Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai - Episode 13

I don't normally make two 'blog posts in a row about the same series but hey, I make the rules around here, so there.  Anyhow, with episode twelve's "true route" out of the way, it's straight on to the first full-on bonus episode and the beginning of Kyousuke's school days as a senior to Kuroneko.

Of course, the first obstacle Kyousuke encounters is exactly what to call this new junior, meaning that we finally get to learn of what Kuroneko likes to refer to as her "human" name - Ruri Gokou.  While this makes things a little easier in school, outside of school Kyousuke finds himself continuing to spend rather a lot of time with Saori and Kuroneko, with the former vocalising how upset she is at Kirino moving to America without a word to either of them followed by a complete lack of communication since that time.

That aside, Kyousuke's real issue is what to do about Kuroneko at school, as she's clearly something of a loner while her outwardly biting and unfriendly personality clearly hasn't endeared her to her classmates.  Thus, Kyousuke does what he can to help her, coaxing her into joining the school's game development club and helping her out with cleaning duties when her classmates ditch said task and leave her to it - efforts which subsequently get thrown back in his face as Ruri accuses Kyousuke of simply using her as a replacement for Kirino, which may well be true to some extent.

Still, Kyousuke just won't quit, although he arguably only makes things more difficult for himself by outing the only other female member of the game development club (with the oddly familiar surname of Akagi) as a huge fujoshi, causing quite the commotion in easily the episode's most hilarious scene.  Still, come the end of it all things seem to be warming up quite nicely between Ruri and Kyousuke if nothing else.

Given how irritating Kirino has been at times during the course of this series, I know I'm not the only one to actually be a little relieved that  can enjoy at least one episode without her being present at all, and indeed this thirteenth episode works perfectly well thanks to that fact that Kuroneko is at least as strong a character (if not stronger), with a great line in biting dialogue that acts as a perfect foil to Kyousuke's own musings and the like.  Overall, this episode pretty much follows the trend laid out by Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai - a general sense of fun underlined by some hilarious comedy set pieces (most notably Akagi's outbursts) that helps to make the whole thing just that bit more memorable.

Besides, let's face it... Kuroneko is really pretty awesome as characters go, so the more screen time she gets the better.