Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai - Episode 3

After last episode's leak meet-up, things seem to be going pretty well for Kirino in her new-found life as a fully functioning otaku, as she's able to chat (or rather, argue) away on the phone with new friend Kuroneko whilst also spending time playing eroge, where it's nice to see she has a similar technique to playing such games as myself - although I guess everyone probably makes liberal use of the save game function that way in truth.

So, the first half of this episode serves pretty much as a celebration of Kirino's liberation as she hangs out and chats with her new friends, leaving Kyou free to do as he pleases with his own time (although I'm not sure as to whether he's oblivious to Manami's advances or simply ignoring them.

Of course, this peace and tranquility can't last forever, and it's duly shattered as Kyou and Kirino's father spots one of the latters eroge - this leads to the inevitable father-daughter talk where the formerly effectively bans the latter from pursuing her hobby any further, leading to her running out of the house; amusing not so much on account of her own treatment, but rather her father's assertion that anime and eroge as useless.  Thus, it's up to Kyou to come to the rescue again, courtesy of a rousing speech to persuade their father to let Kirino's otaku leanings slide, before even taking the fall himself as the "worthless" owner of the eroge that started the whole argument.  So, Kirino's hobby is safe for now, while Kyou seems to have seriously burned some family bridges in terms of his relationship with his father.

I have to confess I wasn't expecting this "discovery" episode to come so soon within the series, nor was I expecting it to be over quite so quickly - in a way it's probably a good thing that it wasn't dragged out or held over Kirino's head too long, as let's face it watching her in a state of otaku glee is one of the more entertaining things about this series.  Certainly, this made for another pretty decent episode, from the fun of watching Kirino doing her thing with her new friends, before turning the spotlight back on Kyou as he effectively saves his sister while quite rightly defending her need to make friends and the importance of accepting every part of her and her interests.  Sure, it was maybe a little cliche in places, but I couldn't help quietly cheering him on in my head - perhaps it's because I've just spent a weekend with like-minded anime fans who revel in those rare chances to talk with other people who love the same things I do, as I did over the past few days.  It was also nice to see a little balance here, with the other girls openly celebrating their otaku interests with no real interference from parents - we don't all have to hide our figures and DVDs in the closet, you know.

If there's one thing that Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai has going for it so far, it's that it understands its target audience - not just how to push the right buttons within the otaku database, but also how it feels to be a fan of anything that is out of the mainstream, and it's how this is conveyed that continues to impress me the most about this series.