This is a serious attempt to answer the question.
I don’t mean to be a hater. In fact, I wish with all my heart that I had a kawaii imouto to wake me up in the mornings. And even if I love to troll the ending of OreImo, I am actually a huge fan of the series.
However, I will also admit that the imouto fetish does not exactly lend itself to Pulitzer Prize level writing.
Even if one might argue that imouto stories like Who is Imouto? and Oniichan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankei Nai Yo Ne! aren’t trying to be deep literature and that, when taken for what they are, they’re entertaining (this is the point of view I normally take with such things), it still wouldn’t change very much if we’re going by the classical writing standards honed by generations of craft and practice. If you’re trying to be crap and you succeed in being crap, then congratulations, you’re still crap!
Why are imouto stories generally failures in this point of view? It’s because the question of incest is never dealt with in a meaningful way. In choosing to fetishise the little sister, the story portrays incest as a positive thing, but it doesn’t go far enough with the theme to actively subvert society expectations or to make a statement out of this. Instead, we’re left with a confusing message and a clashing tone, because the “imouto character” is a static archetype borrowed from countless other anime series, who is inserted into the story without any regard for context. It lacks individuality; it lacks expression. Note that this is exactly what the imouto series wants to achieve.
In short:
The aim of the imouto story directly opposes the aim of good art.
Therefore:
An imouto anime can never be considered good art.
But wait, is that all there is to it? Does that really mean that an imouto incest story can never be actually be good in the view of a pretentious literature critic, just because it is an imouto incest story?
I’m not going to challenge the position of the “pretentious literature critic” – that would defeat the purpose of this post. And in my mind, I think there is a way for imouto incest to be portrayed in a way that is appealing to such a crowd. I’m not talking about deconstructing the trope as if that is the only way to make it good, so no Yosuga no Sora mentions here. I think there is a way to portray the imouto character with the same moral ambiguity as we see in anime and to tell a good story around that. Yes, really.
Here is my number one rule in storytelling:
There is no such thing as a bad premise. There is only bad execution.
See, there is a difference between ‘premise’ and ‘aim’. The premise of an imouto story – that is, that a little sister develops a crush on her brother – is, like anything, open to interpretation. The writer then takes that premise and develops an aim with it. For most imouto incest writers, it would be to show how cute the imouto character is. But you can really do anything you want with that. Good writers can make a great story out of a decent-sounding premise, but great writers can make something brilliant out of something that seems terrible.
Since, of course, there is no such thing as a “good” imouto story yet (well, as far as I know of), I’m going to make one up here. You and I have not developed any author trust, so I’m not going to show you an actual story because I doubt many of you would read it. Instead, I’m going to just pitch an idea and be as detailed about it as possible so you can understand the thought that went into it.
If I’m writing an imouto incest story, the first thing I want to do is decide is my stance on the issue. I can’t bullshit on this, so I have to build the story around my honest opinion: I love little sisters and I love watching siblings who are close act protectively towards each other, but incest crosses the line. However, I do want to tease at the prospect before sinking the ship.
Thus, the proposed title: One Day, My Little Sister Suddenly Became a Brocon!!
… yes I can make this work. Shut up.
The story begins predictably from the title: the little sister wakes up one day and has a crush on her older brother. Unlike most of these kinds of stories, however, it is told through the imouto’s point of view, not the older brother’s.
The imouto has this strong feeling that she doesn’t belong. All her memories except the ones with her brother in them are gone. It’s as if her entire being revolves around him now. So she has complicated feelings. She does not like the idea of incest; she thinks that it is wrong, but can’t help being drawn to her brother anyway, who, as it turns out, is a rather bland nice guy (we all know the type). Her sense of disconnect with reality is further reinforced when she notices that he has a harem which he is oblivious to.
It’s a mystery story, with the familiar setting of the eroge being portrayed with a subtle horror element because we’re seeing it through the little sister’s point of view. The main mystery is whether her incestuous feelings for her brother are determined by the “rules” of the universe or whether it’s because she genuinely finds him attractive. He shows a lot of concern for her and comes off as a genuinely kind and thoughtful person. For some reason, he is much more protective than the average older brother would be. Even though the imouto can’t help but feel creeped out, she’s touched more than she cares to admit.
