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The Absurdly and Fantastically Contrived Ending of OreImo

Ok! This time I deviated a little of the list of reccomendations because I was made known about this anime, OreImo (short for Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai, or traslated to "My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute") based on a manga with the same name.

The premise is this: a guy distanced from his sister until one day she trusts him her greatest secret: she's a hard-bone otaku with a special fondness for niche visual novels. So they begin to make amends with their strained siblinghood as she drags him into the world of otaku and meet all sorts of lovable characters in the way.

As someone absolutely unfamiliar with anime tropes, genres and such, I decided to give the lore a try given the luck I had had with CandyBoy in search of portrayals of consangs. And i must say... I got mixed feelings.

Having digested some tropes of anime and, it seems so, romantic animes per se, the lore itself was quite wholesome, the story appealing and overall, I found delightful the story treated itself with respect (congrats to the creators!). Ufff, and the music score! I'll always pray for well done music scores.

and theeeeen... the goddamn ending.

I mean, anyone having already watched the anime/read the manga knows the object of my frustration. And, again, I mean, I went to watch this without expectations, merely focused in the lore without any realizaton, so after all of this story building and lore, the logical conclusion was them to be together and the end... just to end with a Break Up Ex Machina?!

At first, I felt robbed. Sympathies with consangs aside, the Break Up Ex Machina is a plot tool a lot used when sibling romances happen in stories, something I've seen a lot (and hated) in soap operas, telenovelas and all sorts of literature. Now, here, where the main premise is romance, it was absolutely incoherent with the character development of the characters. Since the start their untold feelings have precedent on the story, and over and over again it is displayed how deeply they are and how these affect them.

Even within the light lore and the exagerated behavioral cues, the interpersonal relationships keep their weight as something serious, and are the keystone of the plot. So, after all the struggle and developement of their relationship, not merely in the romantic sense but as siblings as well, the rush of the break up ex machina felt like an inmense plothole.

So, insatisfied and left with a void within, I looked for some info about what the heck had happened (cheating average for anyone having dues about a plot) and it seems the ending was "changed" because of the time's restrictions and pushes with the editors of the original manga. But, that didn't match witht he story construction, the patch was too obvious, there was something I was missing. Some theorists implied it was a coverup ending, but I've always disdained drastic theorizations like that one. So I watched again and...

It kinda... matched?

Knowing the character development, how physical closeness is the ultimate point of approach between the characters, and how there is this plot point of Kirino (the girl) tending to self sabotage herself out of hopelessness and insecurity (as seen in the confession scene indeed) and Kyosuke's tendence to ground her back, the last scene and its dialogues make a lot more of sense about that last kiss being the hint that Kyosuke used that "bet wish" he had to imply he wanted to keep things going between them (and well, that frame of her being practicaly floating in joy is not mere aesthetical but implies she's agreeing with it).

Contrived beyond belief? Absolutely. However, one recognizes it was all the author had to work with (Another reason to point that the restraining of civil freedoms for this demographics affects creative works more than one expects), and the lore itself is solid enough for those who get it to get it. So that's what we got, a coverup happy ending!

I will count it as a portrayal. Not my favorite or the best, given all the lore tropes and the contrievance of the ending, but it has a special place still, and I'll remember it fondly maybe for another rewatch ^-^!

as our dearest and chaotic protagonic couple said:

"We'll take care of it!"

So I can't abide your sparse media offerings. ~BaCk In My DaY~ I was the resident consang media librarian, so let me supplement ❤️:

Starting with #1 is Billy & Billie. (I know they're "step" siblings, but it still applies, and SPOILERS their status gets complicated.) Sad it lost its actors after the first season and had to end, but that 1 season is the best rep out there. No competition. Like genuinely, really funny, really normalizing, and teasing in ways that are still sympathetic. It's like a Seinfeld romcom between siblings.

Byron is a 2-part film on George Gordon, Lord Byron, famous poet, focusing primarily on his relationship with his half-sister Augusta. It's really good, and very sympathetic, if sad. Also it's good to see historical rep. (Still waiting on an Anais Nin biopic, especially one that has the guts to cover her relationship with her dad!)

The Unspeakable Act is a kind of realistic, slice of life, hipster drama with a very dry sense of humor, following a girl madly in love with her brother, dealing with him getting a girlfriend and going to college. It's not a positive portrayal, but it's not negative either. There's an annoying joke about Freudian stuff and narcissism, but otherwise it has a lot of empathy for its main character. (Speaking to the realism, I 100% knew a guy who looked and talked and acted EXACTLY like her brother.)

From Beginning to End is a Brazilian film about two brothers slowly falling in love over the course of their lives, and eventually having to grapple with how to manage such an intense relationship as adults when things like careers get in the way. I have mixed feelings, because the beginning is pretty corny IMO (they try to make the "love at first sight" thing work with a toddler and a baby), but what's interesting is that it implicitly assumes a world where people accept this as something that happens sometimes. People are awkward about it, but aside from one guy early on, everyone's supportive. (They just kind of talk around the subject lol)

Marguerite & Julien is a historical film (with a 1950s aesthetic for some reason) about an actual sibling couple who fled their family and lived in Paris before being captured and executed. It was a really contentious trial at the time, but Marguerite was married so the king felt his hand was forced. Tragic, but real.

Candy Boy is a slice of life anime miniseries about two sisters attending art school. It's sweet and funny, and pretty minimal on drama.

Shameless is a Polish movie about an estranged brother and sister reconnecting briefly. It's sympathetic, though the situation is complicated and intersects with modern racial politics in Poland--and his sister maybe doesn't deserve the pedestal he puts her on. The director is on record saying that he made the movie because he wanted to portray the reality of life in Poland, and this is part of life.

Outside of sibling relationships the pickings get extremely thin. These movies are, as far as I know, all made by exos, so what movies get made depends on the culture's attitudes toward a relationship. Some people can imagine a healthy sibling romance from the outside, but few can extend the same empathy to any other kind. Tabu is a short about a guy connecting with a woman he finds out to be his long lost mother, and it has some Freudian visual gags, but otherwise is very sympathetic. (If anyone knows any other sympathetic movies covering parent-offspring relationships, I'd be interested.)

hahahha, well, I appreciate the contributions to introduction to consang media :), I'll atart watching the entries ASAP!