Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai - Episode 8

From a shoddy, messy wannabe writer last episode, suddenly Kirino is a best-selling author, and what's more a production company are interested in turning her work into a full-blown anime series.  Let's just brush this ludicrously massive flight of fancy aside and run with the concept for now, shall we?

While Kirino is excited by this possibility, she's equally nervous about the whole thing, and thus when the first meeting with the anime's producers comes around she drags Saori and Kuroneko along to offer some moral support - not that she seems to need it as she reels off her massive list of opinions, desires and hopes for the anime, which has clearly panned out in her head as a full on twenty-six episode series.

Unsurprisingly, the production team see things rather differently, as they plan for a thirteen episode series produced on the cheap to fill in for the cancellation of a more high-profile show than some one-shot light novel adaptation.  Thus, cheap yet profitable is the name of their game, with a desire to change the book's female lead to a male one on the top of their agenda - a concept which shocks Kirino and, coupled with her exhaustion from working so hard on notes for the meeting, causes her to collapse and fall ill once she returns home.

With Kirino sick, it's left once again to Kyousuke to clean up the mess, as his irritation about his sister's treatment turns to action as he drags Kuroneko and Saori to a second production meeting, blagging his way into said meeting to try and turn things around.  Things certainly aren't going well until first Kuroneko and then Kyousuke make impassioned (and rather forcefully rude in the former's case) pleas to stick with Kirino's original vision as closely as possible, which eventually turns the tide in their favour.

Although this episode is entertaining enough in places, it's really holed below the surface simply on account of its concept - the idea of middle school girl Kirino turning from a bad writer into a best-seller staring in the face of an anime adaptation is simply unbelievable, and turns the show from a reasonably studied slice of otaku life into the realms of fantasy and wish fulfilment.  This shift in the delicate balance of the show removes basically all of the humour and "me too" elements of the series, while there isn't enough insight into the workings of the anime industry to make up for it, and the whole thing isn't helped by some irrational behaviour from Kyousuke who continues to roll out comments about how he hates his sister when he clearly doesn't.  It may not be the "siscon" element suggested by Kuroneko at the end of this episode, but it sure as Hell isn't hatred either.

I'm not going to call this a bad episode of Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai - it isn't even a poor one, truth be told.  However, it's shifted too far away from what has made the series so fun to watch thus far, which leaves episode eight within a sea of mediocrity on this occasion.  Let's just hope this is a one-off rather than the future direction of the remainder of the series.