Tag: NAKAIMO

NAKAIMO – My Little Sister Is Among Them! OVA

NAKAIMO – My Little Sister Is Among Them! OVA

Brother, Sister, Lover

The NAKAIMO – My Little Sister Is Among Them! OVA (Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru!: Ani, Imouto, Koibito / この中に1人、妹がいる!兄、妹、恋人) is the unaired 13th episode of the anime series. The title of the episode is Brother, Sister, Lover. And, somehow, it’s actually worse than the main series.

When I originally watched NAKAIMO, the fact that it was uncensored surprised me. I wasn’t expecting a series like this to have an uncensored version. But, since it did, I assumed that the OVA would take the ecchi content further than the series. That’s not the case.

The NAKAIMO OVA has no uncensored ecchi. It doesn’t have that much ecchi at all. And the ecchi it does have is relatively tame. This is why the OVA is worse than the main series. NAKAIMO is very boring without the ecchi component. That’s the only thing the series had going for it.

Miyabi feeding Shougo from the anime NAKAIMO - My Little Sister Is Among Them! OVA
Miyabi feeding Shougo

Complaints aside, what’s the OVA episode about? Well, the first thing to re-establish is that we know Miyabi is Shougo’s younger half-sister. So, even though this is a siscon anime, that takes Miyabi out of the running to be Shougo’s romantic partner.

But, Miyabi isn’t willing to be cast aside so easily. She decides that none of the other girls can date Shougo without her permission. And so, the girls come up with a competition. They’ll each plan out and go on a date with Shougo — and Miyabi will judge these dates. Whichever girl has the best date wins Shougo (in theory).

So, who are the competitors? In order of their dates, they are Mana, Mei, Ikusu, Rinka, and Konoe. It was pretty surprising to see both Mana and Ikusu on the list but not Yuzurina. During the series, Yuzurina felt more like a real option.

Date Competition

Let’s go over each of the five dates in order, starting with Mana Tendou’s. Mana doesn’t seem to know what a date is. Her idea of a date is buying a bunch of snacks from convenience stores and then eating pancakes. But, she did have the best ecchi scene.

Mei Sagara’s date didn’t fare much better. Her idea of a date is to visit various cafés, including her own. She also had a decent ecchi scene. But, it could have been better. The highlight of her date was definitely the Wife Café. If there was one near me, I’d frequent it.

Ikusu Mizutani’s date was the most standard of all the dates. But, that’s not a bad thing. She and Shougo did all the typical date things, and I’d say it was probably the best date of them all. However, I’m not the judge.

Rinka introducing Shougo to her parents from the anime NAKAIMO - My Little Sister Is Among Them! OVA
Rinka introducing Shougo to her parents

Rinka Kunitachi decided to skip the date portion of her date altogether. Her “date” involved introducing Shougo to her parents and receiving their consent. Look, it’s not much of a date, but I do like Rinka. She gets straight to the point. Why date when you could consummate a marriage?

Finally, it’s Konoe Tsuruma’s turn. Her date has 2 phases. The first phase involves everyone going to an amusement park together. And there’s a focus on Konoe, Shougo, and Miyabi as a group. Don’t get me wrong, going to an amusement park with friends is fun. But, it’s not exactly a date when it’s with a group.

The second phase of her date takes everyone to a wedding hall where a bridal fair is being held. At the bridal fair, the girls can try on dresses and have their pictures taken with Shougo. Again, more of a group activity.

And the Winner Is…

Who do you think the winner is after all the dates? The answer has actually been obvious from the very start of the episode — and even the series. If you guessed Miyabi, you’d be incorrect. The winner isn’t explicitly stated.

But, the implied winner is Konoe.

So, how is it implied that Konoe is the winner? Well, for starters, let’s go back to the first episode of the series. Who’s the first of the girls we meet? It’s Konoe. Konoe may not have been Shougo’s sister in the end, but she’s always been his romantic interest.

