Ema doesn't appear to have a mother-or at least she really doesn't care for her biological mother. So when her famous father remarries it doesn't bother her. Well, she hardly see her father anyway, the tragic neglected motherless girl. It breaks my heart! No one cares. But her life's going to get a lot busier now that she's made the decision to move in with her new family: 13 step-brothers. Seriously? Who manages to have 13 boys in a row like that? 13! I mean honestly, did she drown the girls? Was she building her own personal harem!?
Now if that in itself isn't off-putting enough imagine having (almost) all of them aggressively coming onto you. Ok, so the initial thought of having 13 cute boys wanting you doesn't sound too bad at all. But these boys are her brothers! Also they force her into situations so uncomfortable they could easily count as sexual harassment! There isn't really any plot other than tragic pasts troubled relationships and a whole lot of inappropriate flirting.
The thing is, I don't dislike harems! But harems only work when the characters are amazingly appealing! Once I've fallen in love with the characters I can ignore the glaring obvious plot flaws. Alas, all the brothers (and Ema herself) are irritating at times. Mostly because nearly all of them have forced themselves upon her and we're only on the 7th episode. The feminist within me will not be silenced! There's not a single gentlemen in this show who'll treat Ema like a human. It's like Ema's the first female they've seen in years!
The worst though would definitely be Fuuto. At first I thought he would be my favorite because he looks cute and he's an idol. But he toys with Ema constantly and is repeatedly telling Ema that it's 'her fault' that everyone is imposing themselves upon her. Well, excuse you, do I need to give you a lesson about victim blaming and how unacceptable that is?
Not that Ema is a very good character herself. What a blank canvas of a character! She doesn't even have any of her own friends! She preaches family values but is already making out with her her brothers. She has no mother but we don't even know if she's died or just moved away. If she's dead, Ema should be mourning, if she's moved elsewhere then why doesn't she contact her at all? It is biologically impossible for her not to have a mother so it's not really a plot point that you just ignore like that! Whilst discussing characters can I just slip in a note about how bloody hard it is too keep track of the names of 13 brothers who nearly all introduced in the same sitting! I tried so hard to give you my opinion on each of the brothers but I lost track at about the 2nd one so gave up!
So we've got a bad plot with worse characters and now, to top it off, lazy animation! That's right, art style aside, Brains Base haven't even tried with this show. Most the movements are rusty and there are way too many still frames! Nothing is exaggerated or fun it's just moving mouths and the occasional head turn. Very little is actually animated. One of the brothers is in fact a basketball player so his big moment is winning a basketball match. It's a really important moment for him, but not important enough for the animators to actually animate the match! They genuinely just gave him a montage of photos! It's terrible, it really is.
Did I mention there's a talking squirrel? That's right, Ema's pet is a talking squirrel. As if this show wasn't messed up enough already! His name's Juli but only Ema and her brother Louis can understand him.... I don't know, those two are half Dolittle! I don't know, it's weird! In all honesty, it might be an interesting visual novel: having the choice of 13 dashing young men is not a bad situation for a game. But for an anime, from a spectators seat where you have no input and the female is a bore, it's just uncomfortable and one of the worst shows I've watched in a long time. The only, only, nice thing is that at least the boys are all attractive. Alas, I can see attractive boys in anime that's a lot more entertaining!
Oh, but wait! I almost forgot one important detail that could totally change your opinion of the anime: the ED has the 13 brothers singing about how they love their sister with a dance routine and everything! Yes, it's pretty hardcore life changing beautiful worth a giggle after a painful 20 minutes of the show. Just look it up on youtube, ok!
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