Ore no imouto wa konna ni kawaii wake ga nai

aka “There’s no way my little sister can be this cute”
Genre: Comedy (harem?)
Score: OK

Kyosuke’s little sister Kirino is a pain. She’s a model, a top athlete and a stuck up cow. But one day she asks for his help, and takes him into her confidence. She’s using her modelling fees to fund her real obsession: eroge about little sisters. From there he gets dragged into a world of cosplay, special edition shiny boxes, obscure arguments that mean nothing to him and almost constant accusations, insults and troubles.

This series gets a few originality points for being a story about anime fans where the main character is an outsider. The supporting cast are quite nice, showing how fandom gets fragmented, how bad fans can be at making friends, and how people who think they’re her friends react when they discover another side to her personality. But it suffers from one flaw: Kirino. We’re supposed to care with Kyosuke about his little sister and her problems, but she’s just such a bitch. Tellingly, my favourite episodes are the ones where she doesn’t even appear.

It’s also hard to believe that she’d lend her brother a laptop in order to force him to play an eroge about little sisters – and not see any connection. How thick can she be?