Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing Help

Tools

Toys

Narrative

Genre

Media

Topical Tropes

Other Categories

Custom Search

This is what would have happened if Satoshi hadn’t been spirited away.

I can vouch that [those games] are a result of fantasies by people who don't actually have a younger sister.
Sasahara (setting the record straight), Genshiken

Nothing adds that certain je ne sais quoi to a storyline like a romantic or sexual attraction between siblings. Most of the time it may be merely implied, but sometimes it's laid out right in the open for the viewer to see. Its presence in a story usually adds a great deal of emotional intensity.

Frequently actual incest is avoided through the device of siblings who aren't really — they're fostered, or step-sibs, or adopted. Thus, while in arbitrary terms of relationship they may be brother or sister, in "true" terms of blood they are not, and may pursue their chosen target with relative impunity. Often it's just an extreme version of the Unlucky Childhood Friend setup; male and female characters who normally couldn't cohabitate or possibly even interact normally with each other are 'forced' to but meet with an arbitrary contrivance preventing them from developing past it. The only difference being the audience is more likely to accept the latter contrivance as believable.

Many sociologists believe that the instinctual aversion to incest is caused by familiarity and growing up in proximity rather than some sort of recognition of heritage (the Westermarck effect). Many close tribal and small village communities marry outside of the tribe or village because of this. This would also explain why brother-sister incest was possible among Egyptian royals (where the girls were raised separately from the boys and didn't even meet until after puberty), while some European royal families such as the Valois faced extinction because the king and queen couldn't bear to touch each other - not because they were that closely related, but because they'd been brought up together since early childhood and thought of each other as siblings.

Although the Japanese have just as much of an incest taboo as any other culture, there does not seem to be any automatic assumption of tragedy surrounding incestuous relationships in anime, as there would be in most Western productions. It may be shown as sad, improper, and/or perhaps even reprehensible, but participants are no more likely to come out to a bad end than any other characters in the story. A supposed Japanese legend which states that star-crossed lovers are reborn as siblings probably has something to do with it as well.

It is also very common in Japanese works, at least, to see a girl address a boy she's interested in as onii-sama, the ultra-respectful form of... 'big brother'. For example, in Mai-HiME, Munakata Shiho addresses Tate Yuuichi in exactly this way, and harbors an obsessive desire for him that leads to some fairly serious jealousy of her rival (Tokiha Mai). This is also a common trope of bishoujo games. Of course, this is more a Japanese language trope; onii-sama or onee-sama ("big sister") is a fairly standard thing to call someone older than you that you respect.

Compare Incest Is Relative, Only Child Syndrome. See also Creepy Twins, Twincest, Not Blood Siblings, Kissing Cousins, Big Brother Complex.

Contrast with Parental Incest, where the parent/child power dynamics can make it even Squicker.

Needless to say, doesn't help the Like Brother And Sister argument at all.


    open/close all folders 

Examples

    Anime & Manga 

    Comics 

    Fairy Tales 

    Fan Works 

    Films 

    Literature 

    Live Action TV 

    Music 

    Mythology 

    Pro Wrestling 

    Tabletop Games 

    Theater 

    Video Games 

    Web Comics 

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 

    Real Life