There is no way my post title is so long. Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai, or OreImo as it is commonly abbreviated, is an interesting twist of the quintessential tsundere anime genre popularized by titles such as Shakugan no Shana and Zero no Tsukaima.

And beyond that, it, like Genshiken, is a testament to the subculture that has sprung up around bishoujo anime and games.

Despite its suspicious title (“There is no way my sister is this cute”), OreImo, at least the anime adaptation, is not about incest. There is certainly some suggestive tension between Kyousuke Kousaka and his tsundere sister Kirino Kousaka that does not usually exist between siblings, but arguably the masterful execution keeps it within tastefully platonic limits.

This can be disappointing if you walk into it hoping for another Koi Kaze, but on some level the setup is oddly appropriate given the personalities of the two main characters and the theme of the story. Nevertheless, the show does contain enough emotionally-charged moments to make the viewer blush excitedly like a giddy school girl.

Kirino Kousaka is a typical teenage girl who hates her brother Kyousuke Kousaka. But one day, Kyousuke accidentally discovers that Kirino is actually a huge closet otaku who has a pile of eroge tall enough to touch the ceiling hidden in her otaku closet and an ironic fetish for little sisters. Kirino, who has thus far kept her double life secret from even her closest friend, is initially horrified but slowly realizes that having someone share her secret may not be such a bad thing. With Kyousuke’s help, Kirino gradually overcomes her self-loathing and decides to be more honest with her passions (perhaps in more than one way). Of course, with Kyousuke around to help her buy 18+ eroge, she also descends farther into oblivion… めでたしめでたし。

That stack of games cost a few thousand dollars

As with any anime dealing with otaku, things get really meta. There are many allusions and references to real-life anime and game titles and Kirino’s many dilemmas (usually, which girl to kouryaku first) probably strike a chord with many of the show’s viewers. Every commercial break eyecatch contains a imouto-themed parody of an actual anime or game and every episode has a unique ED song along with a unique illustration provided by a well-known doujin or eroge artist. As with Genshiken, it gives you a very warm and fuzzy feeling inside to know that this perverted little niche has grown to become a substantial subcultural force of its own.

Eyecatch

Kirino practising sexual grooming on virtual lolis

In a way, OreImo is really just Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, except that Haruhi is Kyon’s little sister and she likes to play pornographic games about little sisters instead of searching for UFOs or aliens. Haruhi herself has some maniac tendencies (e.g. making Mikuru dress up as a bunny girl to provide fan service) that endear her to the audience’s inner selves. Kirino takes that concept one step further by being a full-blown closet otaku. And like Kyon, Kyousuke gets to clean up her mess afterwards behind the scenes.

@_@

To be honest, while combining Haruhi and Genshiken does make for an interesting concept as it is, the real draw of OreImo for me is the complicated relationship between Kyousuke and Kirino. There’s a popular saying in Japanese, tomodachi ijou koibito miman 友達以上恋人未満 (more than friends, less than lovers), which on a side note actually has an eroge named after it. You can probably call Kyousuke and Kirino kyoudai ijou koibito miman 兄妹以上恋人未満 (more than siblings, less than lovers).

Kirino cries knowing that she can never be with her brother…

Even though Kirino fits the typical tsundere heroine archetype that has proliferated throughout the industry over the years as part of its moétification, and even though Kyousuke is more or less an exact replica of Kyon, the fact that they are siblings serves as an insurmountable absolute barrier against potential developments. All tsundere characters have their barriers (e.g. the master-servant relationship seen in Zero no Tsukaima) to prevent the relationship from escalating beyond the status quo until the season finale, but the one between Kirino and Kyousuke is real and indestructible. There isn’t even the usual wriggle room of “siblings unrelated by blood”.

There is no way my family has so many different hair colours

Having not read the novels, I spent most of the 12 episodes wondering how the show intends to give a satisfactory ending to the web that it has weaved. An actual incestuous ending would be, in my opinion, oddly out of place — too straightforward and simple for a story that so carefully dances around the issue. And yet, a tsundere setup without a teredere ending just feels wrong. This sense of dilemma, I feel, is where OreImo truly differentiates itself. Wherein most works of similar genre a happy ending is predictable and welcomed, in OreImo it is uncertain and emotionally complicated.

