This is review number one hundred and twenty seven. It’s still part of the Fall 2012 lineup. The anime I’ll be reviewing is an incest anime so that sounds fun. It’s “Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne!” or “As Long as there is Love, It doesn’t matter if He’s my Brother”. Yeah, that sounds pretty fun. It’s a twelve episode anime about bro-sis love. Oh yeah, let’s read on.

Story

This anime is about a guy named Akito Himenokouji who is an ordinary guy except he has a little sister with a massive brother complex and they live under the same roof. Oh, don’t forget the self-proclaimed snob girl, the childhood friend girl, the girl who goes both ways, and the under aged girl. Akito lives in a house with five different girls and they all like him. Harem much?

Taking the Pants Off

What can you possibly expect from an anime with the title “As Long as there is Love, It doesn’t matter if He’s my Brother”? Oh boy, an incest anime. I haven’t actually reviewed one so I guess I was pretty open to the opportunity but this anime wasn’t really that great. Since I’m one of those half glass full kind of anime blogger, I’d say the anime had all the potential in the world but it manages to f*ck itself up pretty magnificently. I’m not talking about the incest aspects of the anime though. This one is more Ecchi than anything else and all of its components were pretty good but they never made any sense as a whole. They’re all disjointed, confusing and unevenly paced but arousing all at the same time.

If you read the title then you’d expect an incest anime but if you actually sit down and watch the anime, it’s actually a Harem/Ecchi/Comedy. I wasn’t really sure what the anime wanted to be and it kind of bugged me. Do you want to be a harem anime or do you want to focus on the bro-sis complex the title actually promised? The anime couldn’t decide and this anime is actually divided into three parts. These are all different parts that by themselves could’ve worked great but together, it messed each other up.

The first obvious part of the anime is the incest aspect. It’s not really a forbidden love type of show. It’s mostly about the little girl trying to sleep with her big brother but the dude doesn’t swing that way. It’s mostly a light hearted comedy type where the girl would do crazy and stupid things only to be shot down by her brother. The incest theme isn’t used properly because a good incest anime would make you feel uncomfortable especially if you’re like me who actually have a lil sis. I’ve seen incest hentai anime and they are usually as f*cked up as a jar of sheep eyeballs. In this anime, it’s mostly comedy. You get the little sister imagining crazy things and she would often do sexually induced things with no reaction from her big brother.

The incest story had a deep background though and I believe the anime chose not to explore it. The little sister is obviously crazy going as far as proclaiming to the world that her bro complex is part of her personality and saying that there is nothing wrong with two blood related siblings to fall in love. The big brother actually have a tell himself and in the later parts of the anime, it was revealed just how f*cked up these two people are. Now that you think about it, maybe the anime chose not to dive deeper in the incest part because it was too uncomfortable. The way the anime presents it though is a bit disappointing. This could stand alone as a solid story but the anime chose to add more things to it like a harem.

This is the second part of the anime: mindless Harem/Ecchi. There are five girls in the anime that all love Akito. There are parts of the anime like a bath scene or a swimsuit scene that just embraces the anime’s perverted nature. There are some nude scenes, some girl on girl scenes, some boob grabbing and other form of perverted acts that are done in the span of twelve episodes. The interesting part in this anime is that Akito isn’t the one getting it on with the girls. The girls are touching each other and grabbing each other’s boobs and doing all sorts of crazy stuff.  I approve of this girl on girl ecchi scene but once again, this could stand alone. It doesn’t need to be paired with the incest part of the anime because five girls doing dirty things to each other is something people will watch. Trust me, you do not know how many people end up to my site after typing “insert anime title here* hentai. A full on girl on girl ecchi anime would be a hit.

The Ecchi part of the anime ranges from mild dirty things, like the girls rubbing each other with lotion, to pretty daring perverted scenes, like a pair of knockers bursting out of a bikini and slapping another girl’s face. There is also my favorite scene where a girl was walking in the grass with no undies and well, one tall grass brushed under her and it made her moan. There are also some scenes involving Akito but at most parts, it just the five girls going wild. I’m not sure myself why the anime just didn’t stick with this throughout the entire anime.