After struggling with herself in this fashion, she learns that the world she is in is fake. She’s been inserted into this fantasy world based on an eroge. Convinced that all her current memories are fake and desperate to get all her real memories back, she learns that to return to the real world, she has to undo all the “flags” – that is, she has to cockblock her brother’s harem.
So the imouto declares war on her brother.
She dresses up as a guy (turning out to be a delicious reverse trap) and starts going after her brother’s harem herself. It’s Player versus Player. Sibling rivalry, literally.
The majority of the middle portion of the story is about the imouto attempting to outmanoeuvre her brother and all the tactical decisions she makes. It plays out like a chess match. The imouto is a tomboy, so it turns out to be surprisingly easy to charm some of the girls. Others are harder to win over. All of them have genuinely good reasons for liking her brother, as it turns out. The childhood friend is the hardest boss to beat.
The problem is, as this goes on, is that the brother doesn’t actually seem to care that his imouto is cockblocking him. He’s firmly on the imouto route. He seems innocent, but the imouto cannot be sure what his intentions are. She also realises that their battle will end if she falls completely for him, at which point she knows that she will lose all of her free will and will never be able to go back to the real world. But the more she attempts to cockblock her brother, the more she finds herself motivated by jealousy against his haremettes. She has no idea which will happen first: the reversal of all the flags or her losing the game.
Finally, though, she manages to reset all the flags – except for her own. The imouto is caught in limbo. She’s frustrated and in despair, and that’s when her brother makes his move.
He hugs her tightly and tells her, “Please don’t go! I want you to stay with me forever! You’ll never be able to come back if you leave! We’ll never be siblings again!” The imouto is torn; her heart is going DOKI DOKI like crazy. The brother is complex. She can see the fear and self-loathing on his face and she does not understand it.
That’s when the childhood friend comes back into the picture and reveals the truth about this world. It turns out that she was the one who created it because blah blah magic. In real life, she was the one who was genuinely in love with our seemingly bland male MC. (So he actually did score a magical girlfriend without harem logic coming into play.) But MC-kun treated the childhood friend as a surrogate sister. He was always morose, always angry with himself. He wasn’t that nice a guy. The childhood friend was the only one who understood him.
And the reason MC-kun was such an irritable person?
His little sister was dead.
She had died many years ago in an accident. It was something he had always blamed himself for. When they were kids, they were playing on the road because he had no sense of danger. She adored him so she followed him around, and he adored her. But when a car came swerving towards them, the brother dodged to the side and didn’t grab his sister in time. And so she died.
That changed the brother forever. His guilt caused him to retreat within himself, until the only friend he had was his childhood friend. He became obsessed with the memory of his dead little sister. He played little sister games all the time, as if wanting to recreate all his memories with her. When the childhood friend confessed her love to him, he just numbly rejected her and said she was the sister he could never have now. There could be no romance between them.
“Why aren’t you happy, then?” she asked him. “If I’m your sister now, why haven’t you been able to get over the one you lost?”
“Shut up!” he said. “You wouldn’t understand!”
He was right, she decided. She didn’t understand. But that didn’t change her feelings for him. She thought that the only way to make MC-kun happy was to create a world where the little sister had never died. Her reference was, of course, the brother’s eroge.
Now knowing the truth, the imouto is horrified. If she undoes the flag, she will vanish as if she never existed and the world will go back to a state where her brother was constantly unhappy. She can’t wish that kind of miserable fate on him. But she also doesn’t want her love to turn into something incestuous because that is the only way she can stay permanently in the world. She now knows why her feelings were so corrupted: in this fabricated world, the imprinting that normally happens with siblings never happened.
They can never have a normal sibling relationship.
The imouto is saddened, and she knows there is only one that she can do. She gives it all up. She tells her brother that she loves him, always has, and that she would never blame him for anything. These are her true feelings. Everyone cries. It’s emotional and shit. Once she tells him how she feels, she vanishes forever and the world reverts back to normal.
