As if that last review wasn't enough to make you question if The Straights Are Alright, here comes Rent-A-Girlfriend creator Reiji Miyajima to dredge up something else that should have stayed in the 2010s.
THE SHIUNJI FAMILY CHILDREN (Shiunji-ke no Kodomo-tachi), by Reiji Miyajima with art support by Reiji Yukino. First published in 2022 and first published in North America in 2023.
PLOT:
The Shiunjis are a fabulously wealthy family blessed with seven children. Their eldest, Arata, doesn't feel particularly blessed, though. He's constantly bullied by his sisters (and younger brother) over his inability to get a girlfriend, and he fears that he's just fated to never get a girlfriend. Then their father drops a bombshell: all of them are adopted. This revelation leaves Arata and all of his sisters reconsidering their relationships to one another, as one by one they start to fall for him.
STORY:
I knew I was in trouble when I saw this very pretentious statement above the back cover blurb:
The love between brother and sister.
The love between man and woman.
That which is most forbidden is most unyielding.
That alone told me what The Shiunji Family Children had to offer. It wasn't just going to be another imouto ecchi series in the vein of Oreimo or I Don't Like You At All Big Brother, it's going to be pretentious about it.
You can tell that Miyajima thinks he's being so clever by actively having the character call out how much the Shiunji sisters and Arata's situation are like something out of a harem sex comedy, only to go ahead and do the harem sex comedy stuff anyway. This is a trick people have been trying to pull off since Haruhi Suzumiya tried to do with moe, and it never works. There's also a weirdly retro quality to the harem set-up here, one that evokes the heyday of Love Hina. Sure, the details are different, but you still have a nebbishy loser living with a bunch of anime girl stereotypes who one by one throw themselves at him for no reason beyond proximity and misplaced affection. Apparently over a decade and a half of being raised as siblings is something you can turn off like a switch the moment you learn you're not related to a boy!
Even by the low standards of harem manga, these characters are incredibly basic. When Arata isn't panicking over the concept of merely talking to his crush (or his sisters hitting on him), he's grousing about everyone thinks having all these hot sisters is so awesome but it's not. He tries to put up a noble if feeble defense against their intentions, reiterating his obligations as their big brother, but this is little more than a fig leaf on his (and the reader's behalf). In true harem fashion, this is merely the basic act of kindness that serves to only further fan the flames of their love in his sisters' hearts.
Meanwhile, said sisters have personalities you can sum up with Smurf-level nicknames: Flirty Sis, Bitchy Sis, Sporty Sis, Brainy Sis, and Shy Sis. Yes, there's technically a younger brother as well, but he's both a biological twin with the resident tsundere and already has a girlfriend at the start of the series so he is neither competition nor a romantic option. Like a lot of hacks, Miyajima makes up for their lack of personality by having random strangers declare just how beautiful and awesome they are on the regular, and it only gets more insincere the more he does it. In fairness, if he weren't a hack, he'd probably come up with an original premise (or put his current one out of its stagnant misery) instead of recycling an old formula and adding an expired dash of incest for flavor.
ART:
First of all, I have to note that curious "art support" credit. I've never seen anything like it. Clearly Miyajima contributed as an artist, since the character designs and focus on fashion are clearly in his style. Yet this Reiji Yukino must have contributed enough creatively to be considered more than just a mere assistant, enough that Miyajima couldn't take full credit for it.
Regardless of how much either one of them is responsible for the art, it's clearly a step down from the spirited, stylish charm of Rent-A-Girlfriend. That was one of the few things I liked about that series, but that inspiration has clearly long been spent. The character designs here are more basic and derivative, although at points you can see Miyajima's eye for fashion come through. While most harem protagonists are merely average-looking, Arata is downright ugly with his permanent bedhead, beady eyes, and tendency to scowl and pout. It's hard to imagine any girl looking at that face and falling in love, much less sisters who have had to look at it daily for years.
There's not even much verve to the fanservice moments, which are normally the biggest showcase in a harem manga. It's as if the artists themselves just wanted to get them over and done with, so there's not much effort to play up any of the tawdry elements. They definitely don't play up the glamour of the family's lifestyle, as most of this book is set inside rather blase rooms and the outdoor backgrounds are clearly hastily filtered photo references. It's just a very half-assed looking manga from an artist (maybe two) who can clearly do better.
RATING:
This manga is published by Yen Press. This series is ongoing in Japan with 2 volumes available. 1 volume has been released and is currently in print.
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