Brothers Conflict – 02-03
The world’s most depressing looking birthday party
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Ah, if you’re wondering where this was last week, I’m probably going to just cover BroCon every other week. …Because let’s be honest here, there’s not a whole lot going on. …And as for my game review, I’m am EXTREMELY distracted by Ozmafia right now (and I have Tiny x Machinegun being delivered within the month), so I haven’t even touched my PSP in a week. OTL I’ll get around to it, I swear!! |
Episode 2
Despite their money, apparently the Asahina household doesn’t have a shed to hide the bodies in.
I’m glad that the brothers are being introduced somewhat (kind of sort of) more naturally this episode. They’re starting to ignore some brothers to focus on other ones. …Or at least, they seemed to have ignored Masaomi this episode for the most part. Futo was a huge part of the episode, and if you somehow missed it, he’s the bratty kid who thinks that dealing with his family is a pain. He respects them (not that he says that ever though), and there’s that family bond still there, but large family gatherings are a pain for him. Though sometimes it’s funny since Futo doesn’t hold back when telling Yusuke how much of an idiot he thinks he is.
Speaking of Yusuke, he finally had his monologue about how he’s awkward because he’s been in love with Ema. Though I’m sure you could have guessed what his problem was just from looking. Subaru had some focus this episode too. There were kind of hints towards what happened between him and Natsume in the past, but for the most part, this was a lot like his route (minus that part where he said that Ema was a pain. That never happened). …Man, his birthday party looked depressing though. Everybody just sat around in a dark room talking. Hopefully the wedding and Christmas are a bit more lively. As for exposition for the other brothers, you kind of saw the tension between Iori and Kaname. That should be explained somewhere in this anime (probably when Iori starts falling for Ema).
…Ema’s lack of personality was painfully noticeable with Futo in the picture now. He’s the smart mouthed kid who sexually harasses teases Ema all the time, and in the game, it’s kind of cute since Ema gets mad, but her personality doesn’t allow her to get mad for long… and then Futo makes fun of her, repeating the process. (…I’m probably not making much sense.) Here, Ema has no reactions. …So Futo’s interactions are now boring since Ema getting mad was what made the events cute. Juli took over Ema’s anger it seems. …Though Juli was never fond of Futo in the games anyways (you can probably guess why).
Episode 3
Luckily, once Juli was out of the scene (…and unceremoniously stuffed in a bag), Ema’s personality came out a bit! She tends to hit the right notes with all of the brothers (like praising Futo for his love of acting or telling Kaname that he’s a nice guy like she did in episode 1), so you can probably see why all of the brothers fall for her. Plus her embarrassment around Futo teasing her was how I remember it from the games~. I hope they have Ema open up a bit more as the series goes on. They also upped the interaction between brothers a bit (mostly in that scene with Yusuke forcibly dragging Futo away from Ema’s room) and we had Miwa dote on Ema. It was pretty much everything I asked for. …They still missed a lot an it wasn’t as heartwarming as I was hoping for, but at least the anime didn’t completely ignore these things. Maybe they should take Juli out of the picture more often (though that would unfortunately mean less Kamiyan…)
I certainly hope they didn’t all try to walk through the door at the same time in that arrangement.
…Hikaru was busy in Italy when the wedding event happened in the game, but seeing here in the anime was kind of funny, if only for the fact that he wore a dress. He’s never explained why he cross dresses yet in the anime, but he totally could have worn a suit here since he’s not at work. Though maybe they’re saving him actually dressing like a guy for later. Also, Natsume appeared! And Ema suddenly likes video games! Yaaay! Of course, there’s still a lot of drama still with Subaru (that I assume Natsume will be involved in), but his character had a good introduction. …Despite him facing the door, having the entire family walk in (and stand in a really deliberate fashion) and then going “when did you show up?” …I guess Ema is just extremely distracting. As for other brothers that stuck out, they finally decided to reveal that Rui knows what Juli has been saying this entire time. I actually have no idea about the how or why of that since Rui wasn’t all that prominent in the Passion Pink game and he didn’t have a route. So really, I’m a bit curious about all of that as much as you are (…provided that you’re actually curious).
Well, the wedding wasn’t quite as depressing as Subaru’s birthday party, and we finally got to see Miwa and Rintarou~. Neither of them really have personalities outside of being kind and caring, but I’m sure you wanted to see the woman who gave birth to an unreasonable amount of children. Like I said above though, watching her dote on Ema is heartwarming~. Though with all of the Miwa and Ema moments I remember, I can’t ever think of a time where Rintarou ever bonded with any of the Asahina brothers. Ah, well. Maybe the anime might include some (but I doubt it).
