You Probably Still Need Something Else
- Episodes : 12
- Genre : Comedy, Romance
- Airing Date : Oct. 2017 - Dec. 2017
- Studios : Silver Link.
Contains Spoilers
Imouto sae Ireba Ii. Introduction and Story (Spoilers)
Is a sister really all you need? Lots of kids ask for siblings growing up. They want someone else to be around. According to anime, tons of otaku ask for an imouto, a goddess-like representation of the human female little sister that honestly nothing else can measure up to, by otaku definition.
Imouto sae Ireba Ii chronicles the journey of professional novelist Hashima Itsuki as he navigates the bumpy road of life. He publishes naughty fantasy novels based on incestuous relationships, has not spoken with his father in years (unrelated to the incest), and has a cute, busty kouhai named Kani Nayuta trying to bed him daily. That’s Itsuki in a nutshell. When he’s not monologuing his way to an insane asylum or ranting about the quality of imouto panties, he sometimes rattles off a sharp, insightful observation that will quite utterly shock you. Both Itsuki and Imouto sae Ireba Ii give an awful first impression, but after you delve through a couple of layers you find a good heart.
What We Liked About Imouto sae Ireba Ii.
Besides going for the obvious appeal toward imouto-obsessed viewers, the show does have a degree of depth. While it largely focuses on Hashima Itsuki, it also extends to the core group that surrounds him. His younger step-”brother” Chihiro who lovingly comes to his home almost daily to cook and clean for him, his friend and fellow author Fuwa Hartuo, and his former college classmate Shirakawa Miyako who has a one sided crush on Itsuki. Throw in the objective best girl Kani Nayuta (a pen name) and the main cast is complete. Not a whole lot actually happens most episodes, but they usually begin discussing something lewd or imagine up strange scenarios for a variety of word-based board games that the group plays together.
There are very few shows that are devoted to working adults in a creative field, so even ones as outlandish as Imouto sae Ireba Ii stand out. It’s not Bakuman or Shirobako, and it’s a lot less focused than even Eromanga-Sensei, but it goes for a theme that most shows tend to avoid. Itsuki has accepted himself and his unusual desires, and his friends have accepted him as well. He even has an audience surrounding his incestuous novels, and despite the constant lecturing, his editor stands by him. By the end of the season, Itsuki has gone from a one dimensional deviant to something of a very real human being. A shocking transformation given how quickly it occurs.
Discussion Time
Imouto sae Ireba Ii gives an awful first impression if you aren’t forewarned of its nature. Hashima Itsuki is a perverted sis-con and Kani Nayuta is throwing herself at him for unknown reasons. It seems like a typical anime affair, and the lowest tier at that. I was seriously going to drop the show after the initial episode.
Sticking with it, the show exposes you to more sides of the characters, and eventually, it adds the audience to this group of close friends. Some moments, you’ll be laughing along at their antics, others you’ll be criticizing yourself for watching this mess. It toes the line between entertaining and objectively awful at many points, and it isn’t until the show is halfway finished that it begins feeling really meaningful.
1. Kani Nayuta
Kani Nayuta. She’s pretty much reason enough to watch the show if you appreciate ecchi comedy. She’s as lewd as any dirty oji-san you’ll meet, witty enough to have become the most accomplished author of her age, and is the cutest girl on the show. It would usually feel wrong to devote an entire positive point to a single character in an ensemble cast, but she’s worth it.
The object of devastating high school bullying, Nayuta was saved by Itsuki and his writings. She was then introduced to him as a new writer at their publisher and shortly after she confessed to him. Itsuki turned her down, flatly, but that hasn’t stopped her from hanging around him ever since. As a newer author, she follows him around calling him senpai almost daily, coming to his room and on his trips for inspiration for his novels.
Her writing is good enough for her to be the rising star of their company, and has had a powerful effect on the other characters who have read it. It even creates a firm jealousy in Itsuki, even though she contends that he is the greatest writer she’s ever read. Her creativity is fueled by her need to strip completely naked when writing, and when other female characters visit her, they are also asked to strip. It’s quite confusing early on as to why Itsuki won’t let her just fall in his lap given she’s such a big check mark on every category for a waifu. By the end of the season it becomes a somewhat emotional realization, all things considered.
2. It Focuses on Creators
There’s seemingly a good twenty-something shows on high schoolers every anime season. Because of that, the few anime that show adults, and in creators fields nonetheless, really stand out. For the most part, every character on the show is involved in publishing in some capacity, either as a writer, artist or editor.
The only outliers are Miyako, Itsuki’s former college classmate, and his younger step-brother Chihiro. They are merely pulled into this unorthodox bunch by their association with him. Towards the end of the show, Miyako herself is on a path towards becoming an editor, having a good relationship with Nayuta and other creators introduced during the series. Chihiro has even found work with an accountant who specializes in dealing with creative types like Chihiro’s brother Itsuki.
The show focuses on the sometimes harsh realities that go along with creating entertainment. It’s not all riches, and for the low to middle end of the spectrum, like this group is, it’s full of stress and is sometimes thankless. Haruto getting an anime adaptation of his light novel series highlights just how hard work and quality source material can lead to an awful end result. This echoes fans’ feelings, and shows how creators can be even more hurt by this than expectant fans.
3. You Will Laugh By The End
Episode 10 of the series offered the biggest laugh I’ve had this anime season. It was yet another round of the group conjuring up erotic scenarios inspired by a board game, and Kani Nayuta really let her imagination run away with her. I had laughed a few times prior, and cringed a good deal more, but this parody of the popular Attack on Titan series had me howling. If you have a low brow sense of humor you will eat this show up, I’m not ashamed to admit it. However, despite that, it does rise above itself at some points and delivers a meaningful moment every now and then.
1. It Feels Largely Pointless
The anime I can most compare this too would be Eromanga-Sensei from this Summer 2017’s releases. They both featured somewhat erotic fantasy novelists with varying degrees of love towards imouto, and the MCs in both had a harem develop around them. The difference between the two is that Eromanga-Sensei had a sense of purpose, as odd as that might sound. The main character Izumi Masamune had a clear goal: create a story with his sister as the main character. It isn’t until the very end of the season that Hashima Itsuki even finalizes or reveals his goal of having an anime. The show coasts along as a funny, perverted, slice of life without any rhyme or reason.
It made for a very unconvincing watch for the first few episodes. Towards the last half of the season you feel more compelled to watch as character arcs begin setting in and the romance ramps up, but otherwise, it seems somewhat listless. Episodes blend into each other for the most part, and the characters do whatever they want, whenever they want, and for whatever reason. This would be fine in a slice of life, but this didn’t feel like a slice of life or really evoke the same response you would get from that type of show. It felt like a series of specials/OVAs more than anything else.
By the end, it feels regrettable that we won’t get to see more of Itsuki as he focuses on his goal, having seen him so far from it for the previous 11 episodes. I didn’t feel like I had actually gotten to know him until the very end. Early on, you will cringe at his antics and perhaps even feel extreme disgust, but by episode 12 they reveal just what got him to that point.
Final Thoughts
Hashima Itsuki goes from being a disgusting pervert to a pathetic harem MC, all the way to becoming a living, breathing, human being by the end of these 12 episodes. It’s a rapid and unexpected transformation, but one that saved the show from being a miss into being a hit. What did you think of Imouto sae Ireba Ii? If you watched it, let us know what you thought in the comments section!
Author: Hercule SSJ
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