Not once does anyone, including most of the fanbase, question Kirino's sexuality, only whether she has a complex about her big brother or not - even though the activity that kicks the whole story to a start is playing erotic games that focus on pretty girls.
Kirino constantly talks about little sisters, plays tons of games about having sex with little sisters, gets super excited about real life little sisters, has a room full of picks of anime little sisters, wants more than anything to have a little sister. How could you possibly think she was gay
I think the implication here is that her obsession with little sisters is actually an expression of her far more serious obsession with her own big brother. Yes, she plays a lot of sister games, but she identifies more with the sisters than with the male protagonist.
That's true enough after the series starts, but Kirino was completely obsessed with little sister based eroge and anime long before she even started talking to her brother.
Which could hint at her being a brocon long before the series started, which is plausible. She might not be obsessed with her own brother specifically because of anything other than him being her older brother, or not. It's about as likely as her being a closeted lesbian at the very least.
Kirino is often swooning over other cute girls her age, including cosplayers and even Kuroneko. At one point, she also gets addicted to a game in which she dates a virtual girlfriend. If she's not lesbian, she's at the very least leaning toward bisexuality.
Uhm, I play erogames, too, and the moe can be pretty much nonsexual. It's clear that Kirino wants a younger sister (She became sort of jealous of Kuroneko once), and she doesn't seem to get off on the sex scenes, as it's mostly "Kyaaaa, the reaction from the character was so cute!!!" Rather than: "Hah, haaah... That was hot..". The novel she wrote seemed to be more platonically inclined, as there was nothing hinting that it might be romantic. Though, bi is a plausible explanation, too.
Dude, did you watch the episode about her playing eroge? She moe-ing over how hot it was (she actually said "THIS IS SO HOT!") so much that her brother barged in on her!
Could her sister complex be explained as some form of subconscious projection on how she wants to be doted on?
She's clearly turned on by women (girls, really, but they're probably not much younger than her) in some contexts. Sexuality dynamics being what they are, she might not consider herself bi due to the whole "I can tell the difference between the 2d and 3d world" thing, but the subtext is obviously there.
Elaborating on the above statement. At one point, Kirino has Kyosuke play an eroge called Sis X Six, featuring two little sister heroines. Kyosuke obviously enjoys the route featuring the more mild soft spoken sister; but finds the other, tsundere sister Rinko, to be far too much like Kirino for his liking. After explaining to Kirino, about how much Rinko is similar to her, and explaining how he disliked that route because of said similarity; Kirino proceeds to launch into a tirade about how Kyosuke doesn't understand the charm of the character which in fact starkly resembles herself...Just to make that perfectly clear, Kirino wanted Kyosuke to like a pseudo copycat of her in an incest oriented video game. Oh yeah, she's projecting alright.
It gets clear that Kirino can be pretty loud when moe-ing over her beloved games. Why hasn't her brother noticed this earlier, since its confirmed that he can hear her?
She was probably more careful about it before he found out about her hobby.
(with the provisio that I've only started watching the series) Why is Kyōsuke so submissive to Kirino, e.g. doing whatever she wants, not calling her out for her hypocritical stance on playing H games, etc., even when he has a huge amount of dirt on her?
Because his character is meant to replicate the submissiveness of the moe anime character (think Mikuru Asahina); the type of girl often featured in H-games (with the provisio that I haven't played them very much). It's a massive role reversal and massive ironic twist; it shows that the same traits that some [men] seek in that kind of anime character would actually be really annoying in real life.
She's family, that's why. Two family members ignoring one another for years on end (as Kyousuke and Kirino were at the start) is a pretty terrible thing, especially in a family-centric culture like Japan's. Now that a dialogue has finally opened up between them after so many years, Kyousuke obviously wants to do everything he can to keep it that way. It's not quite a matter of submission, it's more that Kyousuke's trying to make up for all the years that he didn't make himself available to Kirino as her big brother. In fact, Kyousuke has a line in the manga that supports this:
Kyousuke (Internal Monologue): Even if she doesn't like me, or if she doesn't care, or even if she's conceited, rude, and uncute, I have to help my little sister!
This is also supported in the anime itself, when Kyosuke goes to America to get Kirino to go back home, he literally says to her face, he doesn't care of she hates him, he just wants her to be there. Same in the non-canon PSP game, where Kyosuke breaks up with Ayase, and tells her face to face that he prioritizes Kirino over her.
Who would be the titular character? The title refers to Kirino, but it uses a first person pronoun making it a phrase stated by Kyousuke. Or is it neither since the title doesn't name names?
"Titular" character means "the one mentioned in title itself". There is only one main character who could say this line, which is Kyousuke, who has only one little sister- Kirino. And he cant believe she can be cute. How hard is that to understand?
