Brothers Conflict – 07-08

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“I see that my brother is collapsed on the floor, but let’s have a leisurely conversation instead.”

The OP song to this anime has really grown on me. …Meanwhile, the ED song has somehow managed to beat out Maji Love 1000% (and 2000% as well) in my list of things that are kind of embarrassing to listen to in public. Ahaha… ha.

Episode 7

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WHOA. MAHOKO AND SASAKURA ACTUALLY EXIST. And it seems like Ema wasn’t the only one who got their personality toned down. Maho seems to have less personality than she did in the games. I don’t think Sasakura had a personality in the first place. Anyways, it was an, er, interesting cultural festival this episode. Seeing Ema interact in her daily school life was a nice change from all of the family drama that’s going on. It’s nice to see Yusuke and Ema have a cute relationship by itself, aside from the family thing.

On the other hand though, Ema clearly states this episode that she only wants to be siblings (or at least, she said so to Futo). Which is good for her since she’s totally been pushed around by him since they first met and the pairing here just doesn’t have the same appeal as the game had. …Futo doesn’t seem to be making good decisions here though, considering his job. He’s super famous and said that people were there specifically to take pictures of him, and yet he goes into a dark room with his stepsister without even trying to hide it. Were this any other series, the characters would have been in over their heads dealing with some sort of media scandal or something. That never happens in this series of course, but seriously Futo. Think things through.

This episode was the episode where I finally realized something. Watching all of the guys fall for Ema is actually kind of painful to watch. This isn’t like most of the other reverse harem shows where there are cute moments in between the heroine rejecting everyone, but this is like watching people jump off cliffs or something. Sure, there are some cute moments, but for the most part, I’m just cringing at whatever the brothers do for Ema because it either feels forced or just petty. I think my issue is largely due to the fact that Ema doesn’t exactly say ‘no’, but then says that she doesn’t want to be anything but siblings. …Or in other words, her personality in general. There’s no chemistry between her and almost everyone. She needs to get to the phase where she starts rejecting the brothers for real. …If the anime will even go there.

Episode 8

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Ice cream solves everything.

Oh look, another twin (or maybe triplet since Natsume was kind of present) centric episode. But hey, it was a pleasant surprise when Tsubaki finally matured a bit. I have the feeling that Azusa’s advice from the last episode was an equal balance of actual concern for Tsubaki and making excuses to get Tsubaki away from Ema, but it seems to have had the desired effect. Maybe. Tsubaki didn’t seem to feel as bad about taking Azusa’s role as I thought he’d feel, but I guess we got enough angst from the tension with Azusa about Ema. At least he seems to acknowledge the fact that he was really pushing it with Ema, and now hopefully he isn’t as pushy. Having Ema comfort Tsubaki here was nice to watch as well.

Meanwhile, Azusa finally makes a move. …Which should be put to an end quickly since it seems like everyone who’s confessed to Ema at this time gets the insta-rejection (or you know, that thing she does where she doesn’t say no outright, but definitely doesn’t have any romantic feelings for the guy). I really like Azusa’s character, but I’m afraid that he’s not going to be ‘the one’ for Ema based on timing alone.

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At least he got a lot of hugging action this episode. >.>

So the twins have reconciled, but it’s hard to tell if they were actually fighting or not, now that I look back at it. There was a lot of angsting going on, I guess, but it doesn’t seem as bad as I would have figured. Both Tsubaki and Azusa seemed to be on rather friendly terms while they were fighting, and really, their relationship didn’t seem any different from usual aside from fighting in front of Ema twice. (That “I’m not going to give up on her” speech in front of their rooms didn’t really seem like an actual argument.) Maybe we might have felt some change if they had shown us more of how they interacted to begin with, but again. They didn’t seem to act any differently than we’ve already seen them.


Things are definitely more interesting than they were in the first couple episodes, but I don’t know if it’s a good kind of interesting or not. Like I said above, watching the brothers all have a petty cat fight over their sister is kind of embarrassing to watch. Especially when it’s so hard to see why they fell for her in the first place. Maybe it’s because actually watching things play out is different from reading about them happen, but I never felt this way towards the novels. …I won’t even include the game here since the ‘Conflict’ part of the Brothers Conflict game was almost non-existent unless you were trying to make it happen. And even then, it never lasted this long, nor was this intrusive to the plot. Anyways, this is still watchable for the drama happening, but it’s kind of taking the fun away from it all when trying to watch this as a romance anime.

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I assume that the next episode is Ema’s existential crisis. 

