There was no beautiful art from this opening sequence for me to add to my collection: Brothers Conflict gallery (I don’t actually have one) but this one was nice. I’m at least happy that it’s moved away from the rose petals swirling around and the serenity. The use of stairs goes so well with the idea of the triplets. The only thing that annoys me is that trite “Sis…you are the one I love.” line. I roll my eyes every time.
Azusa was admitted to the hospital in this episode but his sickness was nothing severe. And like I predicted, the directors from that anime show blew up Tsubaki’s phone with calls and messages to get him to discuss being Azusa’s replacement. They didn’t even wait! No shame or tact. But Tsubaki ignored the calls and only answered in the last part when he completely gave up on ignoring the incessant calls.
(I want to discuss Azusa’s and Tsubaki’s relationship but for some unknown reason, I have a block on how to put what I have to say across and it sounds like garbage to me; so moving on. Just know that the posters and pictures in Tsubaki’s room says a lot about his level of care for and admiration of Azusa.)
Tsubaki was feeling down about everything that had happened and began to blame himself for causing things to reach where it did – Azusa being admitted to the hospital. Ema found him and tried to cheer him up by telling him that Azusa wouldn’t think it was his fault why anything turned out the way it did but Tsubaki doesn’t want Azusa to just forgive him. He doesn’t want it to be that easy – probably he feels as if he should be punished by karma for what he caused. I appreciated the slight level of character development in this scene. It seems Tsubaki is a favorite because he’s being fleshed out in each episode.
Then he was “Inceptioned” – having a dream within a dream, within a dream, within a dream, within a dream. I think I miscounted the number of dreams he had but I think he had four. The first dream was about Azusa dying and I won’t lie, I let out a howl and almost started crying. Because…Brothers Conflict wouldn’t be the same without my glasses lover. But it was just a dream, I got so mad that I was pulled into that lie so easily. It would have taken me by TOO MUCH surprise if this light anime REALLY went down the depressing route.
Ema went to visit Azusa – for herself and Tsubaki, who wasn’t ready to face him yet. Azusa thought that, being alone with her – enjoying the zephyrs and lightness of that moment – was the right moment for him to confess. Ema rejected him and also made known her thoughts about Tsubaki: she only likes him as a brother and not as a man. Being the calm person he is, Azusa acted as expected when she rejected him. And I like the fact that he kept the thought that she wouldn’t return his affection in hindsight.
At the same time, however, just like Tsubaki, he plans to pursue a relationship with her. The episode ended with him telling her that he would wait for her answer and he kissed her forehead.
Fun fact: According to Cosmopolitan and other relationship magazines, a kiss on the forehead is a sign that a guy loves you. I don’t even know why I mentioned that but I hope it gives Azusa points – he should have her. Well…that’s if he was the first to give her a forehead kiss. And I’m sure he was. HE IS THE CHOSEN ONE, EMA!
On a sidenote though: Why the hell are all of them in love with her? Ema is so vapid and I’m sure she is the same off-screen in the 2D world as she is onscreen. It makes no sense to me. If I was one of those brothers, I wouldn’t even look at her beyond the thought of her being my sister. They are so weak. They aren’t real men. They need to go out and get themselves some real piece of ass than stay inside lusting after Ema…
Don’t they feel ashamed of themselves?
Shout out to Louis! He has my respect! He made the RIGHT decision not jumping on the bandwagon of thirst.
Unless of course…he’s gay. And that would be such a terrible stereotype – because he’s a hairstylist and all…
And even if that’s the case, I still respect him!
First of all, meningitis IS a serious disease – “is inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord” http://www.meningitis.org/symptoms?gclid=COraqP6poLkCFcfJtAodjAoAkw Back before all the medical developments of the last half of the century, meningitis was considered deadly and very serious. I mean anyone who would have got it knew that was a death sentence of sorts.
I also disagree with your view about Ema being “vapid”, I bet you may have some view that the ideal perfect woman has to the one that fits the stereotype of the typical american heroines – that is outspoken, loud and brash. But there is a huge cultural difference since the series is aimed at a Japanese audience and they will naturally endorse the idealized Japanese woman – the Yamato Nadeshiko. I highly recommend you that you read this excellent critical post about Ema’s character before branding her as “vapid” http://yutsukism.tumblr.com/post/57644419954/trying-to-see-things-from-emas-perspective
I hadn’t paid much attention to that part of it, so I didn’t catch the part about him having meningitis, so thanks.
And no, that’s not my view of the “ideal” type of female characters as they are usually “tsundere” and I’m not a huge fan of that character archetype. I call her vapid because there is no development in her character. She is just there.
