Imouto sae Ireba Ii.

Do you like little sisters? Good, because our protagonist Itsuki loves them probably more than you do. I give this anime an overall score of 6, but that does not mean I think it is distasteful. In fact I think that some people will give this anime a 8 or 9, maybe even a 10. This review is a spoiler-free review by the way, but it would not hurt for people who have watched this anime already to read this review too.

Story:

I acknowledge how the story may seem non linear at times, but I assure you that this anime actually has an excellent narrative. ... The overall plot is Itsuki, an aspiring author, making his way through the light novel industry while passing through hardships. It is a story of friendship and comedy for the most part, but I would pay more attention to the background. This story is actually about a depressed young man who fights against reality, diving into his own form of escapism, probably retreating into his perverted light novels, only to realize how his peers have earned successes that he has yet to earn himself. For instance, one of his friends is a much more talented writer while the other has an anime in the works. Itsuki deals with his issue by not caring about it. As the anime goes on, you will find Itsuki making peace with himself, and I feel that this narrative would be enjoyable for literally anyone who has felt at least a taste of depression. The flaw to this narrative, however, is that it lacks a dark theme since this narrative only lies in the background, but the anime makes it obvious enough for an attentive audience to peace this together. So now that I have pointed out where your attention should be, I think you would find the story to be at least above average. (8)

Art:

Given the silver link art quality, I thought this anime would be able to use art to its advantage. I was right in some parts as the art is often used to show Itsuki's room clearly and everything outside as a foggy and generic setting. Although it gives the impression that Itsuki himself views the rest of the world as irrelevant, I feel that scenes where some of the girls are naked are more horrific rather than enjoyable. Now that I'm here, I would like to emphasize that the fan service is not good. I'm not a personal fan of fan service, but the anime is willing devote 5 minutes every two episodes to only showing fan service to the reader. (6)

Sound:

This is the worst category for good reason. So I did not hear anything in the background, I do not know why. Maybe it is to illustrate how Itsuki is living in the real world, but I think it is because the show did not have enough budget. Nevertheless the opening and ending are great, but I think the overall soundtrack could be used to describe the anime's overall mood rather than a deafening silence. (4)

Character:

Earlier I mentioned how this anime is actually a narrative of a depressed young man. That was a lie. This anime is really a narrative about multiple depressed people that hide their flaws from each other. I'm not going to say any spoilers, but I will just say that every episode has a little crack of the character and you will enjoy, or sympathize, with the character when he or she breaks. (8)

Enjoyment:

Please take this category with a grain of salt. I thought it was at best fair. I could see how other people would enjoy this anime more than I did because I really liked the episodes when the characters played board games, showing there inner flaws or making a spoof of another popular work, but I thought that the overall silence of the anime was very unfavorable. I suggest that you just pay attention to the character's dialogue because they really are interesting at times, and I also recommend that you treat this anime as a totally different work from the likes of Shirabako or any other anime with a Japanese entertainment industry. (6)

Overall:

This anime has its ups and downs, but I just have to give it a little more than average. I predict that there will be many who enjoy this and many who don't, but it's really a coin toss. Would you be willing to toss that coin? I would. There is something for anybody in this anime, but if you are more of a edgy type of guy I would say this anime is not for you. (6)

I wanna have sex with my sister.........Right..................in your dreams , Itsuki, so another harem with a mangaka author in the helm has ended which pretty much has a similarity from "Eromanga sensei" so, my thoughts on this:

Mediocre 5, story:

Pretty much the same setting and plot, except what we see here was more like a relationship of a group of authors as they discuss things relating to their works and things that occur in everyday life, like deadlines, games, taxes, slump and nosing at some else's life. And there is that, main guy who has this fetish of having a sister, or wanting to be ... in a incestuous relationship with a sister, that he doesn't have......oh he does have one , except that...either he knows that the step sister is just a cross-dressed bokuko or he's just plain stupid.

Fair 6, Art:

So Kani Nuyata has a habit of being a nudist when she is by her lonesome, so we have seen the girls being naked quite a number of times, but don't expect to see some frontal flash nor see any nipples or panties........

Decent 4, Art:

No comment, nothing to say and I don't care.

Pathetic 1, Character:

So let's go over them:

Hashima Itsuki- At first you might think that he the usual quintessential oblivious guy, who doesn't know about the girls whom were having feeling for him, until he blurts out "I wanna a sister" as it turns out, he's siscon without a sister or has a sister (Step Sister that is) that he doesn't even know that he is a she. Also, he likes Nuyata, but has a lot of fuss about even having a relationship with her. There is Miyako, for some reason who keeps hanging out with him and his gang of authors who obviously likes him but keeps playing the oblivious card with her. So therefore for him alone the score was for him.

