The first time I heard of this novel, I thought “oh, just another one of those sis-con harem light novels that make you bleed your eyes out at the end that I got to watch.” After some blind trust in Yomi Hirasaka’s writing ability after reading Haganai, and some other people saying it was a good novel, I went and bought it thinking “fuck it, the worst I will get out of it is a haha funny novel I can rant about.” However, over time, my impression of it went from “sis-con novel” to “parody sis-con novel” to “deconstructed sis-con novel” to, by the last few novels, realizing this series really isn’t about sisters at all.

As in all the other works from Yomi Hirasaka, the beginning tosses in your face the most eccentric, seemingly unrealistic characters possible that serve as the 5 main characters: the sister-obsessed freak of a light novelist Itsuki Hashima; his perfect younger brother (?) Chihiro Hashima; a sex-obsessed, genius light novelist Nayuta Kani (who is obsessed with Itsuki); by the books light novel and board game enthusiast Haruto Fuwa, and your average college student Miyako Shirakawa. As the novel goes on, while these characters tend to do absurd and sometimes obscene things (that end up with the female character naked), and continue to meet even more eccentrics like the panty-obsessed manga artist Kaiko and the tax accountant Ashley, they grow together and slowly address the flaws and problems that they have as they figure out why on earth they are doing what they do. While sometimes their activities get out of hand, most of the time when they are just playing a game like Mafia, Life (or something like those 2), or even their tabletop RPG adventure, you can see yourself right alongside them. Over time, you watch their relationships intersect, collide, break, then recoup to return to normalcy. You see them fail and mess up, then learn and return from their mistakes, growing and maturing as they do. In essence, you watch them go through everyday life as a light novelist, an editor, a college student, a tax accountant, or whatever else they decide to do at the time. You watch them grow. And while most of this series is not completely serious, in fact, most of it is a slice-of-life comedy placed in the young adult years full of making fun of the light novel industry, the not serious part lets you become attached the characters as you watch them have fun, even if it does make things more complicated down the line.
I will never say this is the light novel for everyone, as it has many things, especially in the beginning that might turn off people, it never really steps away from ecchi comedy, and even I missed most of the jokes about the LNs. However, for those that don’t mind those aspects, and can get themselves hooked on the series even in the slightest, the latter half brings the best climaxes and endings of any series I have read. As you watch the characters finally learn, grow, and mature, see how they see their own futures past the novel and wonder if not a sister, what is it that is all you need? Finally, as the story comes to an end you realize what it is really about: finding the answer to that question, and to quote the novel, find yourself something that makes you go “This, yes this, is all you need”

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The novel starts with full blast sexual imouto energy as the main character is woken up and kissed by his naked imouto. Then after he wakes up and washes his face in her bathwater, he grabs her bra and uses it as a towel. The nonchelantness by which this is all described turn it into absurdist comedy. In particular the bra towel is very funny. It keeps getting more absurd and zany to the point where one quickly realizes this is just a story being written by the novelist main character of the story.

And indeed, the next scene shows us Itsuki, the real mc of the story, and his editor.
But the presentation of the main story itself feels very uninspired and dull. Unlike the story within the story, which starts out fun and entertaining.

The scene plays sort of plays out like a manzai routine, with the editor is doing tsukkomi (straight man) against the boke (fool) that is Itsuki's script we just read. Itsuki protests against this in a way that serves to keep the conversation going, but doesn't really have him say anything. It feels like we are basically given the template for how such a scene would typically be displayed, without any creative direction given to it. The next scene which introduces a new character is hardly any better.

Chapter 2 then starts with a couple of lines dry infodump on the furtniture in Itsuki's room. There is an accompanying map of the room as one of the insert pictures in the novel. Which suggests that this is not padding, the writer probably put some thought into the atmosphere that the characters live in. And yes, it can be nice to convey this information to the reader since it can add extra flavor to the story. But it should be done in a way that actually builds atmosphere, and not as a dry listing of items in the room.

It was very upsetting to see the funny start turn into such blandness. That is not to say that the whole story should be like the start. The start is way too zany and over the top for that. But the idea of having fun with the presentation is something that is heavily present at the start but completely missing in the scenes following it.

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