Reconciling a Questionable Premise: Onimai: I’m Now Your Sister Anime Review

(This article was originally meant to be out when the anime finished airing. I had tech issues. Here it is now.)

Onimai: I’m Now Your Sister is a strange show. It’s a heart-warming story of second chances and rediscovering oneself. It’s earnest, adorable, and at times humorous.

The show is great to look at, as care has been put into designing the characters and their many outfits. Even the color palette, with its pastels, and enhances what is probably one of the best cute girls doing cute things animes I’ve ever seen. It even struck a personal note, as I embrace being sober and rejoin society, I see a lot of parallels between myself and the anime and gaming-obsessed main character Mahiro. Not gonna lie, this show has definitely been very much a comfort watch while I’m figuring my life out.

It’s also got a somewhat strange tad problematic premise that makes this show a hard sell for anything not comfortable with anime nonsense

Let me explain. Onimai features Mahiro. Mahiro has declared himself as the home security officer for the house he and his genius sister share. What this means actually, is he is a shut-in freeloader who essentially watches anime, plays video games, reads a lot of associated porn, and doesn’t shower. That’s how he starts the shows anyway,

His sister gets fed up with this crap and decides it’s time for a change in his life. So she drugs him with a miracle pill that turns him into a middle school girl before the show even begins. 

I’m not gonna beat around the bush, it’s a messed up and uncomfortable premise. This sort of setup seems like it would be ripe for many almost but not really hentai shenanigans that test the limits of broadcast television. I will attest that if it hadn’t been recommended to me, I would have skipped it without question. To the show’s credit, if an anime is going to have this concept, it’s definitely the right way to do it.

The show makes the idea work and the writing and character-building are present. The younger (now older I guess) sister Mihari’s motivation for turning out the main character is incredibly relatable. She adored her brother growing up and worked her butt off to make him proud of her. Rather than getting the attention and praise she hoped for, she had to contend with him slipping farther and farther into the darkness that swallowed him up. At least until one day, she couldn’t take it anymore. And yeah, it’s ‌thorny and complicated in a way this show that has no business being.

(Being an anime, I feel like I have to make a note, there is no incest in the series as far as I’m aware. If it goes that direction, I will appreciate this show for what it did for me, then promptly toss it in the bin.)

It’s not an angsty or sad show though. Or really one that leans into harem erotica bullshit. I can describe the show as a slice of life focusing on Mahiro now that he has a second chance. The viewers get to watch our main character slowly come out of his shell and learn to open up and rely on the people in his orbit as opposed to closing them out. He rebuilds his relationship with Mihari and even makes other friends. There are lots of cute faces and hugs along the way. It’s not a show immune to the fact there’s pain and darkness in the world, but it’s one that glances at it and then decides it would rather focus on the joy that is in being alive. 

The only real issue is while this is not a full-blown wannabe hentai, it has some sex-based and toilet humor that I have some complicated feelings about. Anime was a mistake, am I right? Some of it felt a little weird for me given the main character is a middle schooler (yes I’m aware there could be a debate here. I will not have it.) At the same time, I *was* a middle school girl once upon a time. Most of the jokes and conversations the characters have with each other are ones I shared with my friends. But that’s me and I totally completely understand it being a deal-breaker for other people. If you’re on the fence, I will state that it peters out with the worst offenders for this nonsense being in the first few episodes. Most of it, anyway,

In the end, I think the good this show does outweigh the bad if you’re willing to make the compromise. There’s a lot more thought and care put in this show than I would have guessed at a glance. I recommend this show. I especially recommend the show if you want a total shitlord being given a second chance, and using that to fight to become his best self – despite missteps along the way. It’s a lovely surprise, and proof that even when a concept screams the line “Anime was a mistake,” every once in a while, maybe it kinda isn’t.