Incest titles: Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru vs. Koi Kaze Mini Review (anime)
November 1st, 2007 by Lianne
Since these titles are about wanting (and sometimes succeeding at) the boinking a sibling, let’s just give them a PG-18 and agree that’s best for all involved; official series website (Koi Kaze) and informational website (Boku)
Stories about incest are definitely not for everybody, but I happen to like my love stories extremely dark sometimes. It’s for this reason that I seek out the occasional incestuous love story that is NOT romantic and NOT a comedy (I will kill you, Onegai Twins). Now, I can’t remember which reviewers said what, but I definitely remember hearing harsh critique of the shoujo incest story Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru, and glowing critical praise of the seinen incest story Koi Kaze. I haven’t touched the manga for either, but I saw the 50-minute Boku OVA and the first 4 episodes of the 13-episode Koi Kaze so I could get an initial taste of each series (hence this is a Mini Review and not a full review) and see if the criticism was well-deserved.
It’s not. Boku is the story of a teenage boy who’s been in love with his twin sister pretty much his entire life, so when puberty rolls around, life sucks so badly for him that he tries to distance himself from his sister physically and emotionally–which doesn’t work, since she insists on finding out what’s wrong. When he tells her the truth, things get complicated and harsh and creepy, and the whole thing is tremendously sad. Koi Kaze is about a man in his late twenties who can’t open up to anyone emotionally, until one day he meets a doe-eyed high school girl (who looks about ten) and through one or two encounters she manages to make him cry about something and subsequently feel better about it while she comforts him. Then he finds out she’s his long lost sister…but it’s too late, he’s smitten, and now living with her is hell for him, which drives him to reject most of her sisterly affection and sniff her bra from the laundry in a moment of weakness.
I like Boku more, for one very simple reason: the main character is actually sympathetic. Everyone knows that incest is wrong, but so does he, and seeing him go mean and insane during puberty is actually pretty believable. It’s also believable that he’s in love with his sister, since they’ve been close their entire lives and he just happens to have his heart twisted in a very unfortunate way. The lead in Koi Kaze, however, is textbook creepy. I don’t know why I’m supposed to sympathize with a fully-grown adult who’s so in love with a 15-year-old girl he barely knows that he can’t stop himself from being an asshole to her and pawing at her underclothes. There’s also this entire angry attitude of “if only she weren’t my sister,” as if a man in his late twenties wanting to chase after a teenage girl isn’t its own problem. It’s true that the age difference is touched upon in the anime as being “socially gross,” but it’s a half-assed effort at covering the fact that he would’ve gone for her had she not been related to him. Here’s an executive summary of my argument:
Teenager in love with his twin sister his entire life and thus pissed and sad about it: sympathetic and unsettling
Adult in love with his long-lost 15-year-old sister after talking to her twice and thus pissed and sad about it: lame and disturbing
I do think that a man lusting after a much younger woman can be sympathetic, and I do think that a man lusting after his long lost sister can be sympathetic. But cramming both of those plotlines into one story and then making the main character a jerk who barely knows the girl doesn’t work. SORRY. And let me just add that the level of pretension in Koi Kaze kinda pisses me off, too. “Koi Kaze” means “love wind,” and refers to the breeze (complete with cherry blossoms) that rushes past the lead and his sister in those quiet, “romantic” first meetings. “Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru” literally means “I’m in love with my little sister,” which cuts directly to the chase–as does the anime itself. Despite its stronger sexual content, Boku doesn’t hide behind false pretensions of destiny and romance, it’s telling the audience that being in lust with your sibling sucks. Koi Kaze keeps trying to make me feel for a love story that’s stupid. You see the difference?
Let me just say that if the critiques of these shows were based on the idea that a story about an adult man written for adult men can be inherently insightful and a story about a teenage boy written for high school girls can’t be, then several critics deserve swift kicks to the ass. I like shoujo, but I also realize that a lot of shoujo is stupid and/or wrong. I wish more seinen fans could admit that about their genre, too.
Educated impression: I still need to finish the Koi Kaze anime and read the manga of both series to be able to give more weight to my argument. But from what I’ve seen so far, Boku is actually pretty good and Koi Kaze is decently done but pretty damn lame. (Lianne)
I really hated both versions (anime only) because of selfish and self destructive the affections of the brothers were. Koi Kaze had me seeing red because of how pathetic the main character was. He was the elder, but hardly acted like anything but an emotionally stunted man-child.
Instead of actually caring about and trying to protect their so-called loves, they make a token effort before confronting their sisters with their lust. And the objects of their affection have no clue for the most part until the moment of revelation, then fall into a sexual relationship more out of desperation of losing their beloved ‘nichan than actual sexual desire.
Give me the heroes of Angel Sanctuary and Hot Gimmick any day. At least those incestuous brothers are tortured out of desire to protect their beloved sisters and are willing to bleed rather see them harmed by anyone, including themselves. Heck, in Hot Gimmick the incestuous older brother is the best possible suitor of the three offered to the heroine, which really says something about her tastes.