Nuyuta Kani- I kinda like her free spirit and directness of liking Itsuki, but she kinda strikes me as a she pervert who can have some yuri sex with every female characters around here and still have some energy left to do it with Itsuki.

Shirakawa Miyako- Is a fish out of the water around with Itsuki and his gang of authors. In fact she should have just left that loser, Itsuki for ditching college where he would have had a much better future than being an author where your works are as good as your previous ones. To me , I see her character of being better off without Itsuki and his gang and going on her own with her classmates. So just hanging out with a loser like Itsuki, she's another reason for the low score in my book.

Hashima Chihiro- Ok, so she's Itsuki's step sister who is a cross-dressed bokuko, so just how long would a guy take to know that he is a she? And how pathetic he was to not notice and it has to take Nuyuta and Ashley to know that she is a girl, so that another nail to the coffin.

Fuwa Haruto- Well, he seem like a guy who is doing well, much better than Itsuki and Nuyuta in fact......Then again , I'm glad he didn't get to be in a relationship with Miyako.

Ena Setsuna and Mikuniyama Kaiko- one thing I can say with these two, which one of them is Itsuki's illustrator? Btw Mikuniyama, strikes me as some who could have sex with Nuyuta all day, while Ena, can pass as a sex offender.

Ono Ashley- Strikes me as a harem girl who can have sex both with Itsuki and Haruto.

And my fave character, Toki Kenjurou, my man can really kick Itsuki's butt.

Good 7, Enjoyment:

Well, part of me really want's the possibility that Itsuki would either reveal that he always know that Chihiro is a girl and the he had a serious relationship with Nuyuta, but part of me also , want's to see him fail, good as it it, it is just not good enough.

Fair 6, Overall:

I may like this anime for the character's stupidity , but overall it's still a face palm.



Merry Christmas

First, if you haven't watched ... skip to 1:42 of the first episode, you will probably thank me.

The series isn't a Bakuman for Light Novel authors, but it gives you a good approach at the industry and allows you to learn about how things go in their "normal" days.

I put this series on hold, some weeks ago, but then against my better judgement gave it another chance and I'm kind of glad that I did, the enjoyment from the first part of the series wasn't much so I put it on hold, but ...

I rewatched ep 4 and went with 5 instantly, the 4th ... was funny but it was the same as the other, but ep 5 was super interesting and you can see how the mind of an author works, then ep 6 was even better a really strong episode, I would even say it was the best of the series (Haruto turned to be my favorite character)... and ep 7 happened, it was rising really good my interest and then a full 100% fanservice episode, it made me remember why I put on hold the series, the rest of the episode were interesting too, but they had the same faults, going up and then down between episodes and even in the same episode.

in the specific section:
the story isn't something out of this world, we have our average harem protagonist "in college" (well...), at least that is something more new. He's a novelist (works in light novels, *cough eromanga-sensei *cough) and has a big ass fetish on imoutos (little sisters), but he doesn't have one, instead he has a "trap" little bro that really cares for him. He isn't that bland as a protagonist, he has some complex (it's a japanese series so you can easily guess what's going to be), with just one day he can grew hair really fast, it's not a bad one, but I wouldn't call him the best MC of the season.

the series goes for the slice of life with a tint of gags each chapter that makes you think it's a 4-koma (seitokai yakuindomo), but the series is based on a LN, it has a manga adaption in neither of them have that style, so it tends to feel really flat when overused each chapter and it was used every single episode, it also has a side A and B of stories, that one tends to be a tabletop games and that trust me, are pretty funny most of the time, except ep 7 that went too far though, but most of the time they don't give you much detail in the characters, but I would probably play with friends some of them.

art isn't bad, music isn't bad, OP is fine, ED is great, and they have a little music to announce each chapter that is pretty nice, and appears from time to time each episode (the same as with the gags, it can be easily overused, and probably will -and it was-).

characters are pretty much stereotypical, but ochinchin girl is cute and except for the boxers scene, she's charming and she kept her style all season, you can love her or like her (and you can notice the original author fetish *cough nun dress *cough), she doesn't get annoying. already talked about the MC, the best friend got his episode and he used pretty well, since ep 6 I really liked each time he appeared and how he acted was the most realistic one of the bunch, he's pervy too, he can fall in love, he isn't dense, feel envy, sadness, joy and complements pretty well the MC and it's good that he's there so he doesn't have to monologue as other protagonist.

this series is pretty much binary, you like it or you don't ... I don't know how I found me in the middle and kind of glad I did, but if you can put up with the innecesary fanservice and want to know more about the characters in another LN adaptation of the creator of Haganai, do it, it's on your own risk.

