The first thing that one is going to notice is just how completely ugly and unappealing the character designs are. Everyone looks deformed, with malformed bodies, monkey ears, and gigantic hands and feet. This decision seems strange considering this is an ecchi title, in which a lot of the humor revolves around sexual content and, apparently, is supposed to titillate the viewer. However it utterly fails at this because I found the artistic choices made to be so god awful to look at that I found it to be wholly inappropriate. Besides the deformed characters the backgrounds are mostly plain and uninteresting and color palette appears drab and washed out. It’s probably the most repulsive looking anime I think I have ever seen.
The overall plot for Onii-chan lacks any real depth or direction. For starters, if you were expecting an incest romance comedy along the lines of something like Kiss x Sis, then you’re likely to be disappointed. What we are presented with is a boy, Shuusuke, who has a little sister complex with Nao, who conveniently has a older brother complex. Like many shows that deal with incestuous content, they seem to give themselves some moral cover by making the pair not blood related. This isn’t much of a spoiler, since it’s revealed about ten minutes into the first episode. The story proceeds along as a slice of life and slapstick comedy.
I found pretty much all of Onii-chan to be disgusting and morally corrupt. The majority of my experience with this show could best be divided between the desire for nauseous vomiting and bursting into flames of rage. The characters themselves are as distasteful and repugnant on the inside as they are visually unappealing. All of the characters are abnormal deviants that run the gambit between being sexual predators, sadists, stalkers, pedophiles, and perverts. It’s not that these things are new or unusual to anime, because they are frankly featured in practically everything these days. However there is really not one "decent" person in the entire cast and the way that most of their activities are portrayed as the norm for people of this age made me want to throw up.
Now that I have gotten off my soapbox about the decline of decent society, the key reason why this show fails so miserably is the cast. Like so many other harem type shows, it’s soon weighted down with way to many girls. We get introduced to their various personalities/perversions and then watch them throw themselves at the lead, much to the series other hussy's chagrin. Rinse and repeat with a new girl after a couple of episodes.
Shuusuke himself isn’t much to speak of. He is typical of harem boys and even more of those from this kind of series. Perhaps the only thing that makes him atypical from his peers is just how much of a sick disgusting pervert he is. I suppose it is not that abnormal for boys his age to be interested in dirty magazines and comics, but they take it to extremes that ended up just making my skin crawl. Such as some of his various fetishes and the demeaning fashion that he ogles the girls panties, breasts, and anything else that seems to sexually excite him.
Meanwhile, Shuusuke's harem of girls is not any more pure. Nao is quite possibly the worst of the entire bunch. She spends her time spying on and finding ways to torment her older brother. At first these seem to be spawned simply just out of jealousy, but soon they take a darker and more sinister meaning. Nao seems to take an euphoric, almost sexual satisfaction in seeing her brother in pain or descending deeper into his perversity. To varying degrees this is repeated amongst the other girls. While they all have deep seeded psychological issues none of them ever seems to be as messed up as Nao. Whether it's Iroha's telescopic observations and sexual advances or Kondou's fascination with BL manga and male nipples.
Despite my overall contempt for Onii-chan, I won’t lie and say that some of it was not pretty funny. Even though finding the humor is akin to picking out the undigested kernels of corn from a piece of shit. I also felt ashamed of myself for laughing at any of it too. Clearly this show was not for me and I would advise anyone to avoid it at all costs. For those of you who really liked this show and thought it was hilarious, I don't think we can be friends.
