Early on when watching the series I shortly checked out the reviews this mad on MAL and while I could understand why the subject matter of even an established adult mind in a child’s body with a bunch of fanservice would turn a lot of people away I didn’t really care myself enjoying the high production quality as well as the more positive story beats of the show like rekindling of the sibling relationship Mahiro and Mihari once had. After episode 6 I just couldn’t enjoy the show like I used to when the fanservice aspect of the show was cramped up to a level
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where it actively made me uncomfortable and had me praying that the consequent episodes wouldn’t ruin themselves with more of the same which had ruined the show from me in the first place. Why did the episode cause such a huge change in how I viewed the whole show? Well, let me explain. This review does contain some spoilers that I use as examples but honestly I don’t think the story this far has too much to spoil and I’ll try to remain someone light on the spoiler side.
Part 1: The morals of the show
While I usually wouldn’t think too much about the morals of an animated show I do think there is a line and one needs to be established when talking about this one in particular. As far as my own opinion of lolis goes in anime, I don’t think fanservice with them is such a huge deal as everyone makes it out to be under certain conditions. As long as the character with such a body is established to be an adult and even more importantly acts like one to at least some extent I have no trouble of just immersing myself in the show and taking it as a creative freedom as animation as a medium can bring us a lot of things other medium possibly couldn’t, one example being all kinds of character designs. There is a discussion to be had, I admit when it comes to the effect content like this can have on some mentally sick people but as I don’t think it can truly be eradicated I assume that most people have no particular trouble distinguishing fiction from reality as long as it just comes to the body type of a character. As said previously when it comes to the maturity of how the character acts I think that’s a line we shouldn’t cross and it can get incredibly creepy and uncomfortable if we do. While the early episodes had only Mahiro with whom even with the large amount of fanservice I had no particular problem with in terms of morals as he (she?, idk he seems to think of himself as a guy so I’ll go with that) has been established to be an adult. The only issue was with the fanservice clashing a bad with otherwise fluffy tone of the anime but it really wasn’t too big of a deal. The show, while it could’ve done a better job was still fine despite that, even extremely enjoyable as I saw it back then. Too bad that midway through the run it decided to throw all that out the window and show as a bunch of fanservice with characters clearly established to middle schoolers for fucks sakes. I don’t think I need to explain to anyone sane why that was an absolute blunder.
Part 2: The fanservice
I don’t even know where to begin as we truly got at all. Middle schooler dressing room scene, some very young boys trying to boy some porn from a neighborhood manga shop, characters peeing themselves multiple times, middle schoolers bathing, drunk highschooler forcing herself on her friend and while it wasn’t even close to the show’s greatest crime, even my dear Kaede just fondling Mahiro’s breasts and giving her a massage, while not fully shown done to Mahiro, was definitely implied to be questionable while we as the viewers know that Mahiro is an adult, Kaede doesn’t giving her little to no excuses. While there was the slither of tact of Mahiro not bathing with the middle schoolers the whole scene should’ve been deleted and considering the dressing room scene was a thing both Mahiro and her sister should have the common sense that one cannot simply throw someone with the mind of a guy in his twenties to a dressing room full of middle school girls. Either one of those characters really should’ve realized how damn creepy it was. Momiji, Mahiro’s classmate in middle school is also yuri-baited a lot when it comes to the relationship between her and Mahiro. In a show with less fanservice this could’ve been cute or at least ignorable. Here it just adds another layer of slight discomfort on top of everything I mentioned before. The people making this really could’ve used someone from outside who limited their “creative freedom” when it came to all these scenes. All this removes all the potential fluff the show had and more often than not just leaves the viewer afraid of what kind of horrible sight the next batch of fanservice will be. Probably only positive when it comes to fanservice that Mahiro isn’t implied to be attracted to the children in the slightest which does save his character at least.
Well, now that the main issue with the show is more or less out of the way let's get into the rest of the aspects.
Art and animation: 10/10
This was made by the same studio that did Mushoku Tensei and it shows. The animation is top tier, the movement is a treat to look at and the characters are incredibly expressive, the pastel color palette works really well with the show’s artstyle and is lovely to look at, the characters are cute and recogniseable and the artstyle feels unique. While not my absolute favorite in this department the show still is extremely competently made no doubt.
Music and voice actors: 9/10
All voice actors do a great job during the show and the performances feel appropriate and fit the characters. I especially like the work Mihari’s VA does during the show. The opening is fun and lively and fits the early atmosphere of the show nicely. In terms of production this show was made to succeed and it’s incredibly pleasant both to look at and to listen to.
