(Adapted from my MAL review)
You have got to love it when there is a possibility to go the incest route, but that’s just it; it’s only a possibility. After all, when there are other girls around you who would make a good lover, what could possibly make you want to bang your sister instead? Well, I guess there are some people who would have an answer to that question; there are people who are fans of incest anime, after all. One such incest anime was one that I’ve known about for years; however, mostly because of how sexual I had heard it was, I held off on watching it up until now. When I finally watched it, however, I didn’t expect it to be any good; somehow, it managed to meet my expectations and pleasantly surprise me at the same time.
Lads, ladies, and non-binaries, here is my review of “Yosuga no Sora: In Solitude, Where We Are Least Alone”.
Yosuga no Sora starts off like quite a decent number of other visual novels. Haruka and Sora Kasugano are a pair of twins who move into their grandparents’ house in the countryside after losing their parents in a car accident. This place is somewhere where they’ve spent summers before, and when they arrive, they end up reuniting with childhood friends Akira Amatsume and Nao Yorimichi, as well as making new friends in Kazuha Migiwa and Ryouhei Nagazato. From there, the story splits into four different routes, where Haruka romances one of each of the four leading ladies, with memories of his past playing a part in most of them.
First of all, I need to make this fact perfectly clear; while they don’t show everything, this anime DOES have sex scenes. If you are uncomfortable with that, I suggest you stop reading this review now, because this is one anime that you will not want to watch, regardless of my own verdict of it. With that said, however, for once, I didn’t feel uncomfortable when watching most of those sex scenes; either all of the other borderline-hentai anime I have watched have desensitized me, or it really had more to do with how the sex scenes I was comfortable with contained consensual sex and really felt like love consummation. Most of them could have been taken out, though, and it would not have affected the story much.
Speaking of the story, as I mentioned before, the story is divided into four different routes, which each focus of Kazuha, Akira, Nao, and Sora, in that order. This kind of set-up would remind one of anime like Amagami SS and Photo Kano, but to me, each route felt more like they branched from certain parts of the story. The first nine episodes - which covered the first three routes - were all at least decent; they gave a good amount of character development to those involved. Out of the three, I liked Akira’s route the best; Akira is a fun character to begin with, and I enjoyed seeing her story and the development of her relationship with Haruka.
Then, for the last three episodes, we get.... *sigh*.... Sora’s route. Now, I’ll give it credit where credit is due; I did find it to be a good portrayal of how incest is viewed by society. However, THAT DOES NOT MAKE THIS ROUTE GOOD. We are treated to at least one sexual scene per episode of this route, whether it’s Sora masturbating to Haruka or the siblings just plain engaging in sexual activity; add in the simple fact that they’re siblings (and blood-related ones, at that), and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a very awkward and uncomfortable experience. Further damaging my opinion of this route, however, is Sora Kasugano herself; she is a completely selfish brat, and I saw little to no chemistry between her and her brother. Finally, the way this route ended just left a bad taste in my mouth.
At least the end of the entire anime didn’t make me keep that sour taste, however, and do you know what I have to thank? The answer to that question is the comedic specials that air at the end of every episode, including the last one. These specials star Motoka Nogisaka, a maid who works for Kazuha’s family; apparently, she had a route in the original visual novel, so I’m assuming that these specials were added to make up for her route not being able to fit into the main series. No matter what the reason why these specials exist, however, there’s no denying that they’re quite entertaining; while I wouldn’t say that these specials were my favorite part of the series as a whole, I did enjoy Motoka as a character, as well as her relationship with Haruka, which blossomed throughout these specials. These specials even have their own ending theme - “Pinky Jones” by Momoiro Clover Z - which is not only catchy, but it also fits in with the comedic nature of these specials.
Since I talked about the ending theme for the specials, I guess I should talk about the theme songs for the main series, huh? Well, I do like eufonius’s music, and while “Hiyoku no Hane” - which serves as this anime’s opening theme - isn’t my favorite out of their songs, it fits in with the anime’s overall atmosphere and is worthy of a few re-listens; the same can be said about “Tsunagukizuna” by Nekocan featuring Junca Amaoto - the ending theme - although probably to a lesser extent. The voice acting is also pretty good; each of the characters’ voices fit the characters themselves well, and many convincing performances were given. Finally, the animation, done by feel, is very well-done; I wouldn’t say it’s perfect all of the way through, but it’s definitely pretty-looking.
Overall, Yosuga no Sora is a decent anime....if you can get over the last three episodes. I do suggest watching it if you are in the mood for something similar to Amagami SS and are comfortable with sex scenes. To those of you who are uncomfortable with incest, though, here’s today’s quote: “Don’t like, don’t watch!” (At least, don’t watch the last three episodes.)
