The third volume of Oreimo begins with a monologue by Kyousuke who tells us that three months have elapsed since the events in the first volume and, despite all of this, his relationship with Kirino hasn’t changed one bit: he hates her and he’s sure she hates him as well. I have already said that this is actually pretty interesting, because until the very end of volume 6 and despite everything else he will continue to claim their relationship is really bad, that it hasn’t changed, and that they hate each other.

This first chapter is also interesting because we get to know more about Kirino’s personality, that of a tsundere, and that can also help understand her relationship with Kyousuke. One day, she’s angry because she was going to meet Saori and Kuroneko and they got five minutes late. She’s complaining about them all the time, and yet we learn that she arrived… one hour early, which shows that she was really looking forward to meeting her friends. Anyway, Saori suggested holding an “anime appreciation party” at Kirino’s house so that Kuroneko can watch Meruru as the two girls are always arguing about their favorite anime (Kuroneko likes Maschera, which is aired in the same time slot as Meruru)

That day, Kyousuke comes back after spending some (quality? lol) time with Manami and finds it’s pertty dark inside, and Kuroneko is sitting there, but not Kirino. It turns out Saori couldn’t come  so, there being no “moderator”, they had a fight (about anime again?), but Kyousuke notices that Kirino didn’t kick Kuroneko out, and Kuroneko didn’t leave—that is, they want to be together, but their proud personality doesn’t allow them to be honest! Kuroneko tells Kyousuke the reason she got angry with Kirino, it turns out it wasn’t because of anime, but because Kirino had written a cell phone novel, a medium increasingly popular among teenage girls. Kuroneko complains about the style (full of emoticons, etc) but above all about the fact that there’s a character modeled after her that gets raped.

Kyousuke decides to go see his sister who’s upstairs… playing eroge, of course. She says she actually got angry because she read Kuroneko’s doujinshi. She says it was a very bulky work, difficult to read since she only thought about herself and not her readers and the worst thing is, there’s a character modeled after her who the main character makes her sex slave! (why junior high school girls write about rape or sex slaves, Kyousuke can’t understand) However, Kyousuke notices Kirino actually bothered to read Kuroneko’s doujinshi. She claims it was to be able to criticize her, but he knows well she did it out of friendship.

Kyousuke goes downstairs and decides to watch Meruru with Kuroneko, an unsettling experience since the DVD version isn’t censored and it’s a little awkward to be watching an anime with half-naked magical shoujo lolis together with a girl. Kuroneko starts saying why she doesn’t like it, just as Kirino comes downstairs.

They start arguing about anime, again. This is actually pretty interesting, since Kuroneko likes darker animes while Kirino is like me (and I guess many of my readers) and likes anime that, just as she describes Meruru, are about “friendship”, and of course have cute girls. Kuroneko criticizes its apparent lack of plot and the fact that it has lots of fanservice. Kirino’s reply: it’s not our problem if your anime doesn’t sell well. And you are just too picky.

But at any rate, Kyousuke managed to make the two girls spend the evening together, so all’s well that ends well. Before leaving, however, Kuroneko asks Kyousuke why he bothers to do so much for his sister, when she treats him like that. Kyousuke replies he doesn’t understand himself. “Are you a siscon” “No!!” Then Kirino kicks him “You are sick”. Kuroneko asks “Then are you a masochist?” “No!!! I guess… it’s because we’re siblings after all!” “I understand…” Kuroneko replies, “you are a good brother. I’m jealous”

Kirino looks puzzled. “Could it be that you like him?? You have such bad taste” “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t like this boy at all. That’s like a bad joke. I couldn’t be attracted to a boy who doesn’t’ even wear nekomimi. He isn’t handsome at all, he’s just plain and looks like a guy who won’t ever be something in life. He’s like 100,000,000 light-years away from my ideal type” How cruel!! thinks Kyousuke.

Comments

Well, this is kind of introductory to what will happen later, but I found this chapter to be really interesting. On the one hand, we explore Kirino and Kuroneko’s personalities, which are pretty similar. They are proud and tsundere-ish. Even if they want to be together, they can’t be honest enough to admit it, which leads to ridiculous situations such as Kuroneko waiting in the living room while Kirino plays eroge in her room. It’s also interesting that Kuroneko claims not to like Kyousuke at all, yet we all know what happens in volume 5, which means that Kirino may just follow the same pattern.

It’s obvious I side with Kirino on this. I’m also into moe, cute girls and anime with happy themes. Since I didn’t know about this when I first read oreimo 3, I didn’t get it, but it’s now clear that Fushimi Tsukasa is precisely exploring this issue, by making Kirino the “representative” of moe anime and Kuroneko of more traditional, serious anime. For example, Kuroneko complains about consumerism and fanservice, while Kirino stresses friendship and cuteness and mentions it’s not her problem if Kuroneko’s favorite anime doesn’t sell. When Kuroneko points out that there are important plot inconsistencies in Meruru, Kirino replies she doesn’t care about those minor details—she prefers to have fun.

Well, of course I’m not partial here, but it’s also true that Oreimo being in itself a “moe” novel, the message that fans can get along comes precisely from our side, since in the end Kirino and Kuroneko are friends. The hate coming from the “other” side against moe, however, is pretty different to the message in Oreimo. It will also be interesting to explore in the future who Saori represents.

Again the word “siscon” which insistently appears in the novels, something that didn’t catch my attention the first time I read it.

To part 2