Trailer Tuesdays: Ore to Omae no sa o Oshiete Yaru yo

You did it, guys. You climbed this whole mountain. …Almost.

This may look like a normal anime promo to the uninformed viewer, but what it is in actuality is an excellent example of how internet fans (and fans in general) can have a very large impact on the companies we thrive off of. A couple weeks ago, this trailer showed up seemingly out of nowhere with no information behind it and only the long winded title of Ore to Omae no sa o Oshiete Yaru yo (“I’ll Show You the Difference Between You and Me”), almost immediately affectionately nicknamed ‘Swimming Anime’. However, all was not as it seemed.

It soon came out that this thirty second clip (spoilers: it’s exactly the same, except without the voice acting) put out by the Kyoto Animation studio was merely a teaser for their animation studio as a whole. Needless to say there were a whole slew of fans that were disappointed by this news. However, in reaction to the surprisingly large fandom that cropped up from this short clip alone, the studio eventually caved—or decided to take an intelligent business venture when they saw it—and made the announcement that an actual anime based on this clip had been green-lighted. And there was much rejoicing.

Unfortunately, I cannot find any source of this “site” that promo’d this more official sounding advert. Not on Kyoto Animation’s website. Not on any other tumblr. Hell, not even a video mirror on YouTube. All of this is speaking shady volumes to me, so I’m not going to believe anything until I see it. For the sake of the topic though, I’m going to pretend like this is actually going to be a thing because hell, that’d be cool.

Looking at the trailer itself, I can’t say that there’s anything particularly groundbreaking about the series, at least it doesn’t look like it. If I hadn’t known the actual backstory behind it, I would have just figured Ore to Omae’s—how do you even shorten this title?—purpose was to ride the coattails of another popular sports anime featuring handsome young men that just came out this previous season, Kuroko no Basuke (“Kuroko’s Basketball”). In some ways it still might be, but in this case it’s important to remember that it’s what the fans wanted rather than some executive’s decision based solely on ratings and product sales. As it stands however, Ore to Omae’s characters seem a little too trope-y for my tastes. Even from thirty seconds it’s easy to pick out that the swimming team will be comprised of the purple haired competitive playboy, the blonde shota who’s probably insecure in their abilities, the green-brown haired bestie that works hard to support black haired lone wolf and tries to get him to believe in teamwork and friendship. If Kyoto Animation manages to subvert these tropes, I’ll be highly surprised.

Perhaps it’s a bit hasty for me to already be making character judgments, but what the series seemingly lacks in characterization is made up in animation. Indeed, the animation for this teaser/promo is gorgeous and I sincerely hope that the entire series keeps up to this standard. If so, I might even find myself watching it.

Even if this series’s existence does not come to pass, it still stands as an example of another time when fandom stood together to try and make something seemingly out of reach happen. Whether it be through charitable works, artistic output, or prodding action of companies, the impact of fandom the people behind it cannot be denied.