Kono Oneesan wa Fiction desu!?
Is this Girl for Real!?

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The protagonist is a 28 year old, unemployed, alcoholic hottie named Narumi Kawase. For reasons unknown (no spoilers here, you'll have to find out yourself!), she's out of a job and is now scraping by as the assistant of an established manga artist. At first glance, this manga is seemingly another take on the harem genre, especially if you consider the amount of attention the deuteragonist Jun Yoshikawa gets. However, as the series progresses, you'll see a lot of the other characters being fleshed out and having their share in the spotlight, as well as see how their personal and romantic lives advance, which is ... a great thing since this series is very character driven.

The anime is a romantic comedy, slice of life type of deal. With the latter in mind, it's important to make sure your characters are fully developed and have a sense of groundedness about them. That is what "Kono Onee-san" does very well, and it's always a pleasure (and a riot) to see them interact with each other. Whether it be supporting each other through tough times, finding the solution to their problems, and seeing the sheer chaos that erupts from their misunderstandings, I did not have one boring moment while reading this series.

The artwork is a pleasure to look at (especially Narumi), and stays consistent throughout. There are some odd looking frames with some of the guys, but they're few and far in-between.

"Kono Onee-san" is a wonderful series that intrigued me from beginning to end, and it succeeded without being over-the-top like most romantic comedy manga. The only thing keeping me from rating this an overall 8 is, like a lot of niche manga I've read recently, its ending is hastily wrapped up and doesn't leave a satisfying conclusion. The author,Tsutomu Mutsuki, has stated that he wanted to have at least twenty more chapters, but unfortunately could not reach his quota. It's a shame that has to happen to such a good series like this one.

Personally, this manga is an 8 to me, but I'd recommend it as a 7 for everybody else. Enjoy!

Story: 7
Art: 7
Character: 8
Enjoyment: 8
Overall: 7

I'm actually kind of surprised there isn't a review for this manga yet.
I'm just going to make this nice and simple, seeing as the chapters come out pretty slowly and I don't remember too much about the beginning.

Story: 9
I remember I felt as though this manga had a pretty slow start. Not much romance was happening at all. It was more like, a long stream of steady character development, but it wasn't enough to hold all of my interest.
Eventually, the romance started to sprout.
And I love the way this story goes about it.
If I could find a way to ... describe the approach to the romance of this series it'd be... mature... and delicate. It's most certainly slow. And as I always say; The slower the romance, the better! (Slow romance tends to have a lot more development and meaning to it.)
The story is about a young, I believe 15-16 year old boy and a woman in her mid-twenties, who end up living together because the woman (Narumi) is working for his mother, who is a manga artist.
Eventually throughout the story the two begin to learn more about one another, and even start to change the way they live because of it.
For example, Narumi actually starts drinking less and less throughout the series because Jun told her he doesn't want her to drink anymore.
After a while, Narumi starts to noticeably gain romantic feelings for Jun, but she's actually partially conflicted to feeling this way, due to the difference in their ages. So she keeps it to herself, only to at times show her true feelings ever so slightly in situations that call for it.
The same goes for Jun, though he's a tad more clueless about his feelings than Narumi is.

Errr, I better stop before I end up summarizing everything that has happened so far.
The story is very good and approached in a well done manner. It's one of the slower romances, which means it's one of the better kinds of romances.

Art: 7
The art isn't the greatest thing in the world, but it isn't bad either. I'd say it's straight out "good" and nothing more or less than that.

Characters: 8
Jun, the main protagonist, isn't really why I'm giving this section an 8. I'd say it mainly goes out to Narumi, and a couple of Jun's friends, because they're all simply charming. Narumi is very well developed and it is interesting to watch her struggle with her inner romantic conflicts when it comes to Jun.
Plus she wears glasses. That's a big plus.

Enjoyment: 9 and Overall: 9
Kono Onee-san wa Fiction desu!? was a bit slow at first, and I believe my first rating for it was around 7 or so. After a while, it's grown to a 9, and a strong 9 at that. I look forward to every new chapter, and pray that it isn't ending soon, seeing as it has tons of potential.

Kono Oneesan wa Fiction desu... It's a manga with great characters that started out strong, stalled for a bit, then went for a rushed and underdeveloped conclusion.



Let's start off with the one I feel most divided on - Story (beginning-middle 9/10, ending 4/10):

The story is pretty simple, it is just a slice of life with elements of harem and romance. The main character finds a passed out girl on the side of the road, gets in a ecchi situation, and learns later that she is his mother's (a mangaka) assistant. He teaches her about her job, she gets a crush on him, characters from his ... school are introduced... and that's about it for the story, with the exception of the ending.

The ending was a rushed ending, and I personally found it very unsatisfactory. Without spoiling it too much, I will say that relationships remain mostly unsolved, the canon pairing was weird, and it felt like they were trying to tie up loose ends by serving it as a sort of spaghetti.



Now for the first of the nice categories - Art (8/10):

Art was good, not exemplary, but I never looked at anything as "off", and everything looked like what it was supposed to, though I never had a "wow I love that art" moment either.

Character (9/10):

The characters were what made the story. The main character is a confident and mature high schooler, contrary to so many other harem leads. He's not boring, nor overly comedic, and he often acts as a straight man, while still maintaining his own personality. Every girl in his class likes him, whether romantically or as a friend, to the point of him getting valentines chocolate from all of them. However, he leans towards the side of being oblivious about anything love related. The attempt of the author to solve this is about 50% of my grudge towards the ending, as it was 2 chapters of character development that came out of the blue and seemed unrealistically forced.

The main girl for the majority of the story is his assistant. She is an attractive, dedicated, and intelligent young women, but she has several flaws. First, she is terrible at alcohol, and will use the main character as a pillow to sleep with if she gets drunk, and second, she often leaps to conclusions, despite there being not enough info to fully conclude that. However, she is a loveable and interesting character. She quickly gains a crush on the main character; but alas, the manga never fully goes all the way with this, another of my main faults with the ending.

The other major girls are primarily 2 of his classmates. The first is a small shy loli who also jumps to conclusions, and she had a crush on the main character since the first chapter. Unfortunately, he character remains able to be described in a single sentence for the entire manga, and is my candidate for most boring girl.

The second girl is a much more interesting character, in my opinion. She loves to tease the other girl and is generally a playful and fun character with a good sense of humor. Early on she seems to develop a crush on the main character; however, the author seems to have forgotten that, as she doesn't show much signs for the rest of the manga. Despite being an interesting and likeable girl (and personally my vote for best girl), she never gets much character development, primarily being a sidekick for the loli, and rarely getting moments for herself.

Other characters drop in from time to time, but most of them have their own relationships and are basically side stories, so the harem pretty much remains at 3 relevant characters. However, each and every one of them is an amusing and interesting character.



Now, the most important field - Enjoyment (8/10):

I would give the beginning 10/10 for good character introduction. I would give the middle 8/10 for keeping my interest. I would give the ending 2/10, for one of my least favorite endings of all time, and would recommend you stop reading as soon as you see definite pairings being established (excluding for minor characters), as it just goes downhill from there.



Overall, 7/10, a great manga ruined by a terrible ending.