Onegai Twins

The series I loved to hate. I didn’t like Onegai Teacher, so I was apprehensive about Onegai Twins, since it was by the same people. Well, I succumbed to the promotional picture of two cute girls holding the guy’s (Maiku) arm and decided to test the strength of my monogamous belief. I sure am glad I gave it a chance.

Although Onegai Twins may look like a generic sis-con anime, it stands out by having a simple yet captivating story with very loveable characters. I was pleasantly surprised to find it so much better than its predecessor. The story was fairly lean and quite driven despite being fuelled by the same element. The intriguing “Which of the two is my sister” plot device is well employed and often injected heightened tension into an already taboo (but usually also hilarious) situation. I had screamed, laughed, cringed, puked blood, nosebled as Maiku got himself into compromising situations with his supposed sisters. However, unlike many of the other ecchi animes out there, it really didn’t feel like outright sexploitation when these things happened. (Or have I been brainwashed by the evils of Japanese anime?) Let me emphasize that despite its dodgy title and some token panty shots, Onegai Twins is not an ecchi anime. Yes, it’s true that some of the scenes made me blush (however I have to say I blush easily, zyl/morit can vouch for a bashful stripey [zyl: we vouch for nothing. ^_^]) but these potentially tantalizing scenes were very tastefully executed and for most part, important to the plot and character development. There were also plenty of details which I missed on the series’ first viewing and only when zyl filled me in later, did I realize that OT was much richer in content than I had first thought. On the technical aspect, Onegai Twins had a very good art direction and excellent character design. Karen and Miina do really make wonderful poster gals.

I do have one major gripe. There are times when the sis-con theme can really be over the top. The crutch phrases of ???????? (we may be strangers) or ???????? (we may be relatives) were used at will to fit their purposes so frequently and so frivolously that it drove me nuts. Yes it’s ok to kiss cos "we may be strangers" or yes, it’s ok to hug cos "we may be relatives" may sound barely credible for the first 10 times but is absolutely lame on the 200th occasion. And there was this brother in the series, who was REALLY into his sister...... and it sickened me a little to have derived so much pleasure and fun watching his antics.

Indeed, it was a really scary moment when it suddenly dawned on me how much I was looking forward to every episode of OT. Probing my thoughts further, I realized I was also secretly enjoying the taboo moments despite my loud condemnation and that plunged me into depths of guilt. Yes, OT is a highly enjoyable series with great laughs and even some touching moments BECAUSE of its sis-con theme. In this aspect OT is like Lao Fu Zi char kway tiao… it’s bad for health but you can’t have enough of it. Highly recommended if you do not have cute sisters.