Oniichan wa Oshimai!

Well, well, looks like somebody broke their promise of being an exclusive entity just for producing one of the all-time modern greats in the AniManga scene! Haha, just kidding. But seriously, WOW, Studio Bind, you're the studio that can do no wrong, until you can do an extra wrong, and it elevates just about everything that you live as an entity developing deep into the fetish-dom.

The Mushoku Tensei-based studio branching out to more or less the same sexual fetish that it was birthed from, and somehow that caught the eye from one particular person: debut director Shingo Fujii, whose works are known in one of ... the longest kids-based franchise of PreCure as its key animator. So, it must be said that if Shingo Fujii has a knack for kids looking for some action and Studio Bind being the paedophilia studio that wows from the get-go, then look further than mangaka Nekotofu's Onii-chan wa Oshimai! a.k.a Onimai: I'm Now Your Sister! (the "oshimai" written phonetically to have a double entendre of お終い "my older brother is over" and お姉妹 "my older brother is a sister"). And for better or worse, this show will make you feel a lot of emotions: disgust, disappointment, weary, wholesome, being outright bad to legit genuinely good.

There's something that's just outright illegal with the magical sex shift a.k.a transgender sub-genre, because it's a taboo subject that not everyone wants to dabble upon, unless criticism is your thing. This is especially important for people like authors wanting to use the same taboo subject to tell a story, though this is of the extreme kind. And this is exactly what Onimai's story is like: the brother of Mahiro, the self-proclaimed NEET and a girl of Mihari, the scientist, living alongside him, in the same Oyama family. But one day, an experiment goes very wrong, converting the sex change within Mahiro that drastically turned his young adult state of mind to that of a girl. In many a case, this "fixture" to help turn her brother's isolated, stay-at-home NEET behaviour into a life enriching experience has it benefits and drawbacks: Being new to the girlish feeling, the uneasiness of Mahiro sets in with the nonchalant Mihari, being forced to now live like a girl, bodily functions included. The only benefit that would weigh for the good is of course, if Mahiro actually would be willing to step even one foot out of the room, accompanying his sister to finally not label himself as a hikikomori and appreciate her high levels of intelligence in this "Big Brother Rehabilitation Project" experiment.

But the facts speak for themselves: despite this show being a lot more fanservice-y as it is to trigger lolicons, paedophiles and feminists in a mind-numbingly and overwhelmingly bad way, it has its moments as akin to a CGDCT theme (though this is only half true bcecause of the obvious odd one out) and the more "slice of life"-ish content that is more heartwarming and wholesome than most. By forcefully being changed into a girl, Mahiro gets to survey the world around her, albeit in a new sexual orientation that the former "he" has to get used to, on simple things such as hanging out with friends and just being productive at home. To aid him in getting the orientation right, there are friends in the form of sisters Kaede and Momiji Hozuki, as well as classmates Asahi Oka and Miyo Murasaki. The gyaru and tomboy-ish personalities of sisters do get well together with Mihari, even in the most mundane of things that girls like to do at their age. When it comes to the classmates Asahi and Miya, the former has been friends with Momiji for a few years, and the latter...is pretty stacked with an affinity for Yuri themes. Talk about being centralized to the T for Miyo. Overall, the circle of friends are a much-needed step for Mahiro to enjoy the privileges of being a girl, aside from still having the man-like soul of a stigma inside.

I think we all know what we came here for in regard to the anime: its production values, which if you have not heard of Studio Bind, you've been living under a rock for quite some time. It's pretty safe to say that while this is not the Mushoku Tensei-centred staff team that's working on this, it's the PreCure key animator-cum-director Shingo Fujii and his team working on this bite-sized chunk of a show that's no less than impressive and top-notch. Despite looking a lot CGDCT and Slice-of-Life-ish, the colours and visuals are vibrant and pop out in the simplest way possible. The animation in Onimai may be miniscule, but don't let that fool you, for its still as just as strictly detailed as Mushoku Tensei was, not losing the lustre that the new fledgling studio has been known for.

Like the production, the music is really well done as well, setting in the cutesy atmosphere that's all in the girlish context. The OP from Enako feat. P-maru-sama, it's a great song that stands out for its crazy upbeats and the animation prowess that doesn't lie to your face of how much Studio Bind also takes care of the minor stuff (like the OP/ED) and flexes at any opportunity worth showing. That said, the OP is ONE HELLA of an impressive showing that despite the somewhat targeted fanservice-y tropes it has, it makes up for an interesting combination that's a worthy standout as one of the great OPs of the season. And though the ED featuring the Oyama and Hozuki sisters altogether for a last hurrah of sorts, that was a decent showing.

Well then, after all that's said and done, here's the age-old question: is Onimai worth the watch? I believe that it's up to you whether you love or hate it, because while this show is definitely on the extreme side of susceptibility of tolerance levels, it's the entertainment that would define this show as a whole, and while I can say that I got over the fanservice quick to turn over a new leaf to enjoy this immensely, your mileage may vary. Onimai is not for everyone, but I pray that for whatever reason you decide to judge it at first glance, give this a second chance, because it functions as a legit good, wholesome show that doesn't take away its welcome "plot" of constant reminders time and time again.

