Perhaps it is Koi Kaze's brutal honesty on the subject matter that it explores that makes this a truly distinguishable feature from any other show that has dealt with incest in the past. Not limited to the general fetish-pandering occupation of incest related series in anime and manga. It is also hard to find any movie or any other series that deals with the subject of incest as profoundly and maturely as Koi Kaze anywhere else in the world.
I imagine it would be very difficult for many people to take a relationship between a 15 year old girl and 27 year old man seriously. With that in mind, as I am writing this review. I am heavily reminded of a strange case that occurred in the US in 2012 where a 32 year old man was having a consensual incestuous relationship with his 18 year old daughter. The documented evidence of the case showed that the circumstances in that relationship were almost exactly the same as the situation that Koi Kaze envisions.
Koi Kaze's plausibility is an interesting topic to research. Many family, sociological and (occasionally) anthropological studies have identified many possibilities in as to why an incestuous relationship would develop, asking why such a thing would happen? and the reasons for it? I wish to make mention of an interesting article that I stumbled across that was written by L.S. Penton-Voak, who along with others, carried out a computational analysis that found almost every couple that they interviewed and analysed, had faces that were allegedly similar to one another. I mention this because siblings being attractive to one another may not seem to be so far-fetched an idea when you take into consideration that they are made of the same genetic make-up and will thus likely have many similar facial structures, tones and other features.
At a deeper and more important level is a phenomenon cited by Edvard Westermarck, called the Westermarck effect that states that an incestuous relationship is more likely to develop if the elder of the family member involved in the relationship does not recall living through the younger individuals developmental stages of childhood and adolescence and vice versa. These theories of Genetic Sexual Attraction carry a lot of weight on Koi Kaze's content and makes its realism far more possible if I were to compare the show to a real life scenario (as mentioned in the case above).
Incest is mostly illegal due to the associated genetic deficiency's that occur through incestuous reproduction. Thus becoming an argument based on the human rights of the child. This is another sociological perspective that I wish to explore because Koi Kaze looks at the relationship without the idea of an offspring becoming involved and wishes to emphasize the emotional tension that develops between the characters, it is interesting in how I would judge this scenario. Would I consider the relationship acceptable if a child were to come into the midst or not? Like every other aspect of this series, it doesn't make a judgement but merely observes.
I mention all of these points as I believe it builds a crucial context for the series. I am encouraging a look into the greater aspects that this series is earnestly but subtly conveying.
Koi Kaze develops the relationship between the couple taking particular time and effort on emphasizing the gradual isolation that Koshiro and Nanako receive in the eyes of the greater community. Whilst making time to recognize the characters turmoils from accepting and carrying out such a harsh and difficult decision. The constant threat of society looming, only serves to ostracize them even further. I imagine that this would be exactly what would happen if an incestuous relationship were to be discovered in my home country. The general consensus would be that any "reasonable" adult would think poorly of the situation. It is these details, that make Koi Kaze's story almost genius, it begs to subtly question every little detail that I would usually consider to be wrong and turns it on its head.
Inspite of this praise, Koi Kaze is not as perfect as I would hope for it to be. As you can probably tell with my score. There are a couple, if not a few downsides to the story that make it very difficult for me to give it a 10/10.
Before I go into actual criticisms, one thing that I did want to criticize Koi Kaze for was its romantic nature, but after much pondering, I found myself disregarding this criticism. I asked myself. Why is this? Koi Kaze wants us to observe the situation at hand from its characters. Speaking realistically, romance is something that I would want to experience in a relationship as well. I think it would be kind of rude for a person to step in and say that a romantic atmosphere is not allowed in any relationship that I may have. Koi Kaze in doing this displays that it is treating its topic maturely and taking itself very seriously and not trying to be a social dictator on the themes that it explores.
With that out of the way, onto criticisms. The first thing I want to point out is that there is this one particular guy in the supporting cast who I just WANT TO KILL, and I regret to say that for a few instances he made me question the shows intentions. Mostly due to the questionable conversations and topics that he brought up without hesitation. However, after finishing the series, most of my suspicions for that particular character are somewhat vented towards an ill-gotten attempt at humor because at one point in the series he only receives the lime-light and never becomes the center of attention again. This might be more of an insight into cultural differences between my home country and Japan, so I will only let it pass, just barely though. However, in saying that, the character still contributes to the thematic concerns the story envelopes. Most particularly highlighting the type of attention that those kind of people get in the face of society.
I'd hate to broken record here, but one thing that seems to bother me is some of the cliche situations. Seriously how often have we seen a romantic scene take place on a ferris-wheel? I don't want to say this, because from a personal perspective the scene in question (along with some other scenes) was very powerful and well-done, but I just couldn't help be reminded of the many times that it has been used before.
However, in spite of saying this, I found that these moments are easily ignored because the series puts so much time and effort into making each of these moments as effective and memorable as possible which is more than I can say for many other shows that do the same. Thus fortunately not decreasing the score by much in my book.
Another downside to the story is arguably in the way that it ends. Whilst I for one had no major problems with the series ending, I still found myself saying. It can still do more. The story could have gone further into the future turmoils or even the future beauties that the couple will possibly experience. What is the future of their relationship? Whilst this outcome leaves much to speculation, it still stands that Koi Kaze adequately explores the concepts that it had originally given us.
