This anime
has a talking squirrel voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya in it. For those of you who don’t know who that is,
he is both Ararararagi of Bakemonogatari
fame and the crazy teacher from Sayonara
Zetsubou Sensei. And he sounds
basically the same as he did in those, except his voice is higher. It’s a bit of a trip to listen to, really.
And that
little girl boy there? Eren from Attack on Freakin’ Titan. It would be awesome if this anime had some
asskicking action. However, my prayers will go unanswered.
I was
actually wrong in my preview post. I
heard somewhere that there are thirteen guys, not eleven. Can anyone just agree how many of them there
are? Or are more just being cloned in
the sidelines, and this will turn into a sci-fi thriller soon? Because, I swear, new brothers just keep
apparating every time I turn around.
This
picture? Isn’t even all of them. She doesn’t even get any sisters, unless you
count the crossdressing guy as one.
And of
course, the almost-but-not-really-incest (Also known as 'but they're not reeeeally siblings' syndrome) always creeps me out, but that should
be a given. This show, to some degree,
seems to understand how messed up it all is and totally embraces it.
I swear the
guys in this anime don’t even actually like the female main character. They just like to mess with her. They flirt with her constantly and enjoy
teasing her. I could totally buy it if
the show became a sort of weird dark comedy in which the female lead has to
desperately avoid the hordes of guys trying to force themselves on her just for
kicks. Hey, at least it would be a bit
original, even if it would be rather uncomfortable.
It all
culminates in a scene in which the Ararodent and one of the brothers vow to
work together to protect the girl from her sexually aggressive brothers. No, really.
I hope this show changes to be about that, because that’s actually a really fun premise.
And, the
funny thing is, I could actually see the show going on this route. This show actually seems to demonstrate a bit
of self-awareness about how stupid and wrong this is, if the talking squirrel (or
the huge number of guys) wasn’t any indicator that this show isn’t being
completely serious about its romance. If
you watch the opening song and read the lyrics, you’ll know it’s just too
stupid to be unintentional.
I wonder if
those folks at Brains Base did that or if it was in the source material. Some of the fanservice reminds me a bit of
the stuff from another one of their shows, Mawaru
Penguindrum, in that it’s a bit messed up and uncomfortable. But that’s what made those parts of Penguindrum unique and entertaining.
And, thus,
this creates a sort of odd situation that all the characters that don’t come
across as assholes who are messing with her just for kicks or really perverted
are just boring to watch. I usually hate dickish love interests, but I
guess I’ll make an exception here. Maybe
because they don’t really feel like love interests. Maybe because I really don’t like the girl in
this show much. She’s… well…
Yeah. That.
Just a wide-eyed, innocent, dumb, submissive doormat like the woman
whose name I also can’t remember from Amnesia. I really can’t summon any ire for her, but
she’s not really likeable or interesting in any way whatsoever. She almost doesn’t feel like a character to
me, almost like she’s also part of this weird façade I hope Brains Base has
going on.
It’s almost
like this show is trying to be a bit of a dark subversion of the genre at
points. However, only at points. When it isn’t, it’s actually somewhat
boring.
When this
show is just being typical light reverse-harem fare, it’s… well… Typical light
reverse-harem fare. It’s not really
interesting, and any romance in it is ruined by how boring the main girl
is. Well, and the guys aren’t exactly
deep, nuanced, and interesting, either.
Probably because of how many there are.
I have seen and liked reverse harems before,
but that was because the characters were entertaining and likeable in
those. Here, the only ones that
entertain me are the ones that are actually pretty horrible. Even then, most of them aren’t. Thus, a lot of the
screen time feels like wasted space. Oh, and the fact that they're all step-siblings certainly doesn't help.
Thus, I hope
that the other characters in this anime will
get more horrible and maybe it’ll turn into a reverse-harem version of Penguindrum (minus the weird stuff and
penguin aliens, which means sadly that it’ll never be as good).
It’s weird
that the only character that really sticks in my mind is the idol that calls
her an idiot, then makes the observation that she’s submissive, then tries to
kiss her. Oh well.
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