Yes, the manga is good, but the anime is even better. That's the power of anime as a medium, and I would stand by Onimai as a standard, but unique experience under a growing prolific studio that grows with age. Try it, you'll be plasantly surprised.

‟wtf why did Bind picked this anime they are down so bad in degeneracy” -maybe someone on Twitter

And that's exactly what's good about it ! Thank you Studio Bind for bringing us Onimai on our screens, big boobas have never looked that good ! To be more serious, let's start off the review for real. What's Onimai ? It's just your average young adult unemployed dude and eroge vn lover getting drugged by her mad scientist (hi s;g) little sisters into a (legal ? please no definitively don't post that on Twitter) loli and how Mahiro as our protagonist needs to survive in the hard ... task and wasteland that it is to be a high school female student. What does this premise actually makes with the content of this anime, why would this weird story work ? After watching it fully, I see the genius ideas that came out and are used from this stoopid event.

I also wanna note that while my review is highly positive towards Onimai, it doesn't mean that anyone would enjoy it as much, that's of course true for any anime, but maybe even more this one, it's all personal taste. If you don't like ecchi and loli (and maybe think that adding those two together makes it even worse), it's totally fair that you'd hate this anime. As for myself, I ain't scared of anything, ecchi is cool. So what's about this that makes it in any way good (except the ecchi of course, but I will talk about it later) ? Who would have though, but a Magical Sex Shift can really mess our understanding of the surrounding world, and that's exactly what Mahiro does, he always learn how to adapt in this vastly new world and we get to see his character development over the course of 12 episodes, and as her sister Mihari has planned, make it so his fucking NEET onii-chan can go outside and live a normal live, which is fully filled with the wholesomeness of this show. Wait, that's wholesome ? It indeed is, the cute Mahiro's voice combined with the whole cast of girls and classmates makes it like if you're part of the gang yourself, you start to appreciate the small relationships, especially Mahiro who never had those before. There are a lot of chill and very heartwarming moments in the anime, that simply express love for your family, friendship and enjoyment as a whole, this anime can really touch you in your heart and make you feel chill while giving you a boner, it's genius. To add to the wholesomeness of this show, one of the best thing that pairs with it is comedy, and it still delivers in that regards. Onimai is a perfect mix of serious and fast paced moments, sometimes it's just goofy moments in a cute SoL that makes you go giggle real hard because of how hilarious they are, it's clearly a beautiful mix of everything, and as a great comedy lover, it's the cherry on top that makes me interested in this anime. It tries to be everything, and it succeeds in such.

Moreover, Studio Bind couldn't have been a better studio for animating this. As their second anime ever, everyone was excited to see their quality and usual ecchiness on another anime. As it did with the story, it stills delivers, and is probably one of the nicest and cleanest visuals of any SoL and ecchi show you've seen. When it needs to (and when it doesn't so they can flex more), the animation of it is insanely smooth and a lot of shots could become a pc background. The character designs are well made and the fake 3D effect that they sometimes uses on things like hands really shows how good Bind has become, and all that on a fucking Slice of Life show. The other thing Bind is known apart from them doing clean and smooth things is how good they can make ecchi and fan service look, and of course, this anime is full (I mean, it's not tagged as ecchi, it's just sometimes there in a few episodes and in spirit) of it, and it really has some of the nicest animated boobs that I've seen in anime, it's a big plus, obviously and they've really put a lot of effort into it, really is a passion project for anyone working on it, wanting to make this somewhat normal anime (that a few cultured manga readers really enjoyed) into something almost magnificient that's beautiful in every way.

I also wanna note how good looking the visuals and the song of the Opening and the Ending are, they are both in a strong contender for best OP/ED of 2023 and it has only started bruh.

Onimai might not be for everyone, but for me, it was. A very weird story that actually works out in something uniquely interesting in terms of character and topics addressed, while filling my degeneracy and a blast in animation and funniness. Enjoyment is a big factor in this anime. If this review hasn't made you think that this shit is fucking weird, and that I've picked your interest, I would highly recommend you watching this, I love it ! (Do note that the orange logo guy has the censored version, which cuts a few seconds and scenes every episode, it's not like if you're gonna see bare naked boobs, but even regular ones might be cut from it, so go watch the uncensored one !)

Some MyAnimeList reviews still act like a public morals committee a.k.a SJWs. People can't just take a break. The sypnosis is enough to give you information that this is not a conventional show, yet the reviews double down on that sypnosis and go fault finding.

Is it a show that disregards morals? You could argue that's the case. Is it a fictional setting where something can only happen in a realm of impossibility? Absolutely. Is it weird for you? Don't watch, simple principle.

Trust me, it will be weird. There will be parts of the show that are just totally awkward.

Let me repeat this: The sypnosis. Read ... it, and see if you'll like it or not. It can get weird and awkward, so don't watch it with your friends unless it's someone you know won't give you weird looks and have second thoughts about staying friends with you.

If you think you can stomach the quirks of this show such as the fanservice (because there will be a lot that it's just better to read the manga without the covers), then you'll be fine. The show can be as good as the positive reviews say. If the positive reviews got you hooked, then you will really enjoy the SOL and the Comedy aspects of this show.

