Even in high school, Ritsu and Uta really get along. Suddenly, they have to pretend to be lovers...!? The real brother-sister exciting love comedy starts!! note
Siscon Ani to Brocon Imouto ga Shoujiki ni Nattara (known in English as When a Sister Complex Brother and a Brother Complex Sister Become Honest) is a Slice of Life and Romantic Comedy manga by Haruka Hano about two siblings who have to fake a relationship in order to avoid unwanted attention and embarrassment from their peers. First published on November 27, 2017, it has since gone on for 48 chapters and 4 volumes before ending its run in late 2019. There's also extra chapters as Drama CDs, as well as an epilogue chapter focusing on the lives of Ritsu and Uta following the ending of the last chapter.
The story centers around two siblings, Ritsu and Uta Fukami, who are both close to one another due to sharing several common interests, including but not limited to video games. One day, however, Ritsu's friends coerce him into joining them on an outing with the girls from another class in his school. In the process, he meets and befriends a clingy Gyaru Girl slash Gamer Chick named Ami Hojou over a Mobile Phone Game match. Attending this outing causes him to inadvertently break his promise to Uta earlier, wherein he promised to finish playing a game with her that night. Not wanting to break his promise to Uta a second time along with a combination of peer pressure from his friends and Ami's clinginess, Ritsu lies about having a girlfriend to them, and accidentally shows them a picture of Uta. Not long afterward, he leaves them and meets up with his sister. In his haste, he asks Uta to pretend to be in a relationship with him, to which she agrees in exchange for him treating her to sweets. Hilarity Ensues as they struggle to pose as boyfriend and girlfriend in front of their friends, slowly fall in love for real with one another, and maintain their eventual Secret Relationship a secret from their own parents...
This manga contains examples of:
- Babies Ever After: Avoided. After becoming lovers for real, Uta mentions the possibility of them having children together as one of the things that they should not do as siblings. While that doesn't deny the option further into the future, the series itself ends on a note that being together is enough for now.
- Beach Episode: Chapter 14, where Ritsu and Uta, as well as their friends, enjoy themselves on the beach, complete with watermelon smashing and bikinis.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ritsu and Uta manage to live and stay together despite going through a ton of hardship and almost being disowned from their friends and parents. Thankfully, they maintain and even mend their relationships with both. However, they still have to maintain their Secret Relationship from the rest of the world outside their friends and family. Not to mention having to face limitations that come from their incestuous relationship, like having no option to officially marry or the inappropriateness of having children together. Luckily at least the first thing manages to intellectually solve itself when they move out to their new home, where their new neighbors mistake them for a pair of newlyweds, which the couple happily accepts as their new cover-up.
- Bland-Name Product: Several.
- Wcnaldo is an obvious play on McDonald's.
- Pikomon is obviously a thinly-veiled parody of Pokémon, complete with a Pikachu clone called "Pikochu".
- Break the Cutie: Uta goes through this after her friends and later her family sans her brother almost disown her and Ritsu due to their relationship, fainting and losing consciousness the first time and almost crossing the Despair Event Horizon and considering Elopement the second. Thankfully, with Ritsu's help, she gets better.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Ultimately played straight, as Ritsu and Uta come to genuinely love another as more than just siblings by the end. It's also deconstructed during the last few chapters when their parents and friends nearly disown and disassociate themselves from them due to being disgusted with their relationship.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': As listed in Interrupted Intimacy, The one time Uta and Ritsu broke their rule of no romance in the house, their parents walked into them.
- Cerebus Syndrome: As the manga progresses, fewer and fewer comedic moments happen as Uta and Ritsu grow ever closer to one another. It culminates in Ritsu's and Uta's friends and family almost disowning both of them, and Uta almost crossing the Despair Event Horizon twice.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Ami, twice.
- During their first meeting in the midst of a mixer, Ami meets and befriends Ritsu after he defeats her during a Mobile Phone Game match.
- When Ami meets Uta for the first time at an arcade, she ends up befriending the younger girl after the latter beats her in an arcade game match.
- Ecchi: Several elements from the genre are present here, namely Uta having several Fanservice Pack costumes throughout the series, and several long making out scenes between the main characters.
- Elopement: Discussed but ultimately defied. Uta suggests doing this with Ritsu after their parents discover their relationship, but Ritsu immediately refuses due to not wanting to run away from friends and loved ones who genuinely care about them.
- Everyone Has Standards: Although Ritsu and Uta are capable of having an incestuous relationship, having biological children is one of the few ethical boundaries they are not willing to cross.
