Yuzuki-san Chi no Yonkyoudai.

Family.
Whether you like your family or not, we all know that family has impacted our lives in some way or another, both positive and negative. However unlike friends whom you can just stop talking to or a special other whom you can just break up, family is permanent. Whether you like it or not.
And whether you like your family or not, sometimes you unexpectedly lose your family. Whether you like it or not, of course. Life is a huge bitch, the people dearest to you could be gone in an instant. This brings us to the (un)usual story of four brothers living together- confronted with ... the fact that both their parents are dead. We are then introduced to the wonderful and authentic world of The Yuzuki Family and its Four Sons.

At first, reading the synopsis, you just can't find any interest in it. Four brothers living together and navigating their life. Every slice-of-life ever, right? Well if you were looking for me to say that there's more happening beyond what the synopsis implies, then you'll be disappointed. Pack up if you were expecting some sort of plot twist or romantic tension. There's nothing more than four brothers and their friends navigating through life. Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not.

Simple stories are often criticized for being basic and unoriginal, but it depends on execution. Not every anime needs an Assassination Classroom level of a complicated story. What makes Yuzuki so special though? In my view, not only is the execution of the story flawless, but it has so many layers of humanity and complexity to the simple story. Each sentence a character speaks can tell you something new about them, and while these characters start as tropes, we see their motivations and flaws as PEOPLE, which is what I truly love about this series. The characters are as human as you can get. For example, the girls aren't acting all cutesy and act how a middle schooler would act, while keeping their character fun, engaging, and well-written.

Each character has layers and layers of struggles. Let's dig deep into some of the characters.
The eldest, Hayato, is a young adult who has a job of teaching. He may act like an old man sometimes but he's still a young person. However, due to the burden of taking care of his brothers, he has to step down from enjoying the prime of his life to focus on them, and this brings consequences too. In one of the early episodes, we see his old classmates lose interest in him for having to take care of his brothers. We can often see that Hayato is tired, mostly due to stress and working, but he still comes home with a smile. I like how overprotective he is, and it's nice to see his brothers acknowledge it since Hayato's overprotectiveness is the main cause of one of the later story arcs involving Gakuto.
Hayato isn't perfect and he knows it. He often makes assumptions too quickly and is overthinking every little detail. He is a perfect father figure and I admire him so much for stepping up for his brothers while sacrificing his youth.
Mikoto is another amazing character. At first glance, he seems to be the generic “ikemen” being super popular in school and not seeming to struggle much. However, we can truly see how many struggles and worries he has later on while not changing my perspective of his character. Mikoto got jealous of how much attention Minato got from their mother, and Minato used to annoy Mikoto a lot. Once, Mikoto got so angry at him that they started getting into a huge fight. This is a defining moment in their relationship and shows how Mikoto LOOKS perfect, but he has a lot of hidden jealousy. Another time where this comes to show is when Minato dotes on Gakuto. Mikoto shows jealousy and attempts to make Minato spend more time with him instead. However, Mikoto developing a brother complex is hilarious and adorable and isn’t depicted weirdly. Mikoto brings the comedic energy a lot and is genuinely hilarious. Mikoto also is very kind and a great liar, and it’s sweet to see how he always helps out his brother.
Minato is the best protagonist the series could offer. He is outgoing and friendly but he has many, many flaws. He is super loud and annoying and he doesn’t know when to stop, both good and bad. He’s determined to never quit, but sometimes when someone wants to be left alone he keeps on persisting, making matters worse. And it’s amazing because this is 100% something that can happen in real life. Minato also never considers other people’s feelings much, he acts on his feelings. This can be a bad choice sometimes, especially in a later arc where he should’ve come clean or just stayed out of it. It’s also really cute when he acts all tough but is weak. The sick Hayato episode was super touching because we could see Minato’s growth as a person. Overall, Minato is a super complex but fun character. He is what gives the show energy. Without Minato, it would be super boring, whether you like him or not.
Gakuto is my favourite out of all of them. He’s just a small kid with a large capacity for knowledge and curiosity. Gakuto is emotionally intelligent and can read the room even though he’s what, 5? However, Gakuto has struggled with himself, wanting to be older so that he can be more useful around the house. His older 3 brothers are always doing all the tasks and Gakuto is too small and weak, so he feels guilty for not being able to help out. This is admirable of him, honestly, I want to hug him! Gakuto’s emotional intelligence could sometimes cause problems, though. He had to drag in 6 people (3 unintentionally) because he didn’t want to worry Hayato and wanted him to keep working so he didn’t need to take time off. This is super sweet of Gakuto and I love him for it, I’m not sure what the best move was, but I feel like Gakuto’s method wasn’t the best way of going about it. He also had to unfortunately stop Waka’s mother from going (though that was Waka’s own decision). The contrast between Gakuto wanting to grow up vs. Hayato wanting to be younger was nice.
I honestly just really love Gakuto. All his lines are adorable and hilarious with how much wiser he is than Minato. Gakuto sort of reminds me of Uncle Iroh with how wise he is.