The brother wakes up with no memories about this fantasy world. At first, that makes the childhood friend sad, because he’s gone back to staring at his sister’s grave. But after a long, pregnant pause, he leans over and holds the childhood friend’s hand in his and they walk away together.
The purpose of this is to show that sibling love is so powerful that it can change the world and that fictional stories are great therapeutic treatment. But at some point, you have to face reality.
The End
I actually wonder why I went to all the effort to typing that all up when I could have easily summed it up as Anohana crossed with The World God Only Knows but with imoutos. Um. Also, I read over it now that I’ve finished and… it seems cheesy. For some reason, it sounded better in my head. But whatever, this was a fun post to write. Also, I think I would actually watch an anime with this plot, if only for the imouto versus MC-kun harem shenanigans.
So to answer the question: Can an imouto incest story ever be actually good?
… No.
But if you are a better writer than me, then yes. Maybe! Give it a try!
Frog-kun's Blog 
Are you kidding? I think this story is pretty good! That’s just my personal opinion though, and you probably won’t win any accolades or awards, but hey, that wasn’t the point of your story. You had a plot, you had interesting characters, you had an awesome twist, and that’s enough to make a good story. It doesn’t need the approval of literary critics, nor does it need to win anything.
It entertained, it was fun to read, and it was touching at the end. That’s all you need for a good story, and I think you delivered that pretty well (even if it wasn’t a full story but just an outline).
If we’re talking about stories, thanks for your comments. I really appreciate it. Well, actually, before you put that comment down, I had already put those plans into action. I’ve stopped writing new drafts, and just went back to editing the original and adding stuff to it. Meaning I thought to myself, “screw changing the story, forget changing the plot, let’s just add new characters, change some old ones to flesh the story out better and give the protagonist some motive other than revenge but I’ll basically leave it as it is.” So the next “draft” will have new material, but it will no longer be a rewritten draft. Um, something like a DVD with bonus scenes after you’ve watched the original in theaters. I think.
So thanks for your feedback and I’ll try to get the new material out as soon as possible. I guess the new characters will have a significant impact on the plot, but it will largely remain the same and I had better delete the second half of the whole story (as in the last eighteen chapters or so) because I kind of ripped off Samurai Deeper Kyo and Rosario Vampire at the end. I regretted it – okay, because I ended up writing something akin to a fanfiction with crazy ideas of my own it isn’t really a rip-off but I didn’t like it (though you can judge it for yourself if you ever read that far).
Thanks again!
Heh, glad I could help. I think you had better email me when the final draft is up and running.
I suggest you try Koi Kaze and Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru before concluding that imouto stories can’t be good. I’m assuming that most of your consumptions are either light novels like Oreimo or eroge like Yosuga no Sora. There can be deeper stories using incest especially in shoujo manga. I haven’t explored too many of them either though.
I knew someone would mention Koi Kaze in the comments! ;)
No one is saying a story about incest can’t be good. Well, at least I’m not. I did focus on the light novel genre-specific stuff more because that’s where the aim is at cross-purposes with good writing, but incest involving little sisters in general? Any good writer could pull it off, I’m sure.
Lol cool story indeed.
IMO, imouto incest stories can be good, but i think i just dun like it when writers overplay on the “OH I’m soooo in love with my little sister” and stick some form of visual (pink images of the sister that leaves the MC melting) into my head that constructs the imouto-chan as the centre of the universe. Oh the worst bit is “Don’t worry onii-san will protect you” shit. (idk some writers love to do that)
But maybe that’s just personal preference.
Well, basing on this premise, i think the story should have the little sister having a healthy (overly healthy maybe) adoration bordering on love, but also an awareness that incest is “wrong”. The story could proceed with either side being dominant, and should show some decent internal conflict. Throw in whatever magical world or harem, memory-loss sisters or some accident that leaves one of them disadvantaged, maybe some dark mystery behind the onii-san in here to spice up the storyline. The issue of sibling love needs to be addressed in the story, otherwise it’ll just be copy-and-paste cute little sisters. I don’t think there’s a need to change the world though, but nice one with the reality thing.
