Oniichan wa Oshimai!

Like many, I was impressed with the debut of Studio Bind and their highly-anticipated, highly-praised, highly-controversial anime adaptation for Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, and like so many more, I was already getting excited for its second season as soon as its first came to a close. However, also like many, I proceeded to be half-disappointed, half-confused when I saw the announcement for Oniichan wa Oshimai! with the name of Studio Bind—the studio which I thought was created for the sole purpose of adapting Mushoku Tensei—so proudly attached. A veteran animator like Shingo Fuji making a directorial debut at a studio I can actually trust to ... produce something competent is always something to be excited about in my book, but would some goofy gender-bender manga adaptation really be worth pushing back Mushoku Tensei season two??? Call me the Grinch—no fun allowed—but could something like this really feel like time well-spent for such a capable studio and talented staff? Because after watching it, all I can really say as to the answer to that question is “hopefully yes.”

“Hopefully,” as in, “I hope this series ends up feeling worth MY time and effort to review,” since nothing else airing this season apparently is. I guess I could review season sixty of My Hero Academia or season forty of Bungou Stray Dogs, something like that, piss a bunch of people off, etc. But what’s the point? Where’s the fun? What can be said about the endless deluge of shounen baby formula, highschool romcoms, and isekai/grossly-isekai-adjacent fantasy adventures which populate the apparent entirety of this winter season that hasn’t already been said about prior, similar, questionably distinguishable contemporary anime to complete exhaustion? I’m going to try to refrain from ragging on the actual quality of the anime produced this season from a technical perspective, even though I most certainly could (and don’t be sure that I won’t), and I’m instead going to ask that we all take a moment to appreciate the eye-watering banality of it all from a creative perspective. Even everything popular, seemingly, is a next season of a show I already reviewed and can’t bare the thought of writing about again.

Then there’s Oniichan wa Oshimai!, the unequivocal best anime I’ve ever been this fundamentally disappointed by. It’s a show about your typical NEET otaku protagonist getting dragged out of their room and slowly but surely rehabilitated and reacquainted with normal, social, everyday life through the power of friendship, family, whatever. The element of the story which gives the series its excuse to call itself different and stand out from the crowd is that the inciting incident which first begins to push our hero, Mahiro, away from the NEET lifestyle is that his magical(?), genius(?), scientist(?) younger sister administers him an undefined mystery drug that turns him into a girl. Wacky, right? Don’t see many gender-bender anime around these parts, now do we? But if you look past the quirky gimmick, the oh-so outrageous loli fanservice, and the consistently mind-bogglingly fantastic animation, I’m afraid you’ll be left starring in the face of, essentially, an anime you’ve already seen. I’m not saying the series is generic, because, indeed, it’s a tad fucking weird. What I’m saying is that I wanted more Space Race type shit. Ya know?

If we’re gonna sip our cognac and be high-class, gentlemanly and ladylike, intellectual critics about this, then I think it’s worth taking a full-stride step back and making the general commentary that this was an enjoyable series. It has that nice cushiony fuzz to it where I could just sit and un-impatiently watch the damn thing. All an anime really needs to succeed when it comes to borderline slapstick comedy, at least in my book, is competent voice acting, which this anime has; creative direction and good timing, which this anime has; lots of movement and visual energy, which this anime has; and good character designs matched with memorable, funny, broadly entertaining facial expressions, which this anime has in fucking spades. So often did they go for the most obvious joke and still make me laugh anyway. It’s just the most technically well-executed version of the simple thing it is, and the simple thing it is is silly. And that’s fine…and I expected that…I just wanted more Space Race shit. I wanted it to have something that would fucking reach out and slap me in the face if I tried lumping it in with “the other basic moe shows currently airing” other than “lol he got turned into a girl.”