Uta is less important to the story but is a great addition nonetheless as Minato’s best friend. I like how Uta isn’t the stereotypical “childhood friend” and is tomboyish, outgoing, and lacks manners. Also, I ADORE the dynamic between Uta and Minato. They act like REAL FRIENDS. In all those childhood friend anime you see childhood friends acting all awkward or forced but Uta and Minato genuinely have a bond, and shared interests, and you can tell they are close. The arc where Uta first met Minato was amazing, especially the divorce part. It shows how emotional the show can get but at the same time highlights Uta’s flaw of making assumptions but not confronting them directly. The Uta’s lover arc was also amazing and put them into an awkward position and you could see Minato reconsidering what their friendship means.
Waka isn’t as deep but they’re a total sweetheart and a cutie! Saki and the grandpa are both kind people and they added a lot of great moments, especially the grandpa buying the DVDs to connect with the kids. Saki sacrificing her vacation to help Hayato was also very touching.
Mikoto’s friend didn’t really add much but he was funny and he provided one of the best cliffhangers of the show in the lover episode.

Is that all the characters? How many is that, 9 characters? That’s not many but they managed to center the show around these 9 characters and made it beautifully. Each character was memorable and likeable while being well-written and serving a purpose.

Now, let’s talk about the episodes themselves. The first 4 episodes were just introductions to our characters. The first episode is mostly centred around Minato but also introduces us to the family and neighbourhood. The second shows Mikoto and his bond with Minato. The third and fourth are for Gakuto and Hayato, respectively. All of these episodes are perfect and show the struggles between them. The episodic structure of these episodes was perfect to introduce the lovely characters. After that the show starts going more into arcs, starting with Uta’s lover + bond with Minato, and then we get Gakuto’s visitation. The Uta episodes were amazing and beautiful. The entirety of the lover’s arc I was on the edge of my seat and had an emotional climax. Uta meeting Minato was probably the single best episode of the series. The fight scene was genuinely amazing but heartbreaking and Minato’s declaration had me in tears. The themes of divorce and affairs were a nice touch too, and we also had some development for Saki. The Gakuto arc was also amazing seeing how he got so many people involved just because he didn’t want to worry Hayato. This was a great development arc for many of the characters and we even got some nice development for Minato wondering what was the right thing to do. I’m still salty that Saki got the bad ending, though.
The last 3 episodes are a little more episodic but they tie up loose ends and provide some backstory like with Mikoto’s brother complex. The Sick Hayato episode was great because it made the characters who relied on Hayato so much have to live independently and they recognize how much they appreciate him. The brothers being scared of losing Hayato was heartbreaking.

There’s just so much I want to talk about this masterpiece, but I’ll try my best to wrap it up by covering these next parts.

