First, a necessary spoiler/disclaimer. This story is axed. Not only the manhwa, even the webnovel it's adapted from was axed. The manhwa version feels more complete, and it tried its best to give an emotional closure to the narrative, but that doesn't change the fact that many plot threads are left unresolved. If you mind this, I say read up until Episode 72-73 and stop RIGHT when the flashback starts. Then if you can endure a little bit of confusion, you can read the last two episodes. That is the point where you can drop the story and feel mostly fulfilled. Now where do I begin. I found itquite late from Mangaupdates that the writer of [My Brothers, the Protagonists] is the same as [The Emperor and the Female Knight]. And while I haven't read the latter for a long while, I somehow can feel the similarities. This story shares so many of the good qualities that I remembered...and a few of its flaws too.

The basic premise itself already feels like three stories merged into one.

Yapping alert.

First, there's the main title. [My Brothers, the Protagonists] tells the story of Lee Bobae and her titular brothers, with each of them now having typical shonen manhwa protagonist backstories. Bobae, the overworked and burnt out youngest child of the family, now has to be both a breadwinner and a sister, dealing with all the emotional labor of managing her brothers' sudden return and bizarre change in behavior.

Describing what actually happened to the brothers would be spoilers, all of them, but suffice to say that their initial appearance are all WILD. The oldest brother, Lee Gwihan, changes from the dependable elder brother into an unemployed slacker with chuuni-style edgy dialogues. The hardworking second brother, Lee Haegi, suddenly claims that he comes from the future. And the third brother, Lee Hanseng, got possessed by a spirit of what I will best describe as a religious pretty boy who is also a haughty noble, or the composite of typical third MLs in RoFan stories.

But wait, there's more! Now that Bobae's life goal of reuniting her siblings has been achieved, the story also tells the story of Bobae herself, making her own way with the help of people around her as she tries to make her own name as an alchemist...and quite possibly saving her brothers and the world along the way.

Wait, 'the world'?

Yes, because there is also the generic Hunterverse metanarrative. Y'know, the 'there's something behind this new world of Dungeons and Hunters and we have to follow the whims of the System™ to prevent the end of the world!' kind of narrative. A crisis that, conveniently, also centers around Bobae's brothers.

All these paragraphs, and I just described the basic narrative, here. It's wild. It's arguably one of the most unique premises not only in Otome Isekai or the Hunterverse subgenre, but also in the Isekai as a whole genre. It's hella ambitious, and the story can fuck up massively and still be enjoyable because of how refreshing the premise is.

But no. The story.... is actually good. It's wild in the most endearing way, and every now and then it shows a surprisingly tender heart.

You'd think that with all the moving parts in the narrative this story would be a mess, but it's actually the opposite. The narrative is wild in almost every single panel, but the plot moves VERY slowly, leaving plenty of room for the actually important things; character interactions and pure shenanigans. On top of that, the narrative also makes subtle critique of isekai tropes every now and then, such as how absurd an isekai protagonist would look like from an outsider's perspective. Each and every element is woven tightly so that advancing one often means advancing the other plotline as well.

And through all that, the story never forgets its core element. The family dynamics between the Lee siblings are wild, vivid, and yet very heartfelt.

Granted, it's not without flaws. For a while, like in the first 20-30 chapters, Bobae is kept in the dark regarding what ACTUALLY happened with her brothers. As a result, Bobae is mostly locked into the role of the whiner, the one who complains and nags and fusses around her family because she doesn't really know what actually happened. A few other reviews I have read elsewhere are complaining about this aspect of Bobae, and that is a worthy point to consider.

Also, I must acknowledge the dynamics between Bobae and her brothers in these exact time frame may not be for everyone. During these early chapters, the dynamic between the Lee siblings lean way more towards a sitcom-esque portrayal of Asian siblings, with loud bickering and arguing and yelling and more than a few incidents of Bobae slapping and smacking her brothers (to the point it got crystallized into a skill). Meanwhile, as far as Bobae was concerned, Gwihan and Haegi are acting like leeches, slacking in the house while Bobae continues to work herself dry for their sakes.

