Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「Choose me♡ダーリン」 (Choose me♡Darling) by StylipS
Watch the OP!: Streaming ▼
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「見知らぬ妹からの声」 (Mishiranu Imouto Kara no Koe)
“The Voice of the Sister I Don’t Know”
Suddenly, the prospect of falling in love doesn’t seem so appealing when the potential wife could also double as the younger sister now, does it? Nothing snuffs out those raging hormones like the thought of (potentially) getting hitched to your own sister. Unless you’re a siscon. Feel free to scroll to the bottom to skip all the tl;dr.
Summary:
Mikadono Shougo (Sakurai Takahiro) transfers in to Miryuuin Academy after his father, Mikadono Kumagorou (Koyama Rikiya), passes away in order to fulfill his request: find a girl to marry in order to inherit the company his father left behind. Before he can get intimately acquainted with any of the girls he has met, however, he receives a mysterious phone call on his birthday claiming that his younger sister is amidst the Academy’s girls.
Impressions:
While the romantic hijinks and the dangers/thrills of falling in love with the younger sister probably drew most people to this show, I’d have to say the main draw for me was getting to hear Sakurai Takahiro in the lead role of a harem – the man is a bonafide thespian, but I hadn’t heard him in anything remotely ecchi before (Zero no Tsukaima and yaoi series not withstanding), so naturally, this show had my curiosity piqued. It’s difficult to tell what sort of a character Mikadono Shougo is shaping up to be – whether he’ll do his father proud and find a wife to populate the world with or whether the possibility of incest will give him cold feet is still up in the air. So far he seems more like Ichika of Infinite Stratos than Keitaro from Love Hina, which is completely fine with me. Ichika was a very likeable lead, with a denseness that wasn’t overwhelmingly frustrating and a brain that could seemingly register sexual attractions at the very least. If Shougo toes that fine line between “brain-dead” and “adorably dense” properly, I imagine he’ll be the type of harem hero that won’t induce high blood pressure from the viewers.
Only two of his potential brides have been formally introduced: Tsuruma Konoe (Ishihara Kaori), and Kannagi Miyabi (Sakura Ayane). Both of them seem quite… forward, to say the least, which is probably going to be important if they want to persuade Shougo to fall in love with them despite his reluctance. Konoe seems like the most obvious choice as the titular younger sister, and there are quite a lot of hints thrown out to convince the viewers that this is the case. While I want to place my bets on her too, I’m a little weary of going all-in since this is the premiere – and as the identity of the younger sister is the biggest mystery NakaImo has to offer, it’s more than likely they’ll keep it under wraps for longer before they really start bringing in clues that will mess with everyone’s minds. There was also a particular instance of (somewhat subtle) symbolism that really hinted at the ending the show was going for, that made me question the direction the show might take – in a good way, though!
As for production values, they seem solid enough, and I like the softer, almost dreamy and whimsical color schemes they used here, and it lends a really easy-going, feel-good atmosphere to the show that helps people ease into the show despite its premise. The coloring style feels reminiscent of the light novel illustrations, which boast a similar pastel palette accompanied by the same upbeat feeling. Don’t mistake NakaImo for some innocent lamb though – as the surprisingly lewd Konoe demonstrates, this lamb shows plenty of skin to keep the audience on their toes. This is also another strength of the animation style the production staff used, since the extra innocence and dreamy feel of the art ups the raciness of the fanservice when it comes. The bathroom scene has both full-frontal and subtle fanservice at play, giving the viewers a visually stimulating scene in the form of a cute naked girl and sneakily emphasizing her innocent/cute appeal by adding on all the extra blush and keeping the colors deceptively soft to drive home the subliminal messaging. And voila! A cute naked girl touching her own breasts has never looked so innocent. It’s smart marketing.
