for it to air in the Summer season, the producers wanted to butcher her title for it to reach a wide range of audience!


For starters, I am aware of the changes the producers did for a certain anime if they want it to air on TV, take for instance, Tenjo Tenge in which, if you have read the manga, you see the vast changes they did for it to air on TV. You know the changes that I am talking about. Another instance is those titles that received original endings such as the first Fullmetal Alchemist series. But the type of changes that the producers want for the title for it to become a hit is a complete butchering of what the author intended! Heck, I would be pissed if I will learn that the story that I have written will be turned into an anime but at the end, it would be butchered for it to fit a target audience! I would rather let it stay as a novel or find another producer who wants to stay as close as the source material as possible!

In this episode, aside from a new opening animation, we met Ms. Fate, Kirino’s editor. My first impression about her, she is simple. She never made an impression on me. Period.


Even if this episode focuses on making Kirino’s light novel, My City into an anime, this is one of the episodes in which I love Kuroneko’s character aside that she is a good contrast to Kirino’s extremely cheery nature. In this episode, we saw even with her grudge against Kirino for having written only a single novel and it became an instant hit while she, having written tons of material, studying her mistakes, none of those titles was published. This is when we truly saw her character. She will forget her own pride just to support a friend in which her novel will be turned into an anime and it would be butchered soon if they would not do anything.

The other regulars, such as Kirino and co. nah, they are not quite interesting in this episode. About her brother, he is still the same, nothing major.


Overall, aside that it shed some light about the process on how an source material will be turned into an anime, even according to a certain producer is exaggeration… well, just lessen the exaggeration it will still be the same! This episode is probably one of the most realistic aspects of this title that talks about a perfect girl who apparently, is an otaku and now, she now fulfills what most otakus dream, to see her work to be turned into an anime.