I finally got around to writing the fabled Brothers Conflict review Cipher ended up being my first anime review but I never forgot about this I watched it with my sister so it took a bit of time to finish it. Anyways I hate this show with a burning passion. This show is my goto bad anime recommendation because of how awful it is. I absolutely loathe it. Anyhow Ill explain the plot. Ema Hinatas father gets remarried to a famous fashion designer with thirteen sons. Due to an embarrassing amount of parental supervision on both sides she is put in a separate house from her dad and stepmom where only her brothers live. Some of them are like 30 so they should stop freeloading. Only three or four of them live outside of the house. All of the brothers are in love with her from the 32 year old to the 10 year old and thus Emas misadventures begin. Oh and she has a talking squirrel but Ill get to him later. Most of the plot is Ema interacting with her brothers and the squirrel getting mad at them because theyre all really creepy and most of them are way too old to be even considering dating a high school girl. Not that the anime ever addresses any of the age gaps. Also the brothers sexually harass her a lot. But hey weve got some cringey life lessons thrown in And now its time for me to talk about the biggest part of the anime the characters Ema Hinata is basically a self insert character. If this were Wattpad shed be y/n. Shes as bland as a paper plate with little to no agency. She just rolls with everything the guys throw at her and never objects to being sexually harassed on a constant basis. I feel so bad for her to be honest but at the same time shes just so bland and stupid. Her most common line is I want to be siblings. Or some variation of the sort where she talks about how Were family after all While theyre blatantly hitting on her. Shes just very annoying and not to be bothered with. She has zero emotions or facial expressions. Her talking squirrel Juli is definitely... a character. He is the only character who is skeptical of the brothers and their creepiness and he tries and fails to defend her. He has common sense which I appreciate. However hes so clearly in love with her. He turns human and confesses to her at one point I know its in a dream but he turns human in the games specifically to date you so my point still stands. and I think he kisses her? Like this squirrel has ulterior motives. Hes so possessive it kind of reminds me of a certain Anilist user and his duck... You know who you are. And now I will talk about the Asahina Brothers themselves ranked from oldest to youngest because best to worst would be too difficult. 1. Masaomi Hes a doctor but my sister and I keep joking that hes a fake. Hes into her but also wants to be her father so... thats definitely a thing. Hes over 30 so 17yearold Ema is more than a bit too young for him. 2. Ukyo Hes super creepy and needed to go to jail in the OVAs because his thoughts were getting a bit out of control. I think hes 29? Im too lazy to check. In the main anime I dont think he was too bad. I dont think he was one of the brothers who forced a kiss on her so thats good. I could be way off though. 3. Kaname Right off the bat he asked if he could sleep in Emas bed. That should give you a feel for his character. Hes regarded as creepy for good reason. At least they acknowledge it? Hes a monk which is ironic. He offers her some non consensual kisses which is weird because hes a grownass man. Hes the one with the most obvious pedo vibes. 4. Hikaru Hes a knockoff of Haruhis dad from Ouran coincidentally he has the same English VA as Hikaru from Ouran. He starts off normal and then at the very end he declares he wants to date her. Hes mostly in the OVAs where he gets in the bath with her and gets closer and closer... and just eww. He at least doesnt live in the second mansion and has his own house? 5. Louis He was adopted. He think its a bad thing but I think its a god thing. Just think of those Asahina genes. Btw we never hear about the paternity of his siblings... Its just a mystery. Id like to think that the creepiness came from their mother instead of there being all those men lurking around who gave their children the creepy gene. He can talk to the squirrel. Only he and Ema can understand Juli. My sister and I theorize that its because theyre constantly high. He was fine until he kissed Ema without her consent. 