Sins of the Sister

SINS OF THE SISTERS (1994)

Format: 2 OVA episodes totaling 95 minutes

Rating: NC-17 (N, AC, SSC, GV)

Type: Supernatural

American Production: U.S. Manga Corps

Japanese Production: J.C. Staff, among others

Grading
Premise:	D
Story:	D
Writing:	D
Character Design:	C
Animation:	C-
Artistic Merits:	C
English Dub:	D+
Musical Score:	C
Closer:	C

Humor Content:	n/a
Action Content:	D
Drama Content:	C-

DVD Presentation:	C
DVD Extras:	D

OVERALL:	D

Synopsis

In 1212 A.D. a young man named Hans leads a holy crusade of other young fighters, only to discover that it was all a trick by the Pope to sell them into slavery. Vowing revenge and denouncing the church, he transcends his mortal self and is reborn as a girl named Aiko, who winds up in the St. Michaela’s girls school. From there he/she leads a time-traveling rebellion that triggers the Female Crusade, which leads to the Amakusa Restoration, which not only wipes all religions and nationalities from the Earth, thus creating a new and peaceful world, but also erases nearly everyone’s memory of the “real” history. Not everyone has completely forgotten, however; a woman named Yuki still remembers, which leads her down a dangerous path of discovery even as the girls of the Female Crusade travel back in time to Rome to save Hans and his people. Meanwhile Rika, who dies early in the Female Crusade, longs from beyond the grave to be reunited with her love Aiko/Hans one more time. . .

The Long View

Confused yet? Sins of the Sister is a muddled mess utterly lacking any degree of logic. Most of what’s going on not only doesn’t make sense, but is utterly preposterous; several girls with swords in school uniforms changing the world without any semblance of powers?

Um, okay. And don’t even get me started on the mockery that is the portrayal of 1212 Rome.

The plot aside, the writing and the English translation are horribly clumsy. There’s no dramatic tension, and what action scenes there are disappoint. Not helping matters is a supremely lackluster English dub where the vocal performances range from barely adequate to awful. The artistry and the animation are also both distinctly substandard. The character design is passable, and the nudity in the series is not unappealing, but that alone isn’t enough to save this series.

The graphic content consists of several scenes of nudity, a couple of sex scenes that go beyond what would probably be allowable under an R rating but don’t quite reach hentai level, and some graphic violence. At least two characters are hermaphrodites, though we don’t get full visual proof of that.

Sins of the Sister is not worth getting or watching, even for the sex content.

DVD Extras

The only extras on the DVD itself are a trailer for the series and company trailers (with the really annoying U.S. Manga Corps bit at the beginning of each one that you can’t forward through). Links to a Web site containing additional extras is included.

Principle English Voice Actors

Role	Voice Actor
Hans	Todd Anderson
Yuki/Aaron	Shannon Conley
Misayo	Cassan Tregill
Aiko	Joan Arkin
Watoko	Linda Nader
Michel	Yotee
Rika	Suzy Prue
Pope	Robert Hudson
Kozue	Stacia Dorie
Gonza	Tim Brash
Kumi	Mandy Bonhomme
Old Sage	Greg Stuhr
Yayoi	Kathy Kennedy