The Shiunji Family Children is a creation of Miyajima Reiji the mangaka of RentAGirlfriend. Since its a sister series of RentAGirlfriend most people expect it to be trash. Is it really? Lets dive in. In the runup to its premiere it has been marketed as an incest anime so there was some buzz about it. Those who dislike incestrelated stories immediately dismissed it. Others who enjoyed RentAGirlfriend despite being trash gave it a chance. Alas Its not really incest in the strictest sense of the word. Right in Episode 1 their father tells them that they are not bloodrelated. 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 thats glaring about this anime is how it ignores the Westermarck Effect. Its an observed phenomenon where children who grew up together as siblings even if stepsiblings dont 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 youre openminded about such stories. Arata is manly unlike the loser Kazuya from RentAGrilfriend. Unfortunately this is its only advantage over the latter. The animation is mostly fine. Some would say its good because its from Doga Kobo. But for such a story it only needs a serviceable animation and art direction so I dont think its 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 reallife people are not really the bombshell beauties in magazines. Despite that its 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 thats it They are deemed by people around them as celebrities and models. Shouldnt we expect more in terms of looks? This disconnect between whats said and what is shown is glaring. In the history of harem anime Tenchi Muyou has a useless main character Tenchi and that is told explicitly in the title. 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 its the reverse. The guy Arata is a bit interesting and manly a step up from blank selfinsert characters. Unfortunately the girls are not interesting compounded with the fact that they dont really look that gorgeous. So far weve seen Minami and Oukas character arcs. They are fine but are boring. The Shiunji Family Childrens worst sin is being boring. Overall dont expect much from this. Its fine to watch on its own to pass the time. You might actually like it if you havent seen other harem. But compared to classic and recent harem anime its worse than mediocre. Even worse its a downgrade from RentAGirlfriend in terms of entertainment. Many harems have been a guilty pleasure. This is not. Since we havent 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 were 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 its ultimately illogickal and doesnt make sense. Or just possibly I rank it above my 1s but below my 3s.