Title: The Shiunji Family Children Vol. 3
Author: Reiji Miyajima, Reiji Yukino (art support)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Harem
Publication Date: February 18, 2025
The Story
As evident by the front cover, Minami took center stage for 99.99% of this volume. The volume focused on her determination to play in the inter-school tennis tournament because of her trainer/coach. She felt that she wanted to get a victory for her so badly that she would sacrifice anything to do just that… including her health. Arata noticed that something was off about her from the get-go. At first, he just thought that she needed help training; however, he soon discovered that she had been hiding an ankle injury.
Despite talking to her multiple times, Minami assured him that she would be fine. It wasn’t until Sion confessed to Arata that he saw her in the garden out back in pain and crying. At that moment, Arata knew that it was affecting her more than she was letting on. When her coach discovered the injury, she made Minami sit out and replaced her with a substitute for the final match. Minami seemed chipper but Arata knew that she was devastated. He rallied the family and got her to the match and convinced them to let her play.
Characters
For an entire volume focusing on Minami, there wasn’t much in the way of development. What we mainly learned about her is that she is more competitive than she lets on, but for a good reason… it’s because she has a heart of gold and wants to see to it that she honors her coach by giving her something she couldn’t achieve during her time as a player. But, this also makes her quite the stubborn girl as she constantly tries to hide her true feelings for the sake of not worrying others…. Which is also a double-edged sword because she is risking her career by continuing to play on her injured ankle. She has a lot to learn about letting her emotions show and by the end of the volume, she gets the message with a little help from Arata.
Speaking of Arata… he’s still just the big brother and the voice of reason for everyone. Although, he was both keen and a little dense when it came to Minami. He’s smart enough to recognize that she was hiding her injury but not smart enough to realize she was hiding her true emotions? That was a bit weird but you can tell that he wants to trust Minami and that’s why he took her word for it. He was just trying to play the role of the understanding big brother.
While the whole volume mainly focused on Minami, we did get a little bit of development with Kotono. Kotono and Arata have a bit of a run-in in the hallway where Kotono was curious about the time he was spending with Minami. Then, at the very end of the volume, she confronts Ouka and tells her that there’s something that she wants to talk about. Of course, throughout the volume, they made sure to constantly remind us of how Kotono wants to marry Arata so it probably has something to do with that.
Final Thoughts
This was another great volume! I liked this approach more than how they approached the characters in volume two, but both had their merits. In the second volume, almost everyone got a little bit of time in the spotlight which, after the bombshell ending from volume one, was needed. It set the stage for us to get familiar with the entire cast and now here in volume three, we get to focus on them one at a time. I’m not sure every volume will be like this from here on out; however, it seems as if it’s Kotono’s turn in volume four. Whether or not her ordeal will span the entire volume remains to be seen but the series mixes it up between encompassing everyone and then taking a break to focus on one solely, that would be a great balance.
While I don’t care much for tennis, I didn’t mind this story as it wasn’t truly about the sport. Instead, it was about looking inward at Minami as a character, learning about her insecurities, her determination, her goals, her drive, and her desire to win and be the best tennis player that she can. You got to connect with her on an emotional level and to see Arata fill the role as her big brother was refreshing, although, I think given the way the series has gone, Arata will be doing more and more of that with each of the members of the family.
The only one I can’t see him doing that with is Sion. Sion seems to be a lateral move next to Arata but he seems a bit too lax and lazy to get involved at the level Arata does. I can see him keeping the role he had here… popping in from time to time to clue Arata in when he’s missing an important detail. I’m fine with that, though.
Overall, a great volume! Next time, we’ll see what Kotona has to say!
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