This is a rather silly harem comedy with a twist. Originally known as “Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru!”, we also know it as “Nakaimo – My Little Sister is Among Them!”

Let’s talk about the guy in the middle, Mikadono Shougo. He is the only living heir to the Mikadono Group, some big we-own-it-all company. For him to take over the reins, he needs to graduate from school as well as finding a life partner. However, things become complicated as he learns that his father, Kumagorou, had an illegitimate daughter, who is also watching over him as well as attending the same school. This leads to Shougo trying to find his sister. He has scar on his forehead from an accident when he was kid and this caused him to lose bits of his memories and, of course, it is the critical ones.

Well, as soon as everyone at school find out whom he was, the ladies flocked to him, with these five as the leading candidates. Also his handler, Risa Seri, kind of gave him permission to sow his wild oats, but he is conflicted in that he may want to explore merger possibilities, but what if it IS his sister? Can you think of the scandal?

The series revolves about him trying to figure out who his sister really is and what is going on behind the scenes.

They might as well have called this “The Mystery of the Red Herrings”, as there is so much confusion, misdirection and core details not revealed, although you get a pretty strong grasp on who is the little sister by Episode Three (my friend got it by Episode Two). The two leading candidate, who also get the lion’s share of screen time, are Konoe Tsuruma and Miyabi Kannagi (the two hanging on his arms). Still, the pressure from the other ladies is unrelenting and I wondered when he was going to crack and run away to a mountain top to dispense gems of wisdom to the random passer-by who was looking for a yeti or wonder why someone would sit on a mountain top.

The show is merely OK, as it seems more of an excuse to put our heir into a series of flop-sweat situations. ALL the ladies are bent on marriage. ALL the ladies will say and do what they must. ALL the ladies really don’t care about him, more about his station and what he can be. Then, the real plot shows up about three or four episodes towards the end and then we careen to a conclusion….of sorts.

It’s just that I do expect some real tension and confusion in these kinds of tales and not having them be a lot of froth and lectures. When they did get down to trying to learn the truth, it kind of slipped away in favor of another ridiculous situation. Whatever it wanted to be, it needed to be more of it and, much like our hero, there were a lot of commitment issues to work through.
On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork 8 (A good art design)
Plot 6 (Rather standard)
Pacing 7 (Push hard, then pull back)
Effectiveness 6 (The lack of real headway can frustrate)
Conclusion 7 (It reaches a ‘coupler’, but doesn’t really end)
Fan Service 3 (A similar show would be “Okamisan”)

Overall 7 (A lot of running in place)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. So which one of you is it?