Anime Review: "Nakaimo"

 

Nakaimo is basically as average as you can get. So average in fact, I forgot everything about it, including having already seen it, and watched it again. I had this marked as completed on MAL for who-knows-how-long, but could recall literally nothing about it, including the answer to the titular question, “who’s the MC’s little sister?”

This is a PLOT heavy show that is heavy on actual plot. The premise is that the main character’s father has passed away, and he’s soon to become the head honcho at his dad’s company, so he’s going to attend a new, elite school, where he’ll become a refined, adult, and find a wife… but, the catch is that his little sister, the illegitimate child of his father, also goes to the school; so, he’s gotta find a wife, and not ALSO bang his sister by accident in the process.

This is a fan-service loaded, echi, rom-com anime that can’t decide if it’s for the incest, or against it. Honestly, I’m not a big fan of little sister incest plots. They have a bad tendency to come off as really weird, and fetishist most of the time. This time, it was even weirder when they’re passing around literal DNA tests trying to determine who the MC’s related to by blood.

So, honestly, I question why I continued the show. I found that there were three reasons why I didn’t drop it and give it a 2 or a 3.

1. I was perplexed that I’d seen this and didn’t remember it at all, and didn’t want to admit that I’d checked it as complete without seeing it at all.

2. Once I started watching it, the plot actually did leave me guessing, because it seemed to be wrapping each question inside another question and leaving so many different flags, and red herrings that I couldn’t make heads or tails of what’s what.

And the last reason is probably the most critical…

3. The voice cast of this show is perplexingly loaded with all-star seiyuu on the Japanese side (no idea about the dub, I watched the sub).

Keep in mind this series came out in 2012, so for some of these people this was fairly early on in their career, for others, not so much.

The main character is played by Takahiro Sakurai (Reigan Arataka, Oshino Meme, Suzaku Kururugi), a VA legend, who’s been been in the business for a LONG time. He’s surrounded with female actresses who’ve also played some huge roles:

Koshimizu Ami (Kallen Satdtfeld, Holo, Matoi Ryuuko)

 Ayane Sakura (Uraraka Ochako, Nakano Yotsuba, Gabi Braun)

Kaori Ishihara (Souta from Dragon Maid, Aladdin from Magi, Murayama from DxD)

Rina Hidaka (Milim Nava, Last Order, Filo)

Ayana Taketatsu (Nino Nakano, Kirino Kousaka, Azusa from K-ON!)

So in the end, what kept me from dropping this show was the voice cast for the most part. It was so crazy loaded with talent that I couldn’t pull myself away and forced myself to finish it, even though I didn’t really get any satisfaction out of the ending or the plot.

So, I don’t really recommend watching this, unless you want to witness some VA’s in roles they’re DEFINITELY not known for. If you’re kind of a seiyuu nut, like I am, than watching this, and listening to their performances will leave you scratching your head, but will prove to be a moderately pleasurable experience. Hopefully I’ll remember I watched this series better now that I’ve written a review about it.