If you feel that the tag is weird alone, then ignore the positive comments and don't waste your time. Just because it's an anime that
- a studio infamous for their animations
- picked up this show
- as their second anime adaptation.
does not mean anything. Heck, it's that studio that animated Mushoku Tensei, after all.

So, Onimai finally ended and so I decided to write a review for this. Because, to be fair, this isn't an easy anime to recommend, due to its subject matter and execution. But let's get this started.

For starters, Onimai is not for you if you cannot look beaond the basic premise of the story. Mahiro, who is a shut-in unemployed male adult gets drugged and transformed into an underage girl by his little sister and now gets to live middle schooler girl life. If the forceful transformation is a dealbreaker (a legit reservation to have), stop right here, this anime is not for you. If ... not, then I go into what this story is, why I recomend it and why it isn't just some degenerate garbage.

Onimai is basically the story of a young adult man who has given up on society and partly even life, living basically just with his few remaining hobbies that don't require him to leave the house, who gets now a makeover and second go at life. As many other reviews point out, the studio behind Mushoku Tensei once again has picked up a story about someone whom most people would consider a failure at life getting slowly rehabilitated into a decent person. This time though, not by dying and reincarnating, but by getting genderbent. And to be fair, it does it rather well (thanks to the source material it is based on being rather solid).

Now, some people might complain about whether it was necessary for Mahiro to be a goddamn middle school girl, after he was an adult man. Isn't it friggin cringe to have an adult man hang out with people way below him in age? Eh, I mean, technically, you could view it that way, but this plot isn't just for nothing. Mahiro is supposed to get rehabilitated. You don't just rehabilitate people by throwing their gender identity out the window. Realistically, most people would become worse off. If Mahiro wasn't kind of transgender already (which the story never really delves into), you'd basically risk giving him major dysphoria and yeah, you aren't getting anywhere. But age regression actually can do something. It is quite clear that Mahiro struggles to meet social expectations and has basically given up on trying. It makes sense for him to have a second chance by becoming young again, at an age where social expectations are way more relaxed and where socialising is easier. A 20+ year old adult guy having no job and no income isn't viewed favourably by society and can weigh on one's self-esteem. An 11 odd year old girl having no job and being a dependant is kinda what you expect and you'd not fault them for it. Thus, regression isn't used to make some loli porn, it makes sense in context for it to be there, as it provides Mahiro with the safe space to return to society.

Is it wrong now for Mahiro to hang out with genuine middle schoolers? Well, if the point was to give a safe setting of middle school, you'd expect friends to be in that age category. And let's be real, the interactions between the four friends are mostly CGDCT. It isn't Mahiro fawning over their underage bodies or viewing them romantically, it's basically just the peer group he finds himself with and why not. It's basically as if people would call Conan Edogawa a creep for befriending the Detective Boys.

Now, with all that out of the way, Onimai is
-a pretty decent story about a person getting a second chance at life
-a casual slice of life show with a bit of deeper plot
-actually one of the most deep gender bender anime we have so far. There's clearly better manga who give more thought to the whole thing, but when it comes to anime, Onimai is (sadly) quite revolutionary in how much thought it gives to gender identity of its protagonist. This show aired alongside two other gender bender shows, which were Ayakashi Triangle and Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire and it's a great example of three different kinds of gender bender you will encounter: Reborn to Master the Blade (this needs a short title) treats it as an afterthought and is basically a shounen plot with a more visually appealing protagonist, Ayakashi Triangle is still your shounen plot, but also has some thought put into the gender bender aspect beyond the steamy scenes and Onimai makes the gender identity one of the most central aspects of the show (to the point the entire OP is a reference to it). Maybe one day we also get even more serious works as an anime, it'd be nice, but for now, I'm already happy we arrived at Onimai. I still remember when the state of the genre was Happiness! OVA.

This show's plot can be genuinely enjoyable, isn't too serious, but also not shallow. It's a good watch for entertainment, while also raising some valid questions, regardless of viewer age. The story mostly stays true to the general plot of the manga, so anyone who enjoys this can read the source material. It's pretty neat.

Art-wise, I have to consider Onimai a mixed bag. Generally, this show is beautifully animated, the colours are fitting, the design changes to most characters are pretty cool, like the colourful highlights to many people's hair. Makes the whole thing a bit more quirky and lively. However, the anime adaptation did add, for whatever reason, some fanservicey material and it really wasn't necessary. It's not ruining the show to me, but it certainly isn't something that can be ignored or viewed favourably by me. Kaede's design is just... Manga kaede is a stylish gyaru, characterised as attractive, but the fanservice is limited. Anime Kaede is way more questionable, with a notable upgrade to her assets just because. Ehhhhh...

Sound-wise, pretty solid. I like the OP and ED songs. The VAs are reasonably well-selected and the overall experience is pleasant.

Personally, as a critical rating I give the show a 9. It could be a 10, if it hadn't messed around with the fanservice. It still preserves the core good parts of the manga though and I expected worse for an anime adaptation. They clearly put in effort, the whole thing has its one blemish, but is otherwise still the Onimai I read and loved.

One of the best slice of life anime of all time. The quality is just peak and prove how strong Studio BIND is. I can say without doubt that Studio BIND has convinced me that no matter how niche a series can be, there is always a way to produce such a heart warming story.

