The Shiunji Family Children is a creation of Miyajima Reiji, the mangaka of Rent-A-Girlfriend. Since it's a sister series of Rent-A-Girlfriend, most people expect it to be trash. Is it really? Let's dive in.

In the run-up to its premiere, it has been marketed as an incest anime, so there was some buzz about it. Those who dislike incest-related stories immediately dismissed it. Others who enjoyed Rent-A-Girlfriend despite being trash gave it a chance.

Alas! It's not really incest in the strictest sense of the word. Right in Episode 1, their father tells them that they are not blood-related. Despite that, the incest tag remains because the Shiunji Family girls are into the protagonist Arata. Thus, instead of incest, it is reduced to a generick harem.

One thing that's glaring about this anime is how it ignores the Westermarck Effect. It's an observed phenomenon where children who grew up together as siblings, even if stepsiblings, don't develop sexual attraction for each other. Yet, we see them getting attracted to Arata. Therefore, if you think about it, this is one aspect where it goes against your suspension of disbelief, even if you're open-minded about such stories.

Arata is manly unlike the loser Kazuya from Rent-A-Grilfriend. Unfortunately, this is its only advantage over the latter.

The animation is mostly fine. Some would say it's good because it's from Doga Kobo. But for such a story, it only needs a serviceable animation and art direction so I don't think it's remarkable in terms of visuals compared to what Doga Kobo did in Oshi no Ko.

Character designs are generick and forgettable, unlike the design for the main girl in Rent a Girlfriend. One may argue that the generic design reflects how real-life people are not really the bombshell beauties in magazines. Despite that, it's glaring that they are not that attractive compared to their characterisation that they are ultra attractive. (Banri and possibly Ouka are their best girls in terms of looks, but that's it!) They are deemed by people around them as celebrities and models. Shouldn't we expect more in terms of looks? This disconnect between what's said and what is shown is glaring.

In the history of harem anime, Tenchi Muyou! (天地無用!) has a useless main character Tenchi, and that is told explicitly in the title. (無用 [muyou] means useless.) Its main draw is how interesting the girls are. Eventually, harem anime like Quintessential Quintuplets have both interesting girls and an interesting guy character.

In this anime, it's the reverse. The guy Arata is a bit interesting and manly, a step up from blank, self-insert characters. Unfortunately, the girls are not interesting compounded with the fact that they don't really look that gorgeous. So far, we've seen Minami and Ouka's character arcs. They are fine but are boring.

The Shiunji Family Children's worst sin is being boring. Overall, don't expect much from this. It's fine to watch on its own to pass the time. You might actually like it if you haven't seen other harem. But compared to classic and recent harem anime, it's worse than mediocre. Even worse, it's a downgrade from Rent-A-Girlfriend in terms of entertainment. Many harems have been a guilty pleasure. This is not.

Since we haven't seen the character arcs of Seiha, Kotono, and Banri, it is still possible that over time, this anime may improve. The first season did not end with a bang. In fact, it seems we're still in the phase where the characters and their possible complexities are being introduced.

But for now, I cannot recommend this.

NOTA BENE: A grade of 2 out of 10 [or 20 out of 100 in anilist] means either of two things: the anime is extremely boring or it may have fun elements but it's ultimately illogickal and doesn't make sense. Or just possibly, I rank it above my 1's but below my 3's.