Koi Kaze recognizes all of the aspects of its story by giving its main characters significant development. The extent to which Koi kaze achieves this is recognized on the many occasions in each and every episode where a character questions the activities of what they are partaking in: What will my family think? What will everyone else think? Should I be doing this? How will I feel afterwards? What are the consequences?
These rhetoric's constantly build upon one another, with highly appropriate timing and never going out of its way to lecture the viewer. Instead it creates some of the most multi-layered characters I have ever encountered. The two leads are particularly complex, in the way that they display and handle the situation that they are dealing with. For example, the defensive barrier that Koshiro establishes; a facade so that his feelings don't hurt Nanoka, and much the same with Nanoka with some honest interaction that is neither complacent nor entirely naive.
As I mentioned in the Story section, most of the characters are put there to look at the situation from different perspectives. One character that I wanted to give particular praise to is "Chidori, Kaname". What she does is offer a confrontational perspective on the themes being explored and interestingly enough I believed that she was representative of most viewers watching. A person who, whilst having good intentions, barges into someone's life to inform them that what they are doing is wrong in the eyes of society, basically speaks for 95 per-cent of the people watching, especially those raised with Western moral incentives. It poses a question, how much do we really know about the people that are experiencing such a situation? Do we have any right to interfere?
Each and every character achieves what they set out to do (yes, even the abominable character I mentioned in the story section) and for that I can say that Koi Kaze has great three-dimensional, well written characters that are removed from the traditional character archetypes of the incestual anime sub-genre.
Much of Koi Kaze's art correlates perfectly with the serious tones imbued within the story. The entire show is drawn on a very subdued pallet which makes the series very easy to look at; it isn't intense nor is it dramatic and I must say this was the almost perfect blend.
The character designs are interesting in where they look absolutely natural. Unlike many other series out there including the many series that don't follow the mainstream, Koi Kaze still stands out. The designs particularly for the male lead are more representative of an average person you would walk past in the street. Giving more credit to Koi Kaze's intentions as a realistic series. Even the main female lead, I would say is perfectly comparable to someone I would consider her age. This, whilst being a bold move is essentially putting the cream on the cake. It works together with the series and blends in perfectly with the soft, non-tenuous backgrounds of the series.
However, one thing that bothers me big time with the art is simply the white mouths of every character. Seriously they are the biggest eye-sore. How hard is it to draw the insides of a mouth? Come on. Other than that minor complaint, the art overall captures the emotional intensity that the series is conveying exceptionally well and any other style of art would probably have carried many negative connotations in the face of the thematic concerns that the series is dealing with.
The sound runs parallel to the other technical aspects of Koi Kaze; in fact, it is actually surprising how well the technical aspects of this series meld together. Much of the OST consists or original tracks that are a dual mix of mellow and soft beautiful sounds. Most of the music is composed through a small assortment of wind, and string instruments and the occasional piano piece. This collection of tracks make a terrific soundtrack that is somewhat memorable and is very nice to listen to, within the context of the show and outside the context as well.
A particular track that I wish to mention is Masanori Takumi's "Main Theme". Whilst it isn't what I would call the best soundtrack of the OST, it certainly stands out when I take into consideration in how appropriately it was used in the series. I thought every scene that used that particular soundtrack was perplexing and the track used only served to drive the potency and overall impact of the scenes.
As for the entertainment factor. Koi Kaze doesn't have anything going for it in the excitement department because at it's core it is a slice-of-life series and observing the every-day actions of a persons lifestyle is certainly not everyone's cup of tea. However whilst Koi Kaze's goal doesn't appear to be stimulation with special effects or hyper-realistic excitement, it needs to be genuinely noted that there were many moments in Koi Kaze that were highly engaging, encouraged a level of sympathy and empathy that weren't forced but bloomed with the phenomenal writing that the series offers.
I think that a well developed drama insights that the characters and their actions, development and their surroundings all meld together to lead to a conclusion that is inevitable and Koi Kaze does this extremely well. The direction that it takes whilst being highly questionable on the surface, quickly builds into a multi-layered that story that builds an insight into the turmoils of the two main character's, and the tension was so strong at times that I couldn't help be pushed to tears in disbelief at how society can be so unintentionally cruel. And as much as I am a sucker for a good drama and a show that deals with unorthodox relationships, Koi Kaze was the cream of the crop of its genre.
I believe that what makes Koi Kaze work as a series is its overall tone and its achievement of keeping the themes that it explores constantly in the grey. From a personal perspective, the fact that it managed to completely challenge everything that I had originally thought of the topic of incest makes this an experience unlike anything that I have encountered. It is intriguing, intelligent, mature and very risky.
As for recommending the series. Well, naturally, the adult themes in this show will make it a turn-off for most potential viewers but for anyone interested in seeing a well-written story about forbidden love. From my perspective at least, Koi Kaze is probably one of the best achievements in any medium.
Story 9/10
Characters 9/10
Art 8/10
Sound 9/10
Enjoyment 9/10
Overall 9/10