The art style is a little unique and I had some struggle with it, but through it episodes, I ended up enjoying it more. The animation can be considered too high for a simple yuri + school + slice of life genre, it feels unreal for Onimai to have such ... a great quality.

I know that the Gender Bender stuff can turn off a lot of anime fans, and the rating for this show, in my opinion, is significantly lower that where it should have been. I can easily rate this show 10/10 for me, and for unbias, 8.5/10 confidently.

I loved the show so much that I registered a whole f***k MAL account and wrote the only review I had done in my life, thank you so much Studio BIND for lightening my life anxious, and once again, I wish Onimai season 2 and also wish that Studio BIND will continue the adaptation. It would be a huge waste if some great manga with niche genre get cancled whereas its uniqueness is what make fans fall in love with the series.

(Side note: I wrote this purely to record the day I finish the show. This is not a "review", it's just an after-thought, never consider this seriously.)

This show is both, wacky, questionable, and wholesome. I can't say that it is an amazing show by any means, but if you look past the first episode, and watch it as a non gender bender anime, then it really gets much better to watch through.

The plot is really mixed, the plot of the MC basically being a sheltered discord moderator male that gets changed into an awkward female. Then doesn't realize you can't do male things as a woman without being looked at weirdly (kinda reminds me of “Bocchi The Rock” in some ways of awkwardness of the MC). The bad part about this ... is by the first month of becoming a female, it seems quite dumb to be made into a trope of going and doing obviously stupid things, such as — Small Spoiler — going into a men's restroom as a female, then realizing, when you should not have dumb mix-ups like this.
The other major issue I have with the show is fan service, it is an excessive amount of fan service and sexualization of characters, whether it be the MC or some random character in a classroom. To me this heavily detracts from the experience of enjoying this show considering these are middle-school age characters getting intensely sexualized for no apparent reason. From what I hear is that most of these scenes are absent in the manga, meaning that these were added to the show for trying to make neuron activation at the sight of a random teacher with huge breasts, or a bath scene.

Not to say the plot is bad at all, it just has off chances of really stupid out of character behavior, where the MC thinks like a man for a few seconds and acts awkward or weird, even though the MC has been a female for a decent period of time by this point. It does not exactly make sense to do this type of stuff or get weirded out by regular actions by women.
The reality is that the show is moderately enjoyable, and is quite decent at being a CGDCT anime, it may have moments that make you shake your head and want to punch a table.

Overall it does everything quite well, and while overall I enjoyed it, I could 100% see why someone wouldn't want to watch this show, whether it be some middle-schooler sexualization or awkward sex shifting MC. Past that, it feels like “Lucky☆Star” was mixed with some characterization from “Mushoku Tensei” and added a magical sex shift theme in it.
I would at least give it a shot to see whether you enjoy it or not, since this definitely will be a show that different people will have tons of different feelings on. Personally, I was able to just look past the fan service and the weird MC to see a good slice of life hiding behind it.

🗿 7/10 🗿

This show is great in a lot of ways. It does so many things so masterfully and coming off of the show, it's gonna be hard to forget some of the stronger moments that impacted me emotionally. What? What's that? Why did I give the show such a low score then? Well, if you've been following the discourse surrounding the show, you already know the answer to that! The answer is...complicated.

But first...

Scores suck. Slapping a number on something to superfluously gauge how much you value the show doesn't do the finer intricacies of properly judging media any justice. In other words, I have no fkn ... clue what to give this show. It's best parts deserve a 10! It's worst parts deserve to wipe it from existence along with my shiny new spot on several government watch lists, cuz, if you've followed any amount of discussion around this show and somehow DON'T know what's wrong with it, this show is... ((hold on lemme get a good grip on that bandaid and...)) FOR P*DOPHILES!!

Now that I've shooed off some of the avid defenders of this show, let's do something that'd probably piss off your average English professor and NOT provide any justification for that claim... yet. I wanna talk about the good first.

The story is par-for-the-course slice of life shlock (my favorite!). Main character is turned into a little girl by his older sister with seemingly abundant access to eldritch blood she found lying around because how the hell else is she able to change someones chemical makeup and de-age them? Anywho, he's a little girl now due to his sisters horrifically thought out plan to get him to reintegrate into society. Shenanigans ensue, and it eventually works to varying degrees. But then the show kinda slaps you upside the head with what it's actually about. No, not exploitation of minors (we'll get to that...). It's about family :))

No really. Barring the more dubious aspects of this show, the MC reconnects with his sister, learns how to make friends, and learns from said friends about togetherness, friendship, and f a m i l y :))))) I genuinely cannot believe how a couple of the scenes legitimately choked me up. I'm absolutely AGHAST that my cold dead heart FELT something for some of these scenes.

Talking about music in anime reviews always feels redundant. It's a slice-of-life; it's what you'd expect. Lighthearted jingles with lighthearted instruments. Opening and Ending were catchy. Otherwise, nothing notable.