That being said, I normally don’t like imouto incest stories, but i wasn’t too opposed to mahouka koukou no rettousei.
I didn’t mind Tatsuya’s relationship with Miyuki either, but what I disliked about Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei was his (and Miyuki’s) overpoweredness, and his high level of Mary Sue/Marty Stu-ness. The guy was like a god who can do pretty much everything, had a tragic and abusive past to boot, and girls falling for him (only for him to reject them and they hook up with other characters, which is a relief). But seriously, giving him the most overpowered magic (yeah, he can’t do complex stuff but he doesn’t need to), super taijutsu and ninjutsu, lack of emotions to make him look cool, and making him a genius who had written theoretical essays on engineering CADs to boot……um, I think that’s a bit much. And the sister is a beautiful and talented mage with powers almost matching her brother’s. The siblings pretty much have it made (and Tatsuya’s tragic backstory just makes it more Sue-ish).
Other than that, the story is pretty descriptive and has an immersive world (though the excessive details bore me, but that’s personal preference rather than a flaw) filled with other interesting characters. I liked Mikihisa and the other characters way more than Tatsuya, because they seem more human and relatable. Maybe the author should have them as the main characters instead of Tatsuya and have Tatsuya as the final boss or something.
I thought the main characters were the reason as to why the novels are so popular. I think it’s a bit unfair to condemn them like that when there are no other characters like them in other works, it’s kind of like telling the people who enjoy these types of characters to ‘go die’.
Also why is it bad to have a Mary Sue character exactly, I don’t understand? To me everything in that list of personality traits you just gave me was cool. Is it a self esteem issue or something similar? Do you have an easier time relating to a character like Shinji Ikari? While I don’t have trouble relating with Tatsuya, I think it’s odd that you feel that it’s important for a good character.
Also, since Tatsuya was heavily based on Shiva the author kinda had no choice but to portray him as being as powerful as he is. Fortunately, everything made sense in context–it would have been strange for Tatsuya not to be so good at what he does with his pedigree and since he put in all of his time towards the sole purpose of being strong. His strength was intentional, and because its intentional the story actually asks the right questions around the nature of power. It’s also noteworthy to see that Tatsuya doesn’t really behave nor think like the standard hero–for one thing, he really can’t be called human. Tatsuya is a monster. A noble monster, perhaps, but a monster all the same. He can be gentle, but also terrible and heartless. And his “tragic” backstory really isn’t that tragic once it’s revealed that his family really had no choice–their reasons were completely understandable, since the logic behind it was basically putting chains on a dangerous dragon who would destroy them if not appeased; the higher ups in the clan actually show a good degree of respect for him, and that the treatment he receives from the lower members of the house do not bother him one bit-and he actually prefers it because it allows him to move easier and not be forced to do anything other than what he wants to do( which is to protect and be with his sister). The clan trembles in fear of him because they know if they make one wrong move Tatsuya would destroy them as a matter of cold, and perfect logic. He is master of the house in everything but title.
Actually, your story feels more like a variant of Sword Art Online’s Alicization arc. And there seems to be traces of Little Busters in here. If you want to add an additional twist, the real “antagonist” isn’t really the Childhood friend. It’s the oddly absent mother, absent in the anime sense. There’s a good reason for this. The boy is an orphan in reality. His real mother is dead, she died in the same accident that killed the boy’s sister. No, this world’s mother figure is the “Psychologist” who is trying to help the boy. And not only that, the psychologist is a personal friend of the Childhood friend.
So, rather than ending with just Imouto Incest, there’s also an almost oedipal relationship between the “Mother” and the Male “Protagonist.” ontop of it all. There’s a great deal of teasing on the “Mother’s side” . However, the Mother slides in and out, and appears irregularly, because of “work commitments”. The real hints that this world is virtual would therefore center upon the strange, almost collegial relationship between the Psychologist and the Childhood friend.
Furthermore, the boy isn’t a boy in the real world. He is in his mid twenties, officially committed to a strained relationship with his childhood friend. And the root of it lies in the fact that he hasn’t gotten over his sister’s death. Both of them are in the scenario by mutual consent, with the boy’s memories suppressed.
