Who was this series made for?

The tone seems so wildly all over the place and just plain gross at the worst of times. It fluctuates between rather disturbing fanservice almost suited for a hentei and wholesome moments that touch your heart.

ONIMAI: I’m Now Your Sister is a weird anime that I frankly wish was never made as it gives those who hold a delusional hatred of anime without ever even watching a single one ammunition to say “anime’s for weirdos” as if something like the weirdly disturbing ONIMAI is a representation of anime. Sure, anime can plenty of weird, but so can Western shows like Family Guy. Family Guy’s creepiness makes many of the stranger anime look mundane and wholesome by comparison.

But I’m getting off topic.

ONIMAI: I’m Now Your Sister is an adaptation of Nekotoufu-sensei’s manga by Studio Bind and Toho, who’s produced such series like Dr Stone, Haikyuu, Jujitsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, Jobless Reincarnation and my absolute favourite Teasing Master Takagi-san. They have the pedigree to make something special if they’re given the right tools.
ONIMAI weren’t such good tools
.
It stars Mahiro, a reclusive young man otherwise known as a hikikomori, a form of severe social withdrawal of adolescents and young adults who hole themselves up in their parents’ houses, unable to work or go to school. This honestly had the makings of a beautifully wholesome story about rehabilitation but it gets hampered down so much by perverted, tasteless fanservice that made me question on several occasions who on earth they made this for.
But anyway, Mahiro awoke one day to discover he - or rather she - had been transformed into a girl by her genius, supremely more talented and atrociously fetishly weaponized little sister, Mihari, hence the title I’m Now Your Sister.

The two surprisingly share several touching moments that makes me long for the series just to be about the pure innocent bonds Mahiro develops with the rest of the cast throughout her time as a girl without the nauseating perverted stuff. It’s actually quite heartwarming seeing Mahiro struggling to readjust to the outside world from beyond her bedroom and relying on her sister for moral support or when she bakes her some cookies in Home Economics class to show how much she appreciates all she’s done for her.

I just don’t get why the producers shoved in so much fanservice. It added nothing to the narrative and largely took away from it. One episode saw the fetishly-weaponized Mihari bizarrely making a move on her sibling out of nowhere when she got drunk and had to be pulled away by another disgusting sexual creature with unrealistic and disturbing G-cup breasts, reminding Mihari Mahiro isn’t her brother. (Mahiro's true gender was supposed to be a secret the two shared) Mihari then turned her lesbian incest fetish on her, saying “Then you, Kaede-oneechan” before proceeding to pin her to the ground and make out with her.

Yeah, because that’s what I needed in my wholesome anime, a contrived homoerotic make-out session and actual sexual assault!

It makes the writing feel so juvenile and perverse, ruining what should otherwise be an uplifting series about a NEET’s rehabilitation and second chance to do things over and form the bonds she wasn’t able to when she originally attended school as a boy, and the annoying part is, there are plenty of non-erotic, fun and warm moments sprinkled around the horny bits. It leads me to believe they were trying to cater to two different audiences: people like me who want to see a warm setting and people who want eye-candy.

It really doesn’t work.

I can never ever advocate for treating a girl like an object for someone’s sexual amusement and that’s what ONIMAI does, utterly ruining its premise.

Ultimately, I can’t award this series anymore than a 4.3/10, which is a real shame because there’s plenty of touching moments that warm my heart, like when Mahiro learns the agonising pain of her first period and has to be looked after and comforted by her sister or when Mihiri comes down with a fever and Mahiro does her level best to care for her in a roles reversed. Even the previously mentioned sexual object of Mihiri’s bizarre attack, Kaede, gets some pretty good characterization and becomes a bit of a role model to Mahiro.
Mahiro becoming besties with Kaede’s little sister and expending her social circle is also really cute.

Animation – It can quite a bit to be desired. They seem to spend much of their budget animating Kaede’s juggle chest physics in an excruciatingly nauseating fashion.

Artstyle – It’s cute. The use of warm colours and bubbles lend the series a tenderness that probably kept me in it because the fanservice making me vomit on several occasions.

Sound – Passable.

OP and ED – Needlessly perverted and horny and I skipped each.

In conclusion: Trying to cater to two different audiences is a recipe for disaster. The wholesome moments will always be bogged down and washed away in the tidal wave of perverted horniness.

Final score – 43/100