Eromanga Sensei made the brother/sister complex romance type stuff gain some more popularity, especially when it came to memes, I thought it was awful. So going into this anime I was a little sceptical and was expecting the same kind of treatment, but to my delight it surprised me hugely and is definitely one of the funniest anime's I've experienced in a good while.
Story (9/10)
The story focuses on Itsuki Hashima, a growing Light Novelist, who has an obsession for little sisters and puts them into his stories.
That's pretty much the gist of the story, mainly because there isn't much of a story here. Instead it's more of a character driven story, where it relies more on the chemistry between the characters instead of like a big end goal you usually see.
It still shows what the life of a light novelist is like, much like in Eromanga Sensei. However that is just an example of what it's like starting out as a light novelist, whereas here we see it in much greater detail as Itsuki struggles to keep up with deadlines and trying to make sure his stories are at their finest quality. Itsuki and his friends often travel to places to think up of ideas for their stories and even shows how manga artists operate too.
Compared to Eromanga Sensei, this anime goes into much deeper aspects of the life of Light Novelists and other various stuff linked to it, like anime and manga.
The meat of the show though, is the characters themselves. I absolutely love the amount of chemistry the characters had and made each episode so much fun to watch. They usually had meetups, parties or played games from time to time and these instances were really great, it was really funny how quickly all of the conversations and games got out of hand making for some spectacular moments of hilariousness.
There was also a some what deepness to the anime, the interactions between the characters as we got to know them more showed a deeper meaning to their relationships and how much they mean to each other. These moments were nicely spaced inbetween the comedic stuff and gave you a reason to care for the characters.
Characters (9/10)
It has been a long while since I have seen a group of characters and enjoy every single one of them, usually there's always one character who seems bland or dislikeable. I could not find that here and I applaud the anime for managing to do this.
Itsuki is the male MC and creates light novels that always involve the main character having a little sister. The fact that for once he isn't a 15 year old sex thirsty teen felt refreshing, yeah his fetish for little sisters is pretty damn creepy, but the anime turns it into a big joke that just made me like the character more. Also despite looking like he isn't always in the best mood, he respects and enjoys the company of his friends and has brilliant banter with them. He also puts a lot of passion and determination into his stories which also has to gain some respect as well.
Nayuta Kani is the female MC and also a light novelist, she is pretty much the character who steals the show, sure all the other characters are great, but Kani is absolutely hilarious. She has an immense affection for Itsuki since his stories saved her from a deep depression and she hopes to be his girlfriend one day, luckily she doesn't force this in a stupid like most other characters I've seen do this. She also has a really lewd mouth meaning most of her sentences will always end up being something sexual and oh boy can it be pure gold, because no matter what she said it always made me laugh. She also has this funny obsession of having to touch another girls breasts just to help her create an image for her story, which was always funny with Miyako.
Haruto Fuwa is another male character, who is a light novelist. He and Itsuki always have a friendly competition with each other when it comes to the sales and feedback of their light novels, but they respect each other in the area they work in. Fuwa is a pretty cool dude and you tend to feel sorry for him when his work becomes a poorly made anime, he usually gets through the hard times thanks to his friends and sometimes even gains determination from the way Itsuki does his work.
Miyako Shirakawa isn't a light novelist and used to be Itsuki's friend in college before he dropped out, she tends to be the one who doesn't know as much stuff when it comes to the industry her friends work in and wishes she could understand it better with how much they talk about it and love doing what they do. You also tend to feel a little sorry for her innocent nature as she tends to get caught up in pretty funny situations with Kani that end up with her being nude.
Chihiro Hashima is Itsuki's step-brother, well in Itsuki's eyes she is since Chihiro is actually his step-sister. She tends to look after Itsuki when the going gets tough and makes him meals and does chores around the room when he doesn't have time to do it. She's a pretty strong and capable character, despite ending up in a few funny situations with Itsuki's friends and associates.
Art (8/10)
Even though the artstyle isn't really amazing, there is still something there. The characters did have a familiar look to Tsurezure Children with the sorta play doh look except it wasn't as strong here, although it made the female characters a lot cuter despite them being 18 and older.
I did like the different locations the characters went to for their story ideas, so the anime wasn't limited to one area and some of the stuff to represent manga and light novel drawings were pretty damn good replications, kinda inceptiony really.
I also liked some of the other stuff like that one episode where they tried to play out a fantasy game, that felt pretty interesting with the designs as well.
Sound (7/10)
The sound is admittedly the weakest section of the anime. The op was alright, but didn't grow on me much by the end.
The ed however was actually sweet and had a nice soft beat to it that always felt relaxing to hear at the end of an episode, but there was a particular section of the soundtrack for the ed that sounded a little like The Devil is a Part Timer ed.
The soundtrack is also pretty forgettable.
Extras:
Even though there is quite a good amount of ecchi, it is nicely used as a tool for the shows comedic elements and the both of them work incredibly well together, which surprised me. Usually whenever anime's try to combine these two things like most Harems it kinda falls flat and ends up being more cringy than funny, here they are used at specific moments and boy are some of these moments absolutely fantastic, my favourite being the encounter between Chihiro and Ena, where Ena wanted to sketch Chihiro's ass and the way it was done was friggin hilarious.
There is a romance element here too, this subtlety grows over the course of the show especially between Itsuki and Kani who become two really lovable characters by the end and actually seem like they have a chance of ending up together.
Enjoyment (9/10)
This is probably one of the funniest if not the funniest anime I saw from 2017.
Overall (9/10)
Overall this is definitely an anime that thinks you're in for more of the stupid brother/sister complex crap, especially with the opening sequence. Instead it uses that stuff as parody material and uses it to great effect, this definitely feels like an underrated gem.