- Fake Relationship: Ritsu's and Uta's fake relationship at the start of the series was the result of a lie made by the former in order to get out of a mixer in order to keep his promise to the latter.
- Festival Episode: Chapter 18 takes place during a Summer Festival, complete with booths selling food and game prizes, yukatas, and fireworks.
- Forbidden Love: Despite their genuine love for another, their established loving relationship and their positive Character Development stemming from it, Ritsu and Uta are almost disowned by their friends and family after finding about the true nature of said relationship. And of course, the emotional strain is so hard that Uta almost crosses the Despair Event Horizon. Twice.
- Gamer Chick: Both Ami and Uta are shown to be huge gamers throughout the story. It's what causes them to become fast friends with one another.
- Girlish Pigtails: Uta has very long and noticeable ones.
- Good Parents: Ritsu's and Uta's mother and father are established to be very loving and caring parents. Even after they find out about their children's incestrous relationship, they still support them, though it takes much longer on their father's part to tolerate it.
- Gyaru Girl: Ami Hojou is a clear Kogal type, complete with blonde hair, heavy use of makeup and cosmetics, and schoolgirl appearance even outside of school.
- Halloween Episode: Chapters 23 and 23.1, where Uta dresses up in costume and attends a small costume party with her friends.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Chapter 44 has Ritsu and Uta home alone after their parents go on a trip. It doesn't take long before they begin making out passionately until they're interrupted by the sudden arrival of their parents due to a cancelled flight.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Ami eventually lets Ritsu stay with Uta despite proclaiming several times that she's Uta's rival in seeking Ritsu's love.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Uta owns a cat, and is shown to be very loving towards it.
- Kissing Cousins: This is the cover story that Ritsu and Uta use in front of their friends regarding their relation to one another, in order to avoid arousing suspicion.
- Little Sister Heroine: Uta, natch. She's Ritsu's younger sister, adores her brother a lot, becomes his eventual Love Interest, and needs help from him towards the end of the story.
- No Antagonist: No actual antagonists appear throughout the story. The closest would be Mr. Fukami after finding out about their relationship, but he's only like that because they're not supposed to have a relationship in the first place and it would be a huge scandal if the rest of the world found out.
- Official Couple: Ritsu and Uta inevitably become this by the middle chapters.
- Romantic Fake–Real Turn: It doesn't take long for Ritsu's and Uta's fake relationship to blossom into a real one. By Chapter 16, Ritsu himself admits to Ami that they aren't faking it.
- Secret-Keeper: Several.
- Ami finds out about Ritsu's and Uta's real relation to one another during the Beach Episode, but opts not to tell anyone else due to being one of their closest friends. Instead, she continues helping Ritsu by offering advice to him.
- The rest of Ritsu's and Uta's friends become this after finding out about their true relation as siblings. Like Ami, they opt not to tell about it to the rest of the world.
- Ritsu's and Uta's parents also become this by the end after seeing both of them make out at home.
- School Festival: Ritsu and Uta attend one taking place in the latter's school. where they dance over the bonfire as a promise to stay together. They're nearly discovered by the principal of said school, who turns out to have known both of them since elementary.
- Secret Relationship: Zigzagged. On one hand, Ritsu and Uta's friends know about them being a couple, but not the true relation between them. However, they keep it a secret from their parents, for obvious reasons.
- Sick Episode: Chapters 24 and 24.1 have Uta bedridden from a bad cold, with Ritsu obliged into helping take care of her in the meantime.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Defied. Even after their friends and family find out about their incestrous relationship, they make it a point to stay together regardless.
- Tritagonist: Ami. She's the only character outside of the main couple who has a significant amount of screentime alone, and she has several important scenes she shares with Ritsu and Uta.
- True Companions: Despite saying several nasty comments to both of them and almost disassociating themselves, Ritsu's and Uta's friends ultimately keep their friendship with both of them due to their seriousness and genuine dedication in maintaining their relationship.
- Tsundere: Averted with Uta. She immediately becomes honest with Ritsu even as their feelings for one another start to become obvious.
- Wham Episode: A couple towards the end of the manga's run.
- Chapter 42 has Ritsu's and Uta's friends discover their true relation to one another, with both of them admitting to their incestrous relationship. Uta, after hearing several hurtful comments from her friends, faints and loses consciousness.
- Chapter 45. Ritsu's and Uta's parents discover their incestuous relationship after seeing Ritsu and Uta making out with one another. Their father gets angry and almost disowns both of them. In desperation, Uta asks Ritsu if they can elope together.
