This probably comes as not much of a surprise, but this is going to be the last blog post I write on Ore Monogatari!! I am happy to note that, really honestly, this isn’t directly related to last week’s burst of annoyance—that was simply the symptom of a deeper problem I’ve been having with Ore Monogatari!!, one that helped me realize the solution to the issue is probably to not blog the show anymore. Which isn’t to say I don’t like Ore Monogatari!! I really did enjoy this week’s episode. But there are shows that are good to blog and shows that are not so much, and it seems to me like Ore Monogatari!!—for me, at least—falls into the latter category.

Forgive me if I don’t launch immediately into talking about the episode—I’m not accustomed to cutting off projects midway through, so I feel I need to explain myself, if only to alleviate my own cognitive dissonance. There are a couple factors that have gone into this choice, the biggest of which is directly related to why I blog certain anime weekly and not others. As much as I love engaging with people about specific shows, my first and foremost reasons for doing weekly blog posts are to add another layer of meaning to the experience of watching an episode—both for my readers and for myself. The most satisfying episodic blogging I’ve done to date has been, without a doubt, my work on last summer’s Zankyou no Terror, followed up by Your Lie in April.

The reason? Writing about both of those shows allowed me to engaged in what I’d consider a dialogue with the shows themselves. Whether it was trying to unpack what Zankyou no Terror was trying to say or alternating between hot and cold by week with Your Lie in April, writing about both of those shows added a lot to my experience of watching them—and, from the feedback I got on those posts, it seemed like they were doing the same for the people who were reading them. The big difference, I think, between those two shows and between Ore Monogatari!! is that they were far more ambitious in what they were trying to do than Ore Monogatari!! is.

I swear this is not a clever dig at the show, although it truly would be pretty clever.

Which isn’t to say Ore Monogatari!! is a worse show because of it! I’m not at all one of those people who thinks that comfy, easy-to-watch shows are somehow inferior to artistically ambitious ones. I value my comedies and my slice-of-life anime right up there with my grand, thematically-rich shows. But what I do think about shows like this is that subjecting them to the kind of intense analysis that I’m used to applying to my episodic posts isn’t a good fit. While there’s definitely some degree of nuance and subtlety present in Ore Monogatari!!, there’s not much. It’s a show that wears its heart on its proverbial sleeve and it’s a show that wants to be funny (it succeeds!) and wants to be cute (it succeeds!). But, as I’ve said time and time again, I honestly don’t think there’s much more to the show than that. Sure, it’s not quite as trope-laden as many shows of its genre, but just avoiding tropes doesn’t make a show interesting to write 1000 words/week on.

And that’s really where I’m at with Ore Monogatari!! at this point in time. Trying to delve deeply into each episode has caused me to try to have a conversation with the show that the show just isn’t built to have. I think Ore Monogatari!!, more than anything else, is a show that’s best enjoyed when you just sit down, watch it, laugh with it, and appreciate it for what it is. It doesn’t demand or require anything more than that. At the very least, this is true for me watching the show. For me, Ore Monogatari!! is a good show for being entertained and laughing and happy, but I just don’t feel that it offers me all that much as a blogger. And maybe that’s me lacking as a blogger, but it’s just how I feel.

Tests are a lot like the internet, amirite?

Anyways, the episode, the episode! Many cute things were seen, a few things that reminded me of last week’s irritation popped up (Takeo is awesome at ice skating, Yamato’s not >_>), Takeo’s parents going ballistic when they finally get to meet their son’s girlfriend (my favorite was Takeo’s dad desperately trying to find a connection with Yamato’s dad), the whole deal about going to the same college, and (obviously) Suna’s amazing troll. To give myself some props, I was wondering if [Murafujisaki???] was a girls’ only college from the get-go, so the happiness of being right in addition to Suna laughing his head off was a great moment.

So, yeah. That’s about all I’ve got for this episode—hope you enjoyed my very brief thoughts about what I liked about Ore Monogatari!! 12, my lengthy thoughts on why and how I write episodic posts, and my mini-essay on the type of show I think Ore Monogatari!! is. And, yeah, this is the last post I’m doing for Ore Monogatari!!—although it’ll certainly show up the weekly highlights next season. But I’m looking forward to starting fresh and picking a show I really want to write about on a weekly basis and going for it. Hopefully no one’s too upset that I’m ending weekly coverage on Ore Monogatari!! If you are, I apologize! Hopefully I can make it up to you by turning out some great posts on a new Summer 2015 show, starting in just a few weeks!