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Another series coming from the author of Rent-A-Girlfriend, ready to bring trash back on the table — but shockingly, our protagonist isn’t a walking disaster?
Story - 3.2/10 This is like the second plane on 9/11... The author of Rent-A-Girlfriend comes back to write his second trashy romance, and I am here yet again watching this fully, just how I'm gearing up for Rent-A-Girlfriend's 4th season, fully aware I'm jumping on a crashing plane. I can't fully say what exactly about this is engaging, as I can clearly see all of the faults of this series, and while this first season does have a more rewarding protagonist than Rent-A-Girlfriend, it's quite easy to see that this is not going to last long until it becomes another horribly dragged series, just like his previous work. This series starts with a somewhat disgusting and odd premise, but it is for some unexplainable reason engaging. I find many of the scenes really annoying and just so predictable, it feels like the most generic harem story, but from time to time you get hit with some absolute banger takes from the MC, which just throws you on for a loop.At it's core we follow a family of six, two 'brothers' and five 'sisters', and my oh my, do I have some serious issues with many of these characters, but that's for later. Here is where the normal stuff ends, as we get thrown into the plot twist of the century, they are all adopted, wow, such a crappy concept to throw in for a romance series. I just can't really figure out who this series is for? I doubt many viewers are interested in these fantasies. And if not for that, this is just a pretty disgusting plot base.
The structure of the series is pretty basic as well, we get to see each of the female interests one by one with each having their own mini-arc, showing their personalities and how they handle this whole situation, and here I do feel like this arcs were handled somewhat decently, not all of them feel like complete trash, they do actually manage to build some realistic standards from time to time. This balance is what I feel like kept me going through this, the absurdly plot combined with the realistic takes that appear in some cases. And when it does have those more down to earth slice of life episodes, it feels somewhat rewarding and more reasonable.
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Characters - 4.5/10 Characters are a thing for this series, crazy or not... Arata, our protagonist, compared to the likes of his Rent-A-Girlfriend counterpart, is a lot more down to earth (for the most part) and way less of a loser than Kazuya. I did actually enjoy his character a decent amount for most of this series, it was nice to see him approach things as how a normal human should, and not give in so easily into this romance bullshit. And as I said before a lot of those deep quotes came from him, and they were unexpectedly good... Yes, he does fall into this harem, as expected, but it's a lot more realistic than I thought... The interactions after the plot is unveiled are really well surprised through his eyes, and while this plot is still a dumpster fire, it actually makes some of those odd situations come across as realistic... to some extent
#####Now, into the more boring characters, everyone else. Almost the entire main cast of girls feel like 1:1 copies of The Quintessential Quintuplets, more or less even with their personalities if not only the design. Ouka is the counterpart to Nino but a milder tsundere in comparison. It was a decent change. She’s one of this season’s main love interests, which was the worst in my opinion, as they are literally the closest to TWINS in this family, may I add... I did kinda like her character overall, not a surprise I was a Nino fan in TQQ as well, so that makes sense, but other than that she wasn't a bad character for most of the series until she became a primary love interest. We also have Banri as an imitation of Ichika, someone that felt the closest to being like 'family' in this group, even with her teasing, everything she did felt a lot more normal and grounded than other characters. And this will not surprise anyone, she is also the oldest here, unexpected... And there is also Minami, the character that had the best arc of all, someone that got swayed by romance close to the end, but for her whole arc, she was the best character in terms of her story and ambitions. They focused solely on her personal development with really low amounts of trashy content around her.
The other three members are all quite boring, and added close to no value to the story for me. We have characters like Kotono which seems like the most similar to Miku, but more straight forward, and that's about it for creativity there. She was just the weirdo of the series and contributed nothing. There is also Seiha, which is the only character I could not connect to TQQ, she is the unique one, and that's all there is to her uniqueness... just that she is not a copy... she has really low screen time in my opinion, and we barely get to know much about her, she is a smart character, but that's about all there is about her, I had no idea if she fell in love in this series or not, she was really vaguely shown the whole series. Finally, Shion, the second brother, which conveniently enough already has a girlfriend to start with, we never see her, because why should we... I feel like his character is actually ok, and someone that could've benefited the story with his temper and communication, yet he is completely overshadowed just to make room for the bad romance harem... bummer.
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Visuals - 8.1/10 Animation is quite standard with a slightly better visual appeal. There is nothing really visually stunning, it is just good animation all around, without having anything to elevate it to a higher standard. Character design, as I mentioned before, is pretty boring... A lot of the characters are copied from The Quintessential Quintuplets, and have not many differences to make for unique design. I guess clothing diversity is good in this series, but we start to see more and more series managing to fit that standard these days that it's not special anymore. So for visuals... this is pretty much on par with what you would expect for a series this season, it does have great colors and some nice scenery, it is well animated, but that's about it.
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Closing Notes Is this another dumpster fire of romance? Yes... it so clearly looks like one, and is one. Will I continue watching it if there is a second season to release? Hopefully not, but I can’t promise... I’m still watching Rent-A-Girlfriend despite how bad it is. There is just something about Reiji Miyajima's stories that just manage to make a dumpster fire with a few lonely sparks... or something like that... don't really have a great analogy for why his series are this engaging.But to wrap up this review... yes, this is a horrible romance harem based on one really weird and fetishized premise, that makes for most viewers to be disgusted when seeing the interactions in this series. It follows a really generic structure focused on prioritizing each girl, giving them some depth that from time to time is actually decent and has some value, but for the most part it is just trashy. The only redeeming qualities this series has are its slice of life moments that feel grounded, and deliver a realistic perspective, a rare treat. But in the end, this series does fit the author’s usual standard. I will say though, it was a much stronger first season than Rent-A-Girlfriend.
Enjoyment Level - 6.3/10
Favorite Character - Arata Shiunji
Favorite Episode - Episode 7 ‘Surely’
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