| Kirino Kousaka | |
| Name in Japanese | 高坂 桐乃 |
| Romaji Translation | Kōsaka Kirino |
| Nickname/s | Kiririn (Her Online Username)
Rino (Her pen name as an Author) |
| Debut (Anime) | Episode 01 |
| Debut (Light Novel) | Volume 01 (Chapter 01) |
| Debut (Manga) | Volume 01 (Chapter 01) |
| Appears in | Light Novel, Manga, Anime |
| Voice Actor (Japanese) | Ayana Taketatsu |
| Personal Info | |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | 14-15 16(at the end of the series) |
| Height | 165 cm |
| Weight | 45 kg |
| Measurements | 82/54/81 |
| Occupation | Student Part-time fashion model Author Track and Field Athlete |
Kirino Kōsaka (高坂 桐乃, Kōsaka Kirino) is Kyousuke's younger sister and the younger of the two siblings of the Kousaka family. She is an overachiever who seemingly lives a perfect life and is idolised by almost everybody. However, she keeps a big secret to her family — that she is an avid otaku and a fan of adult-rated games, especially those involving brother-sister dynamics.
Kyousuke's discovery of this secret led Kirino to introduce him into the world of an otaku, and eventually, allowed him to reestablish his role as an older brother to her.
She is voiced by Ayana Taketatsu.
Appearance
Kirino has long hair dyed light brown and blue eyes. Her back-length hair forms two fringes that curl towards her face and has two fringes that point outwards, with two long locks hanging loose on each side of her face. She prefers to let her hair untied, but uses two hair clips to secure the fringes of hair on her forehead. The rest reaches her waist. Her original hair color before she dyed it was dark brown, a shade similar to Manami's. She is more or less tall and has a well proportioned body and long legs.
Personality
Kirino is known for having a go-getter attitude. She shows a keen focus to anything she deems interesting, whether it is studying and athletics, or hobby-related activities. This attitude of hers when it comes to school activities has rewarded her with above-average marks, even as she enters the career of modeling. She developed a sort of perfectionist attitude due to becoming an overachiever, which eventually made her more prone to struggling when the odds are against her. When these moments come, however, she displays a more passive side.
During her initial interactions with Kyousuke, she demonstrates an attitude similar to a "tsundere", with the bossy and abusive part more dominant. Although she maintains this attitude, she slowly tries to open up to her brother at times, reluctantly expressing gratitude on things that Kyousuke has done for her. It is later clarified that she does care for Kyousuke, although she chooses indirect methods, sometimes laced with her sharp tongue, to show her sisterly affection for him.
She has a strong "little sister" fetish and owns many adult games with older brother/little sister themes, which is paid by her salary for modeling. Despite this, she insists that she does not know why she started liking it, though it is suggested that she has a brother complex and is using the games as a surrogate to this. She often denies such feelings and believes the 2D and 3D worlds should be kept separate. Aside from this, she is also an avid fan of Stardust☆Witch Meruru and any series with cute themes in general.
Background
Kirino is a third-year student of an unnamed middle school in Chiba. She is known not only for her above-average grades, but also for her athletic prowess in track and field. Aside from living a life as a student, she is also a part-time model for various fashion magazines, which is her main source of pocket money to sate her hunger for anime merchandise.
According to Kyousuke, his relationship with Kirino was much more positive in the past. However, due to a series of events, she changed her interactions with him. By the start of the series, the two have been living with minimal interaction between each other.
Plot
Kirino's Secret Life
Kirino has been used to treating Kyousuke rudely, especially with Kyousuke often acting unfriendly or indifferent at home. In one of her trips outside, she drops a DVD case of Stardust Witch Meruru on the Kousaka Residence's doorstep. Kyousuke ends up finding the DVD case and takes it to his room, where he concludes that Kirino is the owner of the DVD. To his shock, it actually contains an eroge entitled Let's Make Love With Little Sister!. Kirino later confronts Kyousuke in his own bedroom, and in the pretense of "life consultation" invites her older brother into her bedroom.
After confirming that she is the owner of the DVD case found earlier, Kirino also shows him a part of her hobby by letting him play one of her eroge in secret. This would mark the start of Kirino's constant provision of eroge for Kyousuke to play, as well as the beginning of Kyousuke's interaction with Kirino's secret hobby.
Kyousuke finds out that Kirino may be in need of other people to talk about anime, so he advices (actually a suggestion relayed by Kyousuke from his friend Manami) Kirino jumps to register on an otaku community. She reluctantly joins a social networking service group called "Otaku Girls Unite!" under the handle name kiririn. Shortly, the group's moderator named Saori welcomes her to the group and invites her to a scheduled ofukai (offline meeting) with the other members of the group, to take place in Akihabara.
Kirino accepts the invitation and attends the ofukai with Kyousuke tagging along as her "backup" from a distance. She soon realizes the difficulty in mingling with total strangers, and the only one who was able to console her after this ofukai was Kyousuke himself. Saori soon invites the two, along with another member who goes by the alias Kuroneko, to an afterparty in a nearby fastfood restaurant, followed by a trip across Akihabara before parting ways. Kirino refuses to admit that she had found friends in Saori and Kuroneko, although Kyousuke is certain that the trip wasn't for nothing in the end.
