Ore ga Suki nano wa Imouto dakedo Imouto ja nai

Title:Ore ga Suki nano wa Imouto dakedo Imouto ja nai
My Sister, My Writer
The One I Love is My Little Sister But She's Not a Little Sister
俺が好きなのは妹だけど妹じゃない
Overall:Unevaluated
Keywords: , , , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - NAZ
HATANAKA Tasuku
KONDO Reina
Yu Nagami has a difficult and unusual relationship with his little sister, Suzuka. She is a stellar student, a star in academics and sports, and the student council president at her school. As such, she is the parents' favorite and based on her behavior you would think that she was his elder. Yu hopes to make a career for himself as a light novel author, but so far all of the numerous submissions he has made to publishers have been rejected. One day Suzuka uncharacteristically asks his advice on a problem: she too has dabbled in writing light novels, and has won a prestigious contest on the first try!

10 episodes
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Unevaluated Stretch [series:3602#628]
(Six episodes watched):

As I have said before, any anime with an otaku theme has done one thing right in my mind, and I am willing to give it a try. But the flagrant fanservice in episode one (girl's tits had to be obscured with 'patches' at least twice) left me with a feeling that the otaku element was an afterthought and the odds were against this being a quality anime. Also, it wasn't difficult to guess what the basic problem behind the premise was, namely that Yu has been humiliated yet again by Suzuka. I hoped this wouldn't devolve into something ugly like 'You may be great at everything you do, but I can always screw you if I wish!'. The long version of the title, "The One I Love is My Little Sister But She's Not a Little Sister" furthermore leads me to suspect that sooner or later we will be fed the typical cop-out that the two siblings are not related by blood, therefore they are free to go at it. I decided to watch episode two, but unless that displayed a marked improvement it would probably be the end of this series for me.

I went into episode two with fingers crossed and low expectations. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that while this show is definitely not brilliant, it managed to remain modestly amusing and fun. Yu is neither an idiot nor spineless, as he might easily have been portrayed in exchange for a few cheap laughs, and Suzuka is not offensively arrogant, so they are basically likeable characters. The misunderstandings that take place are plausible rather than being the result of fantastic coincidences, as is often the case in shows of this sort. There's definitely an erotic element here, and fanservice is rife, but it seems that at least some of the time it is genuinely being played for laughs rather than just being a lazy attempt to appeal to the lowest common denominator among male viewers. So, basically this show didn't do anything unforgivable in episode two and as a result I didn't mind watching some more as well.

Something about the character designs and general tone of the show made me feel that I had seen work by the same people in previous anime, perhaps more than a decade ago. But some cursory research at ANN turned up no links. This show sort of has a perfect excuse to display fanservice: the authors have been asked to include fanservice in their writing, and Suzuka needs to do a little research since she knows nothing about it. Nevertheless, I found my enthusiasm for this show was waning as we get typical and unsurprising plot twists like a trip to the beach and a rivalry with another author. Once their bare-bones satisfactory personalities have been established, it would seem that little or no effort is being made to further flesh out the main characters and tell an engaging and moving story. What happened to Yu's feelings of resentment and modest jealousy at being outperformed repeatedly? It would seem that he has accepted his lot and only wants to support his sister, which is admirable but not exactly intriguing. And there's always the possibility that, while Yu does not think this way, when all is said and done the basic message of this show to the (male) viewer will be that it's OK to lust after your own sister. My interest in this show petered out and I quit it after episode six.

Last updated Friday, January 11 2019. Created Thursday, October 25 2018.

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