English Dub Season Review: The Shiunji Family Children Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The Shiunji family, with their seven children, reside in a mansion within Tokyo’s Setagaya ward.  The eldest son, Arata (Abi Kumar), is tired of being pushed around by his five sisters and daydreams of a life without them.  That is, until Arata’s father reveals a shocking truth—Arata isn’t biologically related to his sisters!  The siblings’ relationships will be tested as they navigate life in this new light.

Our Take:

The Shiunji Family Children is an anime adaptation of a manga series written and illustrated by Reiji Miyajima.  It is directed by Ryouki Kamitsubo, best known for co-directing Hidamari Sketch with Akiyuki Shinbo, and Noboru Kimura writes the script.  It is produced by Doga Kobo, known for producing other projects like New Game!, Oshi no Ko, Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night, and Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian.  Miki Muto handles the character designs and chief animation direction, and the music is composed by Akki, Ginnojo Hoshi, and Shota Horie.  The opening theme, “Honey Lemon,” is performed by Nacherry, while the ending song, “Like You o(>< = ><)o Love You?”, is performed by the show’s Japanese cast, who voice the sisters in the original dub.

Siblings can often be a pain in the butt to deal with, mainly when they consist of multiple sisters who constantly tease you.  However, on specific occasions, they’ll always be around to lift your spirits when it matters most.  It’s basically what defines a “family.”  But say that your siblings aren’t exactly related to you.  In that case, would that term still be relevant?  The answer lies in the latest romantic comedy, which provides one of the most questionable concepts I’ve ever seen in an anime.  Granted, there have been other anime shows featuring some discomforting topics that you wouldn’t watch with your parents, even ones that have a love interest who appeared younger than the protagonist.  However, The Shiunji Family Children certainly has one that sets the bar high for its WTH dilemma, particularly when taken out of context.

The dilemma I’m referring to is that the main protagonists, including sons Arata and Shion (Dallas Reid) and daughters Banri (Taylor Murphy), Seiha (Amber May), Ouka (Rebecca Danae), Minami (Morgan Berry), and Kotono (Terri Doty), discover through their father, Kaname (Cris George), that they’re not biologically related.  That’s right.  The siblings who have been living together for years are not actually related, particularly the sisters, who were adopted by Kaname.  With this revelation unveiled, the Shiunji children must now navigate this new perspective, with Arata striving to maintain his sibling dynamic with the sisters.  But, of course, since this is a rom-com after all, Arata would also have to survive the girls’ newfound affections toward him, mainly Kotono, who has always had feelings for him before Kaname’s surprise reveal.  Because of the revelation, Kotono’s affection continues to grow, creating a small tension between the sisters.

In a way, the series is essentially “The Quintessential Quintuplets: Incest Edition,” with the sisters having a crush on the same person and exemplifying Arata’s “will they, won’t they“ scenario.  Despite Arata’s refusal to treat them as anything other than siblings, the show continues to put him in the crosshairs regarding the girls’ affections.  Of course, let’s not forget about the subtle fan service revolving around the sisters that’ll make viewers question why they’re not in Arata’s shoes.  Upon reading the show’s premise, I was left with numerous concerns about how it would handle its genre tropes, given the presence of incestuous innuendos.  I can handle the fan service this series would throw at me, but the incest-related topic was the true challenge in testing my tolerance level.

That concern gradually came to light after watching the first few episodes, though it’s not without a few charming moments to elevate their watchability.  Amid the show’s typical genre formula, The Shiunji Family Children provided some amusing, light-hearted humor that highlights the siblings’ bond and the characters’ personalities, along with their perspectives on Kaname’s shocking reveal.  This was mainly the case in the second episode, “Now What,“ with the sisters, particularly Ouka, declaring the thought of incest disgusting.  However, there have been occasions where Seiha and Banri’s actions toward Arata made me question their intent to treat him like their “big brother.“  Even with its self-awareness, along with a few amusing and heartfelt moments, the show still got bogged down by not just its icky concept but also the narrative beats that did very little to reinvigorate its genre cliches, mainly the “who’ll be with the guy“romance aspect.