"The one mentioned in the title itself" does not mean "the person saying the title". Indeed, for most titular characters, there's nothing to say it's specifically them saying it; for that matter, most titles probably aren't usually thought of as being 'said' at all; it's just that this one clearly is.
I'd argue that there is no titular character since there weren't any specific names, but the explanation above makes more sense.
They're both titular characters. Kirino is the titular imōto (little sister), Kyōsuke is the titular ore (I, or 'my' in keeping with the translation of the whole title). So, there is no the titular character; there are two distinct ones.
Maybe age laws are different or something and I am woefully uninformed, but why is Kirino, a middle-schooler, legally allowed to buy eroge?
The same way sufficiently mature-looking teenagers get away with buying porn — she lies about her age.
That one shop from episode 3 seemed to have a "don't ask don't tell" policy, plus it seems that Kirino buys most of her eroge online; she probably found a source that doesn't check IDs (Japanese Ebay?).
She buys most of what she wants online. Due to the amount of money she makes she probably has a card tied to a bank account. As for how she hides it...it seems like she's the only one home whenever something is delivered.
Why is Kirino's dad the bad guy for trying to stop a minor from playing eroge? His reasons might be strawman material, but his motivation is still sound.
Probably due to Metaphorically True and some Values Dissonance. Some parents probably would be against their kid playing a highly sexualized game, or looking at porn, particularly if its a girl doing it. Thanks to Kyousuke's convincing arguments (that she was still a model student and knew that these things were looked down upon in society, hence why she did it in secret), he was okay with regular anime such as Meruru. However, he was still against the eroge games, and Kyousuke in episode 3 even admits that he can't refute that, hence why he made his desperate attempt and claimed those games were actually his, and that he forcefully uses Kirino's computer in order to play them. Although it is a bit strange that the dad was okay if those games were Kyousuke's, who's also underage for them.
Double Standard for the win in that regard. Though admittedly there is a big difference in maturity between 17 and 14 years of age.
Not really, especially not in this case since girls generally mature faster/earlier than boys.
He's the bad guy because the writer believes that eroge is harmless and Kirino has a right to indulge her hobbies. By stopping her from buying porn, her father is infringing upon her rights and inhibiting her individuality. Obviously some Values Dissonance here, but given how lightly incest is treated that's not unexpected.
How did Kirino's hair color change from dark brown when she was a child to blonde?
She dyed her hair... it's stated when Kyosuke sees her for the first time like that and has a hard time recognising her.
So, does Kyosuke have amnesia? How can he be so oblivious to stuff that no doubt were mentioned on the table. At first it seems the family is very distant, but then we are shown they eat together and talk about stuff, and his mother even mentions he doesn't know stuff she mentioned to him.
He might have just not been paying attention. Most people don't remember every little thing they've heard or seen.
Kyosuke isn't oblivious. His parents don't really care about keeping him informed. They were alright not telling him about Kirino leaving for America and the only reason he found out is that he asked about it rather than his parents bringing it up. Even if they left it to Kirino to explain, they still didn't care enough to discuss it.
Where is Kirino's closet? Her room has a door, which is normal door sized, and a wall of normal thickness. So where is her closet? the wall is much thinner than the closet, and there is not protrusion in the hall. So how does it work?
The upstairs hall stops immediately past her door, and there's another door at the end. Assuming that leads to a very shallow closet (like a linen closet), Kirino's closet could be right behind it.
When Kyosuke doesn't want Manami to see what's on his laptop, which at that point had also been rigged by Kirino, why doesn't he simply ... close the lid?
Who illustrated Kirino's light novel? And why is the artist not involved in the talks about the anime?
Maybe she did it herself. Kirino is apparently good in everything she puts her mind into, and she watches a lot of anime with that same artstyle. I wouldn’t be surprised if she knew how to draw well enough to illustrate her own novel.
If Kirino doesn't like it that Kyousuke put up that photo-sticker with the who of them on the refrigerator, then why doesn't she remove it herself?
So their mother thinks Kyousuke and Kirino are getting too close. Then why does she think it is a good idea to have one of them moving out? It really would only make it much harder to keep an eye on them.
It’s definitely not a clever idea, but for a genre blind parent it might look like a quick and efficient solution: they’d be apart, Kyousuke was going to college soon so he had to learn to live alone at some point. Since the whole Kirino/Kyousuke situation is just bizarre, the mom probably thought the whole “move out” thing just sounded better than letting them live together in a house with only a wall to separate their rooms.
Speaking of which: why would that photo-sticker raise any suspicions anyway? It's obviously just the two of them goofing around in a photo booth, and it's not abnormal to have some affection between siblings.