Wow, I can’t believe someone actually read and commented on this! I figured an incest-based review was going to fall into obscurity, like most of the weirder reviews I write.
You’re right in that both brothers definitely harm their “beloved” sisters, and selfishly harming someone isn’t a sign of love. But toward the end of the Boku anime I sensed real regret from the brother for what he’d done, which, admittedly, I wasn’t expecting to see. He’s not a nice guy, but his rumination, pain, lashing out, and moments of regret make him sympathetic despite his flaws. In my opinion, anyway, and as far as a boy trying to nail his sister CAN be sympathetic. Koi Kaze…yeah, I dunno, I didn’t see the end, but he’s more of an actual asshole. And as the adult, he has less excuse.
In Hot Gimmick, yes, her brother is a WAY better love interest than the two rapists she has the hots for…but they made a point early in the manga to mention that he’s her ADOPTED brother, which changes the sibling dynamic from that of Boku and Koi Kaze. And Angel Sanctuary’s incest story is…creepy. I’m not sure I would call it “good,” but to each his own (and I haven’t gotten very far in that series, anyway).
Ahaha, you are so right about Koi Kaze XD
From your executive summary argument, I gather that you are more bothered by the age difference, than by the incest issue. That’s of course fine, other people would have it opposite, or they might have found an homosexual relationship an even greater turn-off.
I guess the overkill would have been if Nanoka was replaced by a young boy
But in fact I think your criticism is totally missing the point of the Koi Kaze. The age difference and the incest issue are there EXACTLY to create a taboo relationship. You are not supposed to be sympathetic to it. It’s because of those two factors that there is an issue at all.
Also, I don’t understand why do you need to sympathize with the older brother? I think it’s much more important that you can understand what’s going on with him, so that you at least partially identify with him and feel in your inner self his struggles.
I mean, the brother hates himself even more than you hate him, that’s not the issue. The real issue is that he has these feelings that he simply can’t repress. And this is the crux of the anime. Love that arises in a forbidden context, being it adultery, homosexual, incest, class status, etc. The nature of the obstacle is not so important, what matters is the age-old struggle to try to control your feelings to fit with what is expected from the society (or your own values - I actually think the brother disapproves of incest).
The fact that in this case the anime used incest and age difference is useful simply because it’s a taboo that we today can understand and identify with. If the story had been written in 19th century, it would have been an adulterous relationship or between two different social classes. But presently, who can emotionally relate to love clashing with social status? I mean, nowadays even homosexual love has lost its tragic tint…
Personally, I preferred Koi Kaze over Boku wa etc because I prefer the more “realistic” graphic style of Koi Kaze. It is also obvious that with 13 episodes, Koi Kaze could explore with a lot more depth the issue at hand.
Finally, Koi Kaze seems also more realistic, because it’s a logic result of genetic sexual attraction and the Westermarck effect.
Briefly, it has been shown that kids raised together avoid to marry together, even if they are not related (this was for instance observed in israeli kibbutz, where kids were raised together according to their age, instead of being together according to familial bonds). For this kind of aversive tendency to be imprinted, the kids must spend about their first 6 years of life together. On the other hand, it has also been shown that adopted people (which thus were not raised with their relatives) tend to display attraction to biological relatives (even if they are unaware of being related).
In this sense, it makes a lot more sense for the older brother to be attracted to Nanoka, than for Boku to lust his sister, whom he shared his childhood with.
Finally, is the old brother likable? He seems to have a lot going against him: he’s withdrawn, to the risk of appearing indifferent, but in fact has problems showing his emotions, rather than feeling them. He proves that he cares about other people (otherwise there would not have been such a struggle about this incest issue). He sure reacts badly to his sister, because of the uncomfortable situation he’s in, but it’s a totally believable reaction. There I plenty of people I like who become a pain when they feel emotional distress.
Also, it’s because he has many feelings , contrary to what he feared, his sister becomes such a big issue for him. If he was unable to feel emotions, he would simply have ignored the girl, and if he had no traditional morals, or not cared about her, he would just have gone for incest without hesitation.
Actually, there’s a strong argument that homosexual incest is less scandalous than straight incest because there’s no chance of reproduction, and the limitation of the gene pool is the biological (and, at least to an extent, legal) argument against incest. I think most people don’t approve of either, though, because incest is super grody.
I don’t think the age of the girl is more significant than the incest issue, but I do think it’s significant, and piling not one but two huge loads of baggage onto this practically unformed romantic relationship stretches the believability and is bad writing, in my opinion. But, you make a good point in that the story is probably more about wanting something you can’t have, and that the “something” isn’t as important. But a story about fighting your desire is a lot more believable if you can relate to him wanting her. Just like I disliked Romeo and Juliet (as did Shakespeare), I find unfounded but super passionate love kinda stupid.