If you were to scroll through the seemingly endless waterfall of seasonal anime which aired this season, intentionally paying each promotional image nothing but a mere glance, combining every entry which your brain subconsciously finds difficult to visually distinguish into one anime, you would end up with I’d wager something like five or six. There simply isn’t enough pizzazz popping out, nothing to get your neurons firing in different enough directions. My eyes simply could not in rapid succession pass by the MAL entries for, for example, “The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World” and “The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World” without my mind fumbling incredulously at the alleged uniqueness of the two properties. When a friend of mine first learned I was considering writing for this series, he said, “Ain’t no way you’re hoping on this crazy train.” To which I frankly replied, “When does the crazy kick in?” Oniichan wa Oshimai! has a memorable premise, I’ll give it that, and I’d consider the cast of characters particularly quirky to watch, but the wholesome NEET recovery routine has been done so often now as to, well, be a routine at this point. Like, if this wasn’t such a heartfelt, technically impressive animation passion project, what would it be the sum of its actual parts?

To play Devil’s Advocate, it’s worth pointing out that the first half of Hikari no Ou came out this season, so…that was probably interesting and worthwhile…presumably? Buddy Daddies, as well, looks fun, decent, cute enough…DOESN’T IT??!?!?!!????? Clearly I’m just being an asshole about the whole seasonal anime thing, right? I mean, what? An anime becomes worthless and derivative as soon as the arc of its story begins resembling an established genre of past works? Is that the argument I’ve been making? Because that’s a fucking stupid argument. If my whole thesis statement is Oniichan wa Oshimai! is somehow not worth watching because it is to whatever degree “formulaic” underneath the visual gloss, then this is a bad review. I just don’t have the fucking time anymore, okay? I’m like a normal fucking person now with a life, under pressure. If I’m gonna soak back into this, I wanna be pulled in hard. I wanna suffocate in the quicksand that got me this deep in the first place. I wanna be wooed, wowed, kapowed—swept up, up, up, and away, or plunged into the abyss. I don’t just want to watch something good; I want to watch something special; I want to watch some new and exciting, boundary-pushing, Space Race shit. Evidently, I want to watch something that didn’t air in the apocalyptically unimpressive season of Winter 2023.

But hey? This is all sounding more and more like a me problem.

Thank you for reading.

The only reason why I decided to give this anime a shot is because of the fact it was going to be animated by Studio Bind. Therefore, I thought... "Why not? Looks interesting to me. A gender-bender anime about a failure in life who became a loli by his or should we say 'HER' now to give HER a second chance in life." Now I know what you're thinking, if you look into this out of context, it's essentially a story about a fully grown man who's living alongside middle schoolers who don't have the slightest idea of this PERSON's past, yet it's treating it ... as if the main character was never a grown man, to begin with. This review is here to give you the judgment needed whether this anime is worthy of your time.

This anime gives off a similar feeling to Maid Dragon, in terms of its environment, atmosphere, the fluidity of its animation, and the existence of school kids in the picture. For a comedy anime, it has no business looking this good. Studio Bind may be a lot of things, but pushing out rushed products was never one of them and it proves just that despite being their 2nd known work after Mushoku Tensei. Hence, I'm looking forward to whatever anime they can make and never getting blinded by money.

Mahiro, who is the main character (victim) of the anime, starts to get her crap together and decided to put some backbone into improving her life. How does she do it, you ask? Well, by making her befriend children who are way out of her age group but it's okay... "Because her body physically looks like a teen, therefore it's fine if she's hanging out with them, it's not like she's an actual stranger who has lewd desires." I, for one, enjoy watching this anime, but it's damn near impossible to try and defend the plot when you actually take a step back and realise what it's like in a nutshell. Thus, I'm not going to defend it and fully admit that it's detestable. Allow me to provide you with two perspectives about Onimai!

"Why can't they just make Mahiro initially a female middle schooler to begin with?" - Point 1
Doing it this way should solve the 'grown male turned female child' issue, however, it would lose its reaching appeal. The only reason we're here, to begin with, is that Mahiro turned into a girl is the main catch or else, we wouldn't be here. It would lose its appeal and has no chance of standing foot against other seasonal anime.

