Spoilers marked below.
It snowed, so after binging a manga I shouldn’t have binged on Sunday, I find myself having time to write about it. Now there is something that some of you may know, or figured out by now. I am a rather large fan of the Imouto genre. For those who don’t know, congrats on still being a functioning member of society, and sorry for exposing you to such a thing, but in short. Imouto genre follows what is typically a relationship between siblings, the imouto being the little sister. So stumbling upon a “wholesome” imouto series was a pleasant change of pace since it seems all I have been reading lately is well, yandere and yuri series. When a Sister Complex Brother and a Brother Complex Sister Become Honest is a book that does exactly what it says it does, its about two siblings who have a complex for one another and become honest about it, and my god, what a time.
The story follows the main Ritsu, an average high schooler just vibing as they do. One day however Ritsu is out with his bros and the conversation of being in a relationship comes up. Wanting an excuse to be at home more Ritsu decides to tell the group that he actually has a girlfriend named Uta, and show them a picture of the adorable middle schooler. Naturally, Uta isn’t so much his girlfriend but actually his younger sister. Being thrown into a situation where his friends find him and Uta together he whispers to her about his little lie and asks her to play along.
Which she does, I mean, did you not read the title?
When a Sister Complex Brother and a Brother Complex Sister Become Honest is a rather cute tale of two siblings that pretend to date outside of their house, reverting to the typical overly affection brother-sister once they are at home. In short, they don’t pretend to date, they actually date. Chapter after chapter the two becoming closer seeming to ignore the fact they are related and hiding it from the social groups they mingle in. Which this makes no sense to me because they look like, I don’t know, fucking siblings. (literally)
Navigating their relationship, others and confronting hardship as more and more learn about their true situation Uta and Ritsu struggle with everything from not being able to have children, to not legally being able to wed. The series struggles with the taboo relationship fairly well, adding harsh realization throughout the typically bubbly rom-com. Rather it’s friends, themselves, or even their parents discovering their secret the story does a good job at being self-aware, then saying fuck that, even if the world is against us, we will just be against the world.
It is this type of storytelling that for some reason, my heart endears. Rather it be OreImo or the slew of other ecchi romcoms that sprinkle the series the black and white cut that “hey the world doesn’t accept this” but the MCs stand in the face of that, defiantly. Within this genre there is a lot of sway, rather it comes down to they aren’t actually related, or their cousins, or something of the sort. So it is rather rare for a series to be like look, there aren’t any cop-outs, there aren’t any gimmicks, this story is about incest love, period, and I hate to say, I’m here for it.
When a Sister Complex Brother and a Brother Complex Sister Become Honest overall was a fun read, a solid 6 or maybe even 7. It was cute and wholesome assuming one can stomach the fact that they are siblings, which as I stated above I give little to no fucks about. But there was one thing about this series that I honestly, didn’t understand, it is a spoiler so I will state it below.
SPOILER
So there is this part where Ritsu the brother has to fill out the typical “what do you want to do when you graduate” deal. He is a gamer nerd, so is Uta, it is one of their major bonding points so naturally his guidance consular mentions something in the development world. He likes the idea but understands that the gaming world is a bit chaotic, and may not yield the money needed to support his sister, therefore he decides to go into public service instead.
Then my brain was like, “wait a second, mother fucker do you realize what public service is?”
Let me get this straight, Ritsu, who literally wants to have a life fucking his sister Uta. Decides the best thing for both of them is for him to become a public servant? The most covered, vetted, background dived into profession that eats and spits out thousands of people every year for some of the most minor shit people can do. But that’s fine, being a massive siscon, that probably won’t make one lose elections.
Fortunately, Uta talks him out of it, stating that she cannot stand the idea of him changing his dream for her benefit. This is also followed by a charming moment of Ritsu and Uta getting caught by their parents getting a little too friendly on the table (this is the most kink this series gets) this was the only time the series felt intense as they are rejected heavily by their parents, their father even swinging on his son Ritsu. The two then struggle with what to do, do they run away? Or do they do whatever they can to get the blessing of their parents? The outcome is rather nice and left me with a good feeling. But I’m done defending incest, for now, thanks for the read!
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