As for the art tho... this show is gorgeous. Watch any scene, from the most exciting to the most mundane and you'd be hard pressed to not find copious amounts of attention to detail. Characters interactions are full of minute movements that bring them to life and convey their emotions beautifully. The backgrounds are densely packed and often populated with non-CG nobodies. The colors are absolutely fkn delicious. It has this slightly washed out yet still vivid pastel color palette that's easy on the eyes and a joy to look at. The show has random goddamn sakuga for things like filling up cups with water and washing hands. The rest of the show has dynamic, impactful, fluid animation that makes these characters shine like very few others could within the genre. Everything you could expect from Studio Bind, who up until this point was thrown together to animate Jobless Reincarnation- another show with drop-dead gorgeous visuals and an animation team so obviously dedicated to their craft.

Which is where the painful part comes in. Like Jobless Reincarnation, this show suffers from very suspect ecchi scenes involving characters that are confirmed minors that range from "What did they mean by this??" to "Guess I'm no longer allowed within 50 miles of any grade school now." This shows creators knew what they were doing, what they were making. The inclusion of several scenes were kids piss themselves off screen is slightly subtle. Clever camera shots that allow for distant upskirts is much less so. There's no subtlety, however, in the inclusion of several nude scenes, ass shots, close ups of intimate parts of their bodies, sexual fake-outs and the dressing up of said minors in various scantily clad outfits, most notably in the, unfortunately catchy, OP and ED.

It's not an okay thing. It drags down a show that is otherwise such a gorgeous and comfy labor of love with an occasional surprise sledgehammer to the back of your skull reminding you what you're actually watching. Like gold speckled with shit, or maybe gold-speckled shit. I'm not sure. Debate the politics all you want but to me there's clearly something wrong with people who very openly make and enjoy things like that. The only saving grace, if you can even call it that, is that nothing is fully uncensored and no overtly sexual acts ever happen.

SO, going back to my score of three, I decided it based on the fact that MAL labels a 3 as "Very Bad" which is what I would say if anyone were to walk in on me watching it. Them: "Hey man, what's...what's that?" Me probably: "Oh no! This is (3) Very Bad!!" Yeah, like that. Better yet, because numbered scores are cringe, I'll give this show a "$3,000 bail bond for a crime that should've landed me in jail for much longer than it did, but the jury found no sufficient evidence to truly incriminate me beyond possession of illicit material, so instead I walk free for the price of your average checkup at an American doctor". Sure it was cute and excellently endearing at various points, but I'll never live down the shame as "the guy who watched that show with naked kids...again."

Tl;Dr - Great show with fantastic animation and lovable characters with fun and sometimes impactful story beats...absolutely destroyed and marred by its sexualization of characters that are overtly minors.

I can't recommend this show without having a moral crisis, so take that information how you will.

When you first read the synopsis, you would think this show would be weird. However, this show does a good job of making itself interesting and enjoyable. Oniichan wa Oshimai! does a good job of sticking to a good base formula. The show has some ecchi / fanservice moments which I didn't find to be really invasive.

STORY
The story is pretty straightforward from the start. the plot is centered around the main character adjusting to becoming a female. her sister tries to transition her away from the shut-in gaming life. She starts to talk with her sister more as she guides her through a new life ... doing new things like making friends and doing activities other than gaming.

ART
The art style is simple and soft. The anime uses a wide array of vibrant colors look nice.

Conclusion
The show is not perfect, but I believe it is good if you want to watch a show That is a little unusual and wholesome.

Don't listen to those few top reviews. They were all made by people who watched 1-3 episodes and decided Onimai was bad because it has lewd loli shots and rated the show a 1. Using their negative lenses, the reviewers absolutely nitpicked the stupidest things to justify their ridiculous ratings of a legitimately amazing anime.

There is plenty of degenerate trash that doesn't get the same backlash as Onimai, but Onimai's problem is that (aside from the lolicon in early episodes) it's actually good. People can stand degenerate trash and just ignore it, but when it has redeeming qualities you end up with Onimai. Yes, ... there is some lolicon fanservice, much heavier in the early episodes. Yes, it may be feel uncomfortable, and I did not like it.

But my God, the animation, voice acting, slice of life, pacing, and story of redemption & rehabilitation are too good to not give a chance. The production quality of this anime is so good that it is a shame that more people won't even give it a shot.

With Mushoku Tensei, Studio Bind gave us probably the best isekai ever made, focusing on the redemption of a shut-in NEET. With Onimai, Studio Bind gives us a slice of life practically on par with Mushokou Tensei, only this time the focus is on the rehabilitation of a shut-in NEET. As someone who was once a shut-in NEET, I absolutely adore these kinds of stories. You don't have to have been a NEET to like them as long as you like seeing someone struggling to (and succeeding at) making a drastic positive change in their life. I guess if you're the type of person capable of hating other human beings who cause no harm to others, except their down on their luck, then You'll find a way to hate both Mushoku Tensei and Onimai.

I'm not saying that there perfect, because they do have a problems. For instance: lolicon. I'm generally not a fan of lolicon, the word cunny makes me literally gag, but I can tolerate it on occasion. When you watch enough anime eventually get used to it. It's not a good thing. It's actually quite awful how much underage characters are sexualized within Japanese media. But you know what? Lolicon anime doesn't harm anybody. So if Studio Bind wants to pour their hearts and souls into making some of the greatest modern anime and then use their artistic freedom to put in lewd lolicon here and there, so be it. It doesn't mean that the rest of the work is bad. It just means that Studio Bind is a bunch of fucking degenerates, which brings me to my final point.

