Candy Boy is the sweet little story of two sisters living together in a dormitory and their usual lifestyle. But this slice of life anime comes with a twist: the two are romantically affected to each other. Although yuri incest is wincest, the fact stands that there are some that may be offended from the shoujo-ai and/or incest. If this combination works for you, then you'll have no problems enjoying this anime as much as I did.
As with many other anime in the slice of life genre, the story is given to us at the beginning of the anime, but not much of a change happens. Surely our yuri twins get closer and closer to each other in every single episode, and the romance aspect IS developed throughout the anime. We have a sweet relationship to begin with, and only a few possible characters that can affect the story one way or other. The whole imouto-san business, the twins' college entrance and dorm changing may be of interest to some, but keeping your expectations high in the story and expecting anything ground-breaking wouldn't be wise. That said, from the occasional change of moods and places, this straightforward story successfully gives what it promises.
As you go along the series, you will most probably find out that it contains many "still-pictures" that tend to be overly long and drawn out, but not that annoying; not since the art was never meant to be over the top. The character designs are cute enough to make the viewer like them instantenously. The clothes worn in the anime, which tend to bring up the "cute" aspect of the characters, may sometimes be fanservicey, but are presented as no big deal without much emphasis on them. Zettai Ryouiki fans will be delighted to see Yuki's knee-high socks completed with her mandatory skirt, much to our enjoyment.
Yet another area that a slice of life anime usually fails in is the BGM. Pretty much non-existant, or rather, unimportant is the BGM in slice of life anime, yet we would all be able to understand that something is wrong if BGM simply wasn't in the show or if it did not fit the mood at any given time. This can be compensated by the seiyuu, who play a big role in any speech-based anime, Candy Boy being one of those. None of the voices of any character is annoying or leaves us with a bored face for any reason whatsoever. A new sense of realizm was reached in the last episode as everybody started talking together about totally different things at the same time; a situation any viewer should be able to relate to.
Let me get this one thing straight; there are no boys in Candy Boy. None. If you can ever find one, please tell it to me so that I can start worshipping you. That said, do we even need boys in this anime? The two main characters, Kanade and Yukino, and the two supporting characters, Sakuya and Shizuku are interesting enough to fill out the whole anime. Although they are twins, Yuki fills in as the little sister with childish attitude role, and Kana acts more like a mature, older sister. Sakuya is there for the occasional comic relief that we all need sometimes, offered with her yuri tendancies for Kana. The imouto Shi-chan allows more of a story to develop, and is a blend between Yuki's cuteness and Kana's looks and personality. None of them being dull or plain annoying is yet another blessing.
The caution from before still holds true at this point; if you don't like yuri/shoujo-ai, then this series is not for you. I, as an avid fan of female relationships, knew fully well that I was going to enjoy this anime as much as I expected. The interactions between the twins are cute, and usually funny; those two adjectives are enough for me to be sold to an anime. The fact that Candy Boy isn't a straightforward ecchi/yuri but rather a cute love story only makes things better. As long as you have that bittersweet feeling of having completed the series after you're done with Candy Boy, then all is fine.
Candy Boy did (damn, where is my italics?) leave me with that bittersweet feeling of both accomplishment and sadness. There is not a single thing in the world that is perfect. As a rose comes with its thorns, Candy Boy may be coming with less-than-stellar story and easily-forgettable BGM, but that does not change the fact that we still like both of them.