Of course, it’s difficult to draw any sort of definite conclusions based on the premiere alone, but I like what I see in NakaImo. Nothing’s groundbreaking, but there’s a fun, light-hearted atmosphere to the show, and the animation style Studio Gokumi used really help set it apart in terms of its competitors in the genre. There are so many shows in the racy LN-adapted-into-an-anime game that it’s difficult to differentiate each and every show that enters the ring. Thankfully, NakaImo is good enough to stand on its own, and I really have to commend the animation tactics for selling the premiere – the softer style might not please everybody, but it might be what brings new audiences onboard. Most series of NakaImo‘s ilk tend to use bold colors and sharp animation, which when combined with the fanservice-heavy scenes, might turn some people off. With the nice pastel style they have here though, it softens the heavy-handedness of some risqué scenes and is literally “easy on the eyes” – the boldness of the scenes may be lost, but the effect sure isn’t! The seiyuu deserve some nice mentions too, as Ishihara Kaori is really selling Konoe’s closet-lewd, ojou-sama persona. Her voice is just dynamic enough to keep the character from inducing a coma while maintaining that dignified, high-pitched tone characteristic of the archetype. Sakurai Takahiro is good at any role he plays, so I have no doubt in my mind he’ll be playing Shougo’s character to the hilt – the premiere already made me wonder why he hasn’t had these types of roles sooner.
In conclusion: watch, people!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, has been a female’s perspective on a fanservice-y rom-com show with incest undertones.
tl;dr: @SaberMochi – Cute designs and a solid premiere. Guess I’ll keep on watching :3 #NakaImo
Full-length images: 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 18, 20, 21, 22, 25, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「Heavenly Lover」 by 石原夏織, 佐倉綾音, 竹達彩奈, 大亀あすか, 日高里菜 (Ishihara Kaori, Sakura Ayane, Taketatsu Ayana, Oogame Asuka, Hidaka Rina)
Watch the ED!: Streaming ▼
Preview
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The cute girls are enough to keep me hooked for a while to see where this goes, lol.
And yeah, even though Konoe is being shaped to seem like the sister (like the dropped phone and such), it also shines a spotlight on witch girl at the end too. They love to troll us viewers with such things just to keep us guessing.
BakaMochi you should cover this show. I really enjoyed it and I am curious to see how it goes.
Completely generic RandomC review is completely generic.
^Completely pointless comment is completely pointless.
Completely generic RandomC spam is completely generic.
See what I did there?
Blocked a comment calling you out for having a copy pasted post that’s used for every single show? Let me guess. All the characters are always great and while they look like cliches they aren’t, the studio brings the story to life, halfassed concession that there are many similar shows but this one is different and it has a lot of potential to be awesome. Yawn. Don’t you get tired saying the same thing for every single show?
Well… if you’re trying to sell a product, you wouldn’t go around listing all its disadvantages now, would you? .__.
You know what would be the best thing to do if you need a gf to inherit your family’s business but one of the girls at your school might be your sister?
DATE SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T GO TO YOUR SCHOOL.
Problem solved. Series over.
Well they want him to marry someone from that school. Ah yes… all those convenient requirements.
Either way I’m rather enjoying it for some reason.
Okay, then use your father’s company’s influence and wealth to order everyone in the school to take an obligatory blood test. Sister found.
Well he haven’t succeeded his company yet so he does not have any powers or influences. So that’s a no go.
But surely there is someone who is in charge of his assets that would be willing to listen a request of finding a long lost sibling.
Oh wait…I forgot Japan loves incest and unnecessarily convoluted romance plots.
Just ask each prospective GF to give a strand of her hair… DNA tests are something he should afford even from his pocket money.
The girls themselves seem far too eager to kiss from the start. I know its hard to ask for realism in such series, but there are limits to suspension of disbelief.
Konoe is the prime suspect due to her phone (voice changing?) highlighted during the first encounter. The grey (haired) witch seems to be some trope-talking fujoshi to me (and obvious red herring)- though I like her blatant cosplaying ways. The twin-tailed tsundere seems quite interesting too, though we dont get much info on her yet. And then there are the student council girls who are well back in my imouto probability ratings, if only be the virtue of not charging main character with kissing intent.
