The Oreimo Season 2 specials are beautifully hideous. In an hour and a half, they manage to completely bulldoze the meager foundation of joy that the series desperately clings to—by which I mean Kuroneko and Saori’s relevance to the plot. It plays out more like terrible fanfiction than an actual continuation of Oreimo’s story, with characters confessing their love for Kyousuke at every opportunity, and him turning them down so he can mack on/get fake-married to his sister. It’s one of the most entrancing self-destructive things ever animated.
The series had dedicated time to explaining the Kousaka siblings’ relationship before, but very little of it actually went toward portraying them as human beings, rather than crude, vaguely incestuous self-inserts. The specials exacerbated this, cutting Kyousuke off from the part of his brain that doesn’t want to throw everything away for the sake of macking on his terrible sister. No matter how much it focused on her, Kirino’s brattiness would never have become endearing, and Kyousuke’s attraction toward her would never be not creepy. It’s legitimately terrifying how quickly the two progress their relationship and admit feelings for each other.
If one moment sums up the crazy that Oreimo has accumulated over time like horny tapeworms, it’s the fateful wedding between Kyousuke and Kirino. It makes the 12 Days list because this is the point where the last vestiges of coherence are completely washed away, and we’re left with a hollow shell of broken hearts and half-assed incest. In a three-episode dismantling of remaining goodwill toward Oreimo, this stands as the apex of perplexing choices. The fake-wedding is nullified just moments after it ends, and the two move on with their lives, having learned nothing from their exercise in grandiose pointlessness. At the very least I can’t say it was boring to watch, even if it was little more than the plot lobotomizing itself for our viewing pleasure/terror.
Once I’m old and infirm, ready to pass on and leave my worldly possessions to my four dozen Inferno Cop dakimakuras (and the Inferno Cop soundtrack), my final thought will be of 2013, and how aggressively unnecessary the Oreimo specials that it spawned were. Nothing can ever purge this from my memory.
The Cart Driver 
I always liked Oreimo and I know that I’m not the only one, but I can admit that it isn’t good. It’s romantic comedy and I’m a huge sucker for those. Kyosuke, Kirino and Kuroneko all have seiyuus that I really like and that was one of the reasons I enjoyed it.
People complain that Kuroneko is way better girl than Kirino mostly because Kirino is huge bitch, pervert and she loves her brother. I actually like Kirino just because of the fact that she is annoying bitch. It was really refreshing and different.
Then there is the incest. I will probably get hate for saying this but I think the incest in this series is okay. As long as the siblings are somewhat same age and they both love each other then why not. Just don’t make children, that’s sick. I enjoyed the whole series but I would never recommend it.
For what it is, Oreimo is definitely entertaining; a few slow moments in the second season aside, it never bored me. I have nothing against incest when it’s used well, but the way the series led to it was 100% forced by Kyousuke claiming out of nowhere that he’s a siscon, and Kirino falling in line. There’s nothing particularly wrong with their characters, but the development is… well, shit.
Considering your final paragraph, shouldn’t this be your #1 moment? 😛
Me and Bobduh of WrongEveryTime had a discussion on how “perfect” Kirino is, you can read it fully here, but here’s my response to that specific point (I’m replying to that tag):
And here’s my response to “Kirino as a stand-in character”:
Bob had some good replies, but then he began frothing at the mouth 😉
Some more specific thoughts on Oreimo – while waiting for the OVA, I was wondering if we’ll get another season, so I checked out the LNs. They cut enough material out that would fit for another season, easily. They also removed scenes or whole chapters and replaced them with the characters just referencing them in two words (such as Kyousuke meeting with the designer boy), or the fact they removed a whole character which explains why Kyousuke changed as a boy. They probably didn’t want the anime to continue past the LNs’ publications.
Also, in case anyone doesn’t know, the author said he intended to give the characters a “True Incest” ending, but the publishing house vetoed that. He says that the brothers keeping on with their “Life Counseling” is his way to wink at us and tell us that their relationship continues in secret.
Finally, I knew what the ending would be going on, so I dunno what my original response would have been. I actually enjoyed the journey, I actually enjoyed some scenes in the OVA (such as Kuroneko crying), and that was good enough for me.
Hey, Saori is pretty cool, and Kuroneko was… actually really creepy. And the specials made her even worse.
But the moment I remember from the specials and the second season is Mami crtiquing incest.
I agreed with everything and knew she would lose anyway. Truly a sad moment.
Mami was the only one whon opposed the relation from the start, and until the end. She was this serie’s savior, but Kyousuke wasn’t able to recognize it.
Anyway, that really was a waste of time…
I only saw the first season and I passed up the second. I thought Oreimo was a parody at first but then I realized that it wasn’t.
The big question I have is why is Oreimo so popular? What makes it different from the other LN, imouto, pandering material? What makes it stand out? Is it because people were reeled in like me, thinking it was a parody, it because people wanted to check it out from the ridiculous title, or is it something else?
Otaku pandering girls, mostly. People don’t talk about how great the writing is (even though it isn’t that bad in the first season), instead opting to dote on Kuroneko, Ayase, or Kirino, all of whom fit a discrete stereotype. It’s a series that knows how to play the field and give people what they want, so it’s popular.
The concept of real human emotion and behavior is so foreign to OreImo that it was no surprise the whole incestuous romcom farce imploded on itself. I spit on OreImo’s grave.
I loved the first season, barring that “true” ending nonsense. From all that I’ve read the second season is an abomination and the author should commit sudoku (eternity in purgatory with extremely difficult sudoku puzzles).
I skipped on most of OreImo’s first season but watched a good chunk of the second one with the Classy crew on Skype.
I really wish we had thought ahead and recording our for this episode.
I can no longer remember how we reacted but I am sure it was something along the lines of “WOW, OH MY GOD. I DON’T EVEN…”.
Then the episode ended and well, I guess we were most glad to be rid of this.