3ET: Brothers Conflict

Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen!

Studio: Brains Base

Director: Mastumoto Jun (Persona: Trinity Soul, Senkou no Night Raid)

Main Cast: Satou Rina as Hinata Emi (Chii), Kamiya Hiroshi as Juli

Writer: Takahashi Natsuko (Yuyushiki, Togainu no Chi)



Let's talk about how a reverse-harem is a misnomer. I mean a harem is a harem. It doesn't matter who is at the center or which gender the members of the harem are. In the case of Brothers Conflict, the center of the harem is a female and her suitors are all male. And as the name suggests, they're her brothers. Stepbrothers actually, because actual brother-sister incest is creepy for anime. Usually. And these sorts of shows tend to suck. Usually. Which begs the question "does this show suck?"; and that's why I'm writing this article.

The first thing to talk about is the premise. Our main character, Chii, is joining a house with thirteen boys because her dad is marrying their mom. Do we need to know anything more than that? Not really. This is a harem show, any plot that exists is there solely to get the all of the characters in the situation so romantic tension can develop. I mean, she has an obnoxious squirrel that only she can hear so he can dump character exposition on us, because there is no way we could possibly think for ourselves and learn about the different boys' characters through their words and actions. That's just crazy talk. So, what is the point of these early episodes if it is not the plot?

Looking into her eyes is like looking into an abyss, right squirrel?

I think that the point of these first three episodes were to do two things. One, to introduce us to all of the brothers so that the audience can pick a favorite. I'd say that the show succeeds in this first respect. I may not remember all of the names, but a lot of the characters are pretty obvious. There's the shota, the devilish identical twins, their mild-mannered triplet, the cross-dresser, the athlete with a heart of gold, the sadistic idol (and best boy), the perverted monk, and all of the other archetypes that get certain parts of the male-attracted population excited. And given my comment, the show did succeed in having me pick a favorite. Why is he my favorite, because he's the only one who treats the main girl like she deserves.

And what Chii deserves ties directly into the second point of these early episodes. That point is to show that the main character is a dullard with no distinguishing characteristics from the army of dead-eyed, quiet heroines these types of shows produce. This needs to happen so that the audience can project themselves onto the main character. That is the entire appeal of this show, and many of its ilk. So, when Fuuto, my favorite, treats her like dirt, I can pretend its not because he's being dishonest with his feelings, but an indirect conduit from me to her. Because I don't like boring characters, and therefore I don't like her.

Best boy. No, YOU'RE wrong!

Brothers Conflict isn't all awful and horrible. A couple of the jokes actually hit, like the faux-twincest joke near the end of episode one. And it actually succeeds in both of its main goals. However, there isn't much a plot other than which guy is going to put his dick in the main girl. In fact, the only intrigue in this show is the taboo surrounding step-siblings fucking. And that isn't nearly enough to keep me from failing it.