Adding to the surreality of it, is the very setting of their school. The material, topic and even manner of instruction covered within the school seems to be way beyond High School Level. In-fact, much of it seems to be something straight out of under-graduate courses. This isn’t apparently obvious from the start, since only Home Room is shown at the very beginning. But as time goes on, it starts getting clear that something is quite strange and off too.
To add the horror even further, the Imouto’s memories are nothing more than a series of selected “memory uploads” made before the Imouto’s death. The artificial intelligence that is the Imouto in reality was patterned after a fusion of the Childhood Friend and the Mother’s thought patterns, with a covering of Imouto memories. It’s not a full re-creation of the real Imouto. And that’s the reason why she has so much agency for an artificial being. She’s based out of real people.
And then, there are mysterious “watchers”, who take various guises. This may be in reality, a Neuro-computing Science team’s VR project, in collaboration with a team of Research Psychologists. And the Childhood Friend and the Brother is in reality two Undergraduates, recommended by the “Mother”, aka, the Psychologist friend of the Childhood Friend. Neither the “Childhood Friend”, nor the “Mother” is alone in this project.
The ending actually leaves the fate of the artificial personality of the Imouto ambiguous. But, if the Childhood Friend’s last words in the closing scene was a catchphrase of the Imouto, it might actually provide a clue as to her eventual fate (aka, memory upload into the Childhood Friend’s mind). Along with a stinger, Inception like that makes you question whether this really is “base” reality.
The external world itself, is left ambiguous. Is it a Magi-tek world? Is it just another level of a simulation? Is this a Sci-fi world? How far into the future is it? Is it even on Earth? Or perhaps some kind of hyper-real play put on for the benefit of some Post-human audience?
Oh wow, have I ever told you how much in awe I am of your imagination? Now I’m wondering if you write stories of your own. Something tells me they would be damn interesting.
Thank you. I do have an account under the very same name on FF.net, but I struggle to follow stories through. Too bad this story probably would be hard (nearly impossible, IMO) to squeeze into a Sci-fi short story competition.
But, yes, there’s nothing limiting Imouto Incest stories from being good. The problem is, the bulk of the authors are very, very green. It’s not the western model of fantasy authors, where many authors take decades for their big break. And in fact, now of days, increasing numbers of authors manage to get published at a much earlier age, which may account for why quite a few of the more recent pulp fiction are quite flawed, in themselves.
You are basically seeing authors that may, had their first book came out a decade or two from now, be excellent authors. Problem is, many of them achieve their big break at a very raw stage of their writing career, and this is what’s been happening in the LN industry. Which is why I maintain that many LN authors improve significantly over the course of their first big break – Haruhi’s latest volumes were more cohesively written and plotted, Monogatari was Nisio Isin’s second work, the last few volumes of Hagani have been getting much better, Kawahra Reki’s latest SAO Books (and Accel World itself), especially from Mother’s Rosario onwards are better written than the first four volumes, etc, etc….
I think I understand what your problem with Oreimo/imouto anime in general is and I think I more or less agree with you. The bad art comes from conflicting with it’s own themes and pushing morals only to backtrack before committing to anything socially outrageous.
Something to keep in mind is that if the writer tried to write an ending where the protagonist hooks up with his imouto and tried to pass that off as an okay thing to do, his entire series of books could find themselves banned from stores in Japan or forced into the adult section. Aki Sora found itself in that situation for exactly that reason.
If you want to judge the imouto romance genre as a whole I would suggest reading some of the eroge that jump started the genre. Especially since Oreimo itself is surrounded by eroge themes. I have seen this type of story done well before, just not in anime form. Kana Imouto is the one I can say is a must read.(and probably the only Incest story I can actually say that I enjoyed.) I’ve also heard that Koi Kaze(manga and anime) is very good though I haven’t read/watched that for myself.
The interesting thing with the visual novel market that spawned this whole imouto fascination is the way they make you pull the trigger. I’ve played two visual novels with strong imouto ties that and both of them pulled this off well. You don’t want to see the protagonist make a move on his sister? He wont, even if you are on her route there is more than one ending and one of those will involve resisting that temptation. It might not sound like a big deal, but when you have to personally accept the advances of the of the imouto it takes on a different mood that a light novel or anime could never hope to emulate.