The art style seems basic but it’s fine because the animation was amazing, they made use of the animation genre with a bunch of effects to show how the characters are feeling and great sound effects making me feel like a roller coaster. There are a lot of meme potentials too. The fight scene in episode 7 went viral for a bit for the amazing animation and it was so impressive for a slice-of-life. There weren’t any animation flaws and you could see how the characters are feeling through just an expression, which I like.
The sound is AMAZING. The opening and ending I’m obsessed with, especially the opening which makes me cry tears of nostalgia. Flumpool is one of my favourite artists and this is one of my favourite songs of his since Kakushigoto’s opening. I don’t usually notice background music, but the music here really stood out to me, especially the emotional moments that helped me cry. The sound design was amazing, not much to talk about but was flawless. I especially loved the earrape effects when Mikoto got mad in episode 2.
The entertainment value is super high, I watched this weekly and caught up while with other shows I’m at least a week behind. This is not some boring slice-of-life anime, so don’t judge quickly!

The Yuzuki Family’s Four Sons is an adventure. Every single week after each episode I feel like I went on a whole journey. Not many other anime had this sort of impact on me. The Yuzuki Family anime was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I will never regret watching this. It has so many deep themes like divorce, affairs, abandonment, aging, jealousy, attention, social pressures, and so much more. If you liked Skip to Loafer or those Disney Channel sitcoms back then, this is similar to those!
Seeing the brothers navigate through their struggles and family was so much more rewarding than I expected. I wasn’t even interested in this show, I was expecting something boring, but this was something truly special. The Yuzuki’s felt like my family. I smiled with them, I cried with them, I laughed with them. So, thank you, Yuzuki family.

Overall, just WATCH IT! You won’t feel an ounce of regret. I mean it this time. I haven’t felt so much burning passion or love for an anime for a long time, and it’s because of a simple story about a family. I hope you guys found this as remarkable as I did with this unusual family. But what even counts as a family, right? It’s not something as simple as a mom, dad, and child. Family is a bond between people who feel at home with each other, and this story managed to nail it on the head.

No matter where you go, how far you run astray, or how many new people you meet, you will come back to your family.

-Baby Penewine

The Yuzuki Family's Four Sons - I wish this show got more attention, being lost in the sea of many high-profile shows in this hyped season.

From Frieren to Apothecary Diaries, and stinkers like KamiErabi to Ojou no Banken-kun, a.k.a A Girl & Her Guard Dog, Fall 2023 has been one of, if not the most exciting bunch of seasonal anime this year yet. And yet, there are shows that just do not get any recognition whatsoever from being lost or casually ignored. Such is the case with female mangaka Shizuki Fujisawa and her work here, Yuzuki-san Chi no Yonkyoudai. a.k.a The Yuzuki Family's Four Sons, ... which, despite being targeted for the Shoujo demographic (as much of her small manga works also do, with 2014's Hatsu*Haru being her most recognized work), can also appeal to anyone.

The simple, slice-of-life story about the family members of the Yuzuki family: the oldest of Hayato, the same-aged twins of Mikoto and Minato (though the former case first), and the youngest of Gakuto — these 4 brothers have been holding the Yuzuki family together since the passing of their parents. Hayato, resuming the role of parental figure, works as a school teacher as the only breadwinner of the family, while his younger siblings all attend school like most students do. Opposite them are their kind neighbours of the Kirishima family: grandfather Kojiro, mother Saki (who works as a policewoman), and their children, Uta and Waka, who are the same age as Minato and Gakuto, respectively.

In essence, this is as family friendly as a show can get: the slow drivels of daily life driving the Yuzuki brothers, sharing both the good and bad moments in life, and communing together like friendly neighbours who watch over each other's kin. It's the simple moments that showcase each and every one of their personalities, as do their love for one another as siblings and surviving through the usual family struggles, that make it as akin to real life as it can get.

