Recap: Kyousuke and Kuroneko spend their summer together fulfilling her “Destiny Record”, although her ultimate goal may be different from what anyone was expecting.

Jel’s Thoughts: I wanted to enjoy this episode as it was, for the most part, really sweet and adorable to see Kuroneko and Kyousuke finally get together. Seeing an anime couple actually dating is uncharted territory, and while their relationship was still relatively chaste and idealized I was still surprised they took things as far as they did. I mean you can interpret the scene at Kuroneko’s house as you like, but I’m pretty sure Kyousuke was about to get laid. Also her sister knows too much about that whole process, but hey she had the best jokes of the episode (particularly the fact they didn’t believe Ruri actually had a boyfriend) so I’ll let that slide.

All of that would have been great if it wasn’t for the INCREDIBLY STUPID endgame lurking in Kuroneko’s Destiny Record. Stupid isn’t even a strong enough word really. Frustrating? Asinine? You can add those in there too. The idea that dating Kyousuke and subsequently breaking up with him would somehow bring him closer to his sister is NOT HOW RELATIONSHIPS WORK. Why would anyone even do that? I understand Kuroneko cares a great deal for both of them, so I guess I can accept her making some effort to help them to get along. But that would also be assuming her plan made ANY SENSE WHATSOEVER, and rather than being helpful it just looks like the writer backed himself into a corner and needed a way to stir the drama back up.

Add in Kirino implying what I feared last week about the girl confessing to Kyousuke actually being her and I am once again convinced this author has no clue what he’s doing. It’s so frustrating because he keeps stumbling into sweet and funny moments like the ones we had this episode, but undermines it trying to work in whatever dumb incest tease he thought up that particular day. With DRAMA looming over the horizon as this unnecessary mess will need to be dealt with, I would not be surprised if this was the last episode of Oreimo I truly enjoy. I hope that’s not the case, but my expectations are really low from here on out.