Category Archives: Anime

Brothers Conflict Review

Originally posted on Tanuki Bridge:

 

It’s difficult to know how to start this review. Usually I’d open with a paragraph of how much I like a series or my previous experiences, but in this case I’d never heard of this anime before or the visual novel it’s based on. I’d gone into it totally blind and perhaps if I’d had prior knowledge I never would have bothered.

Brothers Conflict is a reverse harem series that tells the story of Ema Asahina who moves in with her 13 step-brothers after her father remarries. Ema also has a talking pet squirrel called Juli, who disapproves of Ema putting herself in a situation surrounded by so many boys. Meanwhile, with the arrival of Ema the brothers now struggling with having a lady in the building and adjusting how they go about their day to day lives.

Normally when I review anime I dedicate more than a single paragraph to a show’s plot, but in this case I find it impossible. I’ve already mentioned that this is a reverse harem series and that comes into play by most, if not all, the brothers having feelings for Ema or teasing her as though they do. I’d normally be okay with this kind of thing but overall I just find Brothers Conflict terrible. 

Brothers Conflict is very generic in how it handles its characters and plot. For example, within the first episode Ema faints from a fever and then later on when she goes for a bath she stumbles on one of her brothers who is wearing nothing but a towel. Things only get worse when she overhears two other brothers (twins), seemingly confessing their love to one another (it turns out they were just rehearsing a script). Despite all this and the fact various brothers make a move to kiss Ema, all our main character actually does is apologise and stutter in speaking. She doesn’t have a personality to speak of, really, and even among the 13 boys their personalities are just very generic and in-line with what you’d expect of their jobs/designs/attitudes.

Among the boys we have the twins who are able to finish each other’s sentences. We have the jealous one who is resentful that Ema is now living in his home. We have the mature one, the bishi one who works as a hairdresser, the cute younger one, the distant one and somehow also the very plain one who probably has the most genuine feelings. Among this large cast not a single one of them has an interesting personality and it’s difficult to care about them at all. This is again not helped by Ema, whose interactions with them boil down to standing there blankly and being kissed or talked at. There is no chemistry at all and so it’s hard to care when, frankly, even the characters themselves don’t.

If there was a plot to speak of then maybe I could have overlooked Ema and the boys as almost fatal flaws to the show, but actually this show is nothing more than a collection of the groups day to day lives and I can’t help but feel nothing interesting ever happens. There is absolutely nothing worth your time in this whole show, and that’s not something I’d usually say. I am a firm believer that every anime has a reason for someone to like it, but Brothers Conflict is just bad.

The series has been adapted by Brain’s Base who you’ll probably know as the studio that worked on Baccano! and Durarara!!. While the animation for Brothers Conflict isn’t really bad it’s just also not interesting in the slightest. The colors are fairly bland and backgrounds, while detailed, didn’t really grab my attention either. I guess sometimes bland animation can be just as hurtful as outright badly done animation. Unfortunately the music (handled by Takeshi Nakatsuka) doesn’t stand out at all, so can’t redeem the series either.  Brothers Conflict is both dubbed and subbed but neither track is that good. None of the voice actors really do anything wrong, but when they’re playing characters with personalities about as interesting as watching paint dry – well, it’s no surprise I’m not leaping out of my seat with praise.

This release has been brought to the UK thanks to Funimation and is only available on Blu-ray after the DVD version was cancelled. The set includes all 12 episodes of the series both subbed and dubbed, as well as the two OVA episodes and episode 12.5. The only other extras to speak of are commentaries for episodes 9 & 12 as well as textless opening and ending tracks.

Overall I find myself at a slight loss for words. I truly believe that Brothers Conflict is one of the most boring and generic series I have ever seen and one I never wish to revisit. I can’t think of a single way to recommend it to you, so instead I’ll close this review out by suggesting you go and handle some household chores, or read a book or basically anything that isn’t watching this show.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? – Anime Review

Is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon poster
I went into Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (or DanMachi as I’ll be referring to it as from here on out), is a series I wasn’t expecting to get very attached to it. Our story revolves around a young adventurer known as Bell Cranel a 14-year-old boy hoping to become a hero, save the girl, and have a harem of sorts around him. Wait, no, that’s the novels…

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Realistic Shojo and Why It’s Important

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Watching a recent episode of My Love Story I got thinking about how realistic and down to earth the series is being. Sure there are most certainly a few things that are a little on the crazy side, but for the most part it’s doing better than Kiss Him, Not Me for example.

Of course most of us read manga and watch anime and don’t really expect or want it to be down to earth and completely realistic, but in some ways I think it’s important to have a few series that break the trend of being completely sakura blossoms and overblown teenage feelings. Lets take a favourite series of mine, Say I Love You as a perfect example of what I’m going for here. The story is focused on shy Mei who has never really had any friends and certainly isn’t thinking of dating, but when she meets Yamato that slowly changes and the two of them must work through their problems, very real problems that couples have, if they wish to stay together. What makes this better is that the manga, given it has more time than the 13 episode anime, deals with a lot of problems that everyday kids go through at one point or another. I appricate the series a hell of a lot for this, especially author Kanae Hazuko who is heavily writing from her own personal experience.

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Why Plastic Memories Could Have Been So Much More

Plastic Memories poster

One of the shows which was hyped up at the beginning of this season is Plastic Memories. The idea behind the series is that in a city in the near future humans and androids can live comfortable side-by-side. These androids look and act like humans, with human memory and emotions, the only drawback is that the androids only have a short lifespan before they begin to lose their human personality and their memories. It’s then the job of a Terminal Services to collect these androids just before the end of their lifespan to avoid any unfortunate accidents when they begin to lose their personalities and memories. The idea of humans and androids living side-by-side is an interesting one, but ultimately one that Plastic Memories wastes in the end. It’s worth noting that this article will include spoilers for Plastic Memories.

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Your Lie in April – Anime Review

Your Lie in April

Your Lie in April tells the story of Kosei Arima. A child prodigy in piano who steps away from the limelight after the death of his mother effects him so badly he can no longer hear the notes he plays. Fastforward a few years and Kosei is introduced to Kaori Miyazono, a free-spirited violinist who slowly encourages Kosei to take up piano once more. It’s a simple story on the surface but with a brilliant amount of depth under it all.

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Akame ga Kill – Anime Review

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The beginning of dark shonen series, Akame ga Kill feels like a long time ago now. I’ve been watching the series every week since July. It feels like I’ve been watching this show for a lot longer than that, but by no means in a bad way. With the series having finished its run last week I can put my thoughts together for a review now!

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Space Dandy Season 1 – Anime Review

Space_Dandy

When Space Dandy was first revealed many people thought it was going to be a huge hit. With Shinichiro Watanbe behind the idea and Studio BONES handling the show, surely we were in for a treat right? Well, sort of is the best answer to that.

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Sword Art Online Season 2 Episodes 1 – 14 – Anime Review

Sword Art Online Season 2

When Sword Art Online first aired it’s safe to say it was somewhat of a big hit among anime fans. Cue the eagerly awaited second season and we all came back to the series with fairly high hopes for another fun set of episodes.

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Humanity Has Declined – Anime Review

Humanity Has Declined

When the 2012 summer anime season was first being revealed Humanity Has Declined is the one series I never really looked at. A comedy set thousands of years in the future where humans are becoming a dying breed and once more living very basic and different lives from those of us currently, mixed with fairies. Strangely enough that didn’t catch my interest, and if not for a close friend of mine I’d likely never have gone near it. However, that isn’t to say I’m not glad I did start watching it because odd as the series may seem it is very, very funny and an enjoyable watch.

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