Indeed, I personally find that OreImo’s “Good Ending” is the non-controversial compromise that is decent but somewhat hollow. Perhaps this is why OreImo will have 4 extra DVD episodes that will form 2 alternate endings to the series. Will I be condemned if I say that I am looking forward to the “True Ending”?

^_^

>:(

Ahh… Toranoana at Akiba. Nostalgic.

Kirino’s awesomely psychotic best friend

There is no way my otaku meta-anime doesn’t feature a Comiket episode

This proves it. Kirino is Konata!

Kuroneko, cat-eared dweller of the eternal darkness

Mutually-Assured Tsundere

KIRA☆

Also looking forward to the OreImo PSP game… >_>

According to an annual research by research agency Media Create titled “The 2008 White Paper on the Otaku Industry”, the total combined size of game, anime and related goods sales amount to 186.8 billion yen (about 1.65 billion USD) for the year of 2007. This is a slight 2% increase over last year’s 182.1 billion yen.

Based on surveys conducted, Media Create determined that 31 % of otaku have been to maid cafes, 48% to doujin sales events and 49% purchased items online.

The agency divided the products into five categories: anime (DVDs and CDs), published content (manga and light novel), games, figures and goods, and doujinshi. Based on these categories, they conducted interview surveys with specialist shops and 1500 “otaku” found in those places. Doujin sales figures were obtained from event organizers and online retailers.

They also reached an interesting conclusion that there’s been an increase of so-called “light otaku”, or people who enjoy anime and games on a more casual level. This growth is attributed to the Internet, which seems to be the cause of everything nowadays, where it is easy for people to interact with others who have similar interests.

The paper also contains analysis from economist Takurou Morinaga and costs ï¿¥17,800 for 184 A4-sized pages. Probably a good read for anyone in the business. (Or thinking of starting one.) Personally I’m interested in finding out the breakdown of revenues in terms of the five defined categories.

[ Source: Yahoo! Japan News ]

Picture stolen from Hobby Blog (possible stolen from elsewhere)

I can see the appeal of covering your real car with decals of your favourite anime goddess, and I can see the appeal of building plastic models. But good things aren’t always better when mixed together, like ice-cream and curry. Also, that thing is covered with way too many decals. I think just having one decal on the front hood would’ve been in better taste. More pictures here.

[ Source: Hobby Blog via Kotaku ]

It seems that some business executives are trying too hard to bring in otaku money. Just two days ago, reports surfaced that there’s a (unconfirmed) plan to start off this year’s Kouhaku Uta Gassen with an akiba-kei performance by AKB48, Shouko Nakagawa (famous girl gamer cum cosplay idol often seen promoting new games) and Leah Dizon.

I’m still trying to figure out why Leah Dizon is in there. For Haruhi’s sake, NHK! At least find some decent singers if you’re aiming for the otaku-friendly image. Like KOTOKO or Yui Horie. Jeez.

They only printed a selected few of the questions while the full set of hundred is included on a CD-ROM that comes with the magazine.

Continue reading for the printed questions and translations.

1. お名前と、もしあるならば別の呼び名。そしてその由来をæ•ãˆã¦ãã ã•ã„。
こんにちは、DarkMirageと申しまãã€‚小学校のごろオンラインゲームを始めたæ‚に作ったんでãã€‚たまたま二つの英語単語で作り出しただけで、意味はありません。

Please tell us your nickname and its origin.
Hi, my nickname is DarkMirage. I made it up for an online game back in primary school. It’s just a combination of two words and has no special meaning.

2. 年齢をæ•ãˆã¦ãã ã•ã„。
１８歳。

What is your age?
18 years old.

3. どこにお住まいでãã‹ï¼Ÿ
シンガポール。

Where do you live?
Singapore.

4. 職業についてæ•ãˆã¦ãã ã•ã„。
高校生。

What’s your occupation?
High school student.

5. 身長は？
１８１センチ。

Your height?
181cm. (I realized that I overestimated it by 2cm.)

6. 好きな食べ物をæ•ãˆã¦ãã ã•ã„。
刺身。

What’s your favourite food?
Sashimi.

7. 嫌いな食べ物はなんでãã‹ï¼Ÿ
にんじん、ブロッコリ。

What food do you hate?
Carrots and broccoli.