All of that said I still don’t really like this stuff, but Kana Imouto did give me a new respect for it. You might not like imouto stories in visual novels either, for my own part I don’t really care for them in general, but at the very least I can tell you that they don’t go out of their way to mutilate themselves the way that Oreimo does.(at least judging from the two I’ve read for myself: Kana Imouto and A Profile.)
That’s a really interesting thing about imouto eroge. I’m not much of a visual novel player, so I actually didn’t know about all the different dimensions these things have, but I’m not surprised. It does seem like a lot of fun, even if I’m not particularly into incest! I’ll definitely try to play a few of these games when I have time, just to broaden my appreciation. Thanks for that.
I think you are implying that an imouto incest story can never be good because its execution is bound to the scrutinized by the readers and publishers so much that any author working on it would be forced to crippling its execution. I’d say if an author decided to screw them and do what one think is the best for the story itself, then it can become good.
As a side note, I never thought that you trolled on the ending of OreImo. I thought that was your opinion and I agreed with it.
That’s a really good point. I do wonder to what extent publishing companies and editors force writers to mutilate a potentially interesting story. I think it must happen more with taboo subjects like incest, like you said.
As for me trolling OreImo, it doesn’t mean I was lying exactly. I put out some sort of ridiculous-sounding interpretation and the fact that you could take it seriously in itself proved a point. You’re free to interpret what I wrote however you want.
I really like your imouto story =) If it were an anime I would definitely watch it and probably think it’s good. OreImo is pretty much the only imouto anime I’m familiar with, and while I can’t say it’s a great series overall, I thought there were a lot of genuinely good things about it beneath all the fan service and over-the-top harem drama. So if someone asked, I would probably say it’s good. But that’s just my opinion =P
I too still think of OreImo as a good anime. Obviously not so much from “literary” standards, but as an anime I think it’s quite fun in all of its ridiculousness.
Glad you liked my own little story too :)
First of all, I have to care about the siblings involved. If I don’t, then it means very little how good their romance is. I already told you in a previous post Señor Frog. I care for neither Kyosuke or Kirino. As far as I’m concerned, both people suck.
Oni Ai, from what people I trust told me, is more about the girls than the incest thing. I don’t even know whether Yosuga no Sora is worth my time. From the FEW scenes I watched…no, it isn’t.
In any case, there’s only one incest anime show I legitimately cared for and you can guess which one it is based on my preferences.
Ugh, writing this comment was tough! I agree with pretty much all of your points except for the last one, because that story sounds epic and I would totally watch it if it hadn’t already been spoiled >.<. While i'm an only child and therefore don't have any real experience to go with, I can imagine loving a little sister and wanting to protect her. Moving into romantic feelings, however, would be unthinkable for me personally. Though I know this is a cliché, love is not something that can be controlled and it is therefore entirely possible for a legitimate relationship to develop between siblings. It's not societally acceptable for various reasons, but a genuine, loving relationship between two such people very much has the potential to occur. It's unlikely, yes, but for that reason I feel that it isn't right to say that no imouto incest story could ever be good, because who are we to dictate that no such relationship could be worthwhile?
Whether an anime imouto incest tale could ever be good is another story entirely, just because of how any such idea is going to be portrayed in the anime medium. I think there are 2 cases where it could be done well though:
1. As with your story idea where the imouto incest story becomes secondary to other plot. It's still there, and it's still a focus, but it facilitates the telling of another story. With this type I think you could include all of the normal hallmarks of imouto incest anime, namely fan service and comedy.
2. Something that tries to take the issues at hand seriously. Two people that love each other but are seriously conflicted over their feelings. Being spurned by other loved ones and friends, rejected because of how they feel. Coming to terms with why other people react that way, but also why they shouldn't have to feel ashamed for loving another human being. This type would have to avoid tropes like the plague and attempt to be serious from start to finish. Comedy could be included, but not the over-the-top stuff, and not anything regarding the central relationship.
