Oneechan ga Kita
Produced by C2C
Directed by Yoshihide Yuuzumi
Cast: Aimi Terakawa, Juri Nagatsuma, Fumi Morisawa, Ibuki Kido, Kenji Hamada, Kouji Takahashi, Marina Inoue, Misuzu Togashi, Omi Minami, Yu Kobayashi.
Streaming on Crunchyroll

Oneechan ga Kita, or My Big Sister Arrived, is a light-hearted slice-of-life anime about the stresses of adolescence, parental re-marriage, and what can be the sometimes awkward relationship between newly-introduced step-siblings.

Based on the 4-panel manga created by Riko Anzai, Oneechan ga Kita is told mainly from the viewpoint of 13-year-old protagonist Tomoya Mizuhara. The series begins with Tomoya’s father getting remarried, and his new stepsister, 17-year-old Ichika, is madly in love with him. The usual array of madcap hi-jinx and fast-paced tropes follow in rapid succession, including Ichika’s insistence that she’s going to move into Tomoya’s room permanently and her otaku-like obsessions with her new stepbrother, which include plastering the walls of her room with photos of him and even having large stuffed toy versions of him lying around.

The series is over-the-top and not meant to be taken seriously, and given that each episode clocks in at 3 minutes max, there’s not much in the way of character or plot development. Then again, one generally doesn’t watch a 3-minute anime for its depth of writing or deep social insights. In the final analysis, this is just a fun, fast-paced anime to be enjoyed for its slapstick value and seeing how many awkward social positions the writers can put this poor kid into.

Oneechan ga Kita is currently streaming on Crunchyroll every Thursday at 2pm CST as part of its new winter lineup. It’s not Sword Art Online, but that’s because it wasn’t meant to be. Lighten up and enjoy.