The last part of the anime, and my personal favorite, is Akito having some alone time with a girl. The setup is pretty simple. Akito is alone in a room with a girl from his harem. The characters mostly just talk but, depending on the girl, the conversation can get pretty rowdy. The conversation isn’t special either. It starts out normal and it often goes perverted or just weird as it rolls along. Akito is his typical self not being moved even when a girl say “rape me” or stuff like that. The thing I love about this part of the anime is that most girls get some good screen time in the anime and they slowly grow on you. The best part though is that some girls go out of character when they are alone in a room with Akito. For example, the kuudere of the group screaming out of embarrassment or the polite girl suddenly getting angry.

There is also an air of sophistication and some smart character development during this part of the anime. This part of the anime is not like the first two and the thing that makes this stand out is the fact that it’s very much as Ecchi as it can go but it is very dialogue heavy. I don’t see a lot of dialogue heavy Ecchi anime so it was a surprise that the anime can be so perverted without the main character grabbing some boobs or accidentally falling on top of the girl or other type of clichéd sh*t. I was also disappointed that the anime didn’t use this as the central part of story.

Here’s where the anime goes trippy. All these parts of the anime are combined into one big ball and they aren’t very cohesively joined. There is no main plot point to tie the whole anime together and the anime shifts from one part to another with no prior notice. The pacing is also uneven and the story slowly dies after three episodes but makes a comeback later on. The anime also started with an already established status quo so it was certainly a challenge following the rhythm of the anime. It was frustrating watching this anime but as a rule, if the story sucks then the characters carry the load. This anime does the same; the characters are the main selling point of the anime.

The characters in the anime aren’t that special but they were featured pretty nicely. Each character had a unique personality to them that brightens up the anime. The interaction among the characters is also the sole reason why I managed to finish the anime. At least one character will surely appeal to you but the anime was able to feature everyone pretty nicely. Akito is a different type of guy in a harem though. Most anime would feature a guy grabbing boobs and nose bleeding all over the place, Akito is the type who isn’t fazed by anything. In fact, the girls do all the teasing and the intentional panty shots and Akito just brushes them off. It’s done in a comedic fashion though which is actually pretty funny. The girls in the anime are all pretty nice. I personally love the blonde kuudere because she goes well with Akito and seeing her break out of character is pretty funny. The little sister is pretty entertaining as well because of how messed up she is.

This anime seemingly had all the elements to make a decent harem/ecchi/comedy anime but for some reason, it couldn’t. It’s sad that such great potential is wasted but there’s nothing to do but b*tch and moan. I watched for the incest but I stayed for the Ecchi and the characters so despite the lost potential, the anime still have enough positives to keep you tuning in.

Sight and Sound

The character design is one of the strongest parts of the anime. The one thing that really makes it special is the fact that almost every character is a great eye candy. They aren’t anything new but they all have individual looks to them that make me want to keep staring at them. The nice body type paired with some respectable breast sizes and some nicely featured faces really makes the anime stand out. The idea that these girls are involved in some girl on girl and ecchi scenes is the cherry on the top as well.

The animation is pretty decent. There isn’t anything worth noting except for the Ecchi which was nicely delivered. There are some censored scenes here and there but there is still enough to truly call the anime Ecchi. The nice bright colors and the simple animation was a nice combination though.

The anime’s OP is “SELF PRODUCER” by Minori Chihara. It’s a nice song and the lyrics are pretty suggestive. I think it hails the anime’s incest side but the OP sequence will have you thinking. Oh my god, the OP is messed up. Every scene is suggestive and there are a lot of sexual innuendos crammed in two minutes. There are a lot of things put in the mouth of the girls in the OP sequence and it got crazier in the end. Just watch in youtube, you’d understand once you see it. There was one scene where a girl was in between Akito’s legs and her head is going up and down. It was pretty funny.

The anime’s ED song is “Life-Ru is LOVE-Ru!!” by Ibuki Kido, Minori Chihara, Eri Kitamura and Asami Shimoda. It was sung by the girls of the anime and I love their voices. It’s a pretty generic song but it’s very catchy. The addition of the different makes the song pretty nice to the ears. The ED sequence features the girls in chibi dancing. It’s not really a dance so I don’t know what the hell they’re doing. It ends with a teacup falling on top of them.

Overall Score

7/10 “It’s good but the different parts of the anime didn’t really go well together.”

This is another anime with potential that was squandered. If you like Ecchi and Harem than you’ll enjoy the anime. There are enough elements to make this anime pretty good but certain things still doesn’t go together. Sure, why the hell not, I recommend it.