8. なにか特技があればæ•ãˆã¦ãã ã•ã„。
耳を動かãã“と、それとジャッグル。

Do you possess any special talents?
I can wriggle my ears and also juggle.

9. 自分を動物にたとえるなら、なんでãã‹ã€‚
猫かな、éã‹ã§æ€ ã‘者。

What animal would you compare yourself to?
Probably a cat. I’m quiet and lazy.

10. 自分をオタクだと思いまãã‹ï¼Ÿ
はい、オタクでãã€‚

Are you an otaku?
Yes, I am.

11. あなたにとってのヒーローまたはヒロインは誰でãã‹ã€‚
科学者のスティーヴン・ホーキング。

Who is your hero/heroine?
The physicist Stephen Hawking.

12. 尊敬している人は？
元アメリカ大統領å€è£œã‚¢ãƒ«ãƒ»ã‚´ã‚¢ã€‚

Who do you respect?
Former American presidential candidate Al Gore.

15. 座右の銘は？
“God’s in his heaven, All’s right with the world.”

What’s your personal motto?
“God’s in his heaven, All’s right with the world.”

21. 理想のガールフレンドってどんな人でãã‹ï¼Ÿï¼ˆå®Ÿåœ¨ã®å½¼å¥³ã¯åˆ¥ã«ã—て）
ToHeart2のタマ姉みたいのがいいｗｗｗ　冗談は別として、趣味が合うのは一番大切だと思いまãã€‚明るくて大人っぽいのもプラスでãâ€¦â€¦ã£ã¦ã‚„っぱりタマ姉かな。(笑）

Describe your ideal girlfriend. (Not your current girlfriend.)
I want someone like ToHeart2’s Tama-nee! Jokes aside, I guess having someone with compatible interests is quite important. Cheerful and mature would be huge pluses too…… Wait I guess that is Tama-nee after all. LOL.

30. 好きなアニメ作品についてæ•ãˆã¦ãã ã•ã„。
涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱、エヴァンゲリオン、ナデシコ、星界の戦旗、気まぐれオレンジロード。

What anime titles do you like?
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Evangelion, Nadesico, Banner of the Stars and Kimagure Orange Road.

54. 知っている、または好きな日本の単語をæ•ãˆã¦ãã ã•ã„。
神無月。

Please tell us your favourite Japanese word.
Kannadzuki.

59. Ramblings of DarkMirageを簡単に紹介してください。
最初は自分を話題にして書いてたブログだったが、二年前からアニメやアキバ系のサイトに変更しました。ビジターはアメリカから一番多い、それからシンガポールと日本。

Please introduce us to “Ramblings of DarkMirage”.
It started off as a random blog about my daily life but slowly transformed into an anime related site two years ago. Most visitors come from America, followed by Singapore and Japan.

66. いま、注目に値ãã‚‹ã‚¢ãƒ‹ãƒ¡ä½œå“ã‚’æŒã’てください。
「コードギアス」……って言うかもう皆観てまãã­ã€‚じゃ、「京四郎と永遠の空」かな。

What series should people look out for now?
“Code Geass”……but I guess everyone’s already watching that. “Kyoushirou to Towa no Sora” then.

69. アニメで、いちばん好きなシーンについてæ•ãˆã¦ãã ã•ã„。
「涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱」の第１２話で、ハルヒが「God knows…」を歌ってるところが大好きでãã€‚

What’s your favourite anime scene?
The scene in episode 12 of “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” where Haruhi sang “God knows…”.

79. 「アニメオタク」と「アニメファン」の違いとは、どういったことだと思いまãã‹ã€‚
あるレãƒãƒ«ã«é”成ãã‚‹ã¨ã€ã‚¢ãƒ‹ãƒ¡ãƒ•ã‚¡ãƒ³ã¯ã‚¢ãƒ‹ãƒ¡ã‚ªã‚¿ã‚¯ã«é€²åŒ–しまãã€‚ポケットモンスターみたいに。

What do you think is the difference between an anime otaku and an anime fan?
Upon reaching a certain level, anime fan evolves into anime otaku. Just like in Pokemon.

