Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai S2 – 03
Saori and Kaori shine in a lovely background episode
Last week was a generally disappointing Ayase focused episode, but this week Saori takes the spotlight! So let’s see if this episode fares better from an entertainment standpoint and gives more people what they wanted.
Makishima Saori
We’ve always known that Saori leads a bit of a double life. We’ve gotten glimpses of her with her hair down, or in fancier clothes, but never really gotten to see her completely when she’s not “Saori Bajeena.” Everything was laid bare this week as we had mostly a flashback episode describing the Saori’s background. From a sickly childhood, her sister Kaori introduces her to her otaku circle of friends, getting her out of the house and broadening her horizons.
Her Sister’s Circle
The show depicts Kaori as a person who, if not ‘flighty’, could best be described as ‘restless’. Filled with interests, she is almost constantly dropping old hobbies and picking up new ones. The people in her circle are somewhat more consistent, but although Saori enjoys being there and hanging out with them, she never really becomes part of Kaori’s circle. And that’s hammered home when Kaori’s interests change again and she gets married and moves overseas. The result is that the rest of the people just stop hanging out together, with “Kanakana-chan”, the person who had actually done the most reaching out to Saori, and probably the closest one to someone Saori could call a ‘friend’, the last one to stop coming. It’s painful to have something that you enjoy taken away from you, and really there wasn’t anything that Saori could have done. Kaori is right when confronted by Saori: That was her friends, her circle, and in the end, Saori wasn’t much more to those people than “Kaori’s imouto”.
The Birth of Bajeena?
Finally, Kanata has a last talk with Saori, who has decided she’s going to make her sister jealous by making her own circle of friends, and passes the famous otaku glasses to her. I don’t know if the glasses imbue Saori with a different personality, or just put up enough of a shield combined with her plain shirt and jeans to let a more free part of herself out, but she is able to go from there to making friends with Kuroneko, Kirino, and Kyousuke, truly making her own circle. And all this storytime is inspired by that circle of friends deciding to surprise her ‘at home’, the only address they have for her, for Saori’s birthday. They’re pretty lucky that she was going there at all, and that she didn’t just turn and run as soon as she saw them outside. And the magic glasses? Saori hints that she thinks she’ll be passing them on ‘in the near future’, but I truly have no idea to whom.
I really enjoyed this episode. Seeing Saori go from scared little ojou-sama, afraid that she can’t get married because a boy saw her face, to her much more grown up current self, was nice, as well as seeing what she finally looks like. It just left me with a nice warm-hearted feeling that she was able to open up to Kuroneko, Kirino, and even Kyousuke (everyone else has a crush on him, I wouldn’t be surprised if Saori did as well. But as we talked about in the comments for ep 1, I don’t think Saori would ever take Kyousuke away from one of the other girls). It was also nice seeing her work on her confidence and even though she was still mad at her sister, she’s truly turned it into her own thing. She’s not friends with those three just to get back at Kaori, she’s friends with them because they’re her friends.
You Say You Want Cosplay Pictures?
Kirino would be happy to oblige!
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Good show, Highway.
I dug every second of this episode. It’s good storytelling prowess when a program can just insert these side characters into the overall narrative and not make it a speed bump.
Is it just me, or is possible that Kanata is the manga-ka for Kuroneko’s favorite stories? That would be so awesome. I hope to see more of her, she kicks much ass.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I had the same feeling about Kanata being Kuroneko’s favorite manga-ka. And I think we all know whose older sister she must be.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Yeah, I forgot that detail. Also, thanks for including the cosplay pics, Highway. I cannot decide which of Kirino or Kuroneko is the best….
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
She’s definitely the manga-ka for doujinshi that Kirino likes as well.
I think it’s the nature of the series, where there are very few multi-episode arcs, and even when there are stories that cross a couple episodes they’re not the focus of multiple episodes in a row that allows for ‘side stories’ like this. I don’t know if I’d call Saori a ‘side character’ nearly as much as Ayase was last week, since we’ve seen Saori at home, and hanging out with Kyousuke without Kirino around.
The one thing that really put me off in this episode: Kyousuke’s reaction to seeing Saori. To me, that was too over the top. And I didn’t like it at all when they reprised it at the end.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I would call her sister’s circle the side characters, or at least I should have written it clearer.
Yeah, those “Who are you” moments are rarely funny. Azunyan with a tan? I would know her anywhere..
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Well, mostly the vehemence with which it was said. The Azu-nyan ones I thought were funny because they were puzzled reactions. This seemed like Kyousuke was mad.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
This was a much better espisode than last week’s. And not just because it was a much better story of the bitter-sweet kind that let us see into Saori’s backstory. Ayase is important to Kirino, but Saori is more important to the fans and to the story. If not for the meet she set up Kirino and Kuroneko would never have met, which means we’d have never met Kuroneko and of course, Saori herself.
Then to put the icing on the cake, we finally got to see what Saori really looks like. What a great episode this was!
I think the otaku glasses and clothes Saori normally wears act as a shield for her. With those between the world and her, she’s able to overcome her shyness and get out and meet people (of course, meeting Kaori’s friends also helped). But now that she has friends, she no longer feels she needs that shield and can face the world as Makishima Saori, not Bajeena Saori. Thus, she is about ready to pass on the glasses.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t think she’s quite ready yet, especially considering her reaction seeing her three good friends outside her place. But maybe this event is helping her understand that she can live without them.
Still, her personality did change a lot when she put them on in this episode. I don’t know if she’ll ever be able to be both people without the glasses.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
But in the anime she said she was about ready to pass them on. Not there yet, but close. And she did spend this episode with her friends without them. So she’s close to being ready.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Well, there was still a divide for her between having her glasses off (when her sister and the Pretty Garden circle folks were there) and when they left and she put them on. Given the context of her ‘presentation’ as an Ojou-sama, along with the cosplay of Kuroneko, Kyousuke, and Kirino, it could be considered still as a sort of cosplay for her with those other three.
It can be really hard to bridge that gap. We’ve seen in the past that her big thing is face to face. Saori’s always been able to talk to her friends as her ojou-self on their message board or phone or texts. I don’t know how much I expect to still see her without the glasses for the rest of the show, tho. Not very much if at all is my guess.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I expect she’ll be wearing her glasses and otaku fashion in public for a while yet. It’s around Kuroneko, Kirino and Kyousuke that she might take them off.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Definitely an improvement over last week. I like to see characters like Saori growing and coming out of their shell. The journey brings out a lot of emotion and she’s lucky to have such good people around her. Best of all, she learned to find her own way to do things instead of sitting around waiting for something to come along. Just to be curious, what has this girl been eating to grow so much?
Otaku battle to the death! Who outdoes the other. Kaori or Kirino. For such a room flooded in merchandise, Kaori is an advanced level otaku.
Don’t count me shocked if Kanata turns out to be diagnosed with multiple personality disorder after this if she has seven aliases. Different art styles for different pen names has to be a sign. Another thing: We got chuunibyou reference. Sanada =
Dark Flame MasterPrince of Darkness.POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I think Kanata is crazy like a fox, BB. And her talent is just to awesome for one personality, she needs seven, and all of them rock.
Yeah, I hope they have more of her character later on.
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
I KNEEEEW THAT SHE WAS A BIJIN! LOOK AT HOW CUTE SHE IS! You could have given us the grace of your shy side earlier, Saorin-shi D=
But that was a good episode. And guess whose sister Kanakana is? It’s just obvious .-.
Anyways, sorry, but I couldn’t help but remember Makishima Shougo… He left a big scar in my mind… and a big hole in my heart TT.TT