Not much stands out between Yosuga no Sora and every other romance anime, except for the fact that this one boasts a surprisingly potent amount (see what I did there?) of ecchi –almost borderline hentai—and also some incest. Much like the other popular romance anime of this year, Amagami SS, with which it shares quite a few similarities, Yosuga no Sora is separated into several story arcs, each arc following a different path as Haruka gets involved with the female characters of the show.
The narrative in Yosuga no Sora is not as linear as it appears to be at first. As a testament to this are the various story arcs that are unbalanced in length, with some taking more than others to conclude a path in the story. Furthermore, some episodes don’t belong to any arc whatsoever and are only there to serve as a build-up for the things to come. An example of this are the first two episodes, with the first one containing mostly exposition and an introduction to the story, while the second one sets things up for two story arcs that follow after it. Don’t bother overanalyzing this anime’s structure, for it will only lead to confusion and possibly even degrade your impression of it.
At its core, Yosuga no Sora feels like a harem anime, with Haruka being the ‘prince charming’ and almost every girl he meets of his age falls for him, sooner or later (usually instantly). However, the story arcs that go on to develop each character make the anime feel special in its own way, and even though some of them aren’t as interesting as others, they still are worth sitting through just to see how it plays out.
Nudity is not uncommon in Yosuga no Sora, so be prepared for some graphic sex scenes and other stuff. What makes this anime the most controversial, however, is the incest relationship between Haruka and his sister Sora, which makes for a good amount of graphic scenes in the last story arc. If this does not sound like your cup of tea, then I suggest you skip it, for it is pretty much exactly as it sounds.
As I said before, some story arcs are more interesting than others, which leads to an unfortunate imbalance that may turn some viewers off. I’ll say a couple of words about each arc in particular without trying to spoil too much, just so you know what you’re getting into. From the anime’s opening credits, one can deduce that Yosuga no Sora deals with six different girls, though that is not entirely true.
There are two girls that don’t have their own arcs (although some extra content may be included in the DVDs/Blu-rays): Motoka Nogisaka, who plays a maiden, gets most of her screen time after every episode ends in a series of mini-events that portray her growing relationship with main character Haruka, so it could be argued that she does have her own story arc in an unconventional manner. The second one is Kozue Kuranaga, chairman of the Student Body. In the first episodes, it seems that she will play a role similar in size to the other girls and she will probably get her own story arc, but that never happened and she was pretty much ignored in the story until the final episodes, where she started playing a bigger role again. It is likely that Kozue will get her own story arc in the DVDs and/or Blu-rays.
The first half of Yosuga no Sora deals with two girls, Kazuha Migiwa and Akira Amatsume, who are quite close to each other and it is left for Haruka to discover the truth about their relationship as he gets to know each of them more and more. While Kazuha comes from a very wealthy family and is surprisingly mature for her age, Akira is exactly her opposite, being more of an immature and energetic nature. She’s also a shrine maiden in the village and lives in a small shrine near the mountains. My reaction to both Kazuha’s and Akira’s story arcs was relatively lukewarm. On the one hand, I found the story revolving around them to be somewhat interesting, but ultimately it seemed to underdeveloped for me to enjoy it. Furthermore, their romantic relationship with Haruka felt mostly rushed and unnatural, especially Akira’s.
The latter half of the anime is dedicated to Nao Yorihime and Haruka’s twin sister, Sora. First I’ll start with Nao, who is a childhood friend of Haruka and their relationship seems to go back a long time ago. My only gripe with Nao’s story arc is that it does not allow the viewer to learn more about her character and her past and instead focuses for the most part on her and Haruka trying to make Sora accept the relationship between them. Plus, Nao played quite a significant role in Sora’s story arc as well, which led some viewers to dislike the character completely because of her coming in between Haruka and his sister.
Last but most certainly not least, the story concludes with Sora Kasugano’s story arc, which is one episode longer than the rest (or so it appeared to me). Despite the controversy regarding the incest, I found this arc to be the most enjoyable and interesting, with the relationship between Haruka and Sora developing in a smooth manner. The feelings for each other are also not unfounded, but rather genuine and collected. The ending wasn’t exactly a happy one, but it did not feel depressing either. The arc, along with the anime, was concluded in a satisfying manner and it was definitely a step up from the way that it started.
Yosuga no Sora did not turn out the way some may have wanted it to, and I cannot help but feel that if it had pursued a single narrative line that focused more on the relationship between Haruka and Sora, it would have been much better. As it is now, Yosuga no Sora is not too different from the typical harem romance anime, though it is still worth a watch, especially for the last story arc, which was really special and definitely stood out from the rest. It’s also quite an enjoyable and entertaining anime, so there’s really not much to lose. For those of you who decide to give Yosuga no Sora a watch, be prepared to see some skin, for gratuitous nudity is not a stranger in this anime.