Okay, what other evidence is there? How about the title of this episode, Brother, Sister, Lover? Shougo is the brother, Miyabi is the sister, and someone else is the lover. This doesn’t tell us who the lover is exactly. But, it does imply that the lover and the sister are different.

Konoe and Shougo getting fake wedding pictures taken from the anime NAKAIMO - My Little Sister Is Among Them! OVA
Konoe and Shougo getting fake wedding pictures taken

The last piece of evidence ties in with the title and is also the most conclusive. Look at the dates the girls planned out. Mana, Mei, Ikusu, and Rinka all planned dates that focused on themselves and Shougo. Konoe’s date was different.

Not only did Konoe’s date involve everyone, but it focused on Konoe, Shougo, and Miyabi as a trio. Konoe was the only one who included Miyabi in her relationship with Shougo. With that context in mind, Konoe is the obvious answer to the question of who the lover from the episode title is.

Konoe understands what Miyabi wants. Miyabi wants her friendship with the other girls to continue as it always has been. And, she doesn’t want whoever marries her brother to steal him away from her. Miyabi doesn’t want to lose Shougo as a member of her family.

Conclusion

So, earlier in this review, I mentioned that the NAKAIMO OVA is worse than the series. That’s true. In the end, I gave the OVA a 3/10, which is 1 point lower than I gave to the series. If it actually delivered on the ecchi, it could have been better.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server to discuss anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

NAKAIMO – My Little Sister Is Among Them!

NAKAIMO – My Little Sister Is Among Them!

NAKAIMO - My Little Sister Is Among Them! anime series cover art
NAKAIMO – My Little Sister Is Among Them!

Series Overview

Unfortunately, NAKAIMO – My Little Sister Is Among Them! (Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru! / この中に1人、妹がいる!) is an anti-siscon anime series. It’s all about a guy who doesn’t want to marry his little sister. Weird, I know. And the twist of the series is that anyone could be his little sister.

Okay, well, it’s not true that anyone could be his little sister. But, the premise of the series is that he doesn’t know who his little sister is. You see, after the death of his father, Shougo learns that he may have a half-sister he never knew about.

What’s more, this half-sister wants to marry Shougo. And, as a “functional member of society,” Shougo doesn’t want to marry her — whoever she is. So, when girls begin showing interest in him, Shougo does what anyone would do. He becomes paranoid and believes any of them could be his sister.

As you may be aware, I love trash imouto anime. I live for them. But, NAKAIMO doesn’t quite fit the mold. It’s not like Oreimo, Eromanga Sensei, or My Sister, My Writer. Those are all romance series about siblings.

While NAKAIMO is still categorized as a rom-com, it’s more of a mystery series than anything else. Though, as I’ll be explaining toward the end of this review, there’s not actually much of a mystery.

But, something I wasn’t expecting from this series is that it has uncensored ecchi content. And that may actually make it better. Usually, I don’t mind there being censoring in anime like this one. The ecchi content isn’t the main focus. That said, there’s so little going for NAKAIMO that the ecchi helps.

I also haven’t watched the OVA episode for this series yet. But, I’d imagine there’s plenty of ecchi content in it. (Update: there’s not.)

Little Sister Candidates

There are five main little sister candidates — if you couldn’t guess based on the cover art for the series. In order of my favorite to least favorite, they are Miyabi, Rinka, Mana, Konoe, and Mei. That’s an objective ranking, by the way, because I’m always right.

Let’s start with the best girl, Miyabi Kannagi. First of all, Miyabi is a cute name. Second of all, she’s a small girl with twin tails. And third of all, she’s a little bit of a tsundere. Miyabi is also a member of the school’s swim team.

Alright, so petite girls aren’t for you. Fine, I guess. The best of the rest is Rinka Kunitachi. She’s the rich girl of the group, which is a bonus. And since she comes from a rich family, her parents groomed her to be the perfect wife. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Shougo and Konoe from the anime series NAKAIMO - My Little Sister Is Among Them!
Shougo and Konoe

Mana Tendou is the student council president. But, she’s not like most student council presidents in anime. She’s very informal and she likes to have fun. She’s also pretty cute, even if she is one of the larger girls to choose from.

