Oreimo 2 (ONA)

Oreimo is something of a cult anime. If you were vaguely into animes in the 2010s, you've heard about it. Not the first example of a Light Novel to be adapted but probably one of the better example of "romance" themed LNs. But we're not here to talk about the first season, which is actually... pretty decent. Sure, it doesn't really feature any romance, especially between the two siblings, Kyôsuke and Kirino and more something akin to... a brother trying to understand her sister's hobbies? And the ONA with Kureneko is pretty cute, Ruri being a fun character all around helps a lot and really, she has more alchemy with Kyôsuke than Kirino and that's the Monkey Pawn.

Despite the foregone conclusion, I wanted to believe in a dream: that of the supreme victory of Comrade Ruri Gotô over the perfidious little sister, for there is no purer love than that of a kouhai and her senpai (and of course, soldiers of opposing factions making out in space).

But Oreimo is history not because Kirino "wins". Nah, it is because it sacrifice its entire cast of characters and its stakes only for an ending that feels lukewarm even to people who think that the sexiest thing in a girl is that you share the same parents.

A word to describe Oreimo's ending is cowardice. The equivalent of a yuri in which the two girls end up marrying men because love between girls is "just a phase" or "nothing serious". It's not an actual wedding ceremony and they outright state that yeah, they stop once they'll graduate. So, what was the fucking point? Is there... nothing serious? Nothing worth going not against a childhood friend but the entire love? In a story in which Kyôsuke pulls increasingly bold stunts for Kirino's sake, this conclusion is just frustrating. And I don't even like Kirino!

And really, it makes you think about the point of all this. The point of adding a lot of characters, only to make ALL OF THEM fall for Kyôsuke, even characters who outright hate his guts or why even bothering with making this a story with incest when it's handled this casually by the story. "We cannot get married"? I mean yeah but that's kind of the least of your issues but everyone is... mostly fine, beside a single character. It makes you question why incest is such a prevalent theme in fiction (or porn), especially in an era in which people are retreating into themselves, in which seeking out new people is seen as a chore and if the childhood friend is a stapple of romance, the little sister is its extreme conclusion: someone you know since their very birth, who has been living with you this entire time.

Kirino's victory was nothing surprising. But man, what a hollow victory.