Background
The Shiunji Family are the wealthiest family in the town. Think the Hiltons, DuPonts, or the Maras. Arata Shiunji, the eldest son out of the family of 7 (2 boys and 5 girls), values his family more than anything. When his youngest sister Kotono turns fifteen, their father reveals a family secret that flips the family on its head...
The Shiunji Family Children is a new series from the mangaka Reiji Miyajima, creator of Rent A Girlfriend. While Rent-A-Girlfriend runs in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine (and its spinoff series Rent a Really Shy Girlfriend in Kodansha's online platform Magazine Pocket), Shiunji Family runs in Hakusensha's Young Animal magazine alongside such titles as Berserk and March Comes in Like a Lion.
I was curious to see how Miyajima would handle being in a seinen magazine, so I wanted to review volume 1. What would he do differently from Rent-A-Girlfriend and its spinoff? Would the writing style differ? Would he tackle more serious topics?
Characters
Sion is primarily the "voice of reason" for the lead character, Arata, in the story. He also seems to be the devil's advocate for the sister Ouka, providing the opposite side for her to consider. For Rent-A-Girlfriend readers, he would be similar to Kibe.
The lead character, Arata isn't anything to write home about. He's a standard harem rom-com lead. He aggressively exaggerates expressions when he gets flustered by his siblings, he sulks and pouts when called out by others. However, I wouldn't call him a "reader self insert". He has a personality and pushes back on things he doesnt approve of.
The sisters fall under the standard harem archetypes. Seiha is the intelligent one, Banri is the older sister/2nd parent, Minami is the athletic one whose mind is solely on sports, Ouka is the tsundere type (a character with an initially harsh personality who gradually reveals a warmer, friendlier side over time.), and Kotono is the little sister type who everyone treats like the baby of the family.
What I Liked
While the art style and designs are standard for Miyajima, I like his full page panels of characters posing. He does a great job at that in his works.
I also liked that the siblings interact with one another outside of Arata. While, yes, it's a harem series, discussions between the siblings occur over such things as lost airpods or grades. Ouka talks with Sion frequently about the information while Minami and Ouka argue around lost airpods. The interactions feel somewhat natural in that regard.
I like that each girl gets a chapter to themselves. It gives the reader a perspective into each girl's thoughts, behavior, and dynamic with Arata. It's not the reader solely creating an opinion about the sisters from Arata's perspective like some rom-com harems will do. The reader gets insight into how the sisters feel about Arata and their current situation as well, allowing the reader to think about how to feel about each sibling and their current situation.
What I Disliked
The sisters don't break out of their archetypes. While I'm not expecting a sudden shift in the first 2 chapters, there should be some change by chapter 6 or 7. By the end of the volume, each sister remains the same archetype without any difference or progression. This might be a side effect of dedicating a chapter to each sister: the groundwork is still being laid out.
For 3 chapters, the author continues to hammer in the "we're not related by blood". While repetition is understandable having this repeated in 3 consecutive chapters annoyed me because it was already established multiple times in individual chapter. It disrupts the flow of things.
While each girl gets a chapter to themselves, I feel like they all threw their relationship situation with Arata out the window. For over 5 years of your life, you all thought you were blood related. Once you got the news that none of you are related to Arata, now you all have romantic feelings for him. It seems jarring and hurts the character writing.
I dislike the audience monologuing (where the background characters will verbally say things about the characters to describe the characters to the reader). In my opinion, it's a lazy way to get around showing how good or incredible this person is. The mangaka is telling the reader how good this person is with a work that has a visual component.
The mass internal monologuing shows up as well. Arata describes his sisters and their current situation in several of the early chapters. I think Miyajima could trim some of that and just the image itself would convey the meaning to the reader. It's not as excessive as in his other work though (Rent-A-Girlfriend)
Final Thoughts
If you're a fan of Miyajima's other works, you'll feel right at home with Shiunji Family Children. If you have never consumed his works before, or just not a fan of them, I wouldn't recommend this series. Other than the "twist" he doesn't do anything different from other harem rom-com series.
For me? I might pick up volumes 2 and 3 when they go on sale to see if anything changes. If nothing changes, I'll drop the series
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