In fourth place, we have Konoe Tsuruma, the first of the girls we meet in the series. Konoe is down here for two main reasons. First, she’s large. And second, she’s pretty vanilla. She’s the plain choice of the five. But, she’s not the worst girl of the series. I’d still settle for Konoe if I had to.

The worst of the five is, unfortunately, Mei Sagara. When I first saw her character design, I thought Mei could compete with Miyabi for the top spot. But, Mei turned out to be the most boring of the girls. And that’s saying something considering Konoe and Mana exist.

Other “Little Sisters”

Beyond the five little sister candidates, there are three other “little sister” characters. This is where we’re going to begin straying into spoiler territory. In no particular order, these extra little sisters are Ikusu, Yuzurina, and Maiko.

Ikusu Mizutani is Shougo’s right-hand when it comes to his investigation. Her job is to help him figure out the identity of his little sister. And, despite what the other girls of the series believe, Ikusu is a girl too. She’s also basically Kanbaru from Monogatari, being a tomboy who likes to be naked.

Yuzurina Houshou is Shougo’s self-proclaimed little sister. Of all the girls in the series, she’s the only one who actually claims to be his sister. Spoiler, she’s not actually his sister. And I’m glad that’s the case because she’s a pretty boring character.

Maiko Kotori is 100% not a potential candidate to be Shougo’s little sister. Why? Because she’s one of his teachers. But, she’s the most petite of all the girls in the series, because anime. So, due to her size and general personality, I’m going to classify her as a “little sister” character.

Not Really a Mystery

It’s time to get to the true biggest problem with NAKAIMO. The mystery of this mystery anime isn’t much of a mystery. After watching the OP of the series, I correctly predicted who Shougo’s little sister was. I didn’t even need to watch the first episode.

Miyabi was always the obvious choice. And in the final episode, her true identity as Shougo’s sister is finally revealed. But, why was it so obvious that Miyabi would be Shougo’s little sister? How could I have guessed it that early on?

So, since I based my prediction on the OP, my choices were Konoe, Miyabi, Mei, Rinka, and Mana. Of those five, who looks the most like a little sister-type character? Miyabi does. It’s as simple as that.

Mei, Mana, Miyabi, Shougo, Konoe, and Rinka from the anime series NAKAIMO - My Little Sister Is Among Them!
Mei, Mana, Miyabi, Shougo, Konoe, and Rinka

Even if Miyabi didn’t look like a little sister, you should be able to figure it out before the end of the series. There’s plenty of evidence pointing toward Miyabi being Shougo’s little sister. And that evidence comes from all the other characters.

Konoe never felt like a true candidate to me. She’s the generic friend character. Is she a love interest? Yes. But it was established early on that she’s not actually Shougo’s sister.

Mei is allegedly older than Shougo, so that disqualifies her immediately. There was some question of whether she’s actually older than him. But, that was stupid bait that I doubt anyone fell for.

Rinka is the child of a wealthy family and there was never any real suggestion she could be Shougo’s sister. She only falls for him after he gets her out of an arranged marriage set up by her parents.

And although she’s one of the five, Mana’s never even a love interest. I don’t know why she’s included.

Conclusion

Overall, I’d say that NAKAIMO – My Little Sister Is Among Them! is a 4/10. It’s a bad anime. But, it’s not irredeemably bad. I still enjoyed watching it, for the most part. Even knowing who Shougo’s little sister was didn’t ruin my enjoyment.

I’d say that the thing that I disliked the most was Shougo’s irrational paranoia. Even after confirming certain girls aren’t his sister, he’s still too paranoid to be with them. Finding out his sister’s identity is all-consuming. It becomes an unhealthy obsession.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server to discuss anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Key Mochi~ for supporting this blog at the Heika and Senpai tiers this month. To learn how you too can become a supporter of DoubleSama.com, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.