6. Tsubaki One of the creepier Asahina brothers. He is very aggressive and almost sexually assaults her and he also kisses her with a lot of force when she did not ask for it. Hes just a slimy little weirdo who I dont like. He is one of my least favorites up there with Kaname hes not the all time worst youll hear about him when I get to him. In the OVA he starts stripping and imagining some... unsavory things about his stepsister. He disgusts me. He bears a striking resemblance to both Shun Kaido from Saiki K and Hatsuharu Sohma from Fruits Basket. 7. Azusa He and Tsubaki are identical twins even though they look as different from each other as these poorly animated character designs allow. My sister and I joke about this on a regular basis. I also hate Azusa. He admitted to only stopping Tsubaki from assaulting Ema because he was jealous and wanted to be the one to do it. Hes the fourth in line to be be Emas legal guardian too? Maybe I messed up the age order but I am too tired to fix it. Also hes a Kyoya knockoff who fantasizes about groping his sister in the bath. 8. Natsume Hes a triplet with Tsubaki and Azusa but hes nonidentical his mole is on his chin and he doesnt work as a VA so they exclude him in everything and dont acknowledge him at all. I really like characters with the name Natsume. I think after watching Natsumes Book of Friends I became attached. But this is Natsume Asahina and the Asahina cancels out the Natsume. Hes a working adult with his own life but that somehow makes it worse that hes into her. He also does the kissing but then he apologizes when hes about to do it again. The damage is done. Also his dub voice actor is putting zero effort into the performance. It was so funny. He would be way creepier if he werent so monotone with some of his lines... 9. Subaru Hes a little bitch. Im sorry but I hate him. He has such a whiny and lame personality paired with a punchable face. At least he wants to improve? Hes general levels of Asahina creepy but hes just one of my least favorites because he just has such a limp noodle personality. He just sucks. Thats it. 10. Iori Literally does nothing and lives in his own house. He only appears to offer flowers and stare ominously. Obviously hes the best one because he has no screen time which means theres no time to be creepy. In the games Hes also age appropriate since hes only two years older. 11. Yusuke One of the better options. Not that that says much. Hes Emas age and they go to school together. Hes kind of stupid and he can call out the other brothers behavior. He also liked Ema before and questioned if it was okay to like her now that they will be stepsiblings. He did watch her sleep very creepily but I think all of the siblings do that to each other and he stared at Emas butt but thats more normal than the noncon his siblings were pulling. 12. Fuuto The spawn of Satan. No Satan incarnate. He is the worst Asahina and one of the worst characters in all of fiction. He attempts to sexually assault Ema multiple times once when she was asleep. Noncon kisses are tame from him. Hes just 15 but hes so evil. Hes gaslighty and victimblames her. Also he announced to all of his fans that he was a... sister lover in the OVA which just made me laugh. He didnt think that through. What he did think through was pretending to have some dirty dreams about Ema. In the English dub he also makes a 50 Shades reference. Hes the worst and everyone should hate him. Fuuto inferiority Like the man is so disgusting since actual attempted sexual assault is the norm for him. I have never been so reviled as by Fuuto Asahina. 13. Wataru Hes 10 but the writers wrote him like he was 5 because they cant do children. His English voice is so funny because its so painfully obvious its a grown man voicing him doing a generic high pitched voice. Like its comically bad. Im convinced the VA got free reign to do whatever he wanted with the part. As for the songs the opening was fine. I had to skip it a lot so I dont remember anything about it. As for the ending its so funny since its the Japanese VAs and theyre actually trying unlike the English VAs. The visuals were very funny and cursed since it was the Asahinas and Juli dancing like theyre male idols. Its best to watch it in dub for peak comedy. It was funny since Micah Solusad Tsubakis VA was obviously trying and then Bryce Papenbook is just doing whatever for Wataru I dont know how that performance got greenlit unless he got free reign and Natsumes VA is reading the lines in the blandest monotone possible. The animation is also ugly and their noses are so long and pointy. Its tolerable but I wouldnt call it good. There are certainly some hideous angles of all the characters. Everyone has their offmodel looks. So yeah I hate this show. Its probably my least favorite anime to date.