Onimai is an anime made for degenerates, by degenerates, about degenerates. The lolicon kinda amplifies that message, so as much as I dislike it, there is a purpose. Onimai and Vinland Saga S2 are the only two anime that are really worth watching from this season, shows that should reach beyond seasonal watchers. Just give it a shot. You will either be too disgusted to go on, or you'll push through the awkwardness and fall in love.

I'll be seeing you later though. For now, I'm gonna go turn myself in to the FBI.

This anime has a very simple premise: A hikikomori (shut-in) young man get turned into a middle school girl, and he has to come to terms with it. With some subplots, from beginning to end, this is the entire plot.

One very sticky wicket is what to call Mahiro - he or she. I choose "she". She has an actual girl's body (with every function thereof) - who just happens to have the brain of a boy. You may disagree but that is my convention and I will be using it in this review. This is not intended to make ... any statements, I just have to pick one and that makes the most sense to me. (I will use "he" for the time before he was turned into a girl. Geez, this is difficult. Oh well.) Onwards...

One might be tempted, given this plot, to think a whole bunch of things about it that would be highly inappropriate if they were true. But, they're not true. This anime has multiple opportunities in each episode to go in some particularly awful directions - and never takes those opportunities. Even at the very beginning of the anime, those possibilities are acknowledged, and then summarily and ruthlessly squashed. While there is some fanservice in this anime (I don't think any mangaka could *completely* resist the temptation), the travails of an adult man turned into a middle school girl are treated, not only sensitively, but as realistically as possible, given the surrealism of the plot. For example, we witness her getting her first, well, womanly time, and it's not treated fetishistically, but far more realistically than you'd think, and that's the case with all similar events.

The reason for this is that this anime does not appear to have been written or produced as fetish fuel, instead, it seems to have been designed as a "dead-dove" story - it's exactly what it appears on the cover, by which I mean, an adult man who has to learn how to live as a middle school girl. And it does a very good job at that.

This anime made me think. And I love it when a anime makes me think.

So, let's get the technical stuff out of the way before I poke the bear. I love the bright, pastel color pallet of this anime. It's fun, playful, and fits the theme quite well. The characters are well designed and treated sensitively, and the story is well written, interesting, and funny when it matters. I also really liked the OP, though the animations are a little too fanservicey for my taste.

And boy, can that girl pack away the pizza.

Now, here's the part that I'd prefer not to write, but any serious review of this story *has* to address this: This is not an anime about any social justice issue (including the obvious one). As near as I can tell, this is not anywhere near the mind of the mangaka, producer, or anyone else when creating this anime. Mahiro is a girl in all ways except for in the brain, and the change was not of her choosing. Many people seem to want desperately to tack that motivation on this anime, but it's simply not there. It's a story about a boy who is turned into a girl against his will and has to learn how to live as a girl for as long as she is one. That's it. There is no other agenda. If you're looking for more you'll be disappointed. If you want to see this anime through that lens, more power to you, but I'm absolutely sure that's not, in any way, the intention of this anime.

I promise I would be the first to say if it were the case, and it would be clear if it were. It's just not.

It's also, as I mentioned, not really an ecchi, hentai, or anything else anime. It's a surprisingly wholesome story that could have gone off the rails in fifteen different ways, but stayed wholesome right until the end, and I love this anime for that.

Are there flaws in this anime? Absolutely. It does rely quite a bit on double entendre, a bit too much, in my opinion. For being wholesome, it's not above a dirty joke or ecchi-adjacent misdirection or two, and that did make me a little uncomfortable. But it never stayed there, and I was alright with that once the joke resolved. Also, the kind of fanservice that they *did* have for a thirteen or fourteen year old girl was a little much, I thought. They kept it just this side of appropriate, but it was a close thing. The "transition" is also not consensual, which definitely raises questions about the morality of her sister - whose intentions are beyond approach, but you know the saying, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". But then, that's one of the things that makes you think, so at least there's that.

Also as you may have gathered, although this anime keeps the fanservice to a minimum and avoids ecchi content, it does not avoid *frank* discussion of intimate female and adult topics. Somewhat clinically, perhaps, but it still addresses them. If that's not something you're comfortable with, you might want to pass on this one.

At the end of the day, this was a cute, beautifully animated, slightly ecchi-adjacent, mostly wholesome story that made me think, and I actually enjoyed the heck out of it. And at the end of the day, that's all I really can expect an anime to deliver.

A recommend from me. But my caution: don't read into it what's not there, and don't expect from it what it won't deliver. You'll just be disappointed. Enjoy it for what it is and you'll have a nice few hours and maybe something to think about after.

At first this anime was not that good to me but after i reach around like episode 3. It started to became really good. Recently i have been watching a really sad anime and this show literally saved me from depression =)). I think the show have a good sense of humour too. I highly recommend it as a person who has watched anime for 3 years
The anime was unredictable because of the creative plot but i doesnt give people an uncomfortable feeling
The art style and sountrack was well fitted for the story ( The op is so good =3 ) The characters are well ... rounded

This masterpiece of an anime was a piece no one thought could be good. It meets all the standards of CDGCT and has an extremely well done plot that keeps me coming back for more.

