Brothers Conflict - 04

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This episode of Brothers Conflict shows us a little bit about voice-acting as a career and lets us delve into some of the brothers’ characters more deeply.

It’s nice to see some of the Asahina brothers actually working.  While this episode focuses quite a lot on Tsubaki and Azusa and their voice-acting work, we also get to see glimpses of Masaomi at the hospital and Kaname at a shrine, as well as Ukyo mentioning work for a trial.  It’s also interesting to see how some of the brothers’ work can overlap, such as the twins’ voice-acting overlapping with Natsume’s work at the video game company.

One aspect of Brothers Conflict that’s worth mentioning is the wonderful way in which different kinds of tension are built and eased throughout the show.  There are quite a few layers of tension working constantly and some that rise and fall periodically.  For example, the first episode had tension built on the fact that Chi was in new surroundings with a new family that she wasn’t used to as well as a brief moment of tension when Kaname made a move on her.  The second episode had a bit of the new-family tension as well as the tension centered on Subaru’s feelings toward Chi.  The third episode introduced tension between Futo and Chi, mostly focused on how exactly Futo feels about her and whether or not he’s just going to tease her constantly, and continued the tension with Subaru.  And this episode brings up a slowly-growing tension between Ukyo and Chi as the other siblings start looking more to Chi as the caretaker of the household and less to Ukyo.  One of the over-arching layers of tension focuses on Yusuke’s feelings for Chi.  All of these different kinds of tension weave together to help give the anime an interesting story that’s constantly changing and growing.

The relationship between Tsubaki and Azusa is played up a lot in this episode.  We see quite a lot more about them through the way each of them reacts to the results of the audition.  And, of course, that whole plot point leads to the first real, I-have-romantic-feelings-for-you move that any of the brothers has made thus far on Chi with Tsubaki’s kiss.  This introduces a whole new source of tension to the show, made even more interesting by the fact that Hikaru was watching the whole thing.  (Little bit of a creeper there, Hikaru, don’t you think?)  It will definitely be exciting to see where this leads.

(As a note, I call Ema “Chi” because that is the name (aside from “little sister” or simply “sister”) that she is called most often in the anime.  I am aware that Chi is a nickname and Ema is her real name.  I simply feel it’s easier for everyone to follow if I use the name most often associated with her in the show.)

Brothers Conflict Episode 5 Preview

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