Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai 2 - Episode 9

After a seemingly perfect summer, Kyousuke's dream has suddenly turned into a nightmare - not only has Kuroneko dumped him, but she's also transferred schools and moved out of her home without a word about where she's headed.

Unsure what to do or who to turn to, a distraught Kyousuke looks towards the only person he can think of to trust in this situation - Kirino.  Surprisingly, Kirino's reaction to her brother's plight is an entirely reasonable one, as she comforts him and takes charge of the situation to at least attempt to put things right by tracking down Kuroneko and finding out exactly what the hell is going on.

Although Ruri herself refuses to divulge her location, it seems that she's still easy enough to track down, and before we know it Kirino and Kyousuke are taking up the hunt for her in a hot springs town.  Although their search proves to be fruitless, the tables are turned as Kuroneko ends up finding them, giving Kirino a chance to vent her spleen on her brother's behalf.  It's here that Kuroneko's "destiny" is revealed, as she forces Kirino to be honest about how she felt about Kyosuke getting a boyfriend while trying to sidestep her own feelings about the matter.  After lots of frank discussions and admissions, it seems that all is well again, albeit with no sign of an immediate rekindling of Ruri and Kyousuke's romance...

Having managed to largely sidestep the pseudo-incestuous aspects of Oreimo up to this point, this week's episode leaves me torn - as a whole I enjoyed it, as it actually managed to portray Kirino in a favourable light for once while the episode's drama, as overblown as it was, actually had a decent emotional impact to it.  However, for all of that positivity, I can't help but feel.... "icky" about the episode's undertones, as it gleefully throws other relationships under the bus to keep Kyousuke and Kirino "pure" for one another.  It's bonkers, crazy, and pretty creepy, and it's the one aspect of this series that I'd really rather keep at arms length - even the tail-end of the first season could be explained away as a more reasonable level of sibling love, but this story arc can't really be explained without going to places that I'd really rather not.  Hopefully normal service can be resumed again next week, so I can go back to ignoring the fact that a big chunk of this show is horribly incest-driven.