80. サイトへのクレームなどもありまãï¼Ÿ
最初はなれなくてãã”く気にしたんでããŒã€ä»Šã¯ç„¡è¦–しまãã€‚

Do you get complaints about your site?
Yes, I was quite bothered by them at first, but now I ignore them. (Speaking of which, Doremi just sent me an e-mail a few days ago…)

85. 尊敬している、字幕職人っていまãã‹ã€‚
Anime-KeepのDeathWolf。

Do you respect any fansubbers?
DeathWolf from Anime-Keep.

88. オススメのYouTube動画ってありまãï¼Ÿ
「Ask A Ninja」というシリーズ。まぁ、英語でãã‘どね。

Do you have any YouTube videos to recommend?
The “Ask A Ninja” series, but it’s in English.

92. 一番人気があるアニメサイトといえば？
darkmirage.com…というのは嘘でãã€‚多分animenewsnetwork.comだと思いまãã€‚

What’s the most popular anime site (in English)?
darkmirage.com… Just kidding. Uh, animenewsnetwork.com I guess.

93. マジコンって知ってまãï¼Ÿã€€ä½¿ã£ãŸã“とありまãï¼Ÿ
知ってまããŒã€DSは持っていません。PSPでカスタムファームウエアと使ってまãã‘ど。

Do you know what’s a Magicom? Have you used one before?
I know what it is, but I do not own a DS. I do use homebrew software on my PSP, though.

97. ひとことでいうと、アニメはあなたにとってナニ？
生き方でãã€‚

How would you describe anime in one phrase?
It’s a way of life.

100. 日本の読者にメッセージお願いしまãã€‚
いつかアキバで会おう！

Please end off with a message for the Japanese readers.
May we meet in Akiba someday!

You can view the rest of the questions that came with the CD-ROM here.

Alternatively, you can purchase the magazine itself from Amazon JP. The CD-ROM contains a few pictures of me which I shall not post here. :P

P.S. I have been without Internet access for the past few days due to a series of incidents. So yeah, I’m still alive.

The location is Parklane Shopping Mall just opposite Sunshine Plaza and near Dhoby Ghaut MRT. The time is this Saturday at 7.30pm. Currently, there are about twenty people attending. I doubt the cybercafes will have enough free slots to accommodate all of us but it will work out somehow.

So if you want to catch your favourite/most hated anime bloggers and get their autographs/stab them in the eyes with a blunt pencil, then come down on Saturday.

Also, as you may or may not know, my new school year started yesterday. New school! Woot! Just five metres to the right of my old school. Woot! Tj han and LianYL have no life and visited me in school today. You can look at the pictures and learn about my perfect bowling skillz in the latest entry on RIUVA.

I woke up today at 1.30pm. I guess it’s not that bad considering I slept at 5am. Gao. So anyway, here’s how I spent my last day of 2006. (Yet another year closer to my eventual death.)

I woke up on the 31st at 9.00am and left home at 9.30am. かったるい。Arrived at Funan at around 10.20am to help out with Urban Attic’s sale. Tj han was late because his new $80 School Rumble alarm clock failed to wake up him. lol.

LianYL and I left just before the sale started to give out flyers at a certain other location. I told Weiye, the owner of Urban Attic, to reserve a 1/7 Kanu Unchou PVC figure for me because I knew that it’d be gone by the time I returned. We gave out flyers until almost 3pm and returned to Funan. The Kanu was sold out! Apparently Weiye thought I asked for Ryofu instead of Kanu. Gao. But at least I got $50 for my work. Kind of sad that I ended up buying nothing at the sale.

By now the otaku gathering is getting quite big. The group of us walked to Sunshine Plaza where I proceeded to spend nearly 4/5 of my income for the day at KKnM‘s 50% sale.

Two hard plastic posters from Shirow Masamune‘s Galgrease illustration series. They are pretty big. They are almost as tall as the backrest of my living room couch. Still trying to decide on where to stick them…

After the usual otaku chit-chat, we wasted away remaining two hours till dinnertime by lanning Counterstrike. It’s been some time since I last played that game. Then we had dinner at Raffles City. At around 9.00pm, we arrived at the Cosafe Maid Cafe, Singapore’s first maid cafe, where we spent the rest of the night.

