Sometimes a specific element of a series becomes notorious, the murderous end to School Days for instance, and Yosuga no Sora (Sky of Connection) has its own as an epilogue to the first episode. Female masturbation isn't something certain facets of anime have shied away from but it poses the question of whether or not it's in good taste. Short answer: no. What puts the series into a different category of lewdness than other tasteless series such as Ikkitousen, Queen's Blade and Kanokon is that here the series makes a desperate attempt to tell a meaningful story of emotion and heartbreak the likes of which visual novels are renowned for.

It's all been done before though, and done better. The beige-grey palette will be familiar from Futakoi Alternative and though the characters avoid the most egregious archetypes, their motivations and reactions feel all too commonplace. That black undercurrent though, with plot threads such as the sister's incestuous obsession with her brother, feel far too forced. Their taboo nature magnified when the characters are still schoolchildren of indeterminate ages and maturity. More succinctly: it crosses the line between the self-knowing, head-shaking titillation of Ladies versus Butlers and into deviant fetishism and disquieting sexual territory.

This is made all the more prominent by the incongruously jaunty side stories which end each episode, confusingly after the end credits have rolled. The end credits which follow those however (creating a handy opportunity for two songs) are more comfortable showing a red-light district's worth of T&A spliced into a montage of outlandish expressions and situations for the main cast of characters. Confusing matters further, the two bleed over into one another with brief flashes of imagined sapphic eroticism in the main story and the pressing worries of companionship in the other.

Not all of the series is downward facing though. It can at times be beautiful with the all important sunsets and mountain views, and other times it can be strangely affecting such as the quirky greeting Akira and Haruka exchange in the third episode. More often though it is that inclination towards the disturbing that prevails making the series so far, more uncomfortable than challenging.

Writing it off this early for its sporadically aberrant approach to sexuality may seem unfair, but with an already notorious fourth episode, it seems more likely the series will dispense with all pretences of decency and taste, plumbing perversion instead.