My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute. 16 [END]
Cherry blossoms briefly interrupt Kyousuke on his last walk to school with Manami. Being ignored for so long affords her no similar sense of finality, but what a long winter it's been. The siblings were openly dating since Christmas, to almost everyone's support. He says his goodbyes to the club at school. On his way out, a hallucination of Ruri catches him. She congratulates him before vanishing in the blink of an eye—lost forevermore from his sight. Kirino's own graduation ceremony "ended early," so she meets him at the gates. They then march in silence towards the envoy of the beginning of the end, Manami.
Although Kyousuke never told her anything, Manami knew this day would come. Despair was all she felt, not anger. Because Kirino's no longer a kid, it's time to take off the gloves. Kirino's core is rammed by a fist with a decade's worth of weight behind it. The little sister fires back with her signature slap, refusing to admit sin.
If only Kirino didn't exist. Manami's right hook finds Kirino's jaw.
If only Manami stayed out of the family's affairs. Kirino's own hook breaks Manami's glasses. As her childhood bond with Kyousuke doesn't let Manami down, so too, Kirino's "birthright" to her love for her brother cannot be broken.
Manami finds them both vile and abnormal. They can't marry. They can never tell their parents. Someone's going to be hurt whether or not their feelings last. She pleads for them to open their eyes, to be normal again. Manami knows about their incest porn collection too, which she blames. Realizing the history between the two combatants, Kyousuke chooses to protect Kirino's innocent past. It's time for him to work his magic. He accepts everything that Manami has had to say, then starts to berate his own existence (pro-incest protagonist). Is he foolish? No. Instead, he'll take the fight to
common sense itself.
The childhood friend finally brandishes her dagger: what if Manami tells his father? On one knee, he begs her not to and look the other way. What if she refuses? In such a case, he'll give in to the fate of a fool. In tears, she directs her final appeal his way and confesses her feelings for him. The choice is obvious. From the bottom of his heart, he shouts his love for his little sister. With that, the fourth horsewoman is slain for his little sister's sake—Ruri, Ayase, and Kanako await Manami in Valhalla. Even in death, however, she clutches a rope in her hand. At any moment, it could pull the very ground beneath their feet and plunge them into the depths of hell. Regardless of being petrified in love, this bluff was fruitless. The forbidden lemon the siblings had the pleasure of sharing together was already drying up.
After Manami's depature from their world, Kirino sucker punches her brother-counselor-lover-fiance. Why, why, why does he pull all these stupid stunts just to please her? Everything would have worked out if they kept it a secret! Yes, but they've been flagrantly open about their relationship for her enjoyment. She cries that he'll be left with nothing when it's over. This earns her the hero's signature head pat. After sweeping everything under the rug with his tainted hand, he reminds her that they've got a wedding ceremony to see through before it's time to wake up.
The hall is as empty as their hearts; filled with nothing but each other. Her disbelief leads him to question if he had perhaps made a mistake. A sudden hug erases all doubt. She's super-duper happy. For the last time as his fiance, she thanks her brother for everything. Being his little sister made her glad. To be her older brother had made him glad as well. Neither of them would of had it any other way. After these vows, they share their kiss. It's performed flawlessly, not at all effected by the thought of what they're doing. The world around them is small enough for that. No friends nor family, no music nor applause, no tears of joy but their own—all alone as they stand before God.
When they break from each other's embrace, so too breaks their union. It was only for the moment their lips were connected that they considered themselves man and wife. Graduation was the sunset clause on their pact. From that moment, they graduated from being kids and from their life of real incest. Two birds, one stone. That precious stone is then plucked off her finger and returned to Kyousuke. The ring that burned a hole in his pocket now burns a hole between them.
An immediate divorce doesn't mean that Kirino will divorce herself from incest porn, as she continues her pilgrimages to Akibahara on some beautiful afternoon. Kyousuke finally reminds her of the promise to do anything for him if he passed his exams. He uses it now to steal a kiss from her, in broad daylight. On a busy street. For Kirino, this means that they have more "life counseling" ahead of them when they get home. For me, it means the nightmare continues, but through Kyousuke's voice, the creator is happy if it made us laugh in the end—even just once.
How cute.
Love is blind.
My, my, my... where to begin. There is zero reason to believe this ends here. The audience has only been spared because Kirino is no longer a middle school girl, so her charm expired. She's no longer a "little" sister. Yes, I've caught on to your little scheme, mister creator. Rather than incest,
Oreimo is more wholly about romancing middle school girls. It results in an incestuous pair, but that couple breaks it off once Kirino "graduates." Ruri was a middle school girl when she fell in love with Kyousuke. Once she was in high school though, she had no chance and he did not want to pursue a relationship on his own accord (Kirino made him do it). Ayase confessed to him, but was too late. Kanako confessed to him, but he was taken by that time. What about Manami? A high school girl. Saori? Looked too old (as tall or taller than himself). Both incestuous vibes and relationships with middle school girls (that looked the part) are omnipresent throughout the story, but the latter doesn't get talked about nearly as much as the former. Now remember that Kyousuke isn't a minor by Japanese standards... Ugh.
On the other hand, the creator is good at arranging dense scenes to lead to a desired conclusion in a simple but entertaining way. While I can't agree with the overall conclusion,
Oreimo is delivered with enough care to be at least engaging. It provides alternatives routes, and discarded them, even mixing them into its true color. They aren't disconnected paths either, like in many other works. Where I can give it the most credit is in the consistency. Still, I wonder what possessed this creator to complete the little sister route at the cost of a successful comedy, but whatever. No need to harp on it.
Was Ayase's very existence literally sent into the abyss? I'm afraid I'm going to have to dismiss Manami as well, who I guess didn't tell the parents anything. She did poorly to never bring up sex or having children too. Useless to the end. Impressive. This is a comedy alright. Full of paper tigers too. Why? Because every voice of reason is another admirer of the protagonist. They will not hurt him—they simply cannot in a story where love is to be protected at
all costs. There's more lampshading at the end with Makabe too. Despite their brotherhood of secrecy, Akagi Kouhei and Kousaka Kyousuke never called each other by first name either. By the way, Mikagami was married to his 2D wives. Kyousuke never had any real competition or male friends.
Did the father really understand what that porn game was? I don't think so. Should he have looked more into it? Absolutely. Take a real interest in your kid's world... like you did for Kyousuke when he asked for help to pacify Ayase. Were the siblings products or monsters? It's both, really. Kyousuke had alternatives though, so he bears a lot of the weight in that regard. On the same side of that scale is Kirino's incest porn collection though. No amount of paper tigers were going to tip it. All these kids needed real counseling, and Kanako could use a CAT scan due to her shoddy memory.
Kousaka Kirino has no redeeming qualities. She learned nothing. Only restraint in public, which her brother will erode eventually. So much for going abroad after graduation too, huh. The little liar stayed true to herself to the very end. Speaking of which, I never explicitly stated that this was a first viewing. It was necessary for me to eradicate this from the nostalgic recesses of my mind... There was a time when
Angel Beats was my favorite anime. In my naivety, I ate up things like it,
Oreimo, and
Kanon. Then, I came across this community when it was someplace else. I understood Kirino's loneliness if nothing else, and I hate that I did. In the end, she got the attention she wanted but not the kind she deserved.
As much as I've written about
Oreimo, It'd amount to maybe a single chapter. To think that there are many chapters to the many volumes of
Oreimo...
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Domestic violence count: 40.5 | Sexual abuse count:
∞.666
