There are anime that blend heart-warming wholesomeness with something more lewd. One case is your name., a chastely yearning love story with jokes about boob-groping, and arguably non-consensual boob-groping at that. Then there are shows like DAN DA DAN and My Dress-Up Darling, in which hugely likable platonic teen couples support each other admirably… and they're still full of sex jokes, some honest to teen experience and some just there because these shows know their audiences.

Tying the Knot With an Amagami Sister, from a Weekly Shōnen Magazine manga by Marcey Naito, isn't as good as any of them, but it won me around quite a bit. I started the show resignedly, then found myself grudgingly acknowledging its virtues, and by the end, I liked it. (Amagami will continue with a second cour of eleven parts, starting on January 14.) The anime has a lot of what seems like tepid filler, but it does a good job setting up its characters. Then when the story starts “properly,” those characters invigorate familiar plot points, which drop in late by other shows' standards. The anime works by delaying the good stuff. Maybe that's why it starts with a flurry of fanservice.

In present-day Japan, orphaned boy Uryu Kamihate is invited to stay at a (fictional) Kyoto shrine while he studies to enter medical school. The shrine is overseen by a chilled-out elderly priest who rarely appears, leaving Uryu to contend with his three pretty granddaughters. They're shrine maidens: high schooler Yuna, who's Uryu's age at 17; the older Yae, who's a college student, and the younger Asahi, a middle schooler.

In the first two minutes, Uryu, coming to the shrine house, wanders around looking for anyone and sees the girls in their underwear - brisk work, even for anime. The show highlights that it's an accident, and Uryu would never peep on purpose. The next few minutes see a succession of “accidental pervert” scenes, as Uryu falls into embarrassing encounters with each sister, including the middle schooler.

The whoosh you hear is some viewers rushing to switch off.

Then again, someone surely figured they needed the fanservice to lure the target audience. The show's never so shameless after these front-loaded first minutes, though Uryu will still have mishaps with girls' chests and changing rooms. But as the fanservice falls, it's not clear what else Amagami has to offer. The rest of part one has the grumpy Uryu showing he's a male tsundere with a hidden soft side, searching for Yuna's lost red ribbon. Of course, it's one of those red ribbons, laden with a destiny that's thuddingly revealed at the episode's end. Uryu has been brought unknowingly to the shrine to be its next priest and choose one sister to marry.

Another whoosh…

But the show's not that obvious, honest. The youngsters themselves point up the silliness of the plan. Uryu himself is tempted to stay, not for the girls, but because there's a good local high school he can go to, and surely all the marriage nonsense will fritter away. But the girls rebel, find ways to madden Uryu, and make him quit the shrine in a few minutes flat. The situation's resolved through the characters learning more about each other and deciding to muddle through together for a while. It's still fantasy, but workable fantasy.

Like many harem anime, it's a found family story, as the boy becomes the center of a female household. More than most harems, though, Amagami plays up the underlying perversity – a boy trying to be a responsible foster brother to his new-found sisters, despite the quasi-incestuous prospect of one becoming his bride.

The show also strives to make the characters more than algorithms. It's clear the sisters were all getting along fine before they met Uryu. They have non-romantic bonds – most obviously those between the sisters – which are as important as any potential romantic ones. The girls quarrel over Uryu, but only in the last few episodes, and the delay is crucial. The quarrels are much funnier because the girls are established as people first.

Much of the characterization is obvious – Yuna for example, who's Uryu's age, and later his classmate, and likeliest winner of the show's waifu trophy. (Likeliest most of the time, anyway, though the show does a decent job of making the outcome slightly uncertain.) She's a tsundere just like him, with a thing about pouring salt over Uryu's head whenever she thinks he's been bad. Yae's a seeming airhead, though with signs she's a mystical idiot savant. Her huge breasts play into sexual fantasies of both types. Asahi's just a mischievous loli little sis. But their mutual chemistry as sisters is funny and natural; it feels like it'd pass the Bechdel test, especially with plot points that don't center Uryu. For instance, there's a subplot about Asahi wondering whether to move out of the shrine and live independently. Like Uryu, Asahi is an unusual harem character who cares about her education. Pointedly, she's worried entirely about her sisters' feelings – Uryu is irrelevant to her decision. Uryu, being Uryu, helps where he can, but he tactfully steps back as the girls finally sort things out.