Is it good? Not really. Is it bad? Not really.

Imouto sae Ireba Ii is one of those animes that people will probably think it's Eromanga Sensei rip off or whatnot but in-reality it's nothing like that. The anime is more of like a chill laid back slice of life anime that really isn't taken too seriously. It doesn't have a complex story nor the best character development ever but I think it's not as bad as people make it out to be.

Story 6/10:

Like I said, the story isn't complex or anything. There should be a Slice of Life tag for this anime because it's literally ... just that. Romance? Barely any romance in the story. There is bit of romance from time to time but it's doesn't deserve it's own tag since it's not the MAIN focus of the story. The story is simple, it's pretty much about Itsuki Hashima a light novel writer that is trying to make it big in society. He pretty much always hang out with his friends which are also similar in the business. I will talk about the characters later on but that's pretty much it. Every episode is just a new day for Itsuki to hang out with his friends. They either talk about their work or they do fun things together like playing games or drinking and eating. After a few episodes, it shows internal conflict with each character and show their hidden emotions but I felt like they should had expanded on it. If they expanded on it and actually show more conflict with each other the story would had a greater impact on the series. That's just the main flaw of the story, there's not much to it because they didn't expand the conflict of each character emotions which kind of makes it bland and kind of useless.

Art 8/10:

The artwork and the animation isn't bad. I think it's probably one of the best part of the series is the art. The artwork isn't complex and have the most depth but it's pretty vibrant and still consistent enough to make it look nice to the eye. There's not much to say about the art but I feel like it's probably one of the greatest strength for the series.

Sound 8/10:

This is the second strongest strength for the series. The opening and the ending is really nice to listen to. It's really catch and something that you want to keep listening to. The ost isn't the most pop out thing ever but the opening and the ending songs really did a good job expressing the series as much as possible.

Character 6/10:

To explain the character, I don't really need to break down each character in-order to explain the pros and the cons because due to the fact that each character pretty much suffers from the same flaws. The character are almost bland but they're not bad either. The series tries to give each character with different humor or fetishes but it doesn't really weigh enough to make them unique as a whole. The first few episodes, it's pretty much them having fun and talking about their work but as times go on the series introduces the character with some internal conflict. There is pretty much 2 internal conflict that the character have. The first internal conflict is romance. Simple internal conflict where A loves B but C also loves B where D loves A but A loves B. Pretty much those triangle love type of shit. This is where I said the romance tag shouldn't be in here because the series doesn't EXPRESS much of it to be the main focus of the series at all. It's express for like a few minutes in a few episodes then it's gone. The second internal conflict is Jealousy. Pretty much Haruto is jealous of Itsuki because he can make better stories or whatnot. I felt like if they expanded on this conflict alone, the series would been so much better. Instead, just like the romance, it appears for a few minutes then POOF it just disappears. I wish they can do a better job of expanding the conflict within the characters or it could had been a way better series and deserve a higher grade.

Overall 6/10:

The anime isn't good but it isn't bad either. This is the type of series is where if you're just bored and looking for a series to watch. There is some funny moments that will make you smile and the goofiness but it's not a series where you should take it seriously at all. It just feels incomplete of a story and wish they could expand more of the conflicts. 6/10

First things first. My "reviews" system is explained on a blog entry. Which can be found through my profile.
------

✦Story
If Anime would been as the first 3 minutes of it. I would enjoy it in a comical way.

But the actual story is slice-of-life about Novel writers and basically about their daily lives and essentially story is about learning the characters and join along with their lives. I would say for a slice-of-life it has some interesting ideas and premise. But I simply couldn't enjoy it. Oh and round table alcohol consumption was a common theme there as well.

I found most of their dialogues being between boring ... and obnoxious. The idea of them playing all sorts of memory and basically idea games, was interesting as concept, but felt boring in truth.

I personally found it for the most part boring. And dialogues were one of the main reasons I decided to drop this and move on.

✦Art & Sound
Art & Animation was good enough and fitting for this Anime. The scenes where authors or character works & imagination were done pretty good.

As for music, I think it was fine for the most part, but at the same time I didn't really notice any music? In another words had quite weak presence.