"Why make her befriend herself with children? Why not adults?" - Point 2
Honestly, I would also appreciate it if they do it this way. The story could easily just make her try to find a job (be a cashier or cleaner), get money for her household and meet new people, which solves two things, Mahiro being a functioning person in society and having friends to talk with. But no, then we wouldn't have our CGDCT and School section, to begin with. Hell, Mahiro has essentially forgotten almost everything she has ever learned back in her earlier school days, therefore she has to go back and do it again (although I don't think it has to be like this).

I'd be lying if I said I didn't like this anime. I had a good time watching it, hell I thought it was going to be just a mediocre show. When you don't try to think about the bad things it built its foundation from, you get to see some cool wholesome and genuinely cute moments, aligning with adorable character designs, it's a blessing for the eyes. It fulfils the CGDCT theme most definitely.

The characters are kind of a mixed bag, while Mahiro and Mihari ended up to be quite decent characters, there were particularly two characters that left a bad aftertaste whenever they take up screentime. Kaede and Miyo were so off-putting, for different reasons. Starting with Kaede, she's a walking fanservice icon, her boobs are big, she dresses up like a gyaru and has no problem wearing skimpy clothes, which honestly shouldn't be a problem if it shows them erratically, but it happens so often that it makes me want to stop watching for a while and take a breather. Another issue is with Miyo, who acts like a lesbian voyeurist for the most part and is mostly played for fan service jokes. The pandering is so obnoxious and out of place despite it being a cute wholesome anime. As for others except for Momiji, they act nothing more than tropes adding to the comedy it seeks.

In conclusion, watch this if you want:
- Cute characters doing cute things.
- Really good animation and visuals.
- Decent main character writing.

I don't recommend it if you can't:
- Turn off your brain thinking of the gross things in life.
- Stand unnecessary fanservice in your face.
- Dislike abysmal plot development.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

The premise is from the get-go that a man (older brother, true gamer nerd/enthusiast, recluse but ultimately harmless) wakes up having been turned into what looks like a pre-teen girl by his "mad scientist" sister, via a drug. In her room she has a manual on her desk which deetails how she wants to turn him into her little sister, meaning this is entirely deliberate with an agenda.

It SOUNDS like this should be a hilarious comedy to give a guy what he deserves in order to appreciate what being a girl or a woman is like, as punishment.
That's not at all what it is. ... This is entirely about a selfish wish from the sister's side to get rid of her nerd brother and gain a cute little sister that she can dress up and take care of and the brother-turned-sister just goes along with it for no good reason with no strong opinions one way or the other.

It's dressed up as being wholesome and shows some awkward situations because it's a gender-bender, but really it just seems like a small girl's coming of age slice of life with questionable fan service. Gotta ask, why isn't that just the story?

So you're left wondering where the plot is going and why you're looking at pre-teen panty shots. Where's the joke?
If you think about the premise a little, this is a creepy story about a woman who abuses her sibling and psychologically manipulates them, besides the fact that she drugged him with what seems like permanent side effects.
Again, this could've been interesting, she could've been a genuine psychopath who mentally tortures her brother, but instead it's played off completely straight and even lovingly.

Moral of the story? It's better to be forcefully gender transitioned and socially groomed than be a male recluse.

You tell me how this isn't wildly thoughtless and even offensive.

I'd like to touch on another thing which is the topic of being transgender in the 2020's.
How odd and insensitive it must be to watch someone with no interest in becoming the opposite sex just get a pill or some liquid and magically transform with no effort, no pain or any cost.
I'm not an "ally", I don't particularly think encouraging being trans is at all healthy or the right thing to do, but I can't help but feel that this show has to just twist the knife for a person who wants to be the opposite sex and feels genuine grief with who they are.

It's not the show-maker's responsibility for how it makes people feel, but I think it's another thoughtless and irresponsible way of approaching what could've been a good and interesting story.

It's not impossible to view past its flaws and just enjoy a 'wholesome' story with a bit of ecchi, but man... this is in poor taste.