The Fall 2025 anime season is here, and I’m delving into all the amazing offerings to choose which ones to write about for our blog. One show I’m enjoying is My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me!, aka Tomodachi no Imōto ga Ore ni Dake Uzai or just ImoUza. Will this show be the heart-melting romantic comedy we’ve been waiting for?
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If a Girl Teases You, It Means She Likes You…Right?
Akiteru Oboshi has a problem: every girl he interacts with seems to hate him. Except perhaps Iroha, his best friend’s younger sister, who can’t stop hanging around him just to tease him. Akiteru does his best to ignore her, because he has a dream: to score a job for himself as a software developer at his uncle’s company. But his uncle has one condition: Akiteru must pretend to date his uncle’s daughter, Mashiro, to keep other boys away. The catch? Mashiro hates his guts.
And so we have the first breakout romantic comedy of the Fall 2025 anime season. A boy caught between his best friend’s teasing sister and a cousin who despises him. If he falls in love with either girl, his dream of working for his uncle’s company will go up in smoke. What would you do in this situation?
ImoUza is Based on a Light Novel Series
The anime is based on a popular light novel series by Ghost Mikawa, the writer who also brought us the well-received Gimai Seikatsu, about a boy finding romance with his new step-sister. The novels are available in English from J-Novel Club. There’s also a manga adaptation, if you prefer that.
The animation is being handled by Blade, the studio that brought us Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! and I Have a Crush at Work, so we know we’re in good hands.
Lots of Sexy Fan Service in ImoUza: My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me
Of course, there are plenty of sexy camera angles in the first season to hook viewers with a dopamine hit and draw them into the story and its characters. We’ll see if this show is going to offer more visual fan service going forward, or if it’s largely limited to the first episode.
Personally, the best character in the ImoUza anime is the hard-ass teacher, Sumire Kageishi. She’s voiced by Queen of Voice Acting Kana Hanazawa, and it’s great to see her in this role.
Peter’s Take on the ImoUza Anime: I Really Hate Iroha
While I’m happy to watch how this show unfolds, especially how the “romantic catch-ball” between Akiteru, Iroha, and Mashiro evolves, I don’t think the ImoUza anime will be my favorite anime of the season. The reason is: I hate Iroha.
The genre of “teasing romance” in anime is quite well-developed. We’ve got some great examples of this dynamic:
- Nagatoro-san loves to engage in light hazing of her senpai, usually with sexy results for viewers as she takes things too far. She never belittles him in front of others.
- Uzaki-chan loves to playfully tease Sakurai-senpai, except when he mocks her for eating choco mint ice cream.
- Alya loves to pick on Masachika, but often expresses her true feelings in Russian. The joke’s on her, though, since he understands the language.
- Of course, the gold standard when it comes to “teasing anime” is Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san. But she’s always gentle and private with her setups, and her actions bring her and Nishikata closer together.
But in episode one, Iroha goes to Akiteru’s class and poses as his girlfriend, making everyone in the class think they’re dating. Later, when they’re alone, she hugs him from behind and makes a heartfelt confession of love. Then she says, “Gotcha! Did you get your hopes up? I bet you did! I’ve always wanted to try an authentic confession scene like this.”
The strongest negative response to give someone in Japanese isn’t a curse word or an insult. It’s worse than that: it’s 絶交 zekkō, cutting that person out of your life completely and never speaking to them again. If you really, really fuck up with a Japanese person, that’s what you can expect. This is how I would treat someone like Iroha who made a fake confession of love: to lock them out of my life for playing with my feelings like that.
Thanks for reading this blog post about the new ImoUza: My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me! anime. What anime are you enjoying so far this season? Tell us in the comments!
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No girlfriend? No problem! April 14 is Black Day in South Korea, when single men mark the occasion by eating black noodles. They missed out on Valentine’s Day chocolate on February 14 and had no one to give white chocolate to on White Day, March 14, but so April 14 is their day! J-List is celebrating with a huge 15% sale on all Japan-based products through April 20. Start browsing now!
