Like usual, the knives are out to savage Oreimo's latest episode. Like usual, the criticism is entirely invalid and the episode was better than ever.
Episode 5: The episode starts where the last episode ended, with Kirino asking her brother to be her boyfriend. Just as I predicted, and was obvious from her tone of voice, she was only asking him to pretend to be her boyfriend. It turns out she was being scouted as a model to move to Europe (closer to the fashion scene), which she was definitely against after already having failed in her move to America. However, it's never wise to offend your business partners because you still want to get work from them in the future. Kirino's solution was to say that she'd love to move to Europe but she couldn't because she had a boyfriend here in Japan. She then brought Kyousuke as her pretend boyfriend to show off to the model agency and show that she couldn't leave him because they were so lovey-dovey. There's a beautiful aspect to this entire episode because Kyousuke and Kirino are on different wavelengths all episode long. Kyousuke was initially flustered when Kirino asked him to be her boyfriend, but once he learned it was only pretend he ceased being embarrassed about it. He still thinks Kirino doesn't like him much and so it's impossible to imagine the 'fake coupling' meant anything. Since he can't imagine such a relationship occurring, he isn't embarrassed about going all out on his pretending. In fact, he takes this as an opportunity to be more honest about how much he cares for her, since he finally has an excuse to stop replying 'fire with fire' to Kirino's constant insults and beatings.
Kirino on the other hand can imagine quite well that all this could be real. It's obvious she's thought about the matter before and it's extremely disquieting to her. Though she needed a pretend boyfriend, the reason she asked specifically Kyousuke is because she trusted him to make a good boyfriend. As a beautiful model, she could've recruited anyone for the job, but she still chose her older brother. When she finds her brother coming on so strong to her, it makes her extremely nervous and embarrassed, and she finds it nearly impossible to keep up the facade of them being a lovey-dovey couple. It becomes even more confusing for her when the moment the pressure is off, he reverts to being rude and insensitive, boxing in his feelings for her yet again. Which was the truth? Which was a lie? She genuinely meant everything she said and did on the date, and was genuinely thinking of him as a boyfriend, but what about Kyousuke? Did he mean a word of it? Is she such an insignificant aspect of his life that he can so callously snuggle up to her and say all sorts of loving things without the slightest bit of hesitation?
Even though they managed to tell each other why they loved each other on the date because outsiders demanded to know why they were a couple, it didn't help much because both sides believed the other didn't really mean it. The distance between their beating hearts is just one room away but an invisible wall of doubt and fear is still infinitely thick between them, separating them as cleanly as the Pacific Ocean.
And what a great speech it was for both of them. Kirino explained that Kyousuke was nice to her, and reliable when she was in trouble, and that he loved her so much it was hard to not return his feelings. Kyousuke on the other hand neglected to say the obvious (she was a beautiful model that any guy would fall for instantly), and instead went to the heart of why he especially loved his little sister -- the fact that she tries her hardest about everything, that she has a tremendous passion for a tremendous variety of things, and that by bringing him along into her constantly tempest-tossed life, she's given a tremendous variety of fun and memorable times together. It's like just being around her makes you feel more alive.
In the end Kirino can't trust her brother's words, however, because his actions just don't seem to fit any deep seated feelings for her. Strangely enough, being able to act too well the role of a lover made her feel more and more like he must not actually love her, or he'd be as embarrassed about it as she was. When he verified her suspicions by saying he never wanted to be her boyfriend again she exploded and slapped him in the face. Then she said next time she'd just use her real boyfriend then. Not that she had a boyfriend (or else, obviously, she would have used him to counter the model agency's wishes), but that she would find one soon enough to stop being a 'bother' to her obviously heartless oniichan. Kirino was upset and thinking this was a good way to punish him, but it also was simply a rational desire to separate from someone before she ended up getting hurt by being betrayed and abandoned again. She doesn't want to go through what she did at age six all over again, falling for her brother only to have the rug pulled out from under her all of a sudden. If it's just going to be like that again, better she find a real boyfriend now and forget all about Kyousuke while she still can.
