Osamake follows the life of protagonist and teenage student Maru Sueharu. Hopelessly in love with his beautiful and award-winning novelist peer—Kachi Shirokusa—Maru finds himself at a loss when he discovers that she already seems to have a boyfriend. Unable to compete with her partner—the talented actor Abe Mitsuru—Maru resigns himself to a life of neverending loneliness. That is, however, until his childhood friend—Shida Kuroha—enters the picture.

Shida is overt in her love for Maru and wants nothing more than to see him happy (even if this means she cannot be with him herself). She hatches a plan where the two will pretend to date to hopefully stir up feelings of jealousy within Kachi and, ultimately, drive her into Maru’s arms. Osamake’s plot doesn’t break any new ground for the harem anime genre. Yet, the title alone is enough of a tease to warrant giving it some attention. Harem fans will find more of what they know and love here, with a slight rumbling beneath the surface of experiencing something unheard of in the anime community—a harem anime where the childhood friend isn’t kicked to the curb!

Harem fans have been scorned before and may be quick to retract their hands from this anime in fear of being burned twice over. Whether it be Nisekoi, Oreshura, or Bakemonogatari, childhood friends are cursed to lose their long-term crush for no better reason than the fact they are childhood friends.

Osamake seems to appeal more to the muscular childhood friend enjoyer, as opposed to the scrawny main heroine fan. We’ve come to learn in the second episode that Kachi and Maru did spend some time together as children, and Osamake may be leaning into a narrative where EVERY love interest has some childhood connection to Maru. However, should Osamake stay true to its word and strive to attain the praises of harem fans across the globe, they will not do Shida dirty, and we will be cheering for her along the way.

While we’ve only had the pleasure of watching two episodes up to this point, it’s clear that Osamake really wants to make this a painful watch. Osamake appears to be dumping all of its charms into the two female leads and making it incredibly difficult to choose who to root for. Shida is a kind and considerate friend who represses her love to ensure future happiness for the man she cares about. Kachi, on the other hand, is colder than Shida but still shows genuine emotion when her writing is praised. Abe looks to be a great foil to Maru’s desires and Tetsuhiko Kai is a funny yet realist supporting character.

Not content with riding its interesting premise to the bank, Osamake looks to be creating a thoroughly interesting plot behind the scenes of its promised climax. Rife with an entertaining ensemble cast at only episode two, the show will surely add more and more to its franchise over the coming weeks. Whether or not the show stays true to its word remains to be seen but, regardless, Osamake will surely provide an interesting and engaging plot along the way.