Oresuki: Are You The Only One Who Loves Me? deserves an anime review that admits something upfront. This show is messy. It's frustrating. It will make you laugh at a piece of furniture and then scream at your screen because the characters are being stupid on purpose. You will either think it's a clever wink at harem trash or you will think it's trash that pretends to be clever. There is no middle ground here. I have seen people call it a 9 out of 10 masterpiece and I have seen people call it the worst anime of Fall 2019. Both opinions are valid. Both watched the same show.
The premise hooks you hard. Two beautiful girls ask the protagonist out. You think harem time. Then bam. They both want his best friend. That's the pitch. That's what sells the show. Amatsuyu Kisaragi, who everyone calls Joro because nicknames are mandatory in this universe, puts on this disgustingly sweet mask every morning where he smiles and nods and plays the helpful sidekick while inside his head he's screaming about how unfair life is and calculating how to turn this disaster into a win for himself which is refreshing because most harem leads just stand there with their mouths open catching flies. Joro is two different people. The outer him is a watering can, helpful and bland. The inner him is a demon who plots revenge against benches.
The Hook That Lies To You
The first episode hits different. Cosmos, the perfect student council president with the ridiculous flower name, invites Joro to a bench. Himawari, the peppy childhood friend with the other ridiculous flower name, invites Joro to a bench. Both times he thinks he's getting confessed to. Both times they tell him they love his best friend Sun-chan, the baseball star who looks like he walked out of a shoujo manga, and they want Joro's help hooking them up. This is funny. This is cruel. This is the show at its best. It feels like it's saying something about how the nice guy friendzone character never gets to be the hero in these stories. Some people hated how fast it dropped this premise and turned into exactly the kind of harem it was mocking. They aren't wrong. By episode three or four, the girls who rejected Joro are developing feelings for him because Sun-chan rejected them or because they saw Joro's true cynical self and liked it better than the fake nice guy act. The anti-harem becomes a harem. The subversion becomes the thing it was subverting. It's like the writer had a great idea for a light novel volume one and then realized he had to keep writing for twelve episodes plus an OVA.
Joros Two Faces
Let's talk about Joro because he's the make or break factor for most viewers. When he's alone or with Pansy, he's a jerk. He's calculating, selfish, bitter, and weirdly relatable in a sad way. When he's around Cosmos or Himawari or Sun-chan, he's a generic harem protagonist who says yes to everything and apologizes for breathing. The show thinks this contrast is hilarious. Sometimes it is. The animation switches to this demonic filter when he gets angry and his internal monologues are brutal and honest in a way anime characters usually aren't. But here's the problem. Joro never learns to integrate these two selves. He keeps flip-flopping between being a doormat and being a mastermind depending on what the plot needs. It gets old. You want him to pick a personality and stick with it. The show wants to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to mock the generic harem lead while still having Joro act like one whenever it's convenient for the romantic tension. He's not as clever as the show thinks he is. He's just angry and lucky.
Pansy Is The Only Real Person Here
Sumireko Sanshokuin, called Pansy because of course she is, is the library girl with braids and glasses who actually loves Joro from the start. She knows about his double life. She prefers the real him. She should be the best character and for a lot of people she is. One reviewer called her best girl with no competition. She's smart, manipulative in a fun way, and she doesn't put up with Joro's nonsense. But the show has this weird fixation on her appearance. Joro keeps calling her ugly and gross because of her braids and glasses even though it's obvious to anyone with eyes that she's just hiding a model face under there. The show tries to do this Wife of Bath's Tale thing where she's the ugly witch who becomes beautiful when you trust her but the animation never commits to making her look actually plain so Joro just looks like an idiot with bad taste. She's also too perfect sometimes. She lacks the human flaws that make Himawari and Cosmos interesting. Himawari is dumb and impulsive. Cosmos is uptight and awkward. Pansy is just right all the time which makes her slightly boring despite being the most logical choice for Joro's affection.