But at the same time, from my POV, these flaws serve a function. They felt more of an intentional texture to the narrative, meant to show that Bobae and her brothers are fundamentally ordinary humans, people who sometimes gets angry and vindictive and keeps secret in a misguided belief that what they're doing is good for others around them. And the narrative also takes a good care to show that as much Bobae's reaction is melodramatic, she's also more than justified in her sisterly rage.

Every now and then the loud shenanigans would stop, and I am treated to a long and earnest display of vulnerability, showing just how much Bobae is exhausted, and just how much she has sacrificed for her brothers. She is an unflinching portrayal of so many young people nowadays, who has sacrificed so much of her youth in the name of duty and love.

Every now and then, the narrative also switches gears to the Lee brothers, showing just how much things have changed from their own perspective. Their stories, too, are painful, as annoying as they are at times.

The narrative makes it painfully, achingly clear, that while Bobae's nagging and smacking is not exactly HEALTHY, it is very REALISTIC, and more often than not I find myself sympathizing with Bobae than otherwise.

Besides, when push comes to shove, the narrative DOES exercise a surprising amount of restraint. For example, as often as the story treats the Lee brothers as leeches for Bobae's labor, they are never written as anything else but grateful and appreciative to her. And the moment they have to choose between everyone else and their own siblings, all of them will undoubtedly choose each other. When the story crosses the 30 episode lines, especially as we get to the second season, things are lessened pretty considerably. Heck, Bobae and her brothers even get to trade places in terms of who nags and who gets nagged on.

On top of that, the story is also careful when it comes to the siblings' closeness. There are no pseudoincestous vibes, no weird obsessiveness or irrational jealousy. Every now and then they do get worried and cautious but everything is written within an acceptable range of siblinghood, as far as I'm concerned.

Bobae, and to some lesser extent her brothers, also get a character arc that is tied to the siblings but not entirely influenced by them. Bobae's in particular gets a surprisingly grounded and realistic power fantasy; that of a child that FINALLY gets to stop living in survival mode and FINALLY gets to prioritize on herself.

Now with all these paragraphs, with a manhwa that already has four main characters, you'd think that the story is content to just throw some cheap-ass side characters and let the narrative center around the four Lee siblings. But no, not really; [My Brothers, the Protagonists] includes several side characters, some of which ALSO serves as Bobae's love interests (there are three, to be exact, and each of them has the backing of one Lee brother.)

These side characters start of rather generically (A serious and rational black haired guild leader with glasses? How daring.) But the story quickly takes them to interesting places. And I appreciate the fact that the story actually lets the cast interact with each other--and that also includes the love interests. No matter how small, no matter how mundane, most of the cast have interacted with each other in one way or another, and that makes the world feel lively and connected.

For the love interests, the reverse harem situation also doesn't irk me that much because the narrative does the romance VERY similarly to [The Emperor and The Female Knight]. The guys are openly, BLATANTLY throwing themselves into Bobae....only to hit smack dab into Bobae's nonchalant obliviousness. There is also no petty rivalry or shitty jealousy between the LIs; they all just start from different places, and they are all trying for Bobae's affection through different ways.

After this, I do appreciate the worldbuilding. The narrative takes its time giving little tidbits that flesh the world out beyond blahblah Hunters blahblah Guilds blahblah Association blahblah. Sometimes they are mundane, like how inflation is faring after the appearance of the dungeons. Sometimes they are really, really sad, like Haegi's entire workplace situation or the fact that many people have turned the Awakening System into a god and running cults that is NOT AT ALL an allegory to the few religious cults in South Korea.

So that leaves the Dungeon and the System and I must say they are arguably my least favorite aspect of this story. Don't get me wrong, they are decent, but that's just it. They are decent. There are some hints of something deeper, that the System themselves are sentient and they are trying to manipulate the situation for one reason or another, but that's all something that other Hunterverse / dungeon stories have been doing. And on that aspect, this story doesn't really bring that much of a new element outside of Gwihan and everything tied to him.

But when the worst of a story is that they're decent, I think that's a pretty good thing.

Again, this is where I express my sadness for the story's premature ending. Just from reading the manhwa alone, this story is VERY promising.

Even right now, with the limited 90-something episodes that we have, I think this is still a very worthy manhwa to read.