Recap: After spending the summer dating Kyousuke, Kuroneko disappears without telling anyone where she went. Desperate for advice, Kyousuke asks Kirino for help and the two set out to find her.

Jel’s Thoughts: With the promise of our happy couple breaking up at the end of last week, pretty much the worst possible scenario played out this week. I would have almost preferred if Kyousuke and Kirino did end up as a couple at this point as even that would have been more natural and believable than whatever this sorry excuse for human interaction was. I’m willing to bite on Kirino flipping a personality switch and suddenly becoming a decent person, and as I’ve mentioned before I understand there’s a certain protective feeling you get when your sibling starts dating. Kirino even initially does what normal people do: you learn to accept that things are changing and you move on.

But to have Kuroneko create an elaborate mess to draw out and prolong those feelings is just… that’s just not how things work. The conclusion that neither Kousaka can date just because they don’t want each other to comes off as incredibly selfish, if it even makes sense at all. With neither offering any other reason why, it seems to boil it down to the writer wanting the Kousakas to be a couple but not having the balls to actually go through with it. Between that and keeping dear sweet Kuroneko pure and innocent, are they just trying to compromise and make as many fans as possible happy? I hate to be that cynical, but it’s hard to say that isn’t the case.

Just about everything in this episode felt out of place. I usually don’t harp on these kinds of details, but the fact that the three of them were just standing in the middle of some far off rural town having this dramatic, revelatory heart to heart discussion didn’t do the already implausible situation any favors. Kuroneko’s family move, school transfer, and vacation all seemed too conveniently timed as well, but I suppose we can’t account for how long she had been planning for this. The final straw was Kuroneko dusting off the cat maid outfit and continuing to try and catch Kyousuke’s eye, which seems to go against the ENTIRE POINT OF HER PLAN. URRRGGGGHHHHH Why did she even break up with him in the first place?!? None of it makes any sense.

Assuming we can try and look past this train wreck, what I want to know is where do we go from here? Correct me if I’m wrong, but hasn’t the point of Oreimo always been smoothing out the relationship between the Kousakas? They certainly seemed pretty chummy by episode’s end, and there was a certain wistful finality to Kyousuke’s talk of meeting up with everyone on the weekends now that they’re all apart. Isn’t that mission accomplished? I just don’t know anymore. This did feel like it should have been the end of the story, and I am kind of disappointed they didn’t just put the show out of its misery. I think the best we can hope for now is a couple more episodes of fun with the cast indulging in their hobbies. At least that would be more entertaining than more contrived, unconvincing drama.