The problem is when she says that, Kyousuke grabs her by the wrist and demands to know if she really had a boyfriend while looking plaintively in her eyes. Kirino is caught between a rock and a hard place. First Kyousuke says he never wants to be her boyfriend again, and now he's acting devastated that she's with someone else he never even knew about. Which is it, oniisan? Why do you keep saying and doing such opposite things? To mask her confusion she slides away from the question with a 'who knows?' and 'why are you getting so serious over your little sister's romantic life?' Which Kyousuke has no answer for. And then the best line of the episode --
"I don't understand what you're thinking." Kyousuke to Kirino.
"I don't understand what you're thinking either." Kirino to Kyousuke, with her back to him so he can't see her facial expressions. And then she escapes up the stairs to her room.
It's precisely this disconnect between their thoughts and words that causes so much turmoil between them. Neither of them is willing to express themselves honestly in front of the other, so it's bound to cause endless misunderstandings. But an even bigger problem is neither of them themselves know what they themselves are thinking. Neither wants to believe they're perverts who want to commit incest, neither wants to believe that they've somehow 'lost' and have unrequited love for the other, and yet these feelings keep coming forth when they're least expecting it and gripping their heart tightly before they recede away again. Like people with toothaches who don't go to the dentist because they don't want to learn they have cavities, they'd rather never face the feelings in their heart and never learn what they might actually be saying about their respective sibling. If they kept up this denial, eventually their two life paths will separate and they'll fall for someone else instead, and they can pretend it never happened in the first place. There's a huge merit in never facing their feelings -- if they're fine with losing their love for each other. But if they've already reached the point where they love their sibling too much to bear losing it -- ? If it's that far, can they afford to keep denying the truth to themselves? The drama of just how strong their feelings for each other are just grows and grows and grows.
While this invisible storm rages on, the two continue on their daily life together with friends Kuroneko and Saori. They go to comiket and, all having worked together to make a doujinshi, sell all their copies, which Kuroneko (who has never succeeded in being accepted as a writer by the public at large before), is so happy about she's on the brink of tears. Kyousuke is also happy, having helped work on it, and is more so happy for Kuroneko, as he knows it's her dream to be a published writer like Kirino is. As the two of them are celebrating together Kirino gets a disquieted feeling imagining them drifting away from her together and being left behind with no one. But with her typical energetic attitude, she shakes the portent off and rushes off to enjoy the Comiket atmosphere. There she stumbles across an acquaintance that Kyousuke (and the viewers) have never seen before, and asks in surprise what he is doing here. Is this the fabled boyfriend of Kirino?
If he isn't yet, I'm sure he will be. When Kirino decides on something, no matter how whimsical her decision is, she goes through with it completely, even so far as moving to America. She'll end up marrying the guy just out of spite if Kyousuke leaves it be. So the real question isn't, will Kirino really fall for someone else? It's only what Kyousuke intends to do now. No doubt he'll stop it, just like he stopped her trip to America -- not just for his own sake, but also for hers. She shouldn't be rushing into random relationships just to avoid him, she should find a boyfriend more carefully than that, just like she shouldn't rush overseas just to prove she's independent when she actually isn't and needs her family to still be around her. She is, after all, just a middle schooler. But man, the drama! How can anyone phrase what they mean in such a way as to not trip off a land mine? How to tell her to break up with a guy while not confessing yourself? How to break up with him without admitting your love for your older brother? They chose this precise course of action because it was the best alternative they could see. Getting them to unchoose this decision isn't easy, and is fraught with the same perils that prompted them to make said choice in the first place. Life sure is complicated in the K household. Watching the psychology of these two unfold is like being treated to a deluxe ten course french dinner. Every new change is delectable, and yet there's always more coming after that tastes completely different. Understanding the romance between these two's endlessly complicated bonds is so deep that it helps you understand the very nature of love itself. It's like meditating on the divine nature of God. The longer you think about it, the closer you approach enlightenment.
People who can't stand Oreimo's romance clearly just aren't able to follow the thinking of the main characters, and because of that, give up in disgust. But it isn't the characters or the writing or the dialogue that is wrong -- it's just the sad sheep who have the lost love from their hearts and have fallen away from God (who, Jesus repeatedly reminds us, is nothing but Love.) They would benefit from Cure Heart's dokidoki excitement attacks that restore lost sheep to their former pure selves. Maybe after watching each episode of Oreimo, they should watch DokiDoki Precure next. It would do them a world of good.