The points brought across in that post have nothing to do with why I label her as vapid because the basis of the writer’s argument is unrelated to my opinion. Otherwise, that was a good post.
Why the hell are all of them in love with her?
Petite structure, cute, reliable, kind personality, patient, tolerant, good at cooking, enjoys videogames,
I’m overlooking those characteristics. It makes sense but what is there so profound about her that they have to look BEYOND the fact that she is their sister (though not really) to want to pursue a relationship with her?
I just really believe that they cannot be bothered to go and court girls so they wait for the most available girl to enter their home.
I dunno, Kaname is a plaboy, Fuuto have lots of fans that would die to date him, Azusa and Tsubaki are rising stars, Iori is a very popular boy in his school, the entire family it’s full of playboys.
They have lots of girls to choose but instead they chose Ema because she is a girl that it’s reliable, lovely and is has shown his concern toward them. I think she has many great qualities.
“I think that Ema is an epitome of an ideal woman that most men would look for. Ema has all the traits that most men would find appealing”
Well the characters aren’t fleshed out enough to make that assumption that most of them are playboys. I have had those speculations but I doubt that’s really apart of their personalities. Kaname, it’s a possibility that he really IS a playboy – what with his affiliation with the Host Club.
Fuuto doesn’t seem to be a playboy because he is detached from his fans (except when he’s on stage). Iori is hardly ever on the scene so my speculations about his character are limited because I’m sure it would all turn out to be inaccurate.
I know that, I like Ema’s character but I raise this point for argument’s sake. So let me run you a hypothetical; if you had a step-sister for instance who had the exact characteristics as Ema would you really be okay with pursuing her?
That’s what I really want to know, if they’re really okay with contradicting their morality to pursue a relationship with Ema; who apparently is the ONLY genuine girl in the anime.
I’m just looking at it from a realistic point of view.
If I had a step-sister with the same characteristics as Ema, I would definitely pursue her and make her my girlfriend. I don’t think it’s wrong to have a romantic relationship with a step-sister if we are not blood related.
It’s not like animes, such as Oreimo, where the lead character is in love with his biological sister resulting in real incest.
Ema’s actions have made that most of her brothers fall in love with her.
Love for someone blossoms from actions, whether small or big these may be, and also by genuine displays of interest by the person being loved. What I am trying to say here is that the love the brothers feel for Ema is something that has sprung based on her personality and honest actions towards them (that is the way she treats them all).
Alright then. But going back to the brothers, I just think the situation is awkward because imagine if Ema actually chose someone, how tense the atmosphere would be – although I’m sure they’d be able to deal with the situation like adults (excluding Fuuto because y’know, he’s a little cunt). But, I really think it would cause even more of a conflict (going back to the anime’s namesake).
Even though not all the characters’ haven’t had sufficient screentime to determine whether if they are all “playboys” or not from the time they have being shown one can get a ‘gist’ of their personalities.
Let’s see…
Masaomi: he is quite focused on his family (especially being Wataru’s surrogate father) and his work.
Ukyo: he had his history with that woman.
Kaname: IS a playboy host part-timing as a monk too.
Hikaru: places more importance on his work as a noir novelist and he has also shown that he is more interested in watching all the ‘conflicts’ rather than participating.
Tsubaki, Azusa & Fuuto: they are all in the entertaining industry and in order to succeed relationships are strictly prohibited. No joke check this article http://zappyspiker.tumblr.com/post/47688551670/with-all-this-uta-pri-hype-unless-you-were-a
Subaru: as an upcoming prodigy in basketball would also be discouraged of pursuing relationships. Add to this that Subaru has spent most of his life dedicated to sports and has no experience whatsoever with girls hence all those awkward moments when Ema first arrives at the residence.
Iori: he had a girlfriend but she died after being run over by car. Iori witnessed the whole accident and he still hasn’t fully recovered from that trauma.
Natsume: he is also more focused on his work, family and on watching out for Subaru from afar. Remember when Subaru had that basketball game; Natsume went out of his way to find out when and where the match was in order to attend it.
Yuusuke: he is shy and we know he already had a crush on Ema before she joined his family. If he was a “playboy” he would have definitely asked her out sooner or at least confessed to her.
Wataru: he still is a child.