✦Character
Most the the cast were quirky authors with different kinks and fetishes. Even side-characters were semi-entertaining. I feel there was some progression, plus we did learn about characters over time.

But at the same time, I seriously couldn't get into any of the characters. I just found them either dull or annoying. Oddly enough, most of the characters had some dominating traits I did not enjoy.

But only one I want to mention here is Kani. As much I like lewd girls, she is the type I dislike. She is dangerously crude, unrefined dirty talking character. She is lucky that the guy she likes is actually respectable and doesn't take the bait nor attack. I cannot explain how exactly I don't like her, but the general "feel" she gives off, is simply something I can't enjoy.

✦Enjoyment & Overall
I find it very niche Anime that certain type of people or authors can appreciate it better than I do.

But boring dialogues, unlikable characters and simply me being not able to get into the story nor the characters is good enough reason to drop this Anime.

Disclaimer: I do not have any problems with fanservice. It's just that the fanservice in this anime is not executed well and detracts from the better parts of the show.


Imouto Sae Ireba Ii is an anime that excels in what it shouldn't excel in and fails at what it should succeed in. What a normal person would expect out of an anime like this is minimal storytelling and plenty of raunchy scenes full of little sisters. However, there are no little sisters to be found, and instead the view is given a minimal yet powerful and melancholic overarching story and fanservice scenes that feel overdone ... and boring, providing nothing else besides fap material.

Story - The plot in this anime is practically non-existent with there being a basic premise and fun hijinks between college-aged friends. Despite this, individual episodes have the capacity to give off a melancholic yet beautiful vibe. On the other hand, there are fanservice episodes that give no effort whatsover and that beg for the viewer to buy a BD. These two balance out to a 5.

Art - It's pretty good and the girls are cute.

Sound - BGM is upbeat and fun, the OP is pretty good, and the voice acting is good. Nothing much else to say.

Character - Like the story, the characters can be generally split between fanservice and melancholic. Miyako and Fuwa particularly pull at the heartstrings at times as they realize that they're missing something that Kanikou and Itsuki have. Kanikou and the manga girl are lackluster, on the other hand. However, unlike the story, the Characters are generally better with even the fanservice characters having decent development.

Enjoyment - Once again, the fanservice/melancholy dichotomy comes into play here. The enjoyment of the show shoots up when the writing really delivers, but is canceled out a week later when a meaningless episode made to make blood rush to the lower body airs. But hey, if you love that kind of stuff and like good character development here and there, enjoyment would be an easy ten.

Overall - As said above, this show is for people who crave fanservice. Its excessive nature at times will deter possible viewers away, especially in the first episode. However, if you are willing to endure this, you are in for a real treat. Tissues may or may not be needed.

Going into this, and with "Imouto" in the title, i was very excited and kinda expect this to be the usual brother have a Siscon, or Sister have a brocon stuff. I kinda expect this to be like OreImo and Eromanga-sensei.

I'm writing this from the perspective of someone who expect this to be kinda like OreImo or Eromanga-sensei, about a brother/sister relationship, so keep that in mind.

The story is about Hashima Itsuki, a young light-novel author who is really obsessed with 'little sister' character in literature and wants a little sister, and his companions, Kani Nayuta, a highschool girl who is also an ... author and really loves him by showing her affection through dirty jokes and such, Shirakawa Miyako, Itsuki's friend from college and the only one in the group who is not an author, and Fuwa Haruto, Itsuki's male best friend/rival, and Mashima Chihiro, Itsuki's perfect, dependable younger sibling.

Story: 4
As someone who expect the story and plot to revolve around a Brother/Sister relationship, i was pretty much disappointed. The story revolves around Itsuki's life as an author, its more of a slice of life about life as an author, and not much else. I find the humour is pretty dry, and the story/plot to be pretty boring.

Art: 7
It has a nice art. I'm not an expert in this area, but well, its pretty nice.

Sound: ?
Not an expert, or even an amateur on sound quality, so i can really give a good review about the sound.

Character: 8
The only redeeming quality about this anime, except for Chihiro, is the character. They all have a different set of personality, and everyone seems to have a deeper character than most other anime. They all have a different reasons on why they hang around Itsuki/becoming Itsuki's friends, and each one is pretty deep. They're not just your generic 'friend to MC' character. Everyone has their own story.

Enjoyment: 5
Despite the lack of interesting plot/story, i found myself mildly enjoying this and just kept watching just because the characters are interesting to me. You might like this if you like slice-of-life genre, and doesn't expect more, but if you expect a romcom or slice-of-life about Brother/Sister relationship, then you will find this a bit disappointing since they rarely show Itsuki's interaction with his younger sibling, Chihiro and focusing more on the 'author' part.

