High school girl Kanzaki Mitsuki "inherits" an older brother when her mother remarries a fellow divorcée with a son. Soon after, her new stepdad is transferred overseas and her mother follows him there, leaving Mitsuki to live alone with her new stepbrother, Yuya. Feeling abandoned by her mother, she stays distant from Yuya, never really getting along very well with him nor even keeping a conversation with him. One day, Mitsuki is visited by an angel/ghost named Hiyori, who takes over her body and makes sexual advances towards Yuya. Hiyori is the lost spirit of a girl who in life loved Yuya deeply, however she died before she could confess her feelings and thus can not reach the gates of heaven and obtain eternal peace. In order to reach heaven, Hiyori puts a chastity belt on Mitsuki that fills up every time Mitsuki has sexual feelings from Yuya, whether it be from simply going on a date with him to kissing and sex. For every time it fills up a little, Hiyori gains a step on a bridge that connects her current situation and the literal gates of heaven. If Mitsuki doesn't help her then it will result in both their deaths, and so if she wants to get rid of the annoying Hiyori, Mitsuki has to make some bold and sexy moves against her own brother, even if he is just a stepbrother. As the series progresses Mitsuki questions if the feelings towards her brother are of true love that goes beyond just brother and sister or if they are a result of Hiyori's feelings towards him.
The manga was published from November 9, 2010 to May 9, 2016, and was released in eleven tankōbon volumes.
Anime
An anime television series adaptation premiered on Tokyo MX and Sun TV on January 4, 2014. Additionally, the series is airing on AT-X and BS11 and streamed with English subtitles by Crunchyroll. The anime is directed by Hiroyuki Hata at studio Project No.9 with writing by Hideyuki Kurata and music by Ryosuke Nakanishi. An original episode will be released on Blu-ray Disc bundled with the limited edition of the seventh manga volume, was published on April 30, 2014. An OVA episode was also made, but due to its content it was deemed "too risqué" for television broadcast. Rather than airing it, the episode was only released through the seventh manga volume as a bonus item. The anime has been licensed by Crunchyroll with distribution by Discotek Media, and they've released the series on DVD July 28, 2015. The show has become subject to a broadcast decency investigation in Japan by the Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization, following concerns of sexually explicit themes which do not match the show's television airing time slot on Tokyo MX and Sun TV.
On May 7, 2014, a live action version of Recently, my sister is unusual opened in theatres in Japan. It was directed by Yuuki Aoyama and Kouen Igii, and starred Tenka Hashimoto as Mitsuki, Yuuichi Kobayashi as Yuya and Mayu Mitsui as Hiyori. The screenplay was written by Kouen Igii and Takehiko Minato. It was produced by Kadokawa Pictures and Pony Canyon, and distributed by Kadokawa Pictures.
Reception
Tim Jones and Nicoletta Browne of THEM Anime Reviews gave the series an overall rating of one star, criticizing the character Hiyori, the lack of character development for the characters, and the series' ending. The reviewers concluded: "we almost gave it two stars because of some well-developed backstory at times and the occasional cute scene, but overall the terrible first half and Hiyori drown out all the possible good this series has." Anime News Network's Theron Martin gave the series an overall rating of C, concluding that the series "is not a total disaster, but it stacks the deck strongly enough against itself that it stands in the lower echelons of otaku-oriented fan service titles. What little it has going for it is maddeningly short on elaboration, and the tepid end of the series suggests that at least another season will be required to get any real answers."
