Recap: Kirino asks Kyousuke to pose as her boyfriend to help her avoid a persistent modeling agency scout. Things get awkward until Kuroneko asks them to participate in her book for Comiket.

Jel’s Thoughts: The first half of this episode was painful to watch. The obvious reason of course is the shameless incestuous insinuations but let’s be honest, Oreimo will never have the balls to actually do anything with that. I was more annoyed with the fact that they already played the fake date card last season, and much like the Ayase episode this was pretty much retreading territory we’ve already covered. Yes, we know the Kousakas really do care about each other even if they’re still afraid to admit it and no, sending them on a fake date together is not any more meaningful than the last time you did it. I mean if it was such a problem saying no to the agent, wouldn’t it have been easier to say “my parents won’t let me go” or hey, maybe even “I don’t want to, please leave me alone”?

Fortunately Kuroneko finally resurfaces in the second half to try and salvage things. After putting up with Kirino’s attitude, it was nice to see her enjoy participating in Comiket like a normal human being would. I always liked her subtly aggressive attempts to get Kyousuke’s attention. It’s kind of refreshing to see an anime girl try to get her man without smashing body parts in his face. Of course this week’s little speech on how she would like it if Kirino had a boyfriend and wearing cute clothes for a change totally flew over Kyousuke’s head. Seriously dude, grow a pair. First you can’t stand up to your little sister who simply needs to say “no” to someone, then you continue to leave this girl hanging when she’s obviously into you? Our hero, ladies and gentlemen.

As a whole this was a very disjointed episode, with both halves only loosely connected. I’m assuming this plot line was meant to reintroduce Kuroneko as both Kousakas ponder the possibility dating someone else, but if that’s the case it only reinforces my assertion this writer has no idea what he’s doing. I’m also going to reiterate how much better Oreimo would be if Kirino was a side character. Wouldn’t you have rather seen the adventures of the Gaming Club as they prepared for Comiket instead of two siblings “pretending” to go on a date? I know I sure would. Instead it looks like next week we will have to deal with Kirino’s inevitably fake boyfriend. WOO.