Ore no Imouto Producer: “The Anime Has Multiple Endings”

A recent Ore no Imouto event broke the news of the series’ planned four “bonus” episodes that will give the TV series a second ending, similar to the multiple endings found in eroge; an interview with an Aniplex producer held the day after offered many illuminating details for fans who may remain confused.

The event at which the announcement of the planned dual-ending was the 俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない フェスティバル / Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai Festival (official event page here), held the same day as the delightful Ayase / Kanako focused cosplay moe-heavy episode 10 aired.

Fans were naturally hungry for more information, and an interview with Aniplex producer 岩上敦宏 / Atsuhiro Iwakami (who is essentially the anime’s main “producer”) went up at the official Ore no Imouto website the following day to give additional information.

Here follows an abridged translation of the interview, mainly aimed at getting across the most important nuggets of information as succinctly as possible:

Translation notes are in parentheses.

Interviewer: The announcement of the series’ 15-episode run was made at yesterday’s “Ore no Imouto Festival”, but could you summarize it for us again?

To put it simply, there will be two versions of episode 12.

During episode 12, there will be a divergence (in the story’s route).

One of those versions will be the “Good End” that will be the TV run’s final episode.

Then, there will be another episode 12 that will continue until episode 15 and will be a new final episode.

What was the reason for choosing such a way to end the series?

Originally, it started with the desire to have people who watched the full 1-cour (standard 3-month ‘season’) TV series until the very end to think “That was a really good final episode!”

Then, the plans for the TV ending began to take on the shape of an eroge-like route system (wherein the player has access to many multiple endings.)

This (eroge-like split ending) idea actually fits in very well with the spirit of the original work, and so we hope that viewers can feel that this is very much “Ore no Imouto~”.

Regarding the distribution schedule of the new episodes 12-15, has the time and release date been set?

The specifics are entirely undecided.

However, as was announced at yesterday’s events, we are definitely thinking that we want to make for a free-watching period, during which anyone can watch them for free.

The dates are not set yet, but we we will try not to make for a long wait like what happened with Bakemongatari (referring to Bakemonogatari’s web-broadcast episodes, for which Iwakami also served as producer).

Well, the final episode of the TV run is finally drawing near, but can we please ask you for a message to the fans out there supporting the series? !

In the original light novels, Fushimi-sensei’s (author of the novels) feelings of “Funner! More interesting!” really flew out of the pages, didn’t they?

So as not to lose to that strong overeagerness-that’s a compliment!- all of us on the anime staff have tried to put the same gusto into our work.

Things like changing the OP every episode, that sort of stuff even gets me really worked up, and I’m the show’s producer.

Anyhow, there’s only really a small chunk of the series left.

If everyone watching can enjoy each and everyone of the remaining episodes, we really could not ask for anything more than that.

Notably, Iwakami-san made no mention of what the contents of the new episodes 12-15 route might be, which naturally allows for much discussion on what sort of ending the alternate route could finish on.

One hypothesis which should seem reasonable to anyone familiar with anime love-comedies, eroge, and the source material of the light novels runs along these lines:

The 12-episode TV run may end on a undefined, Kyosuke-ends-up-with-no-one harem sort of ending, in which he is not specifically paired off with anyone besides a strong, mostly platonic bond with Kirino, and the new 15-episode continuity might actually pair him off with one of the show’s lovely girls, or at least make a strong suggestion of such?

Four additional episodes might not be enough to considerably alter the path of the existing story however, so the possibility of radically altering the show’s current status-quo might be far-fetched.

The naming of the 12-episode run as “Ore no Imouto no Jinsei Soudan ga Kore de Owaru Wake ga Nai -Good End-” (There’s No Way My Little Sister’s Life Advice Can End Like This – Good End-) is also suggestive, although it doesn’t necessarily follow that there must be a “Bad End” to match it.

In any case, the actual content of the alternate storyline will probably remain quite unclear until the start of the web broadcasts, which would presumably be well before the extra episodes are released on DVD sometime in Summer 2011.

Further complicating matters are the 20 author sanctioned alternative endings present in Ore no Imouto Portable, suggesting there may be an ending for every taste.