This show is about someone going from a NEET living in his room and not going outside for 3 whole years to a social butterfly that can make friends with anyone.

His sister is a mad scientist and only wants the best so she drugs his drink and he gets turned into a middle school girl overnight in a program she calls “the brother rehabilitation project”. At first this seems like ... a classic case of sibling rivalry where the sister pranks the brother but they change it from a prank gone wrong to an actual CGDCT story where the mc tries to become a contributing member of society.

His sister takes him to do things one step at a time that he hasn’t done in years such as going outside, making friends, going back to school, and eventually doing things by (his/her?) self. At first you might think she just wants him out of the house but you can see how much she cares by the way she cries tears of joy from even the smallest improvement in her older brothers behavior.

This anime also doesn’t just use its plot as “transgender” as a plot to get into women only areas. Mahiro is still self conscious about being a man on the inside and when his friends come over and they want to all bath together he decides to go in with his sister as he felt it would seem pedophilic otherwise. This shows that even when he is a girl on the outside, acts and dresses like a girl he still knows his boundaries and tries to avoid them.

Along with this, the art style is extremely well done. It’s rare for a slice of life to have more than just the mouths moving while talking but this show broke that barrier and dragged far past it. Their are so many cute faces you could screenshot to use as reactions/emojis as well.

The only problem with this show is how it presents itself as that seems to deter a lot of people. The opening and first few episodes paint a very different picture as they are more sexual than the rest. There were a few more questionable scenes but in all honesty they weren’t bad. Another deterrent for some is that the show has a secondary uncensored version HOWEVER this version only has a little less clouds in bathrooms and a few more scenes that they removed from the original to try to make it more appealing.

From someone one of the biggest NEETs I have ever seen to an absolute social butterfly that his friends and sister can be proud of, Onimai was an absolutely stunning presentation of rehabilitation. Onimai presents its plot, characters, ideas, and worldbuilding beautifully in something only Studio Bind could have accomplished. I truly hope this people appreciate this show instead of dropping it from the start as I don’t think I will forget about it for an extremely long time.

i clicked on this just for the cute photo but then it ended up being a bit weird in the first episode but then it turned into something really cute and adorable. it is definitely worth watching! if and only if, you are into the everyday life of girls. it has cute outfits, adorable sisters and friends it has some ecchi moments but do not expect anything lewd or even close to lewdness or anything bad, mostly just stuff that you would know if your a girl is shown as the MC gender bends and learns it all from his little sister which now is ... taller then the MC

Easily the best anime ever made, and the best anime that will ever be made. If you didn't watch it just drop averything you're doing and go watch it immediately.

Just throw away every anime up to this point cause they won't be able to make them the same way anymore, Onimai just introduced a whole new way to make art.
The generations to come will talk about the wonderful day in which this masterpiece was first aired and cry because they didn't witness the majesty of it's debut.

I had to digest it for a few days after the glorious season finale before posting this review because ... it's just too advanced for the human brain, and I can finally say with certainty that it's easily the best piece of art humanity has ever put out.

Great plot, beautiful and deep characters, gut wrenching drama, great conedy, exquisite animation and GOD tier ecchi. There is literally no reason not to watch this absolute masterpiece.

This show is very hard for me to recommend in good conscious to anyone. I personally LOVE this show for multiple reasons; the sweet relation between the main casts as siblings and friends is really wholesome and looking past the fan-service bits, it's just a really wholesome anime all-in-all. The main premise of this show also resonates with me heavily, and I assume anyone with dysphoria would be able to resonate with the main character in some ways and maybe even live vicariously through them to some extent. Watching the main character try out cute clothing and have very visible and genuine excitement and newfound ... enjoyment in life almost made me cry multiple times. This show can very well hit you in your feels if you're the right audience for it. And as awkward as some characters and moments are, most of them are genuinely how confused little middle schoolers would act and it's adorable in the nostalgic way, if still a bit unconfutable to look at as a third party.

However, even with all that praise, there are weird fanservice moments that probably shouldn't be here considering these are middle and high school girls as the main casts. Some of these moments are just, so odd and uncomfortable in a way that isn't endearing in the slightest, just really weird. Multiple times I felt that if anyone were to come into my room during some of the scenes, my life would be over instantly. Also, it's obviously a show that by it's shear premise would be very divisive. It can be seen as one big walking trans allegory, and not everyone will like that.

All in all, I can't express how much I love this show. As for the aforementioned dysphoria, seeing someone being able to live out that dream of being the opposite gender and getting to start over is really sweet, and almost makes me a bit envious. It's heartwarming to see these characters just be nice friends and family to each other. However, if you're not in what feels like a narrow audience, this show has multiple aspects that could easily turn you off from it. This is one of the most divisive shows out there currently for multiple reason, but if the positives interests you in the slightest, there's a good chance you'll like this show. And as of the day I'm writing this (3/23/23) the last episode is airing, so hopefully with a good conclusion to send us off it can get an even higher score!