Ema… still lacks a name it seems. Couldn’t they at least call her “Hinata” (Rintarou’s last name) or something? That was definitely canon (you couldn’t even change that in the game). Ema’s best friend, Mahoko, seems to not exist too… Her existence would at least give Ema a nickname they could use since she calls Ema ‘Hina’ (which, as Mahoko says int eh game, works with both of the names ‘Asahina’ and ‘Hinata’. …I thought it was cute.) Anyways, things got kind of better over the course of two episodes. The conflicts are starting to emerge, which should make the plot more interesting as opposed to generic romcom events happening. A lot of the brothers seem to have been shafted (aka Masaomi and Wataru), but I think Futo had a pretty good introduction, all things considered. Everything you saw for his character was basically the important points to him. Natsume and Hikaru have a few things to their characters that still needs addressing, but that can definitely wait considering that they were only introduced in episode 3.
So there’s not a whole lot going on in this series and everything I liked has been watered down terribly, but I still find this watchable I guess. The animation style still bugs me and all of the character actions seem really contrived/totally unnatural… Some of the backgrounds look like what I used to do for my perspective drawing class when I didn’t want to do much and I drew/rendered halfassed boxes that may or may not have worked as actual furniture (which is actually kind of funny for me, but still). However, I like seeing the characters act like themselves. Well, minus Ema, who’s only starting to act like herself. To be honest, this definitely didn’t reach what I was hoping for. But hey, it’s still watchable and nowhere near as big of a letdown as Arcana Famiglia was. This is a huge accomplishment as far as I’m concerned.
The next episode should be interesting for Ema at least, provided that they’re following the game event order. …Though it kind of looked likt they skipped right to Christmas in the preview, so maybe not.
About Karakuri
University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 318 comments
lol, Karakuri-san, Ozmafia and Tiny x Machinegun were the two games I was thinking about buying or not a few days ago.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I DO NOT REGRET BUYING OZMAFIA IN THE SLIGHTEST. …Though it’s quickly becoming a game of “which character will ‘die’ in this route ending?” …I’ve only gone through Axel’s and Kyrie’s endings, so outside of the Oz family might be different.
I’m not sure how Tiny x Machine is myself, but I really like the style the game seems to have to it.
POWUH: iLurker with 10 comments
This is actually a lot better than I expected, low budget is low budget I guess..I did not like the change in Ema’s character, but she’s still decent.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I can live with Ema’s character, but they took so much of what I enjoyed in the games out…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I thought episode one was funny in a painful kind of way, but episode 2 blew it out of the water in that respect. Talk about the least fun birthday party ever! And let’s throw Fuuto the tremendous jerk in there, too.
I’ll have to see episode 3 (which I forgot about), but through the first two episodes, I couldn’t see where this was anywhere near as GOOD as Arcana Famiglia. Maybe that fiasco squashed your expectations so much that you can’t be disappointed by this one. 🙂
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I would hate to live with Futo myself, but seeing him interact with Ema is cute. …Or it would be if she actually got mad once in a while.
No, no. I think it’s the fact that BroCon is actually sticking fairly close to the source material (albeit, it’s been watered down a lot). The characters are acting like how they did in the game. They haven’t ignored any super important events. Arcana Famiglia ignored 90.99999% of what went on in the game. That’s where my disappointment comes from.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Ahh. I just watched the third episode and not knowing what’s in the game and what’s not, it just seems the show is soooooo stilted. I mean, they have to give *every* guy a chance to say something on the runup to the “Welcome to the family!”
And boy is Futo a jerk. Does he keep out-jerking himself as it goes? Or stay at this level? The fact that she just doesn’t do anything about it except “huh?” is what makes it pretty bad.
At least from now, I hope we don’t have any more “Hey, here’s another brother!” introductions. It might help us all if they’d have Ema say “Oh, *soandso* I didn’t expect to see you.” or “Hi whatsisname, how are you this morning?” And just like with the birthday party, the wedding was pretty empty also. They had a crowd for a couple parts, but too many other parts were just ‘deserted hallway’ kind of thing.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Futo has his moments. Unfortunately, I don’t remember him having any outside of routes. (Like, for Yusuke’s route, he’s basically the one who goes “ARGH, YOU’RE BOTH IDIOTS.” and gets them together).
…Nobody outside of the family seems to exist. OTL It’s kind of lonely. But yeah, all brothers have been introduced now, so hopefully there aren’t any more painfully obvious introductions. …I think I’ll suck it up and finish the last event in Subaru’s route right now so I can post my review next week.
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
Ema’s lack of personality just bugged me. =_=. Actually lack of smarts. She let Futo into her room with no questions asked. That was one time I wished she listened to Juli. Although she has more “personality” than Amnesia’s Heroine so I can’t complain there.
And Subaru is so cute! 😀 As long as little cute moments happen, I’m happy.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Well, Amnesia’s heroine had an amnesia. That’s to be expected. But a slight glimpse of a personality showed through a little, as the show went on.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
She’s kind of getting better! At least she games now, so that should give her something to talk to Natsume about… I didn’t mind her letting Futo in her room either. Not just because that’s what happened in the game, but it gave her the chance to have a heart to heart with him. He wouldn’t have opened up like that in front of his brothers.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
its the brothers to the rescue! This show would be totally lost if we had to depend on the MC.
