SHE CHOSE NATSUME!!
No. No. She didn’t. I’m lying.
Ema chose no one. And that’s the way it ended. She got the chance to tell a few of the brothers that she couldn’t return the type of love they had for her and that was it.
The first half of the episode was like a farewell; some of the brothers are either going back to work or school. Kaname is going on a journey to rid himself of his worldly desire for Ema. Iori – who apparently may have been there for some time – is going back to school and told Ema to water his Forget-me-nots (that was nicely done). I still have some mixed feelings towards Iori. I feel as if I could have liked his character if he had been a bit more prominent in the cast, but because of the reserved impression I get from his character, I doubt he’d complement Ema. I also still find it out of place that he appears in the last two episodes – sublimely professing his love for Ema.
Natsume, like his brothers, isn’t willing to take no for an answer. But he was the only one to make a point of the fact that he’ll still try to win Ema over. Well, more power to you Natsume! Persistence is key and although Ema is putting up resistance, there must be a weakness somewhere.
Hikaru has also decided to step up into phase two of the Brothers Conflict. His title reference made me grin, I don’t know why I love that so much. I don’t think there’ll be a season two or anything of the sort but because he’s finally involved himself into this Ema chase, I feel the need – just a bit – to play the game and take his route to see what would could be.
While Natsume and Subaru have put their differences aside (though still making it clear that they’ll both be fighting for Ema), Yuusuke and Fuuto still loathe each other. And that’s a healthy relationship. Oh yeah, and Yusuke also got accepted to Ema’s university. So you know what that means wink wink.
And that was the episode. A wrap. Even though Ema turned them down, it’s enough motivation to have them try harder at winning her. I guess that saying “What you can’t have, is what you work harder for” (or something like that) really is true.
Overall Story/Plot: 4/10
Brothers Conflict was sub par. The romance was generic. There wasn’t anything that stood out about it – except the fact that it took on thirteen love interests, which didn’t work in its favor. There really wasn’t any consistency in the story more than for Ema having to deal with another brother in another episode. It went nowhere. Just in circles but with somebody else at intervals. If it had been that she chose someone, maybe I’d up the grade a notch.
Characters and Development: 3/10
Nothing happened here. There was nothing to work with from these characters. I guess for only romantics like myself, this wouldn’t matter because we use or imagination to expand upon what the anime itself couldn’t take care of. None of the characters really grew on me, I just wanted Ema to be with Natsume because he was the most physical out of all the brothers. All of them were just there, to carry the story along but none of them were memorable. Plus, there were too many of them for any decent amount of character development to be done.
Also, it still irks me that they decided to push Iori at the forefront AT THE END. I get the feeling that the director forgot about Iori and was like “Oh shit, Iori! Throw him in the episodes that are left.”
No wonder he got Forget-me-nots and looked so sad in the end. It’s not nice to be forgotten.
Animation Quality: 5/10
I didn’t particularly like the animation quality but it was okay. It didn’t particularly take away from the anime but it didn’t really add much to my appreciation of it – or lack thereof.
Original Soundtrack: 4/10
The background music for Brothers Conflict was really light and atmospheric – an easy listening kind of style. It had that game-y feel to it but there wasn’t any track in particular that stood out. I don’t like the OP theme but the ED theme was nice.
Overall Score: 4/10
Brothers Conflict isn’t an anime I’d recommend to anyone – unless if I know for a fact the person likes romance, regardless of the setting. I only enjoyed this as a guilty pleasure and halfway through the series, I had become bored with it but pulled through. What I didn’t like about the story was its trite storyline and generic play on romance. It was really silly but I took it for what it was. Ema has a personality but it really isn’t engaging and I am still blind to why these brothers instantly fell head over heels in love with her. The only brother I honestly root for is Yusuke. Why? Because he’s the only one who has been admiring Ema from before he found out she was his sister, so in a sense that makes his love for her “pure” and it sets him apart from the other brothers.
And like I said before, there really was no story. I don’t know if the anime worked from any of the brothers’ routes but it all just felt like random things, happening at random intervals to draw out the brothers experimentation of their chemistry with Ema.
That’s it.
I only watched this because of the novel
but chapter 35 made me cry buckets
Maybe it would have been a lot better if BroCon followed the novel than the game. I really think a lot more could have been done with this if it had followed the light novel.
I think it done a mix really o3o Some parts were from the novel (like that scene about ema being adopted since in the novel it was natsume while in passion pink it wasn’t)
The ending definitely followed the novel, but they skipped a lot of events which is why isn’t as good.
The novel itself is amazing, but I feel like dropping it since it basically killed me :/