I was hoping for a romance, but instead I got a near hentai! Here’s my Recently, My Sister is Unusual Review.
Awhile back I was looking for a romance anime that would take some risks and stand out among the others. That is when I heard about “Recently, My Sister is Unusual” (最近、妹のようすがちょっとおかしいんだが。 Saikin, Imōto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashiin Da Ga). This anime released in early 2014 and is based off the manga with the same name. The manga is still running, and there was a live action movie based off the series, but there’s no news of a second anime season. With that, I binge watched all 12 episodes over two days to bring you this review!
Synopsis
The story follows a girl named Mitsuki as she moves into the home of an older boy named Yuya. Their parents recently married, making them step brother and sister. The two are forced to live in the same house, mostly alone, as their parents go overseas for work.
One day, Mitsuki runs into a dead girl / angel named Hiyori who posses her body to live out her desires. Hiyori straps a device to Mitsuki that resembles a chastity belt with a heart-shaped gauge. This gauge fills whenever Hiyori’s and Mitsuki’s desires are met. Once the gauge is completely filled, Hiyori can reach a gateway to heaven. However, if the gauge empties or becomes ill-colored, both will fall into hell.
Art Style
The art style of Recently, My Sister is Unusual isn’t anything spectacular. You won’t see overly cartoonish colors and massive eyes, but you won’t see realistic features or natural shadows either. It’s all pretty normal for the times.
Music
The music of this anime, like the art style, is pretty standard for the most part. There’s humors tracks, songs that show when a character is worried, and normal background music. However, there’s one piano-only track that really stood out to me. It only played when things became really serious, like during an important story development.
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Voice Acting
Unfortunately, like the last two categories, the voice acting seems pretty average. You have your air-headed male character, your sulking tsundere female character, and the floaty female character with an unusually high-pitched voice as the main focus. The rest of the cast have voices that don’t quite stand out. It could be a lot worse, but it could be better as well. I suppose you could give the sexual acting a grade A — more on that later.
Story
I came into this anime with high hopes as a lover of romance and stories with spirits. Based on the summaries I read before watching the show, it seemed like a win win. A spirit girl fulfilling her final wishes involving romance, or the possibility of two souls being sent to hell. Instead, I got the most perverted non-hentai anime I’ve ever seen.
The interesting part was all summed up in pretty much all synopsis you can find around the net. The story follow Mitsuki as she becomes possessed by a dead girl named Hiyori. Only one soul can be in her body at once, so there are some pretty entertaining moments as Mitsuki seems to have a huge personality shift from sulking tsundere to overly hyper lovey dovey girl.
Mitsuki tries to live a normal life in and out of the home, but Hiyori makes things incredibly difficult, especially when they run into their new older brother, Yuya. It seems Hiyori knew Yuya when she was alive, but she’s not entirely sure. Hiyori can’t remember much of anything before she was hit by a car and killed. All she knows is she loves Yuya.
So, to create a stairway to heaven, she straps a chastity belt called the T.S.T. on Mitsuki. It slowly fills as Hiyori’s desires are satisfied with Yuya. However, along the way an old childhood friend of Yuya’s comes into town, and a love triangle is formed — or possible a love square?
That’s almost all the story that’s given throughout the entire season. Just when you think more will develop, nothing happens! Even the smaller stories didn’t have any real resolution. One episode seemed to reveal a tiny bit of Hiyori’s past, but that didn’t really go anywhere. In that same episode it seemed as if Mitsuki couldn’t push Hiyori out of her body like usual, but by the next episode they acted like that never happened. Every time you think there would be story development, you’re left with nothing!
I shouldn’t say you’re left with nothing. In reality, you’re left with a massive amount of near-pornographic scenes. It seems as if the creators wanted to make something incredibly dirty with a tiny bit of story in there. I’m used to anime having a few fan service designs to keep bored otaku interested while the real story plays out. I’ve seen the entire Love Hina series after all. I’m used to the misunderstanding scenes or the trip and fall face first into certain body areas tropes. This anime has all that.
However, this anime went way overboard with near pornographic scenes that pretty much came out of no where. Hiyori is in love with Yuya, so she sexually pleases Mitsuki….because? I think one of the reasons was Mitsuki couldn’t feel sexually frustrated or the gauge would turn a bad color and drain too quickly.
Many of the scenes were censored in some way or another, but you could still hear everything. Some scenes were only slightly censored like the image above. Others went to a completely different image with a gauge and text, as if playing an eroge. But I should give a fair warning. If you buy the blu ray or DVD, it will be completely uncensored. I didn’t see any nipples or vagina like some anime, but there weren’t any orange/red hearts or black stripes covering anything, and there was even more fluids going around.
I’m not the only one who believes the anime went overboard. It seems the series came under investigation for broadcast decency in Japan [Source]. There were several scenes that ended in orgasms, among other things.
I admit that it is a bit entertaining to see the tsundere character become the loving character and vice versa in the blink of an eye. The emotional shift actually justifies the lead male character being bone headed, but Yuya seems to be clueless about his childhood friend as well.
Final Verdict
As I noted during the review, this anime is incredibly perverted, more so than any non-hentai anime I’ve ever seen. After watching all 12 episodes and waited for something to happen — romantically, with Hiyori’s past, or even sexually! — I was ultimately disappointed. This anime left me feeling incredibly empty. At this time, I can’t recommend Recently, My Sister is Unusual to anyone other than those who like perverted anime. If a second season releases with more story, then I’ll be here to review it and possibly say the first season is necessary as an intro. Until then, give this anime a pass!