Mind you, I still don't think Kirino and Kyousuke will ever get together. They'll eventually bury these feelings away and forget about them. It's the process of how this happens that's exciting, not the ending itself.
* * *
Contrarily, just look at the latest episode of Hentai Ouji. The episode's plot was all over the map, the dialogue was bulky and ridiculous, people's motivations were unbelievable, and worst of all, at every time that the plot could progress by someone simply answering the question given to them, the screen blanked out and no answer was given. Why on Earth would the pervert prince, who had repeatedly spoken of his perverted fantasies to Tsukisho (or whoever she is, the girl without expressions), pretend that he wanted to be her older brother to Tsukisho's older sister? Did he really believe what he was saying? If not, why was he lying to her? And why on Earth would a girl believe his nonsense story about having an evil younger identical twin. It's just ridiculous. No one's that stupid. Furthermore, the older girl's thinking is simply impossible. Strange enough that she's both incestuously minded and a lesbian (Akari's older sister in Yuru Yuri is also this, with whom I have no problem), but that she could love someone so much and still not understand anything about her is impossible. She doesn't realize her sister doesn't return her feelings, she doesn't realize why her sister acts the way she does, she doesn't realize anything. That's some love. True lovers, by constantly watching and thinking about the person they love, come to understand that person better than anyone else, sometimes even better than the love target understands themselves. I'll never acknowledge the love a sister who could be so hopelessly ignorant of her younger sister and blithely do nothing but interfere with her life and hurt her for years on end.
Sigh, even devoting a paragraph to how bad the latest episode of Hentai Ouji was isn't worthy of the show. The male lead is incapable of rational thought and just speaks verbal diarrhea. The girls around him are no better and believe ridiculous things like telling stories to elementary school children in class would be fine in a sexy bikini simply because the Hentai Ouji tells them it's so. Everyone is terminally retarded and needs to be euthanized by the nearest Nazi purification board. I'll admit the opening and ending is gorgeous and should win some sort of prize, but the actual content is unwatchably bad. Another show *dropped*.
While we're at it, I think I'll drop Majestic Prince too. I have so little interest in the combat scenes that I find that even as I watch them I forget everything that's happening. One reason I have so little interest in the combat scenes is that now that it's been established that none of the main cast is going to die in battle, it's a waste of time watching them fight because I already know what the result will be. Since there are no battle mechanics in mecha series, and you don't have to in any way cleverly use your resources to overcome your foe, there's nothing interesting about watching the fight to see *how* the battle is won either. While Killua cleverly uses feints and yoyos to win, all you see in Majestic Prince is robots flying around and shooting lasers or missiles at each other seemingly randomly. Do you know how boring random combat is? Random combat without any permanent results afterwards? Just one battle among hundreds of thousands with the enemy space aliens? Ugh.
The dialogue in Majestic Prince is pretty good and I don't mind the characters but it can't escape the curse of its science fiction setting. War in general is a bad setting and war with overpowered aliens is an even worse idea. Suisei no Gargantia can pull it off because it has a genius writer at the helm. Majestic Prince just can't do it.
Shingeki no Kyojin is the opposite, people die so quickly and out of the blue that it feels any character could die at any moment. This totally upset my expectations once again. Now I'm worried if even Erin will survive this ghastly battle. The giants yet again assert that they aren't wimps to be bullied, but scary. These monsters are the predators and we're the prey. It's not like Youkai in Inuyasha you can just wipe out with a swing of your sword. It's them wiping us out with their giant lightning fast arms and teeth. Ugh! What a way to go! I'm definitely excited to see what will happen next. With Majestic Prince and Pervert Prince gone, the next most likely series to go is Valvrave. It's becoming more annoying and less believable episode by episode as well. Valvrave, look alive, it's your turn to be on probation now.
1. Oreimo
2. Railgun
3. Hayate
4. Hunter x Hunter
5. Leviathan
6. Hataraku Maou-sama
7. Dokidoki Precure
8. One Piece.
9. Chihayafuru
10. Suisei no Gargantia
11. Yahari Ore no Seishunn Love Come wa Machigateirru
12. Shingeki no Kyoujin
13. Namiuchigiwa
14. Valvrave
15. Miyakawa-ke (2 minutes)
16. Haitai Nanafa (2 minutes)
17. Gundam SEED Destiny (Remastered)
18. Saki Achiga (just 1 episode left)
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