Anime: Boku wa Imouto ni Koi o Suru

Overall I didn't expect much out of this OVA, I accidentely read about it and thought I should give it a try.
Because I haven't read the manga I might have enjoyed it more than those who have read the manga.

The description on the first page pretty much summarize the whole plot but in brief it's a story of a forbidden love between twins. I liked the concept of incest and the taboo love though I think that they should have had developed the whole thing a little bit more.

Animation
I would like to give it a higher rating, because I liked the backgrounds and the environment but the large amount of very awkward face expressions really bring it down. I feel like the characters face expressions were really vague at some points and the animators should have brought a little more life to the faces. The walk could also feel a little stiff sometimes.
Average for an 2005 OVA.

Sound
This would deserve a 10 but something holds me back.
The voice actors were really great, the one I didn't like that much was Iku, the first scenes were really bad, specially her laugh felt very unnatural, but she stepped it up a little towards the end though. But still she didn't really come out as alive as Yori's voice did.
The BGM deserves a A+, the lovely piano tunes fitted really well in every situation and the ending song was a nice surprise!

Story
As I said before, I like the idea of a forbidden love between brother and sister but I think they should have made it into maybe a two episode OVA to develop some things that were left behind a little.
It wasn't hard to understand what was going on in the story, everything was served maybe exept for the ending were they left the viewer to fantasize what will be the continuation.

Character
I liked the desing of the characters, they all had a a different look. Yori is that typical angsty, manly character and Iku is your typical anime girl with large sparkeling eyes but also she a bit angsty. What I would have liked to see is a better evelopement of the characters and their relationships. For example, Yori and Yano.

Value
I can definitely see myself recommend this OVA to my friends, or at least my girlfriends, since this is a cute romance story I feel it more fitting for girls. Maybe I'll even watch this again some day, and it really inspired me to write an own incest-story.
Because I'm a collector I would like to have this in my anime collection.

Enjoyment
Well, did I enjoy this? Yes, I did.
For those who easily cry and are sentimental, which I am, I can promise that your eyes will fill up with tears, specially if you like beautiful lovestories.


This is my first review and my mother tounge isn't English so please be nice ^^

It's not so bad of a OVA from the manga. It carries some (note some)feeling right, and keeps it interesting, but it's still no match for the manga. Visually speaking, the art designs matched pretty well, but the smooth lines of the original and the sometimes odd proportions in the OVA is simply insuperior. With a time limit of 40 minutes, it tried to summarize and shove 3 whole volumes in an OVA. So many scenes were cut and the director of this OVA seems to cut off the "thoughts" of Iku and Yori which I felt EXTREMELY important in the manga. If but it got extended and followed the manga extremely closely I would say this would have been so much better, but in the end, all we are left is a love story with too many holes in the plot (that were filled in the manga) and brought to an extremely abrupt end.
Hey, at least the music was good. The classical pieces fit really well with the theme of this story and I myself am gonna check if a soundtrack or OST was made.

Anime that has I (boku), sister (imouto) and love (koi) in title can have only one topic. And so it does, but actually in a very peculiar way.

Angel Sanctuary provided plot related excuse (in manga), poor but nevertheless - present. Better this than nothing. Onegai Twins decided to toy with 'possible' incest, catering to one's decency by the 'it's only possible, not sure' excuse, and Koi Kaze decided to show You what does it mean to break a taboo. Its creators put the money on emotional fallout of such deeds. And how the subject is treated here?
Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru tells its story in a way that no other anime before it did. It actually throws incest in because... because why not?

There is no actual explanation for Iori loving his sister Iku in that way. There is no actual explanation for her sudden deep feelings for him. Although here at least we are provided an excuse - he threatened her with "I'll leave for evah" banal.

Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru would be much better as an ordinary romance where two main characters should not love each other because of different social status, enmity between their families, or other disadvantages. But as it is, when it uses incest as a way to shock You and get Your attention it falls flat on its face.

I will reiterate last three paragraphs. While I believe incest to be wrong for many reasons: ethic, genetic, religious, social, psychological, etc. I do not hate it. It can be portrayed with originality, and it can be interesting, if given basis. Reason for existence. Simply throwing few quotes around, and never actually explaining why the incest in this anime occured robs it of any impact it could have had.



Animation[/b]
Decent. Movement of characters were drawn moderately well, backgrounds were standard for the time it was released. You will not find anything spectacular here though.

The sex scenes are more suggestive than exact. Do not expect nudity, or gratuitous fan-service. The art here tends to favor 'innocent' or beautiful over the erotic.

Character designs are interesting, they remind me of CLAMP's works. I could actually see that Iku and Iori were siblings. Though that did not help for romance story. I wondered why they had to make them 'not look-alike' twins and decided the answer to be 'because why not?' again.



Sound[/b]
If not for its scarcity, I would give it an eight. It is classical music used right. Violins are leading here, and the mood is set easily - violins always were romantic.

Unfortunately seiyuus of main leads have not really much to do, since their lines are rather embarrassing than challenging. I preferred to hear Modoka and Yano or parents - their seiyuus interested me more.