“Are you my sister?”
“I don’t know.”
“Let’s get a DNA test.”
“Here are the results of the DNA test.”
“Oh you’re not my sister! Will marry me?”
“Yes!”
Problem solved.
Alternate Ending:
“Let’s get a DNA test.”
“Er…I’d rather not.”
“Why? Are you my sister?”
“Uh…”
“…you are, aren’t you.”
“LOVE ME, ONII-SAMA!”
“NO, GROSS.”
“FINE, THEN DIE WITH ME!”
Bad end.
Nice Boat.
^ Rofl
As an anonymous person on the internet once said, “Incest is best – put your little sister to the test!”
I am now imagining Emiya Kiritsugu saying Mikadono Kumagorou’s lines. Haha.
So which one is her sister. Listen to her voice carefully and you will know who is the one.
And now, those cute girls really cute…
If this series ever gets an English dub, they’re gonna have really distort the voice to not give it away in the first episode.
But funny, Rina’s (Hidaka Rina) voice is really same like Yui’s (Ogura Yui) voice.
Generic Harem anime -__- dropped this as soon as I read the synopsis.
Aren’t you cool
The twist is: they’re all his sisters!
hmm well seeing this ep ok might hang around to watch it.
so we got a guy who dad just kick the bucket now later inherit a fortune give scar cant’ remember some past & oh he have a sister?!
ok then seen 5 girls mention hmm to wonder sure wild guessing unless take maury’s dna test to see you are the sister or you are not the sister?
well ok then see how it goes.
He is the only child in the family and he doesn’t have any sibling. And they aren’t really his sister. But showing love expression… the heck!???
The anime and novel just piss me off it was fun the first 1 or 2 volume but after that they just dragging and milking it for stupid reason, go get a freaking DNA test problem solve but they keep thinking of stupid reason why he can’t. it was fun first volume or two after that I start hating it.
Theres something I hate is when someone has a problem and the solution is so easy but then they had to think of stupid reason to go thru the long way to solve a problem it just plain stupid.
Wonder what’s up with those pink phones. Those girls are up to no good.
Curious, Sakurai Takahiro has a lot of female fans, does a series like this have any crossover appeal in Japan, like will it get some female following in spite of the harem/incest genre? As you mentioned, the style and palette seem to soften the feel of the ep and Shougo seems really likeable if a little clueless.
Anyway obviously I’m watching for Sakurai Takahiro. He’s sooo good.
& also that Sakurai Takahiro is japanese voice of Edward Cullen maybe that why 5 girls want him give wonder who the sister?
He’s my favorite seiyuu <3 The reason I stressed on the art was because at least for me, it was super easy to watch – the fanservice is there and the show doesn’t pretend it’s something else, but nothing is too “in my face” that I get uncomfortable. I feel like that would help garner more audience (at least females), but who knows? If they throw in a male character voiced by OnoD or SuzuKen, they’d have the fujoshi market cornered 😛
So uhh, does anyone know what happened in the scene with the truck? The girl is about to get pulverized by the thing, but just gets knocked back on her butt. MC doesn’t seem to have pushed her out of the way as he runs to her from the other side of the road afterwards.
I just don’t understand what happened there …
I was also very confused as to what happened during the truck scene. Shougo clearly didn’t make it in time, so then how was Konoe slightly knocked back with no injuries after being hit by a high speed truck?
This is driving me crazy. The phone call said Onii-sama but the witch girl Mei said Onii-chan. The voice sounded like Ogiura Yui who is not listed in the voice cast but the phone looks like Konoe’s. Dafaq, this is too confus)ng.
I probably shouldn’t think too much about this since this isn’t somthing worth thinking about in a harem anime. It’s the least I can do I guess to at least entertain myself in this show. But really, I facepalmed hard when Konoe said “It must be fate”. Though that breast rubbing in the bath… Plus Ishihara Kaori’s voice. I’m staying just for that. And to check out the other girls I guess.
