Kyousuke has a smart, cute, and extremely bratty little sister who hates him. While they got along when they were young, they grew apart as they got older. One day when he finds an anime DVD he doesn’t recognize in his house. He opens it up only to discover eroge inside. Later, he finds out it belongs to his sister, who is a super secret otaku.
One cannot deny that Oreimo is cute, but also pretty divisive because of how it ends. But I won’t judge. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Oreimo, then head on down below.
Anime Like Oreimo – My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute
For Fans of Otakuness
Lucky Star
Lucky Star follows the average, but surprisingly eventful lives of four high school girls, led by the short and lazy otaku Konata Izumi. Throughout their hijinks, they discuss humorous observations about the world around them, ranging from everything from otaku culture to the correct way of eating foods.
Naturally the biggest similarity is that both series are about an otaku girl and her friends. However, while Oreimo tends to be a bit more serious and dramatic at times, Lucky Star is much more laid back. Or rather, compared to Lucky Star’s lack of plot, Oreimo seems more serious, but they are, in fact, both comedies.
The World God Only Knows
Keima Katsuragi is known as the “God of Conquest,” a man that can conquer any girl’s heart, at least in his dating sim games. However, when Keima arrogantly accepts an offer to prove his dating sim supremacy, he finds himself at the mercy of a demon that forces him to woo over real life girls.
Both series feature a main character that is obsessed with gal games to the point where it becomes much of the plot. However, while Oreimo is about keeping it mostly a secret, The World Only Gods Knows is about airing it in the open.
Watamote
Tomoko Kuroki is well on her way to becoming a full hikkikomori. The only problem is, she has to get through high school first. However, her short lifetime of playing dating sims and watching anime hasn’t prepared her for the social interactions of real life. Still, Tomoko struggles through each day and the social interactions that they bring.
Like Kirino in Oreimo, Tomoko in Watamote is obsessed with dating sims. However, she doesn’t really keep her hobby a secret. Instead she tries to use dating sims to better learn how to navigate the world. Essentially, Kirino is well-adjusted, and Tomoko is not.
Genshiken
Sasahara Kanji is a college freshmen and hopes to join a club to share his secret thoughts about anime, manga, and gaming. While ardently believing he is not an otaku, he gets utterly humbled by a member of the society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture, the club he wants to join. Will Kanji be able to accept his otakuness?
Both series are about how being an otaku is occasionally not so much a hobby as it is a way of life. Both main characters initially try to hide or reject their otaku feelings for fear of ridicule, but throughout both series they end up opening up more about it.
Himouto! Umaru-Chan
Umaru Doma is, by all accounts, the perfect student. She is beautiful, smart, and respectful, at least until she gets home, anyway. Once that door closes, Umaru dons her hamster hoodie and transforms into a bratty, lazy, junk food-gorging otaku that is fully dependent on her responsible older brother, Taihei. Whether it is playing video games or eating the right snack combinations, Umaru knows how to live.
Umaru is different from Oreimo because it isn’t a romance. However, like Oreimo, it focuses on the relationship between two siblings where the sister is a pretty big otaku who hides it from others.
Saekano – How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend
Tomoya Aki is your typical otaku who takes on part-time jobs to fund his anime and light novel obsession. However, one day when he was out riding his bike, he catches the beret of a girl and is so captivated by the scene before him that he sets out to create the ultimate dating sim. While he struggles to do so, he eventually recruits three of the school’s most popular girls, who also happen to be good at drawing, writing, and music as well as are otakus themselves. After some debate, each agrees to help make his vision come to life. In this new doujin circle, he also happens across the girl that inspired him, but she was not what he expected and certainly doesn’t stand up to his 2D expectations.
Both series ultimately end up as harem romance between a bunch of otaku characters. However, Saekano has a more concrete goal to move the plot forward rather than Oreimo’s vague helping his sister come to terms with her otakuness plot.
For Fans of Vague Attraction Between Siblings
Kiss x Sis
After his father got remarried, Keita found himself with a new mother and two twin step-sisters. However, as the girls transitioned into teenagers, their familial love for Keita turned into something more.
While the majority of Oreimo is about sitting around playing eroge games with your sister and dating her friends, Kiss X Sis takes the brother / twin sister relationship to the next level with a lot of ecchi comedy.
Myself; Yourself
As a child, Hidaka Sana leaves his friends and life behind to move to Tokyo with his parents. Years later, he returns as a high school student. While some friends have remained the same, some people, including Sana himself, are completely different. However, the thing that has changed the most is his dear friend Yatsushiro Nanaka. She used to smile and be so sweet, but now she is withdrawn and overcome by an air of gloom.
The drama and romance-fest that is Myself;Yourself focuses on a number of different dramatic side stories. While the main character doesn’t have a sister, two of his friends are twins and their relationship, like in Oreimo, plays with the line between completely innocent and something more.