About

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.
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20 Responses to “Brothers Conflict – 07-08”

  1. Highway says:

    I really enjoyed her putting at least the mild smackdown on Futo. Ahahahahahaha! And even better, he immediately disappeared from the show. I’m guessing he’ll be back soon enough, but “Steeeeeeerike Three!”

    Ok, enough gloating. I liked Azusa all the way up until he actually confessed, and something about the way he did it just… didn’t strike me well. Meanwhile, I like that Tsubaki’s backed off a lot, and it feels like Natsume has kind of laid off a little too. I’m really liking Yusuke more and more, and thought how he was during the cultural festival was nice. It kinda sucked that Subaru was a complete no-show for these two episodes tho. Those two are my choice for a pairing for Ema.

    And I guess we started seeing what you were talking about with Iori. Does he always pick on Yusuke, or does he do it to everyone? Not an endearing quality.

    In other news, for some reason I’ve come to like Ukyo more. Maybe it’s his part in the ED, he seems to have a lot more style with that 3-pc suit. Also, he seems like a standup guy so far (even if he is a lawyer).

    And the ED is definitely something that I keep watching cause it’s just so bad it’s good. And those lyrics are just abominable. Any song that’s got “My Sister…” and “kiss kiss kiss I need your love” in it, you know it’s classy.

    • Karakuri says:

      …Yeah. Something about Azusa confessing felt off to me too. I liked it better when he was more subtle about his feelings for Ema. Though I’ve come to the conclusion that I like seeing all of the brothers when they’re more subtle about their feelings (at least in the anime).

      Er, I don’t think Iori and Yusuke ever exchanged 2 words from what I remember in sibling interactions. Mostly, Iori just sits in the background or doesn’t participate in family time quite like the others do. …Though what do I know, I haven’t played his route yet. Maybe he is like that on a regular basis if Ema hangs out with him.

      AHAHAHAHA …yep, that definitely sums up my feelings about the ED. OTL

      • Highway says:

        Maybe I got the wrong person. Wasn’t Iori the one who out of the blue corrected Yusuke’s grammar in Episode 8? I didn’t think it was Tsubaki or Rui…

        Yeah, the guys who are subtle are a lot better than the guys who are pushing Ema down on the couch. And I like Yusuke most because he’s got the classic anime crush that he’s trying to get into romance. If only his ham-fisted brothers don’t drive Ema away first…

        • Karakuri says:

          No, no. That was Iori who corrected Yusuke. I mean in the games and such, I don’t remember Iori ever having a conversation with Yusuke (other than once wishing him luck on entrance exams).

          • Highway says:

            Maybe they added it in because they realized he was pretty much a ghost in this show. I think Miwa’s had as many lines as he has so far.

            • Irenesharda says:

              Yeah, Iori has to have had the least lines of all the brothers, though Louis and Ukyo aren’t far behind. Miwa has had what? Two scenes and two lines, and her husband, Ema’s dad had even less? Well, I guess with as many characters as this has, some were bound to get the shaft.

    • Namika says:

      Ukyo is a sweetheart, and a bishie on top of it.

      Iori is kinda weird to me, because of that empty stare. Especially in the opening, it gives me the creeps.

      That ending has become almost everyone’s guilty pleasure 😀 That’s so funny, despite that it’s really very bad 😀

  2. Irenesharda says:

    Well, this show seems to hit and miss with seeming regularity. I’ve given up on Ema being an interesting character, and that she will be more than a rug for her more aggressive step-brothers. Most of the time, she’s just something for all the guys to react to and bounce off of, as well as give the plot some meaning and conflict. Most of the relationships are ridiculous, and so far the only ones who’ve really pretty much kept to their brother-role are Masaomi, Kaname (for the most part), Hikaru, Natsume, Louis, Iori, and Wataru. Everyone else has decided to have a romantic battle royale over this boring chick. Anyway, all the infighting was kind of boring and really brought down episode 7. I can’t stand Futo, and this episode did nothing but reinforce that.

    However, Azusa’s drama at the end and leading into episode 8 really made up for it. This show seems to do best when actually, instead of forcing cheesy romance, it goes more into the family dynamics. The relationship with the triplets, Masaori’s protection of his family, Chii trying to find her place in it, while studying to go to college, all this is more interesting. Azusa and Tsubaki’s relationship was especially highlighted these couple of episodes as the two fight, fall apart, and make up over the course of it. Tsubaki’s “Inception-like” dreams were really well done as we see what really makes the guy react the way he does.

    Poor Azusa also get the worst of it as he develops the highly dangerous meningitis (which annoyingly, they don’t treat as seriously as they should), but hopefully he will eventually make a full recovery.

    I give episode 7 a 5.9/10 and ep. 8 a 7.85/10.