Story (I’ll focus on the core premise and plot points instead of the fanservice for now): 7.5/10
The start of the show with the protagonist suddenly waking up as a girl is quite priceless and while it does seem like more of a gimmick than anything else I do find it fun and I think it does tie into some of the themes the show has whenever it isn’t too busy trying to land the production stuff as well as the viewer into jail. I’ve seen a bunch of takes on this gimmick but to me sex shift in anime and manga isn’t all that uncommon and shouldn’t be viewed as more than a gimmick to separate this one from some of the other shows out there. One point I do want to tackle here is the rhetoric that Mihari is a monster for causing Mahiro’s sex shift and forcing him to live as a girl for who knows how long. Yeah, it isn’t consented but Mahiro really doesn’t seem to be too miserable about it. Just to clarify, despite the outcome, consent is extremely important in the real world but the subject is so out there that I find it hard to take it too seriously here. I find the sex shift to be quite a fun way to explore Mahiro’s and Mihari’s sibling relationship by both the virtue of making Mahiro understand Mihari better and the sex shift being a kind of extreme change I could see being a catalyst for a change in someone’s life, even if that someone is a neet in an anime. I see the ultimate goal of the story being the rekindling of the sibling relationship here and the early episodes do a great job with this being fluffy and heartwarming with genuine progress between the two getting closer to each other. While I do think that Mahiro’s and Mihari’s dynamic alone could carry the whole show, I don't think that the early supporting cast (Kaede and Momiji) ruined it, instead they expanded on it with good characters and another sibling relationship to serve as a point of comparison. Miyo and Asahi as a part of the middle school friend group however are quite one-note and get way too much screen time for what they bring. Even without all the fanservice I do think that Mahiro going back to school is the beginning of the end, going more into cute girls doing cute things territory with some yuri-bait on the side which just isn’t nearly as interesting as the exploration of the main relationship. There are some good moments after but it just doesn’t hit the same with the school feeling like a massive downgrade. The story itself isn’t all too unique but has some really good interactions and scenes especially between Mahiro and Mihari.
Characters: 7/10
This one is a hard one to rate as some of the characters are great and some feel like they get way too much screen time for who they are so I think I’ll rate everyone individually.
Mahiro: 9/10, he is fun, really animated and I enjoy the neet side of him as well as the cute moments of him getting really into dressing up, hairstyles and such. He is also portrayed as surprisingly reliable and emotionally intelligent at times. He’s a likable person and fun to watch for me.
Mihari: 8/10, her drive to bring the brother of hers back into the world is the central focus of the story, she is the catalyst for all the events and the portrayal of her wanting to reconnect with her brother is nicely done. The moments of her and Mahiro bonding again are the most precious part of the show
Kaede and Momiji: 6,5/10 Neither is in my opinion important enough for a dedicated review as they both are somewhat one-note yet nice. Kaede is a gyaru and Momiji is a tomboy. There’s not too much more to say for who they are. Both have some pretty enjoyable scenes and Kaede is mostly the good source of fanservice the show has with a hot design and gyaru-like mannerisms which are toned down enough for her to also feel like a character, not just an object for the fanservice.
Asahi: 4/10, the energetic one of the middle schooler group, she isn’t offensively bad but also doesn’t do anything interesting and I don’t like her archetype
Miyo 1,5/10: Implied to be into voyeurism and also being an oppai loli sure isn’t a good introduction. Her character is just used for making jokes about the Mahiro x Momiji yuri bait. She has one good scene in episode 10 where she just gets to be a fan of yuri manga for a moment but then gets pulled back into being the voyeur who’s way too into trying to ship the other girls from her friend group.
The two boys in school 1/10: Can I even call these ones characters? They are just there so Mahiro can fluster about doing something outlandish and also are annoyingly horny considering how uncomfortable the show already is. Them being self conscious around Mahiro doesn’t help the feeling considering Mahiro is a damn adult.
Enjoyment: I’ll split this into two parts to do a little bit of justice to the part before all the terrible fanservice where I still loved this show. I feel like the good the story had early on does deserve some recognition even if it really fumbled the bag after. I’ve also heard that a lot of the fanservice is studio Bind’s fault so it could be that the story is better than this but I am yet to read the manga.
Pre-ep6: 9,5/10
The show feels really heartwarming and does deliver some good progress of re-establishing the lost sibling relationship. The pastel color palette and beautiful animation tie nicely into it and create a really enjoyable watch with a lot of fluff but also some story progression to keep the viewer invested with the greatest interactions between the sibling pair. The fanservice as far as Mahiro goes is already present but as I explained it earlier it didn’t really bother me besides being a little tonally inconsistent compared to the fluffy feeling the rest of the show had.
Ep6 and after: 3/10
The show still has enough moments to keep me invested enough to watch the latest episode and some of the story beats do still hit. The production quality also keeps the great quality up but this just isn’t enough when the constant thread of more really uncomfortable fanservice looms over the show and makes it a lot harder to get invested into the fluff whenever we get some. It doesn’t feel the same and misses the mark by a lot but some of it does still make me cling onto the hope that the show would get back on its feet.
I wish this show knew what worked and what didn't since for quite a bad show it does have a lot of great stuff but the fact of how it treats its fanservice just clouds over the positives I’d recommend watching the first few episodes and then probably going into the manga and see if that’s any better. If you somehow can ignore all the fanservice, lucky you. I really wish I could like this show more. Also, if someone made it down here, thanks for bothering to read this. I know I made it really long but I feel like there was a lot to say here.
Mar 11, 2023
Oniichan wa Oshimai!
(Anime)
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Early on when watching the series I shortly checked out the reviews this mad on MAL and while I could understand why the subject matter of even an established adult mind in a child’s body with a bunch of fanservice would turn a lot of people away I didn’t really care myself enjoying the high production quality as well as the more positive story beats of the show like rekindling of the sibling relationship Mahiro and Mihari once had. After episode 6 I just couldn’t enjoy the show like I used to when the fanservice aspect of the show was cramped up to a level
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Nov 4, 2021
Deep Insanity: The Lost Child
(Anime)
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Initially seeing the synopsis for the anime I was rather excited but after watching a few episodes the show seems to have none of the great qualities made in abyss (the one I kind of compared it to based of had), just a sad pit full on even sadder story building, characters etc.
The characters are bland and kind of annoying as well. You got the standard main character who wants to be a hero despite having really nothing going for him, a tsundere idol, the kuudere, some random guy side character who has no ability to feel fear and Leslie, probably the closest ... |
