Episode 13 – “My Little Sister Can’t Fall in Love With Their Older Brothers”

In my first impression of the new season, I wondered what could have possibly happened in Kirino’s youth that caused such animosity between her and her brother. Now, we know. It’s because Kirino wanted to impress her once amazing brother, who was always a step ahead of her. I feel bad because Kyousuke was kind of a jerk brother towards her. Sure, siblings aren’t really meant to be that close to each other all the time, especially as time goes on, but he doesn’t have to karate chop Kirino every time he thinks she needs to grow up.

Well, grow up she did, and she far surpasses her brother, who has since stop “being amazing.” Manami conjectures that that amazing side of him never existed, which may be true in some sense. Kirino, as a little sister, may have had a idol worship type of complex towards Kyousuke, but the fact that he always got good grades, handled school business, and won track races is concrete proof that he was more hardworking the past. That’s the Kyousuke that Kirino admired and seeks to find once again.

An interesting post from 4chan (Steps 4+5 have spoilers at this point and time!) discusses an idea that the strained relationship between Kirino and Kyousuke, as well as his descent to mediocrity, is the fault of Manami. This argument is based off of dialogue from the light novels, not adapted into the anime. It more or less is an expansion of the scene where she tells Kirino that it’s gross for her to love her brother that much. It’s an interesting argument, and I think I agree with a lot of it.

Now that we know that Kirino’s eroge addiction is a product of her forcibly suppressed admiration for her brother, where do we go from here? There are three more episodes left to be aired, which will adapt the rest of the light novel series. Are there happy times to be had in the near future? Looks like we’ll have to wait until August to find out.

B.W.