Only the Japanese could pull this one off. Take tragedy, love, mixed family, maids, macho woman, lolicon, pedofile, masochist, young Russian girl, elementary school, adult themes, and friends and put them in a bowl and mix well. There are cringeworthy moments that will have you in stitches because they are so bad. And there are moments that are so touching they will have you reaching for tissues. And it is all nonstop including the catchy opening and ending. I would recommend this to anyone brave enough to endure the roller-coaster extremes this anime presents. Especially since there are many honorable thoughts presented here too. Itseems some reviewers are mistaken about something though. Misha (the Russian girl) seems to be purely Russian since during the flashbacks Misha asks Yasuhiro (eventually Misha's mother's husband and Misha's de-facto papa) if he will marry her mother so Misha already had existed with her single parent mother before he came along so she is not a half and half. All in all though, an excellent mind stretching and mind bending exercise that I like so much about anime.