Spoilers, blah blah blah

One day, Kyousuke gets two text messages. One is from Kuroneko: she wants to meet him after school. The other is from Kirino, who hadn’t contacted anyone so far, so all of them, Kyousuke included, were very worried. The message tells him to “destroy all her collection” (of eroge, etc.) Surprised, Kyousuke tries phoning her, but she hangs up on him. Not knowing what to do, he tries calling Ayase (through Manami, since Ayase has blacklisted him)

She is quite cold towards him (let’s not forget she thinks he’s a siscon otaku who got Kirino into porn games), but she bursts into tears after Kyousuke asks her if Kirino has gotten in contact with her – she hasn’t. Ayase thought that Kirino hated her for some reason, and Kyousuke is quite worried now that he learns that Kirino hasn’t even got in contact with her best friend -and yuri partner.

Meanwhile, Kyousuke goes to meet Kuroneko. Kyousuke tells her what’s happened, before anything else, and that he is thinking about going to the US to rescue Kirino.

Kuroneko agrees -she is also worried, although she won’t admit it!- and she also thanks him for helping her out – from making the game to socializing. She then kisses him on the cheek, telling him that it’s a curse - he must bring Kirino back or die a horrible death.

At home, his father readily agrees and Kyousuke leaves for Los Angeles. When he finally arrives at Kirino’s house, she has a cold and isn’t looking very well. After the initial surprise, she (reluctantly, as usual) lets him in. Kyousuke, who by now has become quite skillful in dealing with Kirino, stops her usual tsundere complaints by inviting her to play eroge.

Meanwhile, he learns that Kirino hasn’t played any eroge so far, since her roommate is some loli -and you know what would happen in the US if they learned she played porn game with little girls-, and that she didn’t want to contact any of her friends until she won a race - which she hadn’t been able to do. Being among elite athletes, she wasn’t doing that well, and had fallen ill and depressed after exhausting herself, not being able to contact any of her friends or having abstained from her noble hobbies for so long.

Kyousuke tells her to return home with him – and after some (expected) resistance, after Kyousuke tells her clearly that he misses her, she finally agrees.

When they arrive in Japan, there’s someone waiting for Kirino – Kuroneko. She’s panting, but she denies she had got there running – although Kyousuke knows well that after he told her to come to the airport, she must have been very eager to meet her friend.

Impressions

Well, another great volume of Oreimo. Character development was very prominent, especially Kuroneko, but also Kirino and Saori, and the plot is quite fresh – you never know what to expect. I certainly didn’t expect Kirino to return “so” early (she was away for around 5 or 6 months).

Kyousuke has changed a lot since the beginning of the novel. He’s now quite an otaku himself – he even often thinks in visual novel terms. He is now able to deal with Kirino quite well, to see beyond her tsuntsun moments and he has also more understanding about Kuroneko and her relationship with Kirino. He’s still quite oblivious when it comes to Manami and probably to Kuroneko’s growing feelings for him. He continues to be a very nice guy who likes to help people.

Kuroneko got lots of character development and is now clearly my favorite character. She’s shy and has poor social skills, which means she’s often isolated from her peers, which makes her look even more unsociable than she actually is, but as Kyousuke is able to see, she really wants to interact with people – especially with people sharing her hobbies. Even if she’s always fighting with Kirino, it is clear both of them consider each other best friends.

Her “curse” was a very beautiful and romantic way, and probably the only way for our favorite goth lolita, of confessing to Kyousuke, but of course he didn’t get it!

But of course it’s clear she likes him – she didn’t want to be a mere replacement of Kirino because, of course, she wants to be something more to Kyousuke, she basically invited him to lie next to her while testing the game, and she kissed him on the cheek to thank him for everything. It will be interesting to see, in volume 6, how their relationship develop. And will Kirino get jealous? Although it may be little more than mild and harmless brocon-ish feelings, she’s clearly jealous of the girls around Kyousuke – especially Manami, and now Kuroneko will probably be added to the equation.

We also learned that Saori is not just a huge otaku-looking girl who always seems comical the way she speaks – underneath, she’s really worried about losing her friends, as she confessed.

As for Kirino’s return, it was foreseeable, since we need the imouto of the title! Her trip to the US has shown that she’s a hard-worker and a perfectionist, but also that she takes it too far. Deciding not to contact her friends until she was able to win, as a challenge, not only made her friends and family suffer, but she also was reaching her limit – she was sick and clearly depressed. Sometimes you just can’t win. As she mentions, her roommate was way younger than her, yet a future Olympic athlete – although she proudly says she beat her once!

Volume 6 will be probably coming out this summer, and I can’t wait! One thing that has been bugging me is the fact that time has passed ts quickly. Kyousuke is now a third year student, and I’m wondering if it will just continue once he goes to university (with Manami, of course), because it’s not often in this genre that a main character starts going to university while the story progresses.

Other than that, Kirino is back, there’s lots of Kuroneko x Kyousuke vibes -a great pairing!!! I’m lying, the best pairing is Me x Kuroneko!! and also Me x Manami… what the hell, let’s go for the harem end-, we got several interesting new characters, and anything could happen. Add that the story is pretty good and hasn’t actually deviated from its main themes, and this is really great.

Now that there’s a drama CD, I can actually imagine them speaking. Kuroneko by Hanazawa Kana, Kirino by Taketatsu Ayana (Azu-nyan), Saori by Nabatame Hitomi and Kyousuke by Nakamura Yuuichi