AKA: 俺が好きなのは妹だけど妹じゃない ; Ore ga Suki wa Imoto ja nai

Genre: Brocon/Harem/Comedy (??)

Length: Television series, 10 episodes, 24 minutes each

Distributor: Currently available streaming on crunchyroll.

Content Rating: R (Nudity, sexual situations.)

Related Series: N/A

Also Recommended: Oreimo (First Season)

Notes: Based on light novel by Seiji Ebisu, illustrated by Gintaro, published by Fujimi Shobou.

Rating:

My Sister, My Writer

Synopsis

Yuu Nagami is told a secret by his younger sister Suzuka: she has written a "light novel" under the penname "Towano Chikai" titled (SERIOUSLY!) "This Is The Tale Of A Little Sister Who Loves Her Brother Too Much To Cope." This is apparently hailed as a masterpiece by the manga community (I guess standards have fallen dramatically), winning "Sumeragi Fantasy Bunko's New Light Novel Author Award." Suzuka, however, says she can't accept awards, or otherwise be the public face of Towano Chikai, because their parents would disapprove, so she wants HIM to do it. (Apparently it's OK for HIM to look like an incestuous pervert.) Yuu soon becomes either a co-creator, or object of admiration, for a bevy of voluptuous perverted women, including his editor, an artist, a rival writer, and a voice actress, even while Suzuka urges him to act more like a siscon so people won't doubt he wrote the book (AND because she WANTS him to act this way toward her, of course.)

"This means the whole world will approve of us getting together!" - Suzuka, about Yuu.

Review

No, dear, it won't.

What hath Oreimo wrought?

But then, Oreimo certainly wasn't the low point of the brocon/siscon genre. At least in that one, the sibs realized they couldn't really be lovers. And in OniAi, brother knew that sis had an obsession with him but wisely just ignored it. In the show currently under review, Suzuka comes on to Yuu (and becomes giggly while doing it, too), but he seems completely confused by all this; his universal reaction to her approaches (and to the approaches of all the other women as well) is to simply be embarrassed. Well, maybe his inability to judge her intent is kind of a meta-acknowledgement of how bad the show's art is- when Suzuka's supposed to be lovesick, he asks, "Are you ill?", and indeed she DOES look more constipated than passionate here. Even the Wiki article on the show acknowledges that the show's art has been pretty universally panned, and I certainly can't take exception to that judgment; the art is thick-lined, squarish, and MUCH too heavily colored; the main thing I was conscious of was how PURPLE the sibs are.

The other women Yuu runs into as a result of his pretense seem to all think that his writing "genius" would be even greater if he had some firsthand sexual experience- with THEM, of course. His editor (well, "Towano Chiaki's") initially greets him by asking him if he's a virgin; has him feel her breasts; and later tries to have phone sex with him. Yuu just acts embarrassed, as he always does. But she's no match for a woman calling herself Double Peace

Double Peace (the first name she uses is a hentai term, so I won't use it here) is an artist who only really enjoys drawing violent porn: "When I first encountered eroge, I wanted to draw obscene, rape-filled illustrations from the bottom of my heart." Why? "Because I love the eroticism of brutal rape scenes," she says. When some illustrations she does for "Towano Chiaki" meet with protest from Yuu for being too explicit, she insists that they are "pure" because "there aren't any tentacles, and the heroine doesn't get raped by a horde of countless faceless men." Oh, and Double Peace has ENORMOUS breasts of course; and her first reaction to a compliment Yuu makes is to say "Hearing you call me beautiful makes me so happy, I could orgasm!" Double Peace is, in short, the "fantasy woman" of a certain type of otaku, but is a deeply offensive sort of character to anyone else. (And if she is intended as humorous, somehow I wasn't getting the joke.) Naturally, Yuu acts PARTICULARLY embarrassed with HER.

And as for some of the other women whose sexual advances he can feel embarrassment about:

Mai Himuro is a redheaded rival manga author. She wants to know his "secret" to writing- and sometimes suspects he's not really Towano Chiaki. When she gets suspicious, Suzuka always uses that as an excuse to urge him to act more like a siscon… just to throw her off the scent, of course...

Sakura Minazuki is a voice actress. She has an older siscon brother who makes her feel uncomfortable (at last, some realistic emotions!), but Towano Chiaki's masterwork has made her embrace the "little sister" trope after all. (And there go the realistic emotions, right into the trash)

The Kanzaki sisters (artist Haruna and writer Akino) are doujinshi creators. Akino, also, would certainly have sex with "Towano Chiaki" as his disciple and devoted follower; but Haruna is the closest this show comes to a tsundere, and finds "Towano Chiaki" to be a creep. Even though he's only ACTUALLY capable of feeling embarrassed...

Then there's Esaka. She runs the bookstore where Yuu works. She's older than him, but looks like a kid. Refreshingly, I don't remember her coming on to him; perhaps she's being spared for- this thought should terrify any human being- a sequel.

Just a bit more on Suzuka. The show starts with hellos from the cast of Sister Princess (ALWAYS a sign of the impending Apocalypse, although I guess the rights to that show weren't expensive); it's part of a dream in which Suzuka imagines herself the "sister" in the straw hat. (If you remember Sister Princess -though I generally don't encourage doing that- this is the only "sister" the hero ever saw OUTSIDE the island.) We have nods to other incest anime throughout the show, even including the "wiping down when sick" scene from Yosuga no Sora (though WITHOUT that scene's denouement in the original; this one is not QUITE willing to go full hentai.)

So, does she get her wish? And what, exactly, IS Suzuka hoping to happen? For once, I(nquiring minds) Don't Care. Do U?

As for the Recommendation: I really don't recommend ANY shows of this ilk, but I'll go with the first season of Oreimo, which had some good side characters, and was all before the show's intentions became too clear (and too tacky) in Season Two.

Double Peace, like Mana in Conception, really needs to be given the ending of the title character in The Devil In Miss Jones - to be condemned to spend all eternity with someone with no interest in sex at all. Mercifully, this show stopped after 10 episodes, but then, even if you're into ecchi, how long can you keep interested in a PROMISE of lewd and lascivious behavior that actually DELIVERS so little? And if that's NOT what you're watching for, you'll soon discover that there's absolutely NOTHING ELSE here, except a lot of ridiculous dialogue and ugly art. — Allen Moody

Recommended Audience: Some nudity, but the show leans a LOT more on innuendo, as do other similar shows. Rated R.