Zyl on November 14, 2010 · in My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute

We're not going to play buck buck?

Befriending can be such a beautiful thing to behold

Summary:

Kyousuke comes home to find KuroNeko sitting in his living room. Kirino invited her over for a Meruru appreciation party but, in the absence of Peacemaker Saori, the two quarreled and the host had retreated to sulk in her room. He hears both sides of the story and manages to get the day’s agenda back on track, only for another quarrel to erupt over KuroNeko’s harsh (but undeniable) criticisms of Kirino’s favourite series.

Some time later, Kyousuke comes home to a furious and tearing Kirino – she has discovered that he had used her notebook to surf pr0n and leverages on it to get him to take responsibility yet again for another life counseling session. It turns out that, via online publisher Book Up, Kirino has had a successful first mobile phone-based novel, My Star, and is drafting a second, My Sister – she has Kyousuke take her out, on Christmas Eve, to Shibuya to do research for the romantic work, dragging him around the place doing date stuff. When he, tired and cold, starts to become sarcastic and call Kirino self-indulgent, she tips a pail of water over herself. Shocked, Kyousuke is brought back onboard and takes his little sister to a love hotel… to shower and freshen up. Heading home, Kirino finally finds her inspiration and is already wearing the heart earrings she got Kyousuke to buy her earlier.

Reaction:

The ring is evil and must be destroyed!

Unlike the Manami-focused episode last week, this week’s offering was really two separate stories stitched together into one episode. Nonetheless the quarrel between Kirino and KuroNeko in the first part did set the scene, hinting at Kirino’s authorship, for the second half. I enjoyed how Kyousuke was shocked at how well the two girls were able to imitate the other, almost like their souls had entered into each other. It was understandable how they would be angry at how they had used each other as a model for a character in their fictions whereupon nasty things happened to said character. The most hilarious part for me, though, was how KuroNeko slammed Kirino’s wwww contemporary style and Kirino attacked KuroNeko as being purple prosey and bombastic – another nice example of the contrasts in their personalities, tastes in anime and how opposites do sometimes attract. The Meruru viewing was also a treat. I loved the irony of how Meruru is voiced by Yukari Tamura (who also voices otaku-hater Kanako) and the series has so many Nanoha references such as nekkid loli transformation scene, befriending, massive firepower and widespread destruction.

The Shinjuku Shibuya outing has pushed me towards the interpretation that Kirino has brother complex (brocon) – wanting him to buy her that gauche heart-shaped ring and then making him take her to a love hotel (where nothing much happened) makes it extremely difficult to see her as not having brocon. There were other signs too – I might be reading too much into it but I thought Kirino looked downcast when Kyousuke refused, asked why he had to buy the ring and she said it was something that a girl would like her loved one to do for her, before hastily covering it up with the hypothetical and story research angle.  In contrast, she was really happy with the heart-shaped earrings that he did eventually buy her and put them on as soon as she could. Likewise, for just a brief eternity, Kirino seemed upset that Kyousuke told her off about her bath-robed attire before she switched to tsun-tsun mode to cover up her fail and embarrassment. Nonetheless if it was siscon she wanted to trigger in him, there may be hope for her – contrast Kyousuke’s flustered reaction with Junichi’s nonplussed reaction to wet and towel-clad-only Miya in the latest episode of Amagami SS. Really looking forward to seeing how far this series will push in this direction.

Three minor notes. First, much love for Manami calling Kyousuke to come share some Christmas cake. I don’t normally like fruity confectionery but given how wonderful her Halloween sweets were, I’d be willing to give hers a try. And it must be nice for Manami not to have to worry about age associations like the way Lucky Star’s Nanako Kuroi or K-ON!’s Sawako Yamanaka. (Nice to see that there’s no sign of Amagami’s Maya Takahashi having that worry – even when she’s drunk!) Second, LOL at how Kyousuke kept asking KuroNeko to eat the sakura mochi he offered her but then kept steering the conversation in a way that she couldn’t start eating. Third, Kyousuke has learnt the importance of clearing his browser’s history cache (or to disable history from the start) – I am curious though about what kind of pron was Mr Ero Movie Hunter looking at. But given how upset Kirino was, I’m willing to wager it was *not* imouto-related. Good job on intercepting Kirino’s earlier attempted door face-slam though.

This post was written by...

Zyl – who has written 233 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.

I have a penchant for Bishoujo, Oneesama and Yuri character dynamics. Genre-wise I enjoy drama and satire; tilt-wise I am terribly weak against self-consciously arty farty styles and reference humour. Sieg Lunamaria!