Much of Amagami is pretty tepid. There's very little about the substance of Shintoism, or day-to-day shrine duties. [EDIT: "Shrine" corrected from "temple" in the original text, apologies for the mistake.] At the outset, Uryu declares himself an atheist, though a non-militant one. There's a moment in part two where he acknowledges how prayers can “work” on a human level. At any rate, it's soon clear he's no committed unbeliever, while the story stacks its decks from the start.

Still, things build even in the tepid episodes. Two foster mothers further the theme of found families – again, the anime carefully establishes them as separate people before bringing them together. There's lots of talk about freedom versus duty and getting people to say what they really want. It ties the show's strands together deftly, though it gets dry sometime.

More vivid are moments when the show challenges male saviorhood, including a fraught confrontation between Yuna and Uryu midway through the season. Yuna insists she doesn't need him, as Uryu bellows he's a man and he'll darn well save her. He's much like Subaru (both the noble and ignoble versions) in Re:Zero. Soon after, Yae finds Uryu saying more of the same and smiles at his words. Then she drops a chilled canned drink down his yukata and warns him not to be controlling.

These scenes rub along with reminders of Uryu's libido. There's nothing as fanservice-heavy as part one, but there are regular reminders that he can be physically attracted by all three girls. And yes, that includes 14 year-old Asahi. Many viewers will find this deeply unsavory, even if Uryu's “only” three years older than her. For what it's worth, it's clear Uryu would never cross the line with a minor, and Asahi's brazen with him because she knows this.

The first two-thirds of the series is a mix of tepid, queasy, and interesting. They let you know these characters, before the livelier later episodes. Yuna and Uryu must go to school together, leading to familiar “Tell no-one…” business, but again, the delay in starting this trope makes it funnier. Naturally, there's a love rival – Shirahi, Uryu's childhood friend, who was set up slowly enough that we believe she likes him. Refreshingly, Shirahi knows all about Uryu living with the sisters, teasing him that he's living every boy's dream.

The last episodes delve into the secrets of Yae – yes, she's more than an airhead. Once again, the slow set-up lifts familiar tropes, some from a hundred manga, though the story of saving a girl from an existence of nothingness echoes Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea novel, The Tombs of Atuan. Only this version has treasurable funny bits, such as a moment of spiritual openness between Yuna and Uryu, broken with beautiful timing by a ringtone.

Visually and audibly, it's a pleasant show. The Drive studio's character animation is mostly unremarkable, but the principal characters are attractively designed, with some good expressions in quiet moments where they count most. (I know the characters' eyes drew complaints elsewhere, but I liked them straight off.) The tranquil Kyoto scenery is conveyed without many obvious landmarks, though the climactic episodes take place around the famous Fushimi Inari Shrine with its crimson tunnel of torii gates.

Like Demon Slayer's snow, Amagami's most scintillating visual element is plainly CG – running river backdrops in many scenes, outshining a blossom-covered pond in one episode that's meant to be stunningly beautiful. The Japanese principals all sound good, with Yae actress Sumire Uesaka (Shalltear in Overlord, the rebooted Lum) often sounds like she's channeling Mayuri from Steins;Gate.

I didn't think I'd write such an inordinately long review of a harem series that's not even that good. Even among harem anime based around shrines, it's no Tenchi Muyo!. But this reviewer roots for underdogs, particularly shows that fall on their faces at the start and then rise to something decent. Now, I'm interested in what Amagami could do going forward.