Well, it is normal, but Kyousuke and Kirino barely even spoke to each other before, and Kirino was hostile to him in every situation possible. Of course the whole photo sticker could be just siblings bonding, but after years of aloofness between the two of them, it comes off as odd, at least. To raise that sort of suspicions sounds a bit exaggerated though, I'll give you that.
Why does their father think it's a good idea to put Kyousuke through the burden of living on his own for the first time of his life, some month before his entrance exams? Changing someone's environment so drastically is about the worst thing you can do in such a case.
His father is clearly that harsh, serious "I'm the father here so respect me" kind of guy. I doubt he knows rat about what would be the best way for Kyousuke to study, or even feel better while studying. His line of thought was "You're getting distracted too easily here. I'll find you a place where you'll have time to study AND get more responsible at the same time." It's not right, but coming from Kyousuke's dad (who punched his son for having eroge material), it's possible to see some sense coming from it.
The ending is just ... baffling. There's no way two people in love would be able to agree to be a couple for a few months and then return to as they were before from a given date, regardless of circumstance. There is no "on/off"-switch for such feelings. It also makes most of what came before rather pointless, which is especially egregious when it comes to Manami's breakdown right before they split up. This a typical example of how Executive Meddling can lead to a resolution that leaves everybody disappointed.
Calm down sir. It hints that the are secretly still together in the ending, albeit a lot less in the anime. The light novel is a lot more open about it. There is also an afterstory which actually confirms they are still together, very happily at that, with Kirino dropping the Tsundere to him. They even start to act as an "idealistic" real world couple fated to be together, albeit incest in their case.
This is a simple one, but seriously? Their mother objects to Kirino and Kyousuke "getting along too well" and (like everyone else) assume they have some kind of perverted relationship, but had nothing to say when they spoke to each other about once a month and Kirino would hit and kick Kyousuke? What an effed up family...
It's clear to very attentive fans that she is indeed projecting her fantasies onto these fictional characters once you hear her backstory and her audiodiaries. The "wholesome" side of her obsession was originally about cute little sisters, how she saw herself, and how she always wanted her brother to see her as cute. The eroge obsession was always about forbidden love between little sisters and their older brothers, something that she admittedly started to get into after Minami scolded her when she was younger. It is stated in her audiodiary that she was searching for a way to romance her loved one, telling herself in the future to never give up searching, and ultimately directed it AT the loved one assuming that they would be listening. Her Eroge obsession being based around this would be a potential source for answers as she even writes down all the branching choices, their results, and knows when the endings are unrealistic and impossible. In Season 2 Episode 15 she wanted to use her new Eroge as a reference of what to do with their future romance as she doesn't know what happens yet or the ending. In the afterstory she even starts to branch out to other genres (en masse at that) since she has succeeded and no longer has a mental reliance on the prior genres.
(continuation of the latter) The ending of them stopping their public romance was an answer she came up with after she deemed it impossible to maintain the relationship publicly. They however successfully continue in private and in the afterstory it is expanded upon to such an extent that it implies they are very happy with their romance(Kirino bragging to Kuroneko about possibly(?) sex with a ''strongly'' jealous response from Kuroneko. Kirino even dropped the Tsundere act to Kyousuke since she no longer needs this self-defence mechanism in his presence. It also appears that their romance is "imitating idealistic real world romances", albeit incestuous, and says that he has plans about taking it further(inferred proposal and confirmed afterwords plans).
(Final continuation) If anything, Ayase is the bisexual since Kirino has reasoning for her enjoyment and angrily berates Kanako's suggestions of same-sex attraction, whilst Ayase is strangely gleeful at these suggestions and Yandere protective of Kirino. It's more or less a trope in itself that there is always that 1 female friend with questionable motives around the same sex.
Why in God's name does Kyousuke break up with Kuroneko? Not that they're the OTP or anything, but at that point they were already broken up, for exactly the reasons Kyousuke gives. Kuroneko was the one that pointed out that he couldn't be with her if it meant hurting Kirino. She more-or-less (in her enigmatic fashion) stated that Kirino and Kyousuke's happiness was more important to her than her relationship with Kyousuke, and later, in a heated moment, states she wouldn't even care if the siblings' relationship did become incestuous. Furthermore, from a narrative perspective, it essentially removes any agency Kuroneko has from the equation: she goes from being the mature one who ended the relationship because she could see there was no future for it, to being a sad runner-up romantic interest who gets dumped. We get what is probably the hardest scene in the series to watch, all for no reason. The rest of the series could play out exactly the same, and the only difference would be whether or not she calls herself "Yamineko" in one of the two scenes she's in in the remaining half-dozen episodes.
