The 6th episode of Ore no Imouto took a break from the Ayase-focused story arc of recent episodes, instead focusing on Kyosuke’s childhood friend, the superbly moe-some meganekko Manami Tamura.
Since the last episode roughly wrapped up the business with Ayase and Kirino’s relationship (at least for now), this episode was free to change gears and instead detail Kyosuke and his “osananajimi” Manami, who has sadly been seen relatively little in the last few episodes.
The OP has been slightly modified every episode to include characters and locations seen in that particular episode for some time now, and episode six is no exception:
A clever gag by AIC is the NicoNico-style “comments” running across the screen for Manami and her family’s intro shots (these can also be seen in the promo for Ore no Imouto Portable):
“This episode’s leading role is me!!!”
“Obaa-chan is cute!! (*v*)/”
The text for Manami’s longer screentime is full of comments, but the most common one goes something like this:
地味子きたーー★
“Jimiko came!–★”
“Jimiko” means something like “Plain Girl”, used here as a nickname for Manami.
“Jimiko is so cute, cute!”
“wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww”
The emoticons should need no translation.
This parody needs no explaining, either.
A most appreciated shot, and Kirino helpfully swings to and fro for a good while, but this particular angle seems to show the best angle.
It’s Halloween time in this episode, although there is a lack of appropriately themed cosplay…
This shot of Manami’s thigh flesh was too good to let pass.
This would be a good time for a reminder that Manami’s seiyuu, 佐藤聡美 / Satomi Satou, also did K-ON!’s tomboyish Ritsu, the same Ritsu who was so hard-pressed to adopt a feminine, cute voice for the maid café and school play episodes…
The difference between the characters’ voices is striking.
Kyosuke is alarmed at the prospect of an accidental Manami panchira, for whatever reason:
As pillow-humping otaku will know, there may be a bit of artistic license used here – dakimakura generally are sold as only the pillow cover; a dakimakura sold with a pillow already inside is generally of the smaller-than-normal cheapie style.
Kirino demonstrates the proper usage of a dakimakura:
A small culture lesson – the order in which a household takes their evening bath (with everyone sharing the same bathwater) is traditionally done by a sort of familial rank, usually father, mother, kids in order of ages, and so on.
In theory, the water will be in the same condition for each successive bather as the Japanese practice is to wash prior to getting in the bath.
Guests typically would be invited first, presumably Kyosuke’s long-term friendship with the family has him as more as a family friend than a newcomer, and so is somewhat harder to place in the order.
Thus, for the show’s Japanese audience Manami’s offer to let him take his bath ahead of hers is yet another sign of good and proper a girl she really is.
Coquettish Manami’s scene is especially fun, and makes for some amusing screens:
Kyosuke’s prey attempts to make a run for it.
Kirino needs to slightly slide forward in the first few frames here, but it didn’t seem likely that eventual home release will be able to show anything more than what’s already present, sadly.
Manami’s weapon of mass destruction.
A megane-less meganekko can still work well.
Back to Kirino’s room:
This episode naturally had a Manami-focused ED, much like how episode four had an Ayase version.
The ED sequence was not nearly as elaborate as episode four’s, which is probably the best such “image” ED given so far, but does feature a cute song マエガミ☆ / Maegami☆ (bangs, forelocks) by Manami (or rather, Satomi Satou), with a lovely image of Manami tending to her own maegami in the backround.
The illustration used in the ED should look familiar to fans of 4-koma manga and anime, since the artist is 蒼樹うめ / Ume Aoki (personal website here), creator of Hidamari Sketch, explaining the resemblance to a meganekko Yuno donning a different seifuku:
The parts with Kirino were the ONLY good parts.
Srsly, that dakimakura scene was too good.
Can’t … look … away!
Nanami is sooooooo cute~! I loved this episode, and wish they focused on her more! Ending with the two together would be totally sweet! ^_____^
Megane-chan kawaaa~i! *^_^*
Mega Mega Meganakko 😀
Don’t know if anyone else noticed, but the above article is wrong.
“As pillow-humping otaku will know, there may be a bit of artistic license used here – dakimakura generally are sold as only the pillow cover; a dakimakura sold with a pillow already inside is generally of the smaller-than-normal cheapie style.”
This is true, but I suggest you watch the anime again. She pulls out the pillow first and then the pillow case. It was box containing both. It’s the item she throws out behind her.
This episode was generally funny! The Granparents were awesome.
You just don’t find that outright suggestiveness in most anime because the male role is always so annoyingly pitiful.
A breathe of fresh air, thank Haruhi somebody out there is slowly breaking the mould. – I hope, I not expecting any decent closure still.