A review for people watching/planning to watch the anime and judging the manga from it:

This is Meiruko-chan all over again, they've added needless fanservice to a show that was perfectly good without it. The manga is a cute and wholesome comedy about a homebody who gets turned into a girl by his sister and has to learn a new world. It's about sibling reconnection, changing as a person, learning to accept yourself and doesn't shy away from female issues. It doesn't sexualise them or glamorise them, however it treats them with a level of comedy AND respect. The anime on the other hand turned Kaede ... into a pornstar and sexualises everyone at every opportunity. If it's not clear I have a ton of time for the manga and am so disappointed by the anime.

So why am I recommending it? Well for some it might be a gateway into the manga and that's good enough for me. I still love the characters and I'm able to look past the fanservice, plus the VA and art are both pretty damn good.

As I say, just buy the manga, especially if you like CDGCT/SoL/Comedy/Iyashikei-style stuff.

So, first of all, we have to tackle probably the biggest problem in the anime. The Fanservice. It's really noticeable and if you don't like that type of content, don't watch it, even myself I feel bad when watching it.
However, as I was told, in the manga it is much more light-hearted and wholesome. And that is for me the best part. The wholesomeness of how Mahiro reacts and adapts into a girl.
Even though that first point is a big problem, the rest of the series is good, just remember to turn off your brain or you won't be able to enjoy it.
Not much ... to add, just wanted to send the message to not make this a normal thing. I'll probably read the manga to feel better about myself.

The start of the show doesn't try to hide that they definetly have a certain target audience, but once you manage to get through the first 2 episodes the sus stuff mostly stops and under that is a really well done slice of life story exploring gender identity in a way that feels totally natural and relatable. Also, the production value is increadibly high, and shows like this that rely on the characters emotions as a narrative tool profit a LOT from expressive facial animations and beautiful artdesign. The characters are somewhat unique, somewhat clichee, but none are in any way offensive or annoying, so ... its easy to enjoy them just having fun together and vibing mostly. The character design is overall on a pretty high level, everyone is easily recognisable, even side characters. The stories are, well, its a slice-of-life story, so its nothing intense or epic, but the show still manages to pull at your heartstrings and makes you just enjoy cute girls doing cute things. Also, the japanese voice actress for Mahiro is doing a great job, with a huge range of emotions in her acting. Just skip the opening like I do, since there are a lot of... lets call it "unpleasant" shots in there.

For me if I have read the source material before watching the anime I find it hard to be able to sit down and watch the anime. It's nothing against a series just I already know what happens and unless the anime changes how it is presented I just ask myself "Is this really worth my time to watch if I know what will happen?" Thankfully for the anime of this it does enough to keep me wanting to come back even though I've already read well past where S1 will end due to the presentation of the show.

It should be noted though ... that there's 2 versions available to stream. The Crunchyroll version at least as of this review is censored and has a number of scene changes in the first two ep. They also change various lines for whatever reason in the English sub where as all the other language versions keep closer to the original JP lines. If you want the uncensored version with more accurate lines it's best to seek out the Muse Asia/Bilibili version.


Plot: MC's sister gives him something that changes him into a little girl in order to rehabilitate his Hikkimori nature. Does it really make sense to make him into a little girl? No, but who cares it's amusing. Honestly the plot is ok at best but it's the characters and the art that really drive the series in my opinion.

Characters: The series has a wide variety of characters but as of ep 3 of the anime we only know 3 of them really and even then there's a ton of fun to have just watching them. The MC trying to figure life as a girl now to include the more inconvenient things in life. MC's sister lowkey being excited to have a little sister but forgetting to point out certain things that wouldn't be common to her now little sister.

Art: Visually one of the more expressive shows this season in terms of art style which is saying something as there's a lot of great looking anime this season. The art style feels like a mix of Do it Yourself with the coloring and a more subdued reaction style but still expressive in it's own way like Bocchi.

Overall I don't think you can really go wrong with this show if you want to see silly antics in a nice presentation.

If you're not into blatant, shameless fanservice being tossed around every episode of an anime, then Onimai is for SURE not for you.

In Onimai there's literally fanservice in every crevice of the show, and it gets super uncomfortable. I was taken aback when I suddenly saw Mahiro's ass thrust into my face in the opening song when I first saw it, and the more it happened the more desensitized I got to it. There's just a bit too much fanservice, and the fact that all of the characters ESPECIALLY Mahiro look like 9 year olds doesn't really make it any better. Although, I feel like ... if you can (somehow) look past the tits and ass and strange loli bait, then Onimai is for darn sure an enjoyable series to watch.

As a girl myself, I found it so entertaining to watch Mahiro go through the woes and wonders of being one, and I found it pretty entertaining! Seeing girlhood being shown (in a pretty stereotypical way, mind you) in such a fun way was nice to watch. The whole shopping, chatting, prettying yourself up elements were so relatable to me specifically that I found it even more appealing. I feel like the majority of the reason why I think Onimai is pretty neat is because of the "girly" elements, I love girly things...

Not only that but the visuals in this anime are right up my alley, the smooth animation and bright pastel colours are just so aesthetically pleasing... It's like every scene in each episode could be used as a desktop wallpaper.

I love me a light-hearted anime that you don't need to think too hard about to watch, and Onimai is just a big goop of anime girls and pretty colours that I can just consume through my eyes without any second thought... minus the fanservice, which I always find myself raising an eyebrow at. Not a big fan of it.

Also the ending and opening songs are bangers. Pretty cool!