No Matter How You Struggle, It Ends in Marriage — Swept Away by Your Forceful Third Brother & Devoted Fifth Brother [Doting ASMR]

When I saw the announcement on the old Twitter, I couldn't help but do a double-take. Wait, isn't the cast too luxurious? Really? I heard it but I still can't quite believe it. I was wondering which of the 3 series to listen to first!? (with the intention of listening to all of them), but since I'm a fan of Mr. Hayami, I started with this one. In Tr1 I was smiling while listening to the older brothers being all lively and chaotic, but from Tr2 it was already too much,, Is this for real!? Wait, so close!! Also, wait, is this for real!? (You can hear this line on the special website, so please check it out) I thought Tr3 would also be something I could listen to with a smile, but then! At the end! Wait, Shuji-san!? What makes you two act like that? While they're bickering, I thought "oh, is that all" during Tr4, but then!!!! Tr5,,, why!! What is wrong with you two!! Also, as it goes on, they get closer and closer,, stop it (delight) And then,,, it ends there!?!? No way!? So, please, I'm begging for a sequel. Whether it's more bickering with this same combination or a different combination or even individual routes, I'd be happy with any of it!!! Please!!! Also, I laughed because in the free talk, Mr. Hayami didn't play favorites with the character he voiced. I like a slightly perverted-ish character like Souroku. The free talk was interesting too, so please check it out.

Shuji, who acts cheerful and takes charge but gets teased for it; Souroku, the calm butler-like character skilled at housework; and the heroine trying her best in her new home. I thought it was a nice trio, but surprise, there was more to it. By the way, the subtitle mentions a "toyed-with heroine," but the heroine is the one being toyed with. The story progresses while she blushes, gets flustered, or feels scared, so she's just like the listener. To toy with these two, you'd probably need to be either a hopeless airhead or a battle-hardened vixen (lol) Shuji is a great older brother figure who happily drives her around when she goes shopping and is glad to be relied upon. I thought he had a breezy, straightforward personality with no hidden sides, but it turns out he's always striving to get closer to his ideal self and carries a long-held loneliness, along with some gloomy feelings. He decides to treat the heroine, who was the first person to say "welcome home" to him, as someone special and to protect her, but at the same time his possessiveness is intense—he wants her to become blindly devoted and dependent only on him. Souroku has quite an elaborate hobby of turning the person he's chosen into his ideal doll. He wants to dress her in outfits he tailored himself, feed her dishes he made himself, and control even her preferences and behavior to his liking. Perhaps dominating and serving are both forms of his love. By the way, apparently before the heroine came, Shuji was his target. It was fun listening to them pour out their feelings and whisper at close range. The heroine hasn't reached a conclusion, and it ends with the two older brothers' appeal time. P-please, give us a continuation...! And then the free talk. Mr. Morita was full of service spirit, sometimes talking close by and sometimes shouting from far away. Mr. Hayami spoke throughout in a calm, nice voice, sharing his impressions and such. Isn't the phrase "if it's a one-shot kind of love..." just way too cool?

I've listened to all three works in the series. All three end without revealing the full picture of the story. This work covers roughly from the prologue to the middle portion, if we're talking in otome game terms. By the way, even though all three works feature the same characters, it seems like the timelines branch off from an early point, so the settings and such for characters other than the main ones seem to differ slightly. (For example, in the eldest & fourth son arc, the fourth son can cook, but in this work's third & fifth son arc, he can't do any housework at all, etc.) This work centers on the fifth son, who has an eerie, Pygmalion-like charm, and the third son, who is lonely, cute, and somewhat self-righteous. The conversations, which feel like an otome game where you've raised both characters' affection too much and triggered a "fighting over you" event, are super fun. It's got that classic otome game jealousy event vibe. That said, even though they have hidden sides, there's none of the horror-like feel of the eldest & fourth son arc—it stays within the range of a slightly quirky otome game character. Unlike a typical situation CD, this one makes heavy use of BGM and sound effects, which might be a matter of taste, but for ears used to Heisei-era otaku drama CDs, combined with the cast, it has a nostalgic, heart-fluttering quality that's good in its own way.