And speaking of believability, just because a study says it’s more likely in real life for siblings not raised together to fall in love doesn’t mean that that happens automatically, nor does it mean incest can’t happen despite that. From the story perspective, the lead in Boku has more reason to like his sister, since one of the earliest scenes is a flashback to him as a child saying his wants to marry his sister despite his parents laughing at him, and his teenage confession that “he never saw her as a sister.” The story establishes that he’s been harboring illicit feelings for her for years. In Koi Kaze, the lead falls in love with his sister in a few days. This isn’t two long-lost siblings meeting randomly, getting to know each other, falling in love, and then discovering the horrible truth. This is “falling in love” in a few freaking days. The writing in Koi Kaze requires more of a suspension of disbelief that he actually feels that strongly about her because he knows nothing about her.
But if it’s relatability you want, sure, I’m sure many readers/viewers found the lead in Koi Kaze relatable. But just like every shoujo I’ve ever read that shows some traditionally negative “female” quality (like being physically weaker than a boy) I can relate to exploited while some female character wallows in it, relatability doesn’t mean “likable” or “sympathetic.” Your lead usually has to have some redeemable qualities for the work to succeed (stories about leads you love to hate notwithstanding). And half-assed attempts, like having an adult embarrass and yell at his sister and then glumly give her a ride home on his bicycle while she giggles happily doesn’t cut it. Man, I felt like I was reading a bad shoujo, where some dude humiliates and sexually assaults some girl, then he helps her pick up her dropped bag and her eyes go all big and starry. Ugh. Some of the awful manga stereotypes stretch across multiple genres, it seems.
Anyway, you make some good points, and I still haven’t seen all of Koi Kaze, so I’m only speaking from initial impressions. Thanks for your opinion…we did need someone on here defending Koi Kaze. ^_^
Well… it seems I have arrived here quite late.
Anyway, to be brief, I agree with stakh. They have certainly done their research on the Westermarck effect.
The fact is, it seems that you (Lianne) have come to judge Koi Kaze too quickly. Four episodes is no where near enough to come to a conclusion, especially when compared to Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru. Koi Kaze is actually much more realistic and implements key factors about people and society that the characters in Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru, for the most part, ignore.
For example, while you may be impressed with Yori’s inner battle and suppressiong of his true feelings for his sister, it is evident that this happens with Koi Kaze as well (you just haven’t reached the point yet). The lead of Koi Kaze deals with much more suffering, and is much more tragic: you cannot watch the whole anime and not feel sorry for him. And yes, although Nanoka is quite careless when it comes to what she does with her emotions and others; the brother from Koi Kaze still has it far worse than Yori.
This internal struggle, along with the scientific evidence (see westermarck effect and Freudian/Jung psychologies) shows that Koi Kaze is actually the deeper anime, and much better at invoking emotions like pity and love. To be honest, once Yori from Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru decides that he wants his sister… he goes for it. All. Like a crazy person. Definetly creepier than the lead of Koi Kaze, who (after becoming aware of his feelings) resists getting close to his sister with every ounce of his strength. Koi Kaze, which considers all the factors of the characters’ situations, deals with the incestual issue much more maturely.
However, these points are mainly focusing on the fact that you liked Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru better, because of more “responsibility” shown by the characters of Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru. I say, however, that in reality, the issue is nothing more than a social constraint and should not be a factor in deciding which anime is better at all. Koi Kaze depicts things seriously and how they really are; its a work of art. Before seeing it, I was about as anti-incest as possible. And while incest could still never apply to me, Koi Kaze was one of those stories that made me think, “well… I guess… this is an exception…”. Koi Kaze showed genuine love to the point where you forget about age, family, or social conflicts. Not many controversial topics can do that, but Koi Kaze has.
While Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru was a good manga, it was a very short OVA and was shallow, not very in-depth. Also, the lead in Koi Kaze had wayyy more reasons to like his sister, and in no way “falls in love with her within a few days”. Finally, the scientific reasoning that agrees wholy with the characters’ behaivior in Koi Kaze; is completely opposite in Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru (therefore unreal.)
Koi Kaze is easily in the top 5-10% of good anime. I don’t see how you could dismiss it as gross/creepy, lame, etc. Such a conclusion would probably require a strong internal/social bias.
very well put review.
i love boku wa. i love it ^_^. it’s actually one of the best anime dramas i’ve ever seen, and the live action movie is one of my favorite movies. i stumbled on the anime wandering around youtube one day, and tho i felt kind of sick with myself, curiousity made me watch the first episode and it was so good i had to see every episode after that XD! it’s defintely opened my eyes up. i used to think incest was groddy and wrong, but after watching boku wa i’ve come to really take on the “well as long as they really love eachother” mindset. lust is sick and wrong, but yori really does LOVE iku. the characters are good, their love is believable, and overall i just thought everything was sweet and well done. i highly recommend this to anyone whose a fan of sister-con, and anyone whose looking to open up their mental perspective.
koi kaze on the other hand…i haven’t watched it, but after reading that review-’m not gonna. dude sounds like a pervert ^_^