Not only does Chi have little to no personality, but she is my hated ultra submissive female protagonist. Why does Japan like to create such annoying female doormats?!! In fact Chi might be even more of a rug than a doormat. People seem to walk over her all the time rather than just at the door. And after 3 episodes, I’m afraid she’s going to stay that way.
So, anyway, it’s up to the brothers to bring some life to this. The 13 of them and their burgeoning characters and personalities are probably the most interesting things in this series. Futo is a bratty jerk, but you can actually see a slight nice side to him. He’s a typical 15 year-old, especially one who was suddenly tossed in the limelight and has let it all go to his head. All of the older brothers except the twins are taking a step back and the younger ones get more time as I suspected. They especially highlight the 20 year-old Subaru and the 17 year-old Yusuke. I like Yu-chan better, but Subaru is cool too.
Majority of the elder brothers and Wataru seem to have be shot down to little more than foot notes, that is, except Kanase and Hikaru who look like they might have a slightly more extensive role. I have to admit though that Hikaru isn’t the best crossdresser I’ve seen, he actually looks pretty masculine in comparison to others in anime.
We finally meet the mother of all these boys and looking at how young and shapely she looks, she doesn’t appear to be the kind of woman who could give birth to and raise 13 boys! However these are anime parents so they really don’t raise their kids majority of the time. As for Rintarou, he didn’t even find time to raise his own daughter, so I doubt he would ever take to bond with is new step-sons.
Honestly, I think that would make a better story in terms of drama. To see so many sons of different ages and how they deal with the death of their own father and then with their mother remarrying. How does each one take the new changes within their family and balance being happy for their mother as well as dealing with the loss of their own father and gaining another as well as a new sibling that they view as an outsider? If they did it realistically, with each son having different reactions and emotions, then I think that would actually be a very good plot.
However, no, we instead have a very watered down reverse harem with an MC that barely comes close to having a personality. It was nice to see that Chi actually had a hobby of gaming, but that doesn’t really save her character.
I give these two episodes an average of 6/10.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
…Because Japan complains when heroines are too strong headed? (No, seriously, you should read what they think of some otome game heroines who aren’t doormats.)
In the novels, Hikaru and Kaname kind of act more as observers, so I imagine their roles here will be similar. …And no, he’s not the greatest cross dresser, but he switches to being full time male in the game and never goes back, so that’s probably the reason why.
More on Rintarou the next episode (if they show that event), but true enough. Miwa is… nothing short of amazing really, giving birth to that many sons. I still have no idea who the father is, since he’s never shown and barely mentioned, but I really wish I could see the guy.
Ahahaha but then it wouldn’t be an otome game. Everybody needs to fawn over Ema and screw how they feel about Rintarou remarrying, because otome game logic.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Oh that heroine mother…. O_O 13 children and still looks beautiful. Meh. Anime, I guess 😐 But interaction between her and Chi was heartwarming. And the bouquet, too.
And what’s with Louis? o-o his behavior is kinda strange
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Yep. Anime. Ahaha the parts with Ema and Miwa are some of my favourites in the game. I’m sad that they didn’t include Miwa saying “you should marry one of my sons~” during the wedding.
Rui? Ummm, he’s special I guess. I imagine there’s some sort of reason why he can talk to Juli, but I have no idea what it is.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
They should have included Miwa saying that. It wouldn’t take long, and it would have set up the whole thing a lot better, knowing that even if Yusuke has some issues with it, Mom doesn’t.
Louis is the buchou of the “can’t talk like a normal person” club. Masaomi and Ukyo seem normal-ish, and Kaname’s just smarmy as hell, but at least normal. But then you get guys like Louis and Subaru and Yusuke who…pause… and stammer… and freeze up.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
In think I remember reading that in the novels, Miwa recommends Masaomi to Ema. …But, yeah, Miwa is fine with it and Rintarou is as well.
…He certainly takes his time getting his point across. I’m usually done reading his lines before he’s done speaking in the game. Ahahaha I wish they’d include more of Yusuke getting flustered and yelling for no reason. He did it in the class, but it’s funny too when he’s in an actual conversation.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
If it’s Masaomi, then it turns ookier, cause that’s “My eldest son who is twice your age can’t find a nice girl, you should marry him.”
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Ahahaha Well Miwa does set Masa up for a omiai in the game, (saying that Ema would still be better, but it’s a favour for a client). …Masaomi’s whole excuse is that he’s busy with work and he’s just not interested in finding anyone when he has 89230 brothers to look after (esp. Wataru)
Honestly, the age difference wasn’t that big of an issue in the game though.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Well, if Miwa stepped up and actually took the time to raise her sons (at least the minors) then perhaps her elder sons could have a social life and maybe find a wife and have a family of their own?