What They Say:
Yuya and Mitsuki have recently become brother and sister because of their parents remarrying. Mitsuki is having a hard time opening up to her new family, but their parents leave for a foreign country right after getting married before that can get any better. As Mitsuki is troubled by her new life living alone with Yuya, a amnesiac ghost girl, Hiyori, appears before her, and she is forced to help her pass on to the next world…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
There’s been some good stuff in this show over the course of the season, especially since it kind of defied what a lot of people thought it was going to be about. While it had some awkward potential in terms of the siblings relationship at the start, when you realized they were just strangers that aren’t truly related, that eased the queasy factor significantly. And while you had a lot of fanservice bits early on that got a bit raunchy, it actually toned down things a lot as it progressed, though it had its moments to be sure. But it also gave us a male lead, who wasn’t in the show with the same regularity one might expect, who was pretty decent and nice and caring without having any active thoughts of real interest that you could discern towards Mitsuki. Though that kind of changes a little here towards the end, though that’s mostly because a certain someone is putting those thoughts in his head more than anything else. And he does have to admit that Mitsuki can be pretty cute.
With the group off at the inn for their trip, we get some of the more usual things once again that you’d expect with the trappings of it all, but there’s also some fun in that Yuya has his mind twisted a touch at the start here where he’s a lot more open and forward, especially with what he says to the girls and even where he ends up groping Yukari in a pretty big way that most certainly earns him that slap. When the group finds out that he’s been hypnotized, they have some good and natural concern for him since he’s basically been opened up in his mind to do the things that feels right, to follow his desires rather than hide them. But there’s also that aspect where he’s not exactly hiding them, but is kind of unaware of them because of natural filters his mind has put into place. Removing those filters will get him into a bit of trouble to be sure, especially since he’s pretty much being too truthful with everyone. And even though they know what he’s under, it doesn’t mean they like it.
The show has some fun with all of this overall, especially when you get Mitsuki and Yuya basically at home together alone and his mind gets pretty confused with all that’s going on, both from his memories and the way he wants to just follow through even as teenage hormones kick in a bit more. It doesn’t help that when he does go to talk with Mitsuki, she’s in the midst of things with Hiyori and there’s the awkwardness of what she’s wearing. It builds up so beautifully with what he may do, but to have it turn to that just once again shows us what kind of guy Yuya is and reinforces the good feelings you can have about him in this situation. With that and some really tender moments between Mitsuki and Hiyori as they work through the end of their arrangement as events have allowed it to come to a close, there’s a really mellow and enjoyable feeling to how the series comes to a close. It leaves things open enough, what with more manga out there and a live action film, but it also pretty much brings the right kind of closure that more series should have.
In Summary:
Perception is nine tenths of the game and this series had a whole lot going against it from the moment that the title was translated into English for anime fans. While there’s a good bit of naughty material early on, censored out as one would expect for broadcast, the show actually played to a lot more interesting themes than I thought it would, which is largely owed to the fact that it was more about Hiyori and Mitsuki than Yuya when you get down to it. That’s not to say this is a great show, nor did they really delve into the issues an characters in a really deep and meaningful way, but it had a lot of fun with it and provided a view that didn’t match up with expectations, which kept me wondering exactly what they’d end up doing. It’s light, fluffy and it has some endearing moments, but it’s also shallow as well. But most importantly, it’s nowhere near as pervy as one might expect, which is either a great thing or a terrible thing depending on your views.
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.