Overall, its 6 from me because i kinda expect this anime to be about a Brother/Sister relationship because of the title (A Sister's All You Need), and just disappointed from the lack of interaction between Itsuki and his younger sibling. Even then, it might be enjoyable if you like slice of life.

I'm sure a lot of people out there have already dropped this show within the first few episodes, and i don't blame them. This show started off so terrible it was ridiculous. However, despite the horrid start this show really came through.

Around episode 4 or 5 was where this show just kicked off and became really enjoyable. Each episode suddenly became really enjoyable and the once irritating characters redeemed themselves throughout the rest of the episodes.

You know when people tell you to keep watching a show because it will get better, and you just don't want to because it sucks. This show ... is exactly that, i recommend trying it out. Drop it if you want but believe me when i say it will get so much better than you think it will.

Aka the board game playing anime

I have to give this credit in the scope that it did mature as the season went on. There's just not much else that happen, including the title. The characters are consistent as are their portrayals and the voice acting. It's regrettable that the one big secret to all of the characters but obvious to the viewers (or seemingly obvious) was left hanging, although there is an implication that it would be resolved. There is a level of fan service there, however it's not offensively in your face, which is nice because most shows that have fan service just throw ... it right at you without restraint.

I wouldn't rush out and watch this, but if you're looking for something very light and easy, this would be a good break in between more intense or in depth shows.

A lot of people say that the first 5 minutes of the show is not indicative of the full show and while that's mostly true in regards to directness of the content, the MC still fetishizes little sisters throughout the entire show, so you have to be prepared for that regardless of those first 5 minutes. For that reason, I have mixed feelings.

As a story about the LN authors and the world they live in, the show is fun and interesting. But the little sister stuff doesn't work for me, as well as the relationship between MC and the girl that loves him. They have ... a rather contrived relationship that doesn't make much sense and doesn't get much development. It gets an explanation by the end for why things don't progress, but it's not really a satisfactory one, and honestly just feels like a hand-waved excuse from the writer to further drag it along.

Overall, I think it's ok. I was recommended it as a workplace comedy-romance story, but I don't think it met the mark I looking for and overly illogical ecchi moments didn't work for me.

This is a really great anime that's plagued by serious pacing issues. Twelve episodes is not a time commitment worth lamenting on the grand scale of things considering my body isn't that old, but unfortunately my soul resides in a jade skeleton that's collecting dust in a tomb decorated extensively with signs that read "pick one fucking plot thread and stick with it you nervous bungusbreachers."

I expected a pure comedy. I know, it was my mistake. The prolific "comedy" tag on MAL has led me astray so many times in my short months as a purveyor of digitized Laotian hand weaving techniques and I absolutely ... should have learned my lesson by now. But as they say in the biz, "once a total idiot, always a total moran." Or something like that. Who knows, it's not like enjoying Mongolian cartoons is actually a job for anyone.

Anyway, this series is about a little sister-obsessed light novel writer and his half dozen or so accomplices. "OMG accomplices in what?" -u. Glad you asked: in the heinous cardinal sin of pissing me off by lacking confidence to maintain focus as E I T H E R a comedy O R a drama. One episode is about omni-erectional mobility devices (yes, that's spelled correctly, and yes, I get the reference) and a guy with a meter-long sworddick (yes, that's how it's referred to), the next couple episodes are about unrequited love, dead mothers, broken hearts, and an unresolved conclusion. Earlier there were two young guys going to a sauna for ass research (yes) only to find shriveled grannies, but then the next episode was some melodramatic whatever or other. There is Z E R O consistency.

Most hand-drawn Uzbek tuna fishing motion pictures start as comedies and then turn into something else, which is enough for me to drop about half the animes I start. Here there isn't enough episode-to-episode coherence to *have* an arc like that. It's one up, one down, one up, one down all the way through. And it didn't have to be like that. It really absolutely totally could have been a riotous and raunchy comedy show. I'm serious when I say there are legitimately roflworthy moments. ...but then it decides to be a drama and I found my eyelids drooping out of tedium.

So, worth your time? Even though I came away from it with a bad taste I'd say it probably is. I don't think there are enough productions in any medium that deal with self-genesis, which is a real shame. The characters are all interesting and when it's funny, it's *really* funny--but when it gets serious, it gets *really* serious for no good reason whatsoever. I'll rewatch this in a few months and I plan to skip all the drama episodes...and I know I'll love it. Take that as you will.