It was actually the first time I patronized Cosafe since their opening two weeks ago. I’ve been to maid and cosplay cafes a few times in Japan and I must say that Cosafe felt very different, not in the good or bad sense but just different. It’s an intangible thing.

Other than maid costumes, there were also seifuku, Misa from Death Note and some other character cosplays I couldn’t identify.

I ordered a Milky Vanilla milkshake, but they ran out of vanilla ice-cream, so I became the first customer ever to have a vanilla milkshake made using chocolate ice-cream. Wee.

The tropical penguin

I thought the service was pretty okay, but then again some of the guys in our group were regulars there who knew every girl by name (we got our table without having to wait), so my experience may not be a very accurate gauge. Still, it’s a far cry from all the negative reviews that have been floating round the net. Perhaps the service has improved a lot since the cafe’s opening.

Who’s that Pokemon?

The price is pretty scary — my milkshake was S$7.80 + service charge, though it’s expected since CHIJMES is a pretty posh area with a large number of tourists and expats. On an interesting note, if you look at the current exchange rate, food in Japanese maid cafes actually cost less, but the difference isn’t great.

It’s Tripeman!

2007 started off with a lot of party spray strings and popping balloons
The maids were well-armed

Just look at all the cups

A balloon fight was soon under way. Many died

Lelouch survived

I only drank half a cup of beer because I’m still below the legal drinking age (犯罪でãã‚ˆã€‚) so I was still pretty awake at 1.30am when we finally decided to make a move.

I missed the last train home by 4 minutes or so. At least 30 police officers were clearing out the City Hall train station and securing the entrances after the last train. There were a lot of people still on the streets. Some were queuing for taxis at the taxi stand, but queue was so long that a lot of people just gave up.

I took a NightRider Bus home. It took one entire hour to circle around every part of the city district, from City Hall to Chinatown to Clarke Quay to Orchard Road, before travelling the rest of the way to my house within 20 minutes. Worst bus right ever, but it’s better than being stranded until the first train at 5am. The bus stop was about 2 km away from my house (5 km for tj han apparently) because NightRider bus routes are pretty limited (considering you have less than 10 NR service routes for the whole of Singapore), but I somehow managed to find my way home at 3.30am in a semi-conscious state. Bought a cup noodle from 7-Eleven on the way because I was really hungry. May Haruhi bless whoever invented 24/7 convenience stores.

All in all a pretty interesting New Year’s Eve. At least compared to how I usually spend them. (Asleep and in my bed.)

The entrance to doom and horror

Warning: Pictures may be extremely disturbing to the uninitiated.

Rei and Mana

Turn right (although no one in the right mind would do that since you’d be facing the wall) after stepping through the door and you’ll see two large Evangelion posters that identify me as a level 12 Eva fanboy. Mana is hawt. That’s a not-for-sale promotional poster for the PS1 version of Girlfriend of Steel. I found it at Mandarake Shibuya for ï¿¥200. Yay.

The lair

Right across the door is where I spend 90% of my waking hours, excluding school.

Generally I do my stuff on the main monitor. The secondary monitor is mostly for IRC, Winamp and some misc. widgets.

The rig below is a Pentium 3 with a dead HDD. I was using it to run Linux, but it’s dead now. At least until I move a HDD over.

A Coolmaster case. It’s so cool that the PVC figures above it have not melted yet. In fact, it’s so cool that there’s a penguin sitting on it.

Louise stands above my Creative subwoofer.

Behind is the promotional poster for Maaya Sakamoto‘s “Kazemachi JET” single. I have the one for Yunagi LOOP too, but it was damaged when I took it down during the packing. I failed as a Maaya fanboy. orz

I have no idea why the penguin is there. It just is.

My wallet’s coin compartment has a huge hole, so I took out all my coins. That’s a Mahora school crest on the keychain.

When she’s not on a holiday, Saber sits on my desk. Gao.

Behind Saber is a wallscroll of Tama-nee. It’s a promotional item from Messe Sanoh that came with the limited edition copy of ToHeart2 XRATED. I bought it from Lashinbang in Ikebukuro for ï¿¥2,000.

And now we come to the interesting part…the shelves…

The storage area belong Kasumi is where I dump everything that can’t be displayed. I should invest more in displayable stuff, like posters.