Honzuki no Gekokujou a.k.a Ascendance of a Bookworm's director Mitsuru Hongo certainly knew his assignment on this rather simple show, and all it takes is just a simple hand of adapting the manga (though it can feel slow because every manga chapter's length is equivalent to one episode of the anime), and the work is done fairly well, alongside studio Shuka's small comeback from its 3-year hiatus producing Hosekisho Richard-shi no Nazo Kantei a.k.a The Case Files of Jeweller Richard's anime, back in Winter 2020. The music fits the mood and sounds good, from Flumpool's OP to Aoi Kubo's ED.

All in all, this show may look simple on the outside, but trust me, it's a lot more wholehearted, and that'll make you warmhearted on the inside. An easy recommendation for slice-of-life fans, for a feel-good, lighthearted anime.

When I think of a slice of life centering around a family whose parents are gone or presumably dead, I think of the Minami Family in Minami-Ke. It's a fun show where the majority of the show is dedicated to a comedic slice of life. Of course, the cute interactions are, for the most part, embellished while Yuzuki-san Chi no Yonkyoudai is much more...serious at some points while sometimes also maintaining that same embellished comedic interactions. This is good and bad for this show.

While Minami-ke is entirely slice-of-life comedy, Yuzuki-san Chi no Yonkyoudai deals with more serious motifs. For example, even the concept of orphaned ... children is handled much more differently. In Yuzuki-san Chi no Yonkyoudai, the death of the parents is evident, apparent, and well addressed, and there are even many monologues and dialogue between characters regarding this topic. Going back to Minami-ke, you have basically zero mention of their parents at all.

Yuzuki-san Chi no Yonkyoudai shows the love of a family through the lens of realistic scenes, loving and also sad ones in the mix. It's not a melodrama, but one that actually takes a closer look at the troubles that a family of four boys would have in a household with no parents.

Of course, these serious scenes have varying levels of success. If episode 1 is a paltry opener that barely adequately introduces the family in the pilot episode, episode 2 truly tells a touching story.

And If I'm being honest, the main reason for this is because Minato is the main character propping this series up. You have Hayato, the oldest, Mikoto the second, Minato the third, and finally, you have Gakuto, the youngest. Every character has a host of problems, Minato included, but Minato ends up being a very strong character. Every episode that isn't centered around Minato falls pretty flat and boring, while the ones that exclusively focus on him truly shine.

Episodes 2,5,6, and 7 are the episodes centered around Minato and a bit of Mikoto, and they're by far the best quality. If these episodes were condensed into a one-hour movie, I'd give it a very high score. It deals with Minato's shaky past with Minato and his adolescence with his best friend. Overall, if this entire show was just a slice-of-life show centered around Minato being the premiere main character and his friends at school, this series would have been better.

The problem with the other characters is self-evident. Mikoto's a bit too much of a bro-con and it certainly damages the realistic character setting that this show is supposed to have. Subsequently, Hayato is just a plain boring character. While possessing very realistic attributes and traits, I find no joy in watching him at all. He suffers the same problem as Haruka in Minami-ke, which is that their sole role is to make food and act as a pseudo-caretaker. Even Haruka is a bit more fun, as she at least possesses lazy traits, while Hayato is just a frustratingly boring strait-laced caretaker figure.

I would say that Gakuto is the one that truly breaks character, however. While Mikoto and Hayato have some flaws, Gakuto just breaks any immersion whatsoever by having a six-year-old have the mental acumen of an adult. This is beyond acting "mature for your age," and breaching "unprecedented genius" territory. Again, I'm comparing to Chiaki from Minami-ke, who is much more of a realistic elementary school kid who's pretty smart. She still possesses some childishness despite her normal maturity that goes beyond her years. Gakuto basically has zero childishness. He may be unable to read emotions at times, but honestly, that's about it. Minato being obsessed with him doesn't help either, destroying the solid character that Minato had in the first place.

Overall, despite there definitely being some solid melancholic scenes in a household that is healing from the death of their parents, there still remain the flippant personalities from an over-the-top comedic slice-of-life show, which kind of ruins both aspects: the serious, dramatic scenes, and the lighthearted comedic ones as well.