Candy Boy: Nonchalant Talk of the Certain Twin Sisters in Daily Life

Candy Boy is a sweet, good natured slice of life romantic comedy. Right off the bat you should understand that this series revolves around yuri love and an incestuous relationship between fraternal twins. Even saying this though, there is really nothing to be offended about in regards to this series. While normally my creep-o-meter would be signaling its alarm bells, I actually really enjoyed Candy Boy.

The plot in Candy Boy is uncomplicated and revolves around twin sisters Kanade and Yukino and their high school life together. Unlike a lot of slice of life series, Candy Boy's episodes feel like they are ... all part of one large movie sized one as events flow seamlessly from each episode. Both sisters struggle to find time for each other and both get into college. Little happens in terms of dramatic romance, while there are very tender moments, those hoping for mushy love scenes and romantic kisses will likely be very disappointed. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of social consequences from either classmates or family due to the sisters’ quite obvious relationship. In a way this is both disappointing and a relief. Though I thought it was the right choice because, for me, it kept my attention off of the creepy aspects of the show.

The characters are excellent in the series. This is helped by the fact that the cast is extremely small and focuses exclusively on only four characters. In fact I can really only remember a couple instances where people other than those four even spoke any dialogue. This was an excellent decision since the series is already short and doesn’t have time to build much depth in the characters. The sisters Kana, Yuki, and to some extent their younger sister Shi get the majority of the attention. Kana is the most interesting of the group and feels the most complete as a character. Most of the story elements flow through her and what she is thinking and feeling. You get a good feel for all of their personalities and their motivations, though it does feel like of the twins, Yuki gets a bit of the shaft in terms of depth. Sakuya is the comic relief and while she is in love with Kanade, she is never a serious love interest. There really isn’t any angst in terms of relationships which I found a bit refreshing. Kanade and Yukino love each other deeply and basically nothing can separate them.

The art and animation is truly fabulous. I loved the character designs and the settings and backgrounds were all wonderfully dawn and animated. There did seem to be a bit of inconsistency though, even though it was great looking sometimes characters didn’t always look the same throughout the show. The acting was very good and it featured a number of good musical pieces.

I enjoyed Candy Boy quite a lot. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of yuri or just wants to see a sweet slice of life series and is not bothered by the subject matter. While it may be a bit controversial to some audiences, I think it will appeal to most people.

Kana-chan, Kana-chan~

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.

I've only ever watched two Yuri animes - Strawberry Panic and this being the second. However, I've also watched quite a lot of romance animes and I can say with confidence that this one blows everything else out of the water when it comes to realism.

It is exactly as the synopsis says, twin sisters are in love with each other - it is an incestual relationship... but hang on is it? This is the real kicker. Their relationship is more like platonic love on steroids. If you're hoping for some Yuri action, passionate kissing etc. then you can forget all about that because these ... sisters are so sweet and innocent that they could possibly melt boulders and cause volcanic eruptions. They hold hands all the time, stare into each other, talk about their feet and stuff like that. After a few episodes, rainbows will randomly start to appear in your room, you will begin to fart out leprechauns and have visions of a galloping unicorn. Seriously though, this series is very innocent and the sisters never do anything sexual. The only way we can tell for sure that they're in love is through their dialogue, which is so sweet that I nearly came down with a bad case of diabetes. However, all of that made the series more believable and if there ever were twin sisters in love somewhere out there in the real world... they'd probably behave like this.

As for the characters in this show, there are only four. Kanade & Yukino (twin sisters), Shizuku and Sakuya. Shizuku is the younger sister of Kanade & Yukino while Sakuya is there to provide comic relief and nonchalantly hit on Kanade. These four characters will interact with each other on a regular basis and further reinforce the already impregnable relationship between Kanade and Yukino. All other characters in this series are only there to fill in empty spaces; they don't posses names and are mostly mute. However that is a brilliant move on the part of the makers as this is a very short anime and focusing on the main cast provides the viewer with a consistent experience.

The art here is truly amazing. I don't like using the word 'amazing' because it is quite possibly the most overused word in the English language. However, when it comes to this series I can use it with honesty. The animation is staggering. The twins are flawless in their design and whenever they hold hands you can see that it's the work of professional and talented artists. If you're reading this guys, well done. I nearly had a stroke the first time I saw them holding hands.

The sound is also very good. The soundtrack fits in with the series, the ending is heartwarming and the voice acting... oh boy. I'm a rookie when it comes to Japanese. I can count and only say a few words without sounding like an idiot but even I can tell that the voice actresses did a good job here. It is authentic to the core. In all the animes I've watched I'd say this anime here has got the best voice actresses.

All in all, a very good anime. Relaxing, stress relieving. An innocent tale of two girls in love. I've never imagined that Yuri could be this entertaining. I admit I must have had the wrong impression of it. Or perhaps it's just this particular anime that's so soothing and enjoyable. Well either way, I'd recommend this to anyone who likes romance. A must-watch.