Others may disagree, but I think it's wrong to dismiss those stories outright, even if most of them focus on the wrong things.
Where's that Saber comic strip from?
Yeah, I have to say I agree with you. Your type 2 stories do pop up in literature and in some anime (the ones that don’t fetishise the little sister) but I do have to wonder if it is indeed possible to write a story that still does the whole imouto fetishising thing and still manages to be compelling.
As for the Saber strip, I got it from some forum on MAL, via google searching. Methinks it’s fanart, but since I attained it via an anonymous source, I can’t credit the artist. Shame.
And haha, glad you liked the story. It was indeed a lot of fun to come up with!
Seems like a fair division. So in short, it boils down into two. One, where the imouto incest story took a backside and the importance of her role was “shared” with the other heroines of the MC’s harem (most harem anime – light-hearted, humorous and ecchi, any serious moments, especially ones regarding social acceptance is ignored) and two, where the MC chose the imouto route and where they had to struggle against social acceptance.
And I actually believe that most (from what I had watched nor read) imouto stories can delve themselves in either of the two, or even in between. Oreimo can be said to be the former type for the “longest period” ever – Kirino “tsun” so much that I grimaced when people categorized her as tsundere. At least, until towards the ending, though Oreimo’s take on the subject of social acceptance was questionable at best. I still enjoyed the show though, no doubt about that (ironically, I enjoyed it the most during the Kuroneko arc).
Sadly, even though I’m a visual novel, I haven’t play Kana Imouto, and I haven’t read Koi Kaze – two titles which seems like they are of the latter type, and titles which were certainly praised in this post. Of cause, will definitely check them out hopefully soon. If you were to ask me, I will leave my answer as “undecided” for now until I had experienced more of these stories.
Hmm, I’m indecisive, but hey, I got the qualities of a MC.
Your story was actually pretty fantastic. I would totally have read/watched/bought that shit. And then prayed that there was doujinshi and fanfiction where there was an alternative “Happy Wincest End” that negated all the main themes of the story.
[…] “reading way too much into things” deal, as could any of Froggykun’s stuff on OreImo (although those seem quite a bit less “serious” than my post). In fact, even […]
[…] and even brother x sister incest are a little more palatable, but one could also argue that an imouto incest story will always be crap. While a “forbidden love” angle will always have its appeal, you are more likely to […]
[…] be less posts. Also, I haven’t even worked out what story I will write. It could be that imouto incest story I thought of that one time. All I know is that I want to do it. There’s this itch in me that […]
[…] earlier post that I was attempting NaNoWriMo this year, and that the novel in question would be an imouto incest story (although different from what I outlined in that post). Ultimately, this NaNoWriMo novel of mine […]
[…] Can an Imouto Incest Story ever be actually good? […]
You, sir, are a latter-day M. Night Shyamalan.
Ouch, something tells me that’s not a compliment lol
[…] Still, it’s not Kirino herself which makes her the best imouto character of all time, but rather her controversial relationship with Kyousuke. From the beginning when we learn about her obsession with incestuous-themed eroge, her relationship with her brother becomes colored by odd vibes. At face value, it’s the stilted, odd reconciliation of estranged brother and sister. But underneath it all, there is something much more romantic: from Kyousuke’s first encounter to their eventual marriage, their relationship treads the uncomfortable line between openly incestuous and awkwardly platonic. This left many people conflicted about how they should (or were supposed to) feel about the siblings, leading some to decry it as a shallow mockery of real sibling relationships (I personally thought it was the other way around) and even question (tongue-in-cheek) whether imouto incest love stories can actually be good. […]
[…] comment on an article on Fantastic Memes (Froggy-kun’s […]
I think Koi Kaze is probably the best romances out there.
I don’t have a problem with incest; if two people love each other dearly, who am I to stop them? But the thing with OreImo and YnS is that I don’t see it as love. It comes up to dramatically, and I don’t feel Sora OR Kirino’s connection to their brothers. I see it as lust, not love.
By the way, Koi Kaze is a mature, thoughtful discussion on incest. Even if you’re uncomfy with such stuff, you won’t regret it!