You have got to love it when there is a possibility to go the incest route, but that’s just it; it’s only a possibility. After all, when there are other girls around you who would make a good lover, what could possibly make you want to bang your sister instead? Well, I guess there are some people who would have an answer to that question; there are people who are fans of incest anime, after all. One such incest anime was one that I’ve known about for years; however, mostly because of how sexual I had heard it was, I held off on watching it up until now. When I finally watched it, however, I didn’t expect it to be any good; somehow, it managed to meet my expectations and pleasantly surprise me at the same time.
Lads, ladies, and non-binaries, here is my review of “Yosuga no Sora: In Solitude, Where We Are Least Alone”.
Yosuga no Sora starts off like quite a decent number of other visual novels. Haruka and Sora Kasugano are a pair of twins who move into their grandparents’ house in the countryside after losing their parents in a car accident. This place is somewhere where they’ve spent summers before, and when they arrive, they end up reuniting with childhood friends Akira Amatsume and Nao Yorimichi, as well as making new friends in Kazuha Migiwa and Ryouhei Nagazato. From there, the story splits into four different routes, where Haruka romances one of each of the four leading ladies, with memories of his past playing a part in most of them.
First of all, I need to make this fact perfectly clear; while they don’t show everything, this anime DOES have sex scenes. If you are uncomfortable with that, I suggest you stop reading this review now, because this is one anime that you will not want to watch, regardless of my own verdict of it. With that said, however, for once, I didn’t feel uncomfortable when watching most of those sex scenes; either all of the other borderline-hentai anime I have watched have desensitized me, or it really had more to do with how the sex scenes I was comfortable with contained consensual sex and really felt like love consummation. Most of them could have been taken out, though, and it would not have affected the story much.
Speaking of the story, as I mentioned before, the story is divided into four different routes, which each focus of Kazuha, Akira, Nao, and Sora, in that order. This kind of set-up would remind one of anime like Amagami SS and Photo Kano, but to me, each route felt more like they branched from certain parts of the story. The first nine episodes - which covered the first three routes - were all at least decent; they gave a good amount of character development to those involved. Out of the three, I liked Akira’s route the best; Akira is a fun character to begin with, and I enjoyed seeing her story and the development of her relationship with Haruka.
Then, for the last three episodes, we get.... *sigh*.... Sora’s route. Now, I’ll give it credit where credit is due; I did find it to be a good portrayal of how incest is viewed by society. However, THAT DOES NOT MAKE THIS ROUTE GOOD. We are treated to at least one sexual scene per episode of this route, whether it’s Sora masturbating to Haruka or the siblings just plain engaging in sexual activity; add in the simple fact that they’re siblings (and blood-related ones, at that), and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a very awkward and uncomfortable experience. Further damaging my opinion of this route, however, is Sora Kasugano herself; she is a completely selfish brat, and I saw little to no chemistry between her and her brother. Finally, the way this route ended just left a bad taste in my mouth.
At least the end of the entire anime didn’t make me keep that sour taste, however, and do you know what I have to thank? The answer to that question is the comedic specials that air at the end of every episode, including the last one. These specials star Motoka Nogisaka, a maid who works for Kazuha’s family; apparently, she had a route in the original visual novel, so I’m assuming that these specials were added to make up for her route not being able to fit into the main series. No matter what the reason why these specials exist, however, there’s no denying that they’re quite entertaining; while I wouldn’t say that these specials were my favorite part of the series as a whole, I did enjoy Motoka as a character, as well as her relationship with Haruka, which blossomed throughout these specials. These specials even have their own ending theme - “Pinky Jones” by Momoiro Clover Z - which is not only catchy, but it also fits in with the comedic nature of these specials.
Since I talked about the ending theme for the specials, I guess I should talk about the theme songs for the main series, huh? Well, I do like eufonius’s music, and while “Hiyoku no Hane” - which serves as this anime’s opening theme - isn’t my favorite out of their songs, it fits in with the anime’s overall atmosphere and is worthy of a few re-listens; the same can be said about “Tsunagukizuna” by Nekocan featuring Junca Amaoto - the ending theme - although probably to a lesser extent. The voice acting is also pretty good; each of the characters’ voices fit the characters themselves well, and many convincing performances were given. Finally, the animation, done by feel, is very well-done; I wouldn’t say it’s perfect all of the way through, but it’s definitely pretty-looking.
Overall, Yosuga no Sora is a decent anime....if you can get over the last three episodes. I do suggest watching it if you are in the mood for something similar to Amagami SS and are comfortable with sex scenes. To those of you who are uncomfortable with incest, though, here’s today’s quote: “Don’t like, don’t watch!” (At least, don’t watch the last three episodes.)
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