Story[/b]
As for one episode OVA not really much could happen here. Incest is used to generate drama, that is additionally complicated by adding love triangle. All that happens in hackneyed school settings, known so well to average anime fan that he could actually depict them even while blindfolded.

Definitely the most difficult thing about incest is to explain it. There are many reasons which cause people of different cultures to regard incest as 'bad'. It is labeled a crime for many reasons, and in many regions. Therefore, if one decides to commit it, his motivation must be spectacular, or at least compelling. And since compelling motivation for something like that is hard to come up with, usual anime-makers leave it totally mysterious, instead hinting that it was meant to happen, or that since those two were kids, they were very close. Boku wa... is no diferent.

There is no actual explanation for actions that main leads undertake, there is no reason for them to treat each other like lovers, even more, there is no reason for them to SEE each other that way. Instead of getting anxious at "will he kiss her" I was wondering "why does he see her like that", instead of falling for Iku's innocence when she thought about giving herself to Iori, I thought "doesn't she know what the word incest mean?".

No wonder it soon gets pathetic. Every time the mood somehow starts to be born, incest simply puts it out, instead of actually make viewer interested, because its superfluous and realized in a most tripe way possible.

And let us not forget about the church scene. That was for me the testimony to how bad can Boku wa... get with its 'shocking' incest and hurriedly improvised symbolism of a broken flower ring.

Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru uses incest in a very bland and boring way. It takes one cliche after another, and launches them at viewer hoping, that enough direct hits will make him 'feel' for characters, and grieve when they're suffering.

And talk about hackneyed lines! Seemingly cool quotes ("we're breaking a taboo!") are flying all over the place, unfortunately they totally miss their purpose, instead boring the viewer out of his mind.

Arguably, taking incest out, or replacing it with other circumstances that would make romance between two main leads 'impossible' (as mentioned earlier in the review) would have greatly improved the plot, allowing the viewers to concentrate on romance, that is not half bad.

Character[/b]
Father, mother and even more Modoka with her unrequited feelings were much more interesting than never explained main hero or main heroine.
Volumes can be said by that alone.

Yano with his 'don't bother me with Your stuff' attitude is the only shocking factor of "Boku wa...". I can hardly imagine taking so easy such news, yet he did just that, and thus he easily became more shocking than whole 'love story' here.

Modoka is only character I can relate to and like. Yet it's not possible for her to carry anime on her shoulders, especially after Iori and Iku get their parts.

What saddens mostly is that had this been ridden of incest related detriments, it actually could be a decent love story!

Because when I managed to look at it that way I actually started to see the romance here.
Iku is very girlish in her gradual admission of her feelings for Iori. She would have been even charming if not for him actually being her brother. Her envy, that later appears, and also the way he handles it are finely portrayed... for a lovers couple. Not siblings.

Judging characters makes one realize that incest instead of adding any value, deteriorated the otherwise decent love story.



Value[/b]
You want nudity, watch something else.
You want romance, watch something else.
You want incest... watch something else.

I do not know what You should want, to actually watch this.

Honestly, I was rather disappointed with this OVA. Mostly, as a matter of personal opinion, I didn't really like the artwork itself. Many of the physical characteristics (animation-wise) seemed disproportionate. The story, while solid, had some moments that lacked a more stable emotional background, and it was a bit too angsty for my tastes. The plot itself went rather smoothly, but I felt that I spent too much time wondering exactly what kind of relationship that Iori and Yano had - why was Iori confessing some things to him? Granted, he seemed like his best friend, and the story is really about Iori and Iku. However, if I was holding a closet incest relationship with my non-existant brother, I don't think I'd go around telling anyone, even my best friend. Maybe I've spent too much time around Angel Sanctuary, where the characters were more developed, and the movie was longer, but this one seems like a less-religiously focused, much shorter version of Angel Sanctuary. I think the thing I liked most about this OVA was the soundtrack - I'm now working on trying to find the closing theme, because it totally rocked my socks off. And, usually, I use the score as a key element in determining whether or not I like an anime. However, as nice as the theme was, and as good as the foley crew did, it just didn't make up for my lack of approval for the overall feel of this show.

When I looked at the "cover" picture, I expected a little bit more animation-wise. But, when I watched the show, I couldn't really get over the style of art - the lines and angles were soft, which was nice, and the color was good, but I'm not particularly fond of the art itself. I think that is my major problem with this show, as I've stated a couple times. I still think that it has potential, and I'd recommend it to someone who was looking for something in this genre, but I think that is as far as I would go. Yes, if they made more, I would probably download/purchase it, but only to see if there is any further story/plot/character development.

This ova is a pretty good adaptation of the first 3 volumes of the manga by the same name. I believe the art of the manga is superior but that is the case with almost all animes, so it's not really something to complain about. On the other hand, some thing that I really want to complain about are some scenes were removed from the anime that was in the manga (shower scene, the funny scene with Iku showing the love hotel attendent her student ID :D). By doing that I believe they took out some important parts of the story which could have made this OVA much more enjoyable. It was these little scenes that made the manga seem so wonderful and it's these that make the deep impressions. I hope they make a complete OVA of the manga that remains more faithful to its manga storyline.
I must add however that this is not a bad OVA at all. In fact it was very enjoyable, probably the best thing I watched this month.