Chokotto Sister 1
Opening: "Doki Doki! My Sister Soul" by Harenchi Punch - Fitting title, ain't it? Not exactly my kind of style for the song, but it's okay, I guess. And yet another dance in an OP/ED in here -- though not exactly animated smoothly ;)
Ending: "Neko Nyan Dance" by Harenchi Punch - Neko nyan dansu~, neko nyan dansu, neko nyan dansu! This one's been stuck in my head ever since I watched this Tuesday night (taking the place of "Odoru Aka-chan Ningen" from NHK). Fun song, and Choco's cute, too :) Wish they'd use this same style for the rest of the show.... Anyways, I thought the ED style seemed familiar -- Norimitsu Suzuki, who did the 2nd and 3rd ED for Fullmetal Alchemist and the Rozen Maiden Traumend ED did this one, and did everything for it -- storyboard, direction, and the animation. GJ! :)
Haruma Kawagoe@Daisuke Hirakawa, just your average college student, is awakened on Christmas morning by knocking on his window. Outside his window is a yankee woman in a Santa suit riding a motorcycle with reindeer horns on it... and actually, she's the real Santa Claus, and she's got a present for Haruma. He signs for the present and opens it.. and inside is a girl. A little sister -- Haruma apparently told Santa that he wanted a little sister for Christmas when he was little, and it took this long to get one for him. Santa's got a lot more work to do, so she's off..
The girl opens her eyes.. she's not dressed in much, so Haruma tells her to put something on -- the girl pulls out a book and flips through it -- since they're brother and sister he shouldn't mind, it says. After putting some of his clothes on she says she'll make breakfast for onii-chan, but she just makes a mess... The girl still doesn't have a name yet, so Haruma tries to think of one and sees that book she uses (an anchoko) -- he names her Choco@Momoko Saito (yes, Uma from Magipoka). Not exactly great naming sense, but Choco seems to like it.
Choco can't go on wearing his clothes so they head out to the store to buy some new clothes for her. On the way they pass by the flower shop where Ayano@Sayaka Oohara (the araara gives it away... she's quite busy this season) works. She's a bit surprised to see Haruma walking around with a young girl, of course. Choco introduces herself as onii-chan's (not Kawagoe-san's) little sister... Choco and Haruma finally get to the store and Choco finds more than a few cute things to buy. Quite expensive clothes (^^;;) While eating with Choco, Haruma remembers when he was young and his mother was pregnant that he wanted a little sister. However, his mother had a miscarriage so the little sister he wanted never came. He prayed for his mother to get better quickly, then asked Santa for a little sister for Christmas 。゜・（ノД`）・゜・。
Haruma stops and sees something in the store that might make a good gift for Ayano... he's very much interested in her, but there's no way he'd be able to give it to her. While he's looking, Choco wonders off and he doesn't realize it until she's long gone... He gets called over the PA system to pick up Choco. She's crying while the little kids next to her are just fine.. She's still crying as they walk home. Haruma tells her to stop crying and pulls out her Christmas present.. Choco then gives him a kiss. When onii-chan gives you a present you're supposed to give him a thank you kiss, according to her book.
Oi, who wrote that book? I certainly didn't get a kiss from my sisters when I did nice stuff for them... heck, I rarely got a thank you ;) Anyways, as you can probably tell after watching this first episode, Chokotto Sister is pretty much pure imouto-moe -- Haruma's love interest isn't Choco, so no siscon, no Koikaze-like things going on here, Haruma and Choco are just brother and sister, that's all. And though there is a good bit of service (hadaka apron and the like and more), Haruma's not the one behind it and Choco's not doing it because she's thinking of onii-chan as being more than onii-chan. I know somebody's disappointed, but it's fine by me ;)
I've only read a bit of the manga (2 volumes or so a while back), so I'm not current at all as to what's going on. With anime of manga that are ongoing, I'm usually rather worried about how things'll will turn out, but since the author of the manga, Go Zappa, is doing series composition and script I'm a bit more hopeful.
Animation by Nomad is pretty much the usual quality for them. When I first saw the character designs I didn't like them too much, but after seeing the anime it's okay since Choco is cute enough, though I'd very much prefer the style used in the ED as I said. The show is scheduled for 24 episodes, so we'll see if the animation quality, while not exactly high, can stay decent.
Next time, it's Choco's first New Year's (talk about being out of season)... and they just had to slip in a suggestive line there at the end of the preview (^^;;) Wonder if some of the other characters will be introduced... Enjoyed this first episode, and I'll probably blog Chocosis since I've got nothing else to do on Tuesdays or Wednesdays for now ;)
>>I certainly didn't get a kiss from my sisters when I did nice stuff for them...
Yeah, makes me wish I was born Japanese...sigh... :P *gasp* I didn't know we have the same excellent tastes in anime fetishes! :P Welcome to the club! :)
I only had cousins, but I didn't want a kiss from any of them... seems wrong. Yet in animeland it seems perfectly normal, and even desirable.
Sidebar:
OMG Harenchi Punch? I thought they disbanded... I haven't seen stuff from them in so long, release the damn album sisters!
I wasn't expecting much from Chocosis in the first place, but I doubt I will be watching past the first episode. It doesn't really having much of anything that the manga fun like the art (or in this case, the animation quality isn't anything to brag about), jokes, etc. They really toned it down.
It would figure that Stripey'd get in the first comment. ;) And that's "Choko" from "Anchoko", at least according to the manga, as she always consults her study/cram book... which has the oddest answers for what a little sister should be doing (like wearing an apron - and just an apron in the mornings - or wearing nekomimi)... basically, it's like Stripey or Jason Miao wrote the book. :D
Incidentaly, the dance they're doing at the end of the OP is the "Mew Mew Dance", which Choko wants to tape for a contest in Volume 4... but which requires five people to do. And so... the OP and ED, both of which have her doing the Mew Mew Dance, although the latter has her in actual nekomimi.
By the by, they're up to Vol 6 in Japan, but Kotonoha's only got up to the end of Vol 4 translated. It's a bit surprising to see that Sayaka Ohara is doing the flower-shop girl's (Ayano) voice; it doesn't sound at all like Osaka or Tsuruya-san.
reality check, real imoutos aren't like the way they are depicted in animes. >_<;;
Stripey:
>> I didn't know we have the same excellent tastes in anime fetishes! :P Welcome to the club! :)
Did I say anything about actually wanting a kiss? And rather than imouto, I'm really more the osananajimi type ;)
Haeslich:
>> basically, it's like Stripey or Jason Miao wrote the book. :D
Exactly what I was thinking ;)
Kaito:
I'm very much aware of that, having two younger sisters (2 and 4 years younger than me) as mentioned. Quite a pain to deal with sometimes, even now... one keeps asking me for money, the other orders me around like she's some ojou-sama (^^;;)
Matthew: If you've read the manga, you'll know exactly why I suspect Stripey wrote the book: nekomimi or wearing nothing but the apron is considered 'appropriate' for a little sister, according to the anchoko, ideas which Haruma quickly shoots down. Thank his non-siscon-loving-heart for that.
I liked watching Chokotto Sister and the Harenchi Punch music was great too.
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/chokotto-sister-theme-neko-nyan-dance/