Saikin, Imouto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashiinda ga comes in a season without any blow-me-away hypetrain anime to compete with, an as such many people may be considering whether to give it a go while they wait for the blockbuster mega-hype that is the spring 2014 season. Don't do it.
Story:
The premise is neither particularly good nor particularly awful compared to other pieces in the ecchi genre; our dense protagonist gets a new sister, who is then possessed by a girl who claims to have known Yuuya before she passed away, and who is in love with him. If this leaves you at all curious,
...
feel free to watch the pilot and judge it for yourself.
What is particularly bad though, is the execution. Many anime have that one 'dissapointing' episode. you know the one. You're having fun, having a bit of a laugh, or there's some tense episode going on, and then BAM out of nowhere its a filler episode that leaves you wondering why they didn't just put it in an OVA and not break up the pacing. Saikin is full of these episodes.
Plot threads begin, and then are soon dropped, characters have some confrontation or realisation, and then pursuing it is brushed aside in lieu of a pool/hot spring/beach episode. This may not put off the diehard ecchi fans though, and knocking a show like this for its story alone would be pretty ridiculous.
Characters:
Many anime take on too large a cast and then have trouble fleshing out the characters at all. Saikin has a relatively small cast, and still many of the characters say one type of thing the entire show. Shoutarou's involvment in the show consists of him being the pervy best friend (how original) and almost every single line (he has a few too) is something along the lines of "that is/isn't what a real little sister is". His actual sister is no better.
Moa's only contribution is to go on and on about how shitty her brother is which, while not necessarily untrue, is incredibly unwarranted to the extent that it goes on.
And then there's Neko. Is she a mastermind? God? An annoying stereotype? We will never know, but most of her time is spent wearing glasses, reading a book, and seeming to know more than the others think she does. What respectful character design. At this point I'm inclined to think that project 9 is just giving us a straight middle finger.
The 3/4 main characters (depending if you count Yukina) are mostly just blatant stereotypes. There isn't really a need to discuss the bad things about them, so I'll focus on the few small good things. There are a few somewhat genuine moments between Yuuya and Mitsuki which show a developing relationship (not the sexual kind), and Yuuya's ability to remain proactive in the way he goes about living with Mitsuki is if nothing respectable. Hiyori and Mitsuki have some amusing moments of back and forth and there personalities at least seem like an appropriate choice for this sort of anime. Again, where it all falls apart is execution.
Sound:
As someone who has studied music all my life, the OP of this anime made me laugh. There are bad openings, there are good openings. That is just a matter of taste. But this is just lazy. OST is whatever, I don't feel like any music in this show is worth writing about.
Art:
I reaaaaallly don't like the style here, but it is entirely a matter of preference. To me the characters seem wonky in a way, and I often thought that the artist was having trouble actually displaying emotions in the characters.
The one thing i can warn about though is censorship. Seeing as this show sells itself as ecchi, there is a lot of censorship. Giant clip art style blocks to prevent you seeing panties, cutting out implied yuri scenes while describing them in text boxes (wtf?), this certainyl isn't DxD.
Conclusion:
This show is a failure not because it is an ecchi, not because the story is boring, not because the characters are bland and not because the art and music leave something to be desired. It is a failure because it can't execute anything properly. Is it an ecchi? If so then why does it cut almost all ecchi moments out after the first few episodes? Is it a rom com? If so then why is there so little meaningful character development, and why does this seem secondary to going to the pool or whatever other typical thing can be put in there?
If you are a diehard ecchi fan, who is a complete siscon, then maybe you should watch this show. if you are interested in the genre, then go watch Oreimo if you hate ecchi or KissXsis if you don't. There are simply better series out there if this is what you wan't.
I hope i can save at least a few people a little time.
Mar 24, 2014
Saikin, Imouto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashiinda ga comes in a season without any blow-me-away hypetrain anime to compete with, an as such many people may be considering whether to give it a go while they wait for the blockbuster mega-hype that is the spring 2014 season. Don't do it.
Story: The premise is neither particularly good nor particularly awful compared to other pieces in the ecchi genre; our dense protagonist gets a new sister, who is then possessed by a girl who claims to have known Yuuya before she passed away, and who is in love with him. If this leaves you at all curious, ... |