I seem to be missing some books. Oh well. Maybe they got lost in one of the bajillion boxes during the move. Hopefully they’ll turn up one day…

My “study” desk. Do you see any studying materials around? I think not.

My laptop. It’s trying and failing to boot Linux off a Live CD. Sigh…

My phone charging. HARUHIISM FOREVER!!!

My HP printer and, uh, some CDs… Okay this is getting lame. Let’s wrap up with some shots of the posters and pencil boards that are haphazardly pasted all over the place.

Melons are nice

The princesses

The girls with guns

Setsuna-chan!!! Too bad the game sucked

This phone card costs more than any single poster

So…uh…yeah, I like Lacus

A brave issue of Megami gave up its life

Pretty bad picture due to the poor lighting (that or I just suck)

And finally…

FEEEEEEEEEEENA!!!!!!

Everyone knows that I have a thing against displaying posters with folds, but Feena is an exception. :3

BTW my room is defended by a USB missile launcher. So don’t even think about it!

View the rest of the pictures in the gallery.

I present to you my greatest masterpiece ever, after the jump.

otaku lifestyle crisis

～ fin. ～

＿|￣|O

Sad to say I own the entire series of that book

So the question is… What should I die for?

Item No.1

D.C. II – Nanaka Shirakawa mousepad + phonecard set

• Price: 3,500 yen
• Probably more since they don’t ship overseas and I have to use a middleman.
• Mousepad size: 190mm x 220mm

Everyone knows that I am a Nanaka fanboy. The design used by the phonecard is, in my opinion, the best CG of her in the game. I want this bad. The other D.C. II girls are also available from Chara-Ani.

Item No.2

D.C. II – Nanaka Shirakawa limited edition Zippo lighter

• Price: 7,000 to 10,000 yen
• Probably more since it’s Yahoo Auctions
• Officially licensed Zippo lighters
• Sold during Comiket 70
• Only 300 made, each with a serial number

I don’t smoke. I don’t collect lighters. BUT THIS IS JUST WAY TOO COOL. (Okay, maybe my definition of “cool” is a bit off) Each lighter has its unique serial number, which tickles my inner collector soul. The original retail price at Comiket was 6,000 yen, so Yahoo Auction prices aren’t too bad. Yet. (Just wait till a D.C. II anime is announced) Oh so tempting…

Item No.3

1/20 Tachikoma from Megahouse

• Release Date: Feb 2007
• Price: 10,000 yen
• Made of ABS
• Multiple articulations
• 130mm tall

I am lazy. I bought the 1/24 Tachikoma model kit last year and have yet to open the box. This however is pre-built, bigger and cooler. The only catch is that it’s a few times the price of the original too.

Item No.4

School Rumble – Yakumo Tsukamoto pillow cover from COSPA
School Rumble – Eri Sawachika pillow cover from COSPA

• Release Date: 20/11/2006
• Price: 9,000 yen each

Wait! I know what you are thinking… Take a deep breath. Relax. Anyway, COSPA quality is worth the money. But as much as I like Yakumo and Eri, they are not exactly my favourite characters of all time. Still, somewhat interested.

Item No.5

Want to buy: money-printing machine plz!

Anyway, considering the fact that I’ve already pre-spent most of my money for the next year or so, I think I need to think carefully about this and not make any rash deci…

…Oh fuck it. Nanaka is calling for me!

Top right corner: 410,000 people over 3 days!? The massive gathering at this summer event.
Left: This person in the queue…
Bottom: …has been queuing since 5 am.

Same as above.

Top right: A hot summer of “Comiket”. A gathering of 410,000 people from all over the nation.
Left: An attendee.
Bottom: “What is does Comic Market mean to you?” “It’s what I live for.”

And the most WTF of them all…
Bottom: A mother taking leave from work to buy things for her daughter who is having tuition.

Wow. Japanese mothers are so cool that they take leaves to buy yaoi pr0n for their daughters. o_O Either that or she’s actually buying it for herself… DUN DUN DUN!!! I think one can write a few thousand words worth of social commentary base on this picture alone. Seriously. Only in Japan folks.

And for those of you who are wondering why they don’t queue overnight, well I can assure you that it’s not because they are not hardcore enough; it’s against the rules to do so. Comiket bouncers are kowai… I’d imagine.

Now back to refreshing Heisei Democracy…