    • Highway says:

      I think that Yusuke and Subaru are actually doing pretty well in the “sister vs potential girlfriend” thing. Both of them have kind of held Ema at arm’s length on the sister front, which makes it less skeevy when they try to make progress on the girlfriend front. Meanwhile, Masaomi, Ukyo, Kaname, Rui, and Natsume (for the most part) are doing more of a “sister” idea, where even if Kaname schmoozes her, it’s really more jokey and cause that’s just how he is, not because he’s trying to leverage being related to her into relations with her.

      That’s the main problem I’m having with Tsubaki, Azusa, and Futo. They’re all trying to use the brother-sister connection as an “in” to dating Ema. And that comes off as really skeevy.

      • Irenesharda says:

        Actually, I kind of like Yusuke too. Not really that interested in Subaru and can really lump him in with the rest. He’s not as bad as Futo or Tsubaki, but he’s in there.

        Kaname was bad to start with but once Ema put him in his place and we realized that that’s just pretty much his personality overall, he’s kind of settled into that teasing older brother roll. Honestly of all her onii-sans, I have to say that I like Yusuke the most as potential love interest since he’s never really tried to force anything on her and is simply happy to be near her. and I like Natsume the most from a brother standpoint. Of all the older bros, he’s the one who has surprisingly interacted with her the most from a mostly platonic angle. He gives her advice, gives her rides home when she needs it, talks to her about the family, worries about her when it comes to her more obsessive siblings. The two of them can even simply eat or sit together without me thinking that he’s just waiting until he can take advantage of her. He’s also the only one who we see gives her gifts from time to time, and not because he wants a romantic relationship, but just because that’s what older siblings do.

        As for all the rest, well many of the other older ones, while interacting with her, are pretty absent. Everyone else (with the exception of Yusuke and Iori) are trying to make out with her, or they are so little that they haven’t hit puberty yet.

        • Highway says:

          Hmm, I get that from Ukyo or Masaomi, not really Natsume. With Natsume, there always seems to be a bit of a weird challenge there. Maybe it’s cause he thinks that Ema is moving in on Subaru, or distracting Subaru, or maybe because he’s into Ema like his twin brothers are. I dunno, Natsume never seems completely on the up and up to me.

          Subaru’s moves on Ema don’t strike me the same way as the others, so even though he’s half-confessed, and forced a hug on her, he doesn’t straddle the sister / lover line.

  3. Namika says:

    First of all – the ending….. It actually made me watch Uta-Pri 😀 I think, I finished 4th or 5th episode and was watching the ending sequence when I thought “I need more of this or I’m gonna die”, so I remembered something about bishies singing so I just watched both seasons. And guess what? I loved it :3 I wonder why 😀 But the ending sequences for both of these shows are quite equal to me. I just can’t pick one of them.

    Despite so many things being wrong with this show, I’m still loving it. Idk why O_O I think the cute personalities of the brothers make this anime worthwhile. Every single on of them is sweet and endearing in their own way, which I like quite a lot. And I feel sorry for Ema, because she just keeps rejecting one brother after another. I wonder, if she will ever have a breakdown or something. I certainly hope so. That way we’ll at least see some more emotions and a hint of a personality. I think.

    The triplets are freaking adorable. They’re my most favorites out of the bunch, followed by Ukyo. Urayamashiiiii~

    I wonder, what was written in that…. thing, whatever it’s named, I don’t remember. ><"

    • Highway says:

      The family regisry (koseki) is a big thing. It basically records vital information about everyone in a family.

      • Irenesharda says:

        Is it more of a Japanese thing? I know the US and state governments keeps records of births, deaths, marriages, etc. for legal reasons. However, it’s not really that big of a deal unless you have some sort of legal dispute going on.

        So, what was up with her records that made her surprised? It couldn’t have been a name change since she would always keep her father’s surname until marriage, so what could it be?

        • Karakuri says:

          So, what was up with her records that made her surprised? It couldn’t have been a name change since she would always keep her father’s surname until marriage, so what could it be?

          Remember when I said that family is a big theme here? It’s something to do with that.

          • Irenesharda says:

            Is it the evidence that the two families records have been merged into one? I would think that was a given. I hope its not something simple that she’s being melodramatic over. I was hoping for more actual conflict. 🙁

            • Karakuri says:

              …Uh, I always thought that Ema blows the next event out of proportion, so you’ll see. Plus maybe she won’t make such a big deal out of it since she seems to have less personality now.

            • Namika says:

              It would be actually funny, if she did so 😀

      • Namika says:

        Mmmm, so some skeletons?? I hope things will get more interesting

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