Challenges to the Status Quo
After the events with Otaku Girls Unite!, Kirino begins joining Saori and Kuroneko in trips across Akihabara, although her relationship with Kuroneko is still shaky due to their divergent tastes in anime. After the two try to desperately make each other fans of the anime series they like, Kirino heads back home, only to discover that her secret hobby as an otaku has been exposed by her strict father, who shows an intense distaste in otaku culture, after the infamous DVD case now falls to the hands of her father after dropping it in a later occasion.
Kirino storms out of the house after this confrontation, and she was found in the nearby shopping district venting her rage over her father. Kyousuke manages to find her and the siblings talk about their next step. As Kirino decides to stay over at a friend's house, Kyousuke returns home, determined to defend Kirino's hobby even at the risk of destroying his own reputation to his father. Kirino later returned home when the situation has lulled down, and she thanks Kyousuke for his efforts, calling him "Aniki" for the first time.
During Summer Comiket, however, another threat to her hobby enters when her friend Ayase Aragaki, who is also a part-time model just like her, finds out about her hobby and swiftly declares the end to their friendship. As Kirino begins to worry about her friendship with Ayase and how much time is left before Ayase would reveal her hobby to everyone, Kyousuke helps her out once again by clearing Ayase's doubts about anime fans and the otaku culture and again putting his name on the line for the sake of his younger sister. The plan worked as Ayase threw away her doubts just to keep Kirino from being harassed by Kyousuke, in exchange for Kyousuke's name being tarnished by making the image of a siscon in Ayase's eyes.
Kirino's New Careers
The Fateful Trip to America
Though delayed, Kirino eventually decides to go to America to pursue Track and Field.
Relationships
Kyousuke Kousaka
Kirino's achievements both inside and outside campus has caused Kyousuke to develop feelings of insecurity towards her, mainly due to Kyousuke's mediocre mentality clashing with her ability to excel in everything. In turn, Kirino becomes more and more distant to her older brother while she becomes more attached to her secret hobby.
Kyosuke and Kirino kiss
After Kyousuke's discovery of Kirino's hobby, however, things change. Kirino begins to ask for Kyousuke's help in affairs relating to her hobby (including keeping it a secret from others) under the term "life counseling". As these life counseling sessions continue, she slowly develops a sense of dependency to her brother. Later on, it has been confirmed in the light novel series that she is in love with her brother Kyousuke; this is shown by Kirino's increasingly jealous attitude towards any girls who become too close to her brother. As a child, she used to steal Kyousuke's pictures from her fathers photo album and compiled her own album.
Kirino's Parents (Daisuke and Yoshino Kousaka)
Because of her tight schedules, Kirino is not that close to her parents. However, her achievements cause her parents great joy; even her strict and gruff father shows his support by compiling pictures of her in a personal album.
Manami Tamura
Kirino thinks Manami is trying to take her brother away from her, which makes Kirino hostile toward Manami. Kirino even goes as far as claiming she doesn't even remember Manami though they are childhood friends. The two go years without contact and at each encounter Manami is met with extreme anamosity, only to respond with disregard and kindness.This stems from Manami's long-time relationship with Kyousuke, but not yet thoroughly exlpained in the anime. Later when Kirino is dating her brother, she is seen being mad for the first time. In that scene, Kirino and Manami brawl until both of them are left breathless and bruised up. They then expose their true feelings.
Ayase Aragaki
Kirino has been friends with her and Kanako Kurusu as fellow models working for various fashion magazines. However, Ayase's friendship to her is later revealed to be more of idolizing rather than true friendship; when Ayase initially found out about Kirino's links with the otaku lifestyle, she distanced herself away from Kirino, revealing Ayase's intense dislike for someone with a "disgusting" hobby. However, with the help of Kyousuke, Kirino manages to restore her friendship with Ayase, although at the price of Kyousuke's reputation.
Kuroneko
Ever since their first meeting at the offline meeting organized by Saori, Kirino and Kuroneko are always at odds with each other, with one usually taunting the other and developing into an argument which forces Saori to mediate most of the time. Saori, however, sees their caustic relationship to be friendship nonetheless. Eventually, Kuroneko shows a caring side to Kirino, a side that she prefers to not be seen by Kirino herself. She later becomes attached to Kirino as friends.
Saori Bajeena
The offline meeting by members of the Internet-based community Otaku Girls Unite! allowed Saori, its moderator, to meet Kirino for the first time alongside Kuroneko. Saori instantly becomes attached to her and Kuroneko and their friendship eventually developed to a point that Saori became mad at Kirino for leaving for America on such a short notice.
Because of her social status as a daughter of a rich family, Saori struggles to make true friends, so she treasures her bonding times with Kirino.
Apperances in Other Series
- Kirino makes a cameo apperance in the fourth volume of the manga version of High School DxD. (Chapter 19 Page 6)
- Yamato Sakura, the main character of the manga series Imouto Trouble, owns a dakimakura or hugging pillow featuring Kirino. He is shown hugging his Kirino dakimakura upon arriving home at the first chapter of the series.
- Kirino, along with Saori, Kuroneko and Kyousuke, is shown walking by in a Comiket in the anime version of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, Episode 11, at 4:32.
External Links
- Official Twitter: @kirino_kousaka (in Japanese)