Sky of Connection
Twins Haruka and Sora Kasugano are coming back to a town filled with memories for them. After their parents died in a horrible traffic accident, the twins want to start over peacefully at their grandfather’s house. However, it is their own suppressed memories and emotions that come back to haunt them.
Both series are about a relationship between a brother and sister. However, while Oreimo is a bit more laid back and indirect with the relationship, Sky of Connection goes there and ends up being really dramatic about it.
Koi Kaze
Saeki Koushirou has dreams of becoming a wedding planner, but his own love life is in shambles. After being dumped by his girlfriend, his desire for love is dulled, but again awakened by a chance encounter with a high school girl. Unfortunately, as it turns out, this girl is his sister whom he has not seen since his parents divorce, and she is coming to live with him and his father.
Unlike in Oreimo where the sibling relationship feels a little bit awkward, Koi Kaze can be surprisingly impactful. It handles this otherwise taboo relationship in a very mature way so that it doesn’t come off completely disturbing.
Eromanga Sensei
When their parents married, Masamune Izumi was thrilled to have a new adorable little sister. However, after their parents died, his little sister Sagiri became a shut-in. Now her only caretaker, Masamune supports them as a light novel author. However, one day he finds out that the mysterious illustrator Eromanga-sensei that draws the lewd covers for his light novel series is actually his reclusive sister.
Both series were created by the same author, so they have a lot of the same types of relationships and story progression. This time, it’s not incest but step-siblings. Unfortunately, the creepiness factor comes from the age of the step-sister.
Again, I won’t judge, but if Imoutos are your thing, check out our list of 18 Show-Stealing Little Sisters in Anime
For Fans of Ladies with a Hidden Side
Love, Chunibyou, and Other Delusions
Everyone has that stage in their life where they think themselves special, different from mere humans. This phenomenon is called Chunibyou Syndrome and most common in pre-pubescent children. In middle school, Yuuta Togashi thought himself the Dark Flame Master. He has since grown out of it upon entering high school and looks back at those cringe-worthy times with displeasure. Unfortunately, after a chance meeting with Rikka Takanashi, a girl believing to have a God in her eye, she attaches herself to him and brings that Chunibyou past back out.
At a glance, the similarity between these two anime series is that someone wants to hide their nerdiness. In Chunibyou, it is the male protagonist that wants to hide that part of himself, but actually there is a character in Chunibyou a lot more like Kirino, and that character is side character Shinka Nibutani. While not an otaku, she is a chunibyou and desperately tries to keep it a secret from her normal school friends to maintain her popularity.
Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret
Hakujo Academy is a place for only the most elite students, and at the top of that ladder is the beautiful Haruka Nogizaka. Yuuta Ayase, like his other classmates, has the pleasure of enjoying Haruka from afar, but one fateful visit to the library brings her darkest secret to light – she is a huge otaku.
In both series, we follow a girl that tries to hide her extreme otakuness, but ends up getting discovered. In Oreimo, it is by her brother, in Nogizuka, it is by a classmate. From there, the male protagonist then tries to support her as she further explores the subculture.
Haganai
Kodaka Hasegawa is anything but a delinquent. However, because of his blonde hair and bad boy face, he has been labeled as such. When classmates shiver in your presence, it makes it difficult to make friends. Yet, when Kodaka meets Yozora, a girl that is perhaps a bigger outcast than him, the pair start the Neighbors’ Club. In the Neighbors’ Club, those without any friends are invited to join, but not all personalities may mesh well.
While about different things, both shows end up pretty similar. Both focus on one guy who is helping a bunch of girls with their various issues. However, Haganai lacks the otaku focus of Oreimo.
While Oreimo is light on the harem side, if you like anime series loaded with ladies check out our 50 Best Harem Anime
Toradora
Ryuuji Takasu is a gentle student with a passion for housework, but his thuggish face causes his fellow students to think him a delinquent. Taiga Aisaka is small and cute, but with an attitude as fierce as a tiger. Both of these misunderstood students also harbor feelings for their crushes, and after a series of misunderstandings of their own, they find themselves in an unlikely alliance to get their crushes to notice them.
One of the major themes in both Toradora and Oreimo is hiding your real self and becoming more comfortable showing that self to other people. However, Toradora is more a straight-forward romance and has less harem vibes.
Mayo Chiki
Due to the females of his family’s love of wrestling, Kinjirou Sakamachi developed a strong body, but a fear of women. After a odd encounter in the bathroom, he discovers that the most popular student at his school and butler to the headmaster’s daughter is actually a girl. In order to keep this secret, the girl says she will cure his phobia.
While Mayo Chiki isn’t about being a hidden otaku, it is about a girl dressing as a man so she can be a butler to her friend. As such, the male protagonist begins to help her out and cover for her in a similar way to Oreimo with the same element of romance but without the blood relations.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Oreimo? Let fans know in the comments section below.
