Ore no Imouto Now Pantsu Anime

The 3rd episode of AIC’s Ore no Imouto’s anime adaptation continues its brisk run through the original source material, keeping up the high production values and performances seen in earlier episodes that have given the show its reputation for being the season’s top show.

Praise for the seiyuu’s performances has been one of the acclaims given to the show, something not all together unexpected given some of the names involved.

Kirino, for instance, is played by 竹達 彩奈 / Ayana Taketatsu, still a rank rookie in the industry but whose sweet voice also portrayed no less an icon than Azusa Nakano of the Keion-bu. Surprisingly, Azunyan’s voice works very well for a tsundere, although the voices only truly sound similar when Kirino is in dere mode.

Kirino (above), along with the rest of the show’s cast, have been given what is generally recognised as an excellent transition to anime by AIC, a studio which must have gotten much practice in the animating of bishoujo from their work on Strike Witches II earlier this year.

One quibble might be that the adaptation to TV anime might have “standardized” the more stylized character designs from the manga and light novel’s illustrations, resulting in Kirino losing some of her perky Konata-esque facial expressions and the loss of the many “beauty” shots of Kirino striking a pose with a peculiarly angelic face that take up so many of the manga’s pages.

The anime version’s shots are almost as good, however:

Kyosuke, for most intents and purposes the actual main character of the show, also has a very respectable seiyuu behind his voice – 中村 悠一 / Yuiichi Nakamura, who was naturally not discussed as much before the show began as his female co-star, but as the distinctive voice of Clannad’s Tomoya and Macross F’s Alto he is one of the best available for a male lead.

His voice here is virtually identical to most of his past roles, as tends to be the case with male Japanese seiyuu.

The second most prominent girl in the story, Ruri (aka Kuroneko), is actually played by the best known seiyuu in the entire show: none other than 花澤香菜 / Kana Hanasawa herself, using a more restrained voice than those used in her better known roles such as Bakemonogatari’s Nadeko (i.e., the “na no~” voice), appropriately using a voice more akin to that of her role as Darker than Black’s redheaded Suou.

The bespectacled fujoushi Saori (played by 生天目 仁美 / Hitomi Nabatame, who has made a career of doing supporting roles) is just as fun in the TV show as she was in the novels and manga.

Kirino’s gusto for eroge is fairly well known by now.

Moe-some Manami’s delicate, sweet voice happens to come from 佐藤 聡美 / Satomi Satou, who, mind-bogglingly enough, is also the voice of K-ON!’s usually unfeminine tomboy Ritsu.

The third episode is the first to give a proper ED:

The trend of recent years to include an omake by way of an ending illustration by various 2D artists yields this lovely shot of brother and sister from famed Key eroge artist Na-Ga: