Koi Kaze

I have never seen any other anime that has had such a great impact on me, and I don't expect to find any either. Koi Kaze is simply outstanding in the way it handles this story, which is very much taboo in our society.

First of all, Koi Kaze lacks all those annoying anime clichés that usually put me a bit off when watching a series. There are no girls who are supposed to be 15 but act like they are 10 and speak with the voice of a toy rabbit. Instead, we get a realistic portrayal of a teenage girl who actually acts naturally. ... Nanoka's voice actress does a brilliant job, she sounds natural, like she is acting with her own voice instead of making up a voice for the character. The character designs are also more realistic, with the characters looking a whole lot more like real people than most anime characters. Everything is kept serious and realistic in general.

Koi Kaze is not a noisy or action-filled series, but it's never dull either. As the story progresses, the viewer will sympathize with both of the two main characters, even though they in no way are perfect. They are two people, brother and sister (and the brother is significantly older as well), who are gradually falling love, and they can't help it. It's difficult, even painful, to watch, and it does make you think about what is to be considered "right" and "wrong". Before watching this I thought the concept to be clearly on the "wrong" side, but after watching it I concluded that I'm actually in no position to write off a relationship as such.

The music is also worth mentioning. It's not loud or dramatic, but rather simple and effective. There are a few beautiful piano pieces playing that do a very good job in setting the mood. The music never takes the focus off the story, but complements it very well.

All in all, this is a series I would recommend to anyone, heck, it might the single series I would strongly recommend even to those who don't normally watch anime. It's been a good while since I watched it, but the story never left me and it makes me want to come back and re-experience it. With absolutely no traditional melodrama or "in your face" symbolism whatsoever, Koi Kaze manages to touch, to shock and to offer something new to the viewer, and it's a story you just don't forget. It's that good.

I approached Koi Kaze with an open mind towards the incestuous relationship between Koshiro and Nanako and found that I just can't understand why people are saying it's a masterpiece. I pretty much forced myself to watch through all thirteen episodes. Of course, it wasn't the incest that really ruined the anime for me, but the, excuse my language, shitty character that Koshiro was.

The anime yells out if not, slams it to our faces on how society frowns upon incestuous relationahips. Koshiro, who in my opinion was a spoiled brat when his childhood was shown and was also very immature for his age throughout the ... entire show, succumbs to his "feelings" to Nanako. Let's be honest though, if any other young high school girl had gone with him to the amusement park, the story would be about a man who is twice the age of a girl rather than incest. Which to me just clearly reflects on why his actual proper relationship crashed and burned.

One could clearly see just from how Koshiro acts in his life that he really didn't care about anything nor has he really tried to pursue any career in life. Pretty much the main reason why he worked as a marriage counsellor was so he could see people become happy or sad. In my opinion, you can't really understand happiness without experiencing it yourself. And the same thing applies to love. So how would he understand what it's like to struggle in life for the things most precious to you when he hasn't done that at all? He liked to stick to a routine and was afraid to change and develop as an adult. No responsible adult would allow such a development to happen.

Clearly he knew what he was doing was wrong, but he didn't retract, not because of love or feelings, but because of accessibility to sex and pleasure. He has a young girl who barely knows anything about the world itself and pretty much throws everything in her life that was good away for a man that hardly tried to reject the immorality between the two, taking away a future from her that could be looked upon with pride and happiness. Nanako was pretty much willing to do anything for Koshiro, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't love that binded Koshiro to Nanako.

One could argue that Nanako really did love Koshiro, but honestly I think it was just a fling. Nanako was finally starting to explore her sexuality, her interest in the opposite sex, and yet it was because of her irresponsible brother Koshiro who led her to believe that she was actually in love him. I think Nanako just wanted a brotherly or fatherly figure in her life and ultimately in the end her feelings and body were just taken advantage of.

Koshiro is a good example of who not to become in life. When you relay emotions and communicate with people, you do it while looking in their eyes and speaking honestly. That way, people can understand when you speak to them. That is how relationships are formed. Relationships, whether romantic or platonic, between two people is suppose to be built from experiences, failures, weaknesses, and strengths. If you ignore these building blocks, the only thing you get is a one-sided relationship that obviously only benefits one person in the relationship. Koshiro failed to connect with people from the heart. He never truly tried to understand another person's feelings which is what led to this inevitable outcome.

If you look at this anime from a human nature point of view rather than a romance, then I would actually think it deserves a good score.

Welp...this is going to be a controversial review. Yet, I feel I have to write it. I heard that Koi Kaze was a very beautiful and moving romance, so I put it on my watch list. I just finished "His and Her Circumstances", and I loved that one so much I wanted to start a new romance anime. Koi Kaze isn't exactly what I went in expecting.

Can a talented artist make any foul subject beautiful? That's one of the things Charles Baudelaire experimented with in Flowers of Evil. Within that collection, there is a poem called "Une Charogne" or "The carcass". The poem was ... called indecent and grotesque upon release because it vividly describes a rotting female corpse and describes the corpse in sexual terms. The speaker isn't at all repulsed because he accepts that death comes for us all. Even the most beautiful women will one day resemble the horrible corpse.

Koi Kaze is the writer of Baccano and the director of Baccano attempting to tell a beautiful romance between a 30 year old man and his 15 year old sister. Not step sister mind you. I mean full on blood relative. There is a LOT of sister fetish stuff in anime, but it's always played as a joke. They know it's a gross fetish and don't want to be accused of seriously condoning it. It's the stuff of echii and hentai where one can indulge in their most depraved and secret fetishes. Koi Kaze is a dead serious romance for adults. The series doesn't say our young lovers are correct, but it doesn't say they're wrong. The series wants you to see the relationship as beautiful, but it's up to the audience to decide.

I've decided...and I don't like it. I watched a series where a guy has sex with a robot girl and I was fine with it. She's full artificial intelligence and they're in a consenting relationship. They won't produce children, but not everyone needs to have kids. I watched an anime where the guy ends up with the girl who murdered his family. I thought it was a tragic, yet beautiful and moving romance. I'm pretty liberal with my anime romances. I have to put my foot down on Koi Kaze though.

It turns out that deep within the dark recesses of my soul, there lives an angry and self righteous eugenicist. I call him Fritz! Koi Kaze manages to bring Fritz to the surface. He wants to kill these 2 immediately to protect the gene pool. He also wants to use government policing to reduce the global fertility rate and genetic engineering to increase human IQ. Fritz is an asshole and I don't condone his opinions. Thanks to Koi Kaze though, I've had to confront my own shadow. I now know that he lives within me and I'll never be truly rid of him. Thanks Koi Kaze!

The first episode starts with our male hero Koshiro meeting the high school first year Nanoka on a subway. Both of them have recently been dumped and can each sense the other's loneliness. Nanoka invites Koshiro to a theme park and he accepts. They share a romantic Ferris Wheel ride together and you already know these 2 are going to bang soon. At this point it's just pedophilia, but we find out they're siblings at the very end of the first episode. What follows is a carefully written and wonderfully presented romance...that makes me want to vomit and summons Fritz from the dark depths where I keep him repressed.

The art is by the same studio that did the first Kino's Journey, which I love. I'm not a big fan of the character art though because everyone has a white mouth instead of a red one during lip flaps. It's a minor detail, but I hate it! The music is another strength of the series. Of course, it could be playing the most angelic music in the world and I would still hate this show.

Overall, I would suggest this anime only to those who can be VERY open minded. There is talent and effort here. However, I was too repulsed to get a lot of personal enjoyment out of it.