I watched the show then read the visual novel so I’ll include some comparison in here for those who are interested.
Premise:
Boy and girl twins, Haruka and Sora; their parents died. They move into their gandpa’s house in the countryside(granpa is dead). They used to visit Granpa a lot. Lots of girls in this town like Haruka because he is pretty. Omnibus romance ensues. Haruka and Sora try to keep a tight lid on what’s going on between them, but the opening kinda gives it away.
Characters:
Akira is an energetic and really nice and sociable shrine maiden with family issues, which she is an orphan so… In the visual novel she’s a much bigger presence to be honest. No matter which route you take, she strongly empathizes with all the characters and tries to help them no matter what they’re going through. Here, she's... energetic and nice and has family issues. She also has giant boobs in this. Boobs generally are a lot bigger in the anime.
Kazuha is rich and pretty. And she plays the violin. I guess she’s nice.
Nao, I think, actually calls herself Haruka’s big sister from time to time. She’s really just his childhood friend. She’s supportive and relatively mature. And when her arc comes around, I admire her. She has a boyfriend who is deeply obsessed with his twin sister, and Nao is just like, “Well, I knew what I was getting myself into.” It’s not that she’s doesn’t have a problem with it, but she’s known Haru and Sora for so long she’s on their side no matter what. Though Sora utterly hates her guts.
Haruka, in the anime, is a fairly normal pretty boy aside from his relationship with his twin sister. The visual novel focused a lot more on Haru simply trying to learn to live on his own with Sora, sort out their household, and integrate both himself and Sora into this town. The anime focuses a lot more on the romances which leaves Haru with not much character development and not much to do aside from tending on his girlfriend of the week. I think Sora’s arc works much better because dealing with her brings out a lot more of Haru's past. Also, how a man deals with his incestuous desires is really a test of character.
Knowing Haru as I do from the VN, he’s really just as messed up by his parents' deaths as Sora is, but he feels like he needs to keep it together for Sora’s sake. In the anime they make it seem as if he enjoys Sora’s relying in him, but in the VN we see that after the funeral, Sora kinda freaked out and put everything on his shoulders. He didn’t have much of a choice, and he’s really not sure what he’s doing trying to run a household. Deep down, he wants someone else to make these decisions or at least show him what to do and he resents Sora always putting everything on him while she tales it easy. Well, we don’t get too much of that in the anime, but we do get to see him nearly lose his mind and cry big hot man-tears over Sora, which is about as good.
Sora is quiet, reclusive, haughty, and dismissive. The only person she ever listens to even sometimes is her brother Haru. She spent half her life in a hospital and Haru was the only person who visited her on a regular basis. She’s developed a strong attachment to Haru , though she normally never leaves her room. She’s gotten very used to sitting alone in her bed and surfing the internet. I lover her line when Haru tells her he’s not sure they can get internet and she says, “I cannot live without it.”
For me, Sora is the one who makes this anime. I even like her better here than in the visual novel. The little scenes where she mocks the other girls behind their backs, the little fantasies of hers we see every so often; it adds something to her character that really wasn’t in the visual novel. Honestly, in the VN I couldn’t tell if she was really in love with Haru or just insanely jealous of Nao. She actually comes off a little more mature and, well, sane in this version. Her voice, here, is also a slightly lower register and doesn’t sound so ridiculously cutesy. That helps.
Conclusion/Opinion:
Honestly, I enjoy this anime a lot more than I should. I do so by ignoring episodes 4-9 and focusing on the relationship between Haru and Sora. Other people seem to think the Kazuha, Akira, and Nao romances are worthwhile, and you might like them. Plotwise, however, they are pretty thin. The show tries to involve us by giving the girls back stories, but the conflict involved is a pale shadow compared to what’s going on between Haru and Sora in the first episode. This was not a good candidate for the omnibus romance structure.
As I said before, Haru is mostly characterized in the VN by his attempts to manage his household and deal with Sora. The anime doesn’t have time for household details because they need to make room for four different romance stories, and his romantic interests don’t really tell us much about Haru. This makes it hard to care about Haru’s relationships since we don’t really know much about him.
I think they would have done better to give this a merged structure like the Kanon and Clannad animes. We could even have kept some of the sex scenes too. All we’d have to do is say Haru is one pretty son of a gun and he needs to distract himself from his sister by involving himself in the problems of all these other girls. I mean that’s basically what they did with Nao in the final arc anyway.
What I really like here are the parts dealing with Haru and Sora’s relationship. I love this one scene in the first episode where Haru and Sora are sitting across the table from eachother and we see an imaginary scene of Haru walking over an kissing his sister. But who imagined it? I’ve seen people argue it both ways and honestly, I don’t see why both of them shouldn’t be imagining it. Its definitely on both their minds.
I love the tension which arises from seeing that Haru and Sora are clearly obsessed with eachother from the beginning but that they keep a very tight lid on it. I remember when this first came out, someone stated just how smart it was to make it clear from the beginning that there would be sex in this anime. This allows the first episode to clearly pose the question, “Are these two going to have sex?” without there necessarily being a clear answer. Though the Omnibus romance structure kinda promises Haru’s gonna have sex with everybody at some point, I think it was a smart move to put the Sora arc at the end to give time for the tension to rise. It would have been even smarter if the structure were merged but oh well.
I particularly love Haru’s decent into insanity. I’ve gone insane before and, yeah, this is pretty much what it’s like. Zegapain kinda has a similar thing but it’s a little more drawn out here. And I should let you know, this part isn’t in the VN, it just wouldn’t work. In the VN, Haru goes crazy in other ways, becoming as detached with reality as Sora is. But here, we get to see Haru’s face as he cries big man-tears, and we get to see him try to make his relationship with Nao work out. We get to see him desperately reach out for help and get rejected. That’s some powerful cinema.
Other nice bits include seeing Haru and Sora constantly texting eachother on their smart phones. That was a lot of fun to see in action. The scenery, which is based on an actual small town in the Japanese countryside, is also very different from the VN. Its not really better or worse. I like the character designs better in the VN, where the art in general has a much softer feel and uses less vivid colors so that everything looks a little faded. But the vivid colors of the anime work much better for the environment.
I also love how Kozue gets a name in this. In the VN even her dialogue box is labeled “Class Prez”. She’s not really any more important here but I like how she freaks out and gets all judgmental at the end. Everyone is way too okay with all this in the VN, but Kozue in the anime knows how to lay on the guilt and social rejection like a boss. I used to hate her in this anime. Reading the VN made me realize just how much she adds to the story. Incest without guilt really is like sausages without mustard.
Lastly, I love how Haru is voicedby the same guy who did Katsuragi Keima in TWGOK and Kamina Ayato in RahXephon. Shimono Hiro is just awesome at screaming like a madman. Plus now I can imagine this show is really about Kami-niisama playing through the VN.
I rate this as a 7 because fully half of the show is not worth rewatching. The art isn’t too remarkable and the music while appropriate can get a little cliché. The plot isn’t exactly Count of Monte Cristo genius, but is succeeds in raising the tension and bringing out some of the characters. I thoroughly however enjoy rewatching the final arc and the first few episodes. I recommend it to anyone who can put up with incest and the omnibus structure.
