Oneechan ga Kita Episode 1
What They Say:
Tomoya’s father remarries to another woman, giving him a stepsister, Ichika. However Ichika is 17-years old and has completely fallen in love with her stepbrother who is only 13!! Families will collide in the most unusual fashion this season, in the new anime short: ONEE-CHAN GA KITA!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Short form shows are things that I used to dread and ignore in some ways, but the last couple of seasons have certainly turned my opinion around on them as more are being done well. Oneechan ga Kita, which adapts the manga of the same name by Rikou Anzai, began serialization in the seinen magazine Manga Life back in 2011. The show is being worked on by C2C, which we previously saw with Yurumates3Dei, and some of the staff will be coming from that as well with Yoshihde Yuuzimi directing while Takeshi Oda will be handling the character design as well as being animation director.
Like any show revolving around sisters, this one gets to the to the heart of matters fast and furious as we get Tomoya and Ichika, two school students who are thrust together when their divorced parents end up getting married to each other. Amusingly, Ichika is rather playful and interested in Tomoya but part of that is simply because he’s four years younger than her at only thirteen. Tomoya doesn’t know how to handle all of this and it’s uncertain at first just what kind of intentions Ichika has beyond just finding him utterly cute. She’s a bit off in a lot of ways though and it’s comical watching how the two have to deal with each other since it’s not another show where they’re the same age and there’s a potentially disturbing element about it. Here, it goes straight for the comedy and just runs with it, especially since this episode is all about her trying to live in his room to be closer to him.
In Summary:
We get a fair number of series over the years that plays up the brother/sister angle and they’ve largely been of the full length variety. Soul searching, uneasiness and other subplots abound in shows like that to try and make them meaningful. Here, with a three minute runtime, it’s all about the silly comedy and awkwardness that’s made all the more so by the age gap. That helps to defuse some of the obvious issues of a theme like this as well as the fact that they’re not really siblings in the biological sense. Only in Japan, only in Japan. Still, the show hit some good laughs quickly with Ichika and you have to feel for poor Tomoya as he copes with this awkward situation.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.