Are you gonna continue covering this Mochi or is this just a one time deal? It’s okay either way I guess.
I KNOW RIGHT?! I was like… she said “onii-chan” while phone girl said “onii-sama” but none of the girls have yet to refer to themselves as “watakushi” either, so we basically have nothing Q______Q
Um… it’s probably a one-time deal, but I’ll still probably keep up with it XD
Well we haven’t seen all the girls yet so we’ll need to get to know them to get more clues. I know now why you and unlisted are getting flustered over this yesterday lol.
But I think Konoe kind of says ‘watakushi’. At least in the PV ._.
Too bad but such is life I guess. Let’s just talk about this in IRC lol.
This is so weird!!! Trying to get a kiss on the first day they met? Extorting for a kiss on the first day? A cosplayer claiming that she is sister? This mixing is messed up and hilarious!!!
Fanservice-Censoring is enough to kill watching this. Lemme know when (or if) the uncensored version comes out.
The imouto in the opening scene sounds like Oogame Asuka using a low-key version of her Mikazuki (KissXSis) voice. That’s where I’m placing my bet for now, on Mana. 20 creds on the big-breasted dark horse!
nya!!!
Wouldn’t it be hilarous if his little sister turned out to be his homeroom teacher?
It’s….. interesting to hear a girl’s review of such an anime. The closet pervy girl is a nice change of pace from the usual cookie-cutter archetypes and I hope they continue that with the rest of the girls to keep things feeling a little fresh.
Also I have a sneaky suspicion that the girls at this school are either horny or gold-diggers. Or both.
Somehow the teacher reminded me of Komoe-sensei from To Aru Majutsu no Index…
6 Gold diggers. The Anime
there is high possibility that the imouto is as rich as the male protagonist… his father might had been dating a female business partner after all…
AS EXPECTED OF THE OPENING THEME SONG OF NAKAIMO, THE GROUP RESPONSIBLE FOR
HIGH SCHOOL DxD ENDING, STYLIPS.
IT BLENDS WITH THE THEME OF THE ANIME.
AND THE RETURN FOR ANOTHER “HAREM MAYHEM” ADVENTURE, VOICE ACTOR TAKAHIRO SAKURAI.
HOPE TO ENJOY THIS NEW SERIES.
Somehow, it was more insteresting as a manga. Ah well I’ll give it another episode or two
Eye and Hair colors are the clue?
What if there’s a 6th heroine?
Ahhh… the six one. Not sure the 6th one is also included.
I’m never going to be able to remember this show’s name, so from now on it is called Imouto Roulette.
Disclaimer: I have not read any source works so this is purely speculation
My personal bets:
A) All of them are his half-sisters.
B) None of them are his sisters. The real sister is some troll or entirely someone else.
But seriously, the gem of this show is hearing Ishihara Kaori voicing Konoe..“Shougo-san, you can go ahead and eat my cream puffs”..THEM CREAM PUFFS!
It would be weird if that personal assistant (Seri?) was the sister. She did come in the room right after he heard that girl outside. She’s the last one to suspect.
Ichika was a very likeable lead, with a denseness that wasn’t overwhelmingly frustrating and a brain that could seemingly register sexual attractions at the very least.
really? i thought Ichika couldn’t possibly get any more dense
My first impression of the series (with some help from the character dialogue):
Shougo: “So if the person [girl] I pick to be my companion turns out to be my sister…”
Me: “You gonna get Theon Greyjoy‘d!”
I’m sticking around to check this series out anyway…and hope they resolve the mystery of who Shougo’s imouto is. Unlike in Love Hina (anime) where it is not revealed who Keitaro’s childhood friend is…
P.S.: If anyone has finished the Love Hina manga and that “forgotten childhood friend” subplot has been resolved there, please keep the info in spoiler tags.
I freaking love cream puffs
….if you know what I mean 😉
I wonder if the VN had a randomly generated sister (what a horrible wording, but you know what I mean) to keep player guessing thru multiple walktroughs?
Is this drop at randomc?