However, when the show focuses only on the sibling dynamic and character growth instead of its incest humor, it surprisingly becomes a bit more tolerable than I anticipated.  When it’s not intent on providing gags involving this discomforting topic, the series examines the siblings’ reactions to the revelations, often leading them to question the dynamic they shared.  Episodes like “For Now“ and “Now’s The Time“ showcased the characters’ development in a heartwarming manner, especially when they gradually start to get along with Arata due to his “big brother“ persona, emphasizing the show’s theme of family.  Regardless of blood relation, the importance of family lies in expressing support and kindness to one another, even when they’re at their lowest point with their insecurities.  

One example of this is Minami’s mini-arc, which involves her competing in the inter-highs, starting with “Now’s the Time.“  This arc showed Minami facing internal pressure while leading her team to victory and impressing her teammate, Hinata, to the point of even hiding her injury from them.  But thanks to Arata, Minami ultimately had to confront her insecurity within her happy-go-lucky, tomboyish spirit by opening up to her doubts in the season’s best episode, “Surely.“  While familiar in its formula, that episode’s execution benefited from the effective animation by Doga Kobo and Morgan Berry’s solid voice performance.  Another example is Ouka, particularly in the episodes “Not Yet“ and “Finally,” where she takes an unexpected trip to Mount Fuji in search of her soulmate.  However, at its core, it’s revealed that Ouka was hit the hardest by the revelation, resulting in her questioning her relationship with Kaname.  However, Arata’s actions helped her muster up the courage to face that phobia while also getting him sick from the rainy weather.  While not as profound as Minami’s tennis tournament arc, Ouka’s dilemma is another respectable example of the show’s overall theme of family.  These examples exemplify the show’s inner heart amid its sexual humor, but it also takes considerable willpower to tolerate its seemingly uncomfortable aspects to reach these character moments.

As for the English dub cast, they did a commendable job of capturing the characters’ personalities, especially the sisters, whose personalities somewhat align with those of some of the sisters from The Loud House.  The most notable ones are Seiha’s intellectual personality, which matches Lisa’s genius, and Minami’s tomboyish and athletic nature, which resembles Lynn’s.  Abi Kumar was a worthy choice in conveying Arata’s stubbornness, as well as the genuineness that propelled him to support his sisters, whether they were by blood or not.  With Arata having the most common sense of the group, he becomes one of the male protagonists who possesses no romantic feelings at all, as his only intent is to retain his sibling bond with his sisters and nothing else.  Amber May also did a decent job voicing Seiha through her soft-spoken yet gentle vocal range that matches the character’s intellect.  Of course, as previously mentioned, Morgan Berry effectively captured Minami’s high-spirited yet complex nature, especially in “Surely,” where she expresses her vulnerability and doubts to Arata.

I previously mentioned that the animation by Doga Kobo worked pretty well for “Surely.“  This was essentially the case for the episode’s tennis sequences, due to the color palettes and striking visuals, despite the freeze-frame shots almost derailing the momentum.  Outside of that, the animation looked cute in highlighting the sisters’ fan-service designs and even the chibi-style appearances that are pretty common in most anime shows.  There were even specific scenes that demonstrated the surprising level of effort in its presentation, particularly for the fluidity of the character movements.  The episode, “Perhaps,“ exemplified this case, with Seiha fixing her hair before conducting a romantic experiment through a game of Twister.  If that moment’s goal was to arouse me with its smooth presentation, then consider that goal met.

The Shiunji Family Children was definitely one of the experiences that’ll likely challenge people’s tolerance.  The series is notably another romantic comedy that didn’t strive to add anything unique to its conventional narrative, resulting in it being another Quintessential Quintuplets scenario.  But the real test is enduring some of its out-of-context representation involving incest, even with its fan service in play.  However, underneath its discomforting topic lies a heartwarming family drama that respects the familial connection beyond blood relations.  Its sexual innuendos, while mildly amusing, can be a bit tough to swallow, but the familial chemistry between the siblings offered more than enough to retain my connection with the group despite its genre shortcomings.  If you can manage to stomach its questionable concept and rom-com tropes, you might find some genuine warmth in the sibling dynamic as well, which should be enough to inject interest in a potential second season.