What ‘morality’? Humans are very contradictory and complex creatures. If you were really trying look at it from “a realistic point of view” you would be critical and neutral about it because you need to take into consideration various factors and show empathy for ALL the characters (and the best way to understand better the characters and storyline would be by reading the light novels but in this case Rin’s summaries). You don’t seem to really like the genre “reverse harem” do you? If THAT is the case, then we have whole different matter in our hands because the fact that you come in with all those preconceived ideas and feelings means that you come in prepare to readily dislike the heroine and not even make an effort to empathize with her. Say, if you came in with an open-mind about “reverse harem” you would be less likely to take that instant dislike and hypercritical attitudes about the heroine. All your ‘Ema dislike/bash’ seems to stem from resentment and jealousy of the female protagonist.
In actual fact you should try reading the light novel summaries (since the actual full translations haven’t been done yet) and you will start to notice that Ema DOES have a personality. Here are Rin’s summaries http://koiiro.wordpress.com/category/books/brothers-conflict/
You can also ask this person, candy-stealer http://candy-stealer.tumblr.com , who has also read the light novels and she would be able to confirm to you that it does make a difference reading the story from her point of view because it shows a whole different perspective to her unique and complicate circumstances.
In actual fact, the way Ema’s character works is based on her honesty, discretion and loyalty – it may be small little details but they STILL count and I’m sure that Ema’s actions haven’t gone unnoticed by the brothers because it is this that makes them ALL think about her so much.
Also the fact that the brothers don’t “bother to go and court girls” is because they may be suspicious and wary of women who show interest in them. Bear in mind that if one fact is consistent about the Asahina family is that they are quite rich and with their mother’s popularity as a fashion designer their mother has many contacts in high society (in other words, RICH and possible very famous PEOPLE). As a result of this, the brothers could become prey to ambitious social-climbing women (aka gold-diggers). I will spoil you a bit about Ukyo’s past (which is revealed in the second season of the novels) he had a girlfriend but in the end she turn out to be only interested in his mother’s contacts rather than holding any genuine feelings for Ukyo. (P.S. candy-stealer has written the spoilers that I refer to in this text).
One also needs to be more empathetic and open-minded to fully understand character/s because if you see the situation from only one point of view (which is your own personal opinion) you miss out a lot of the complete panorama of the story and characters.
I’ve already analyzed those points about girls outside the anime’s focus who pursue the brothers; why they’d show an interest in Ema – so on and so forth.
:O Oh, so that’s why. Poor Ukyo. I really should read those then to learn more about their characters. I guess because this is going to be a short anime, why there is hardly time to flesh out the characters (which seems to usually be the case with most harems).
I am open-minded about the situation because in both my previous and recent posts, I’m confused about who to root for and would like to see more action between Ema and her brothers (because I’m a hopeless romantic). I go along fine with this anime well enough because it’s one of my guilty pleasures but I am looking at it from a realistic point of view (as I told Juan).
What is there about Ema that makes these boys want her to the point of ignoring the fact that she’s family?? And I don’t believe that there isn’t a single girl who isn’t genuine besides Ema who likes one of the brothers. But I guess they want to keep it within the family.
Okay…
Clearly you aren’t reading my post(s) correctly. Jealousy and resentment, towards an ANIME character, at that? Please, let’s be serious. If that was the situation, I doubt I’d be rooting for her to end up with any of the brothers.
Maybe you’re making a reference to me calling her “so vapid”. I already said that it was because there seemed to be no development in her character (which is slowly being patched up in the recent episodes that came out). What I wanted to understand was the reasoning behind the brothers’ pursuit of her so there really is no need to defend her. I doubt calling her vapid (which is all I did) is enough to say I’m “bashing her character”. Calm yourself.
And there has to be some moral standpoint in any given situation (at least for me). I am critical and neutral towards it but at the same time, I raised the point for argument’s sake to see if anyone could give me reasons from their perspective why they would pursue Ema if they were one of the brothers (which Juan did).
Also, I’m only watching the anime (and I’m not very sure if I plan to read the light novels) so you can’t use that to your advantage to bring out points from a source I don’t even know about. I doubt I would say “I can’t make accurate speculations about these brothers” if I had read the light novel. So I guess the anime really isn’t doing much of a good job in fleshing out the characters as I thought it was beginning to do. I didn’t even remember that Iori was apart of the cast xD
The anime doesn’t even put much focus on Iori. I was a little surprised when I saw what you put there then remembered you had mentioned the light novel (thanks for giving me a look into his past either way).
haha! Im not the only one who thought tsubaki was cute
I still want him to be with Ema though D:
Right? He is just too precious xD
I’d like that too but it won’t happen ;_;
Waah T_T
This may sound biased, but I like Louis and Natsume as the supportive brothers :O I dont know why, but they just seem good for that.
Its a shame Ema wont end up with Tsubaki then T_T