The first volume of Koi Kaze was a nice quite story about a girl and her big brother getting to know each other after being separated from each other for most of their lives.   In this second volume though, the show takes a rather strange turn, at least for American audiences.  Though it was hinted at in the first set of shows, this time around the brother admits that he has the hots for his school girl sister.

Koshiro is a 27 year old salary man working at a company that caters and arranges wedding parties.  He doesn't have a girl friend and still lives at home with his father who is divorced.  He and his father are enjoying living the lives of a couple of bachelors, until they discover that Koshiro's 15 year old sister is coming to live with them.

After work one day, Koshiro meets a young high school girl.  Having a pair of tickets to an amusement park, he invites the girl, Nanoka, to spend some time with him and she agrees.  The two have a fun time, and both admit to each other that they've had a hard time with love.  After the rides, Koshiro takes Nanoka to where she is supposed to meet her father, and much to his surprise, Koshiro's father picks her up!  It turns out that Nanoka is Koshiro's younger sister.  Their parents were divorced many years ago, and Koshiro hasn't seen his sister since they were children.

The problem is that Koshiro has become attracted to the Nanoka, and that causes some awkwardness between them, to say the least.  Nanoka just wants a big brother to look out for her and to do things with like she's always dreamed, so she comes on a little strong.  Koshiro meanwhile is trying to suppress the feelings he has towards his sister and that causes him to lash out at her often.

In this volume Koshiro has some problems.  Nanoka accidently walks in on Koshiro when he's in the bathroom just after his finishes a shower.  He had found a bra she left in there, and was smelling it, but managed to hide it just in time.  Koshiro now feels really embarrassed and that causes him to treat his sister badly.  He's condescending to her and generally treats her like crap.  He also admits, after the show had given several hints, that he thinks about his young sister while masturbating.

As Koshiro's embarrassment starts to ebb, a new emotion rears its head: Jealousy.   When a boy walks Nanoka home after they had to stay late to finish a project, Koshiro sees them and goes into a rage.  He yells at his sister and tells her she's way to young to date.  When she explains that they were just walking together, he doesn't believe her.   This leads to more embarrassment on Koshiro's part, and resentment on Nanoka's.

The affection isn't one way though.  Nanoka's friends all accuse her of having a big brother complex, and though she denies it, she thinks that they might be right.
 
While I liked the first volume of this series, I thought at the end of it Koshiro and Nanoka had worked out most of their problems.  In this volume, things get a little creepy.  The idea of a 27 year old man masturbating while thinking of his 15 year old sister and getting aroused by her underwear is just something that makes me go "ewww!"  The fact that the comic relief in the show is a pedophile who wants to date a young girl is just odd too.

I'm sure this is just a difference in cultures, but I had a real hard time relating to Koshiro.  He just seemed mean and very much wrapped up in himself.  He feels badly that he treats his sister so badly, but he never tries to change the way he treats her.  I also can't really understand how he could fall in love with Nanoka after spending one afternoon with her.  Spending as much time fretting over her as he does just seems unnatural.

Aside from the incestuous pedophilia that I found hard to swallow, I did enjoy the show.  Some of the situations that Koshiro and Nanoka find themselves in are fairly amusing, and the dialog has a natural feel to it.  If the main characters weren't related and if she was older than 15, the program would be fairly romantic.  As it is, I just couldn't get over the cultural differences.

This DVD contains five episodes and comes in a white keepcase container.  There is an insert and a sheet of two "Big Brother No-No" stickers included in the case.

Audio:

This disc has both the original stereo Japanese soundtrack and an English dub in stereo.  I alternated tracks while viewing the show, and thought they were both fine.  The show is mainly speech based, and both tracks did a good job of presenting the dialog.  While there wasn't much use made of the soundstage, there wasn't any audio defects either.  The background music was clean and crisp, and it was reproduced well.  A nice sounding disc, even if the soundtrack wasn't exciting and dynamic.

Video:

This show is presented with a nice anamorphically enhanced widescreen image.  The picture was sharp and clean, with no aliasing or other digital defects worth mentioning.  The show uses a lot of earth tones which are not bright and flashy but it gives the program a more realistic feel.  This fits the tone of the show very well, and the transfer does the color scheme justice.  A nice, if not flashy, looking show.

Extras:

This disc also features a clean closing, a Japanese promo trailer, several Japanese commercials advertising the DVDs, and a series of previews for other Geneon discs.

Final Thoughts:

I enjoyed watching this volume, but I have to admit that my jaw was on the floor during some scenes.  The places where the show seemed to imply that a sexual relationship between a 15 year old girl and her 27 year old brother was okay really astounded me.  That's something that would never occur in an American show.  The show is a bit creepy in that respect, and I can see where that would turn a lot of people off.  Even so, the show is enjoyable.  It is a gentle romance with just a bit of comedy thrown in for good measure.  The writing is good, and the story keeps you interested, even if it is a little bizarre.  If you are looking for something that's a bit different in the anime realm, this is it.  I give it a light recommendation.