This show left me with a certain type of anger. At first, I thought that I was just having a knee-jerk reaction to the overall premise of the show. Incest is a relatively taboo subject, and anime is no stranger to utilizing it in a variety of different ways. Most of the time, it's generally played up as a type of risque situation to generate drama. Sometimes it's actual biological siblings dancing the line, while other times it's the classic step-siblings turning into lovers trope. The Shiunji Family Children is a series that tries to do a little bit of both while also attempting to be a strong harem anime. I'm not against shows playing with taboo ideas, but the way this show established its drama annoyed me.

We have the classic premise of a bunch of teenagers growing up, thinking that they are siblings for most of their lives. But of course, during arguably one of the most impressionable periods of their lives, they discover that they are, in fact, not biologically related to each other, so they have to deal with the fallout of that situation. To the show's credit, the individual character arcs of the sisters are pretty strong, especially when tied into the fallout of what their father told them. Whether it's the oldest sibling trying to learn what it means to lean on somebody else, the athlete of the family pushing herself too hard, or one of the girls just feeling alone because she had been lied to for most of her life, are all handled well. That last one in particular might've been a high point of the series, leaning into a very engaging and relatable problem.

The problem with The Shiunji Family Children comes down to two major factors. The first is how our main character ties into the lives of his sisters. Arata is a pretty solid male lead. He's clever, and he takes things very seriously. Even though he is not the oldest sibling, the fact that he is supposed to be the next head of the family means that he has to carry this responsibility, and he just wants his sisters to be happy. Like most harem shows, he is the one who is more or less emotionally there for everybody and helps solve their problems, but he's not doing it for all romantic motives. In his mind, that's what he is supposed to do as a good older brother. The problem is that it's those very actions that end up winning the hearts of his sisters.

I don't think the show thinks about this as much as it should. In most other romantic comedies, you usually expect acts of kindness to be done for friendship's sake, or out of an already established romantic interest. It's easy for us to see how those acts of kindness or the time spent together between two people can develop into romance. Since this show likes to contextualize a lot of those acts of service under the guise of being helpful siblings, that basically means that all of the girls are falling for their brother because he's a good brother. It ends up making everyone's character arcs feel less to me because it makes me wonder if they still would've fallen for him if they didn't realize that they weren't related by blood. It's uncomfortable for most of the show because it almost feels like the show is trying to play around with the taboo of emotional incest without it being physical incest. It's almost like the show is saying, “hey, that sibling that cares for you and looks after you? What if they weren't related by blood? Think they could be a good partner now?”

This is a shame because if you remove the romantic element from the show entirely, it feels like a more unique and more engaging story. We don't get a lot of stories about siblings trying to be there for each other during difficult times. If the payoff for all these relatively well-written girls is not discovering that they have a thing for their brother, that would make their character arcs stronger, as the show is also trying to establish this general theme of how important family is. You can't make the overall theme of your show about how family needs to be there for each other during difficult times, and also that your brother would be a rather appealing romantic partner as long as he just wasn't related to you by blood.

The second problem with the show comes down to one of the siblings specifically. On top of the bombshell that none of these characters are related by blood, one of the sisters, Kotono, actually goes the extra mile of establishing that she had romantic feelings for Arata BEFORE the stepsibling information was revealed. So technically, she had always wanted to commit incest. The show tries to have a pretty thoughtful conversation about how impressionable teenagers can sometimes blur the line between romantic interest and affection. I like that a lot, and you could honestly tell a whole story with that one idea. But that idea gets dropped after the first episode, as dwelling on that too long would undermine the more romantically charged intentions of the show. Plus, Kotono fades into the background until the very end, even though you could argue that her feelings drive the emotions of the rest of the family. She doesn't even feel like a character for most of the time because of how little direct screentime she gets, but rather as a personification of the uncomfortable yet directionless identity of the show.

I've noticed that Reiji Miyajima is a writer who seems to have a habit of writing really good female characters and putting them in some of the worst story setups I've ever seen. It ends up making them feel trapped in a scenario where I can see what the intended outcome is, but I feel like the characters deserved better than what that potential outcome is. It comes off as wasted potential, and that's honestly how I feel about a lot of the show's overall production. It looks gorgeous and vibrant with a soundtrack that has the potential to emotionally sway me. But overall, this comes down to a pretty picture in a disjointed frame. The dub overall is pretty solid, with the only real sticking point for me being Terri Doty as Kotono. Maybe it's the fact that I didn't like her as a character in general, but for someone who was supposed to be the youngest in the cast, she oddly sounded a bit older than I think she was supposed to be.

The Shiunji Family Children annoys me because it didn't need to have this type of premise. If it wanted to go for something more taboo and risqué, it should've committed to the idea of genuinely falling for your sibling or having those uncomfortable conversations. Instead, we have a pretty solid harem anime with well-written female characters, trapped in a premise that holds everybody back from reaching their potential. I don't want any of these characters to get with each other because the sibling bond is so strong, and yet it's the sibling bond that ironically charges a lot of the romantic desires of the characters. Not to mention, the show made it very clear that it is fully intending to commit to our lead getting with one of his sisters by the end of the show, with constant teases about what the future holds. It teases us about the future when our main character commits to one of his sisters, only for the show itself to commit to an overall premise that ultimately holds itself back from being a far better story.