I’ve read Koi Kaze, and I just finished reading the first volume of Boku wa whatevs, and I gotta say, I don’t particularly like either of them. So yeah, maybe Yori with the repression meets puberty is somewhat understandable in his bipolar rages, but he’s still a big prick. I especially like the part where the day after he spills the beans to sis (accompanied with much petting and proclamations of undying love etc.) he frenches his current girlfriend, who happens to be his sis’ best friend, right in front of her simply to get a rise out of her, managing to disrespect both of them twofold (reneging on his sweet-talking of less than 24 hours ago as well as fucking with her best friend for the hell of it and using his girlfriend in a feeble attempt to stimulate his incestuous relationship with her friend). Wow, way to go butthead, push your luck much? The sister is even worse, though, ’cause she didn’t even love him until he was like ‘love me or I will go away’ and then about 20 minutes later they’re stripping each other. Apparantly the choice between incest and the gradual distancing from your siblings that results from growing up is not a difficult choice. By the end of the volume they manage to do the deed on a pew in the church where their parents were married; ouch. Seriously, where can you go from there? This series is 8 volumes! They gonna make salad dressing for a family dinner from their love juices? Bondage orgy with mum & dad by volume 8? What? Whatever, I probably won’t find out.

I don’t even remember much of Koi Kaze, so I guess it didn’t make much of an impression on me, but it’s not like either of the characters were backed up against a wall or anything, both of them could have ditched the sitch(uation) any time so… props on the attempt?

Probably the most intriguing incest scenario I’ve encountered was in Marmalade Boy, where near the end of the series, AFTER they overcame all the crazy stuff that happened, strengthening their relationship in the process, they find out they are siblings. They are understandably distraught, and struggle with whether they should end their relationship or not (for more than three minutes, or three days, probably more like three months at least), they finally decide to ride it out, accepting that they won’t have kids (thank you!). Now that’s a scenario that generates some sympathy from me, not this other bullpoo. Now of course it turns out they weren’t actually siblings, but the series still managed to put a more sympathetic twist on the whole incest thing than either of these other series (not to mention the author originally intended to go through with it), so it definitely deserves an honourable mention.

=(*sob sob*

but i am just letting you know that i agree.

Boku Wa Imouto is better than Koi Kaze in my personal view.

I related more to Yori’s turmoil and him giving into his desires easily. Alot of us can fall into that trap. To have something there all your life and being told unconsiously that its wrong to have it. Whether it be about a love for a sibling or a teacher you’ve known for a long time.. or even someone else’s possession you’ve eyed on for a long time. It’s something that i feel we can also somehow relate too..

Koi Kaze…i have watched it all.. personally i couldn’t relate to this.. i guess its because in my mind going after an underaged person is just not something i would seriously think about. I don’t understand grown men falling in love with teenage girls… especially the ones that are obviously not fully matured yet.
So no matter how much the brother was aching and suffering through this dilemma.. i kept thinking what an immature adult he was. and that he needed to grow up..at least see that this sister of his needs to mature a bit more.

with Yori… although i felt he needed to grow up as well..but he wasn’t really considered a full grown adult to begin with… he is a young adult..and from that point of view i can understand how hard it is to grow from his dilemma at that stage.. but ofcourse he could still become an adult at his age.. but its more plausible to go through this turmoil at this age.

i really hope i made some sense there… i am running out of words to paraphrase what everyone else stated agreeing with your review. and also i am falling asleep now..its late..and i just hit my head on the desk without knowing.. ouch

have a good night *rubs forehead throbbing in pain*

koi kaze on the other hand…i haven’t watched it, but after reading that review-’m not gonna. dude sounds like a pervert ^_^

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.

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. ^_^

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.