When It Becomes Generic
Around the middle of the series, specifically during the Flower Dance arc or the Pool episode, the show runs out of gas. It introduces more girls with flower names. There's Sasanqua who shows up late and feels like she wandered in from a different anime. There's the newspaper girl. There's Tsubaki. The cast bloats and the screen time gets sliced too thin. The unique premise about Joro being the rejected sidekick gets buried under standard harem antics where girls fight over him for no reason and he acts shocked. The Reddit threads from when it aired show people dropping off around episode eight because it stopped being funny and started being the thing it promised it wouldn't be. The manipulation aspect, which was the hook, devolves into misunderstandings that could be solved with one conversation. The characters keep secrets for no reason other than to extend the plot. It's frustrating because you can see the good show trapped inside the mediocre one.
The Bench Is A Character
I have to mention Bench-kun. The bench where Pansy confesses to Joro becomes a recurring gag, a plot device, and somehow the most stable relationship in the show. The library has this ornate white bench that appears in impossible places. The soundtrack gives it a theme that sounds like the Imperial March from Star Wars. Joro hates this bench because it represents his humiliation. The fandom loves this bench because it's the only thing that makes sense in a show where everyone's emotions are chaotic. There's even a joke about buying the bench on Amazon. It's peak anime absurdity and honestly it's the one thing everyone agrees is funny. When the show leans into this kind of meta humor, like Joro breaking the fourth wall to complain about his role in the story, it works. When it tries to be serious about high school romance politics, it stumbles.
You Cant Skip The OVA
The TV series ends on a cliffhanger. Do not stop at episode twelve. The real ending is in the OVA episodes thirteen through fifteen titled Oretachi no Game Set. This is where the show pays off all the character development it promised. Joro finally stops being a coward. The girls actually make choices. There's a new antagonist who poses a real threat instead of just being another love interest. The Anime Obscura review breaks down how the OVA fixes the pacing problems and gives you a satisfying conclusion that reframes the whole title. The OVA has this weirdly mature message about friendship versus romance and ends with what people call the bros before hoes ending which is hilarious and kind of heartwarming if you're into that. Without the OVA, the show is incomplete. With the OVA, it's a complete story that knows exactly what it is. It even leaves room for a second season that will probably never happen because the studio Connect closed after this project.
The Production Is Weird
Speaking of Connect, this was their final anime before shutting down and you can tell they cared. The character designs are beautiful. Cosmos looks like a goddess. Himawari is cute without being annoying. Pansy's color palette is muted and bookish in a way that fits her. But the animation itself is stiff. Characters don't move smoothly. There are distorted faces in some episodes that look like budget ran out. The backgrounds are pretty but static. The voice acting saves it. Joro's VA sells the split personality perfectly. Pansy's voice has this smug quality that makes her lines hit harder. The soundtrack is eclectic in a way that shouldn't work but does. You've got classical music for serious moments, glitch hop for comedy, and that bench theme. It's a mess but it's a memorable mess.
So Is It Good Or Not
Here's my take. Oresuki is a solid 7 out of 10 that could have been a 9 if it had stuck to its guns. The first three episodes are gold. The middle is filler. The ending is good if you watch the OVA. Joro is annoying but in a realistic way that makes you root for him despite yourself. Pansy is great but the show doesn't use her enough in the middle stretch. The side characters like Sun-chan get surprising depth while the new girls in the second half feel like padding. If you like romcoms that wink at the camera, you'll enjoy this. If you hate harem anime, this won't convert you because it eventually becomes one. It's a show about false advertising that commits the sin of false advertising. It's honest about being dishonest. That either works for you or it doesn't.
If you're going to watch it, go in knowing that the plot makes no sense if you think about it for more than five seconds. People keep secrets they shouldn't keep. Joro refuses to date Pansy for reasons that change every episode. The flower naming convention is never explained and gets ridiculous when you realize everyone's name is a plant. But the chemistry between the main trio is real. The jokes land more often than they miss. And that bench scene in the library is iconic for a reason. Just don't expect a deconstruction of the genre. Expect a regular harem with a slightly smarter than average protagonist and a girl who looks good in glasses. That's enough for some people. For others, it's a waste of time. You'll know which one you are by the end of episode one.