Days with My Stepsister

[This review was also posted on my MAL Page]

Days With My Stepsister is an incredibly strange show. From it's title you might expect something along the lines of OreImo or Eromanga Sensei, however it couldn't be further from those shows. I was surprised at how much popularity this show garnered, considering both the original light novel, and the manga adaptation were not very popular. however, Studio Deen, has made some incredible shows in the past, as well as some not great, but still intriguing ones. Deen certainly delivered with this one.

Story
Days With My Stepsister is a show where ultimately, almost nothing happens. The story moves painfully slow, especially at the beginning, and skips a lot of the events you'd actually expect stuff to happen, instead replacing them with journal entries. However, the show also has no real filler. Except for the movie sequence, every single minute of this show goes to developing characters or forwarding the relationship between the main 2 leads. Despite this being one of the slowest shows ever made, more development happens in it than the majority of romances. The story actually really gets going near the end, and it becomes an incredibly realistic depiction of what a relationship between two step siblings would look like. There is some jank in the story, but overall it is really great. Not very many stories even attempt to pull of a normal-ish romance like this anymore, which is why I'm happy to see it.
8/10

Writing
The dialogue is a different story, it goes from impressively boring to unintentionally hilarious. A lot of the dialogue in this show is one of a few things, first being a boring incoherent "philosophical" conversation between the two leads. This is mostly what occupies the beginning of this show, and has a serious negative impact on the show. The show also attempts (and fails at) comedy, mostly with Yomiyuri. Like a lot of other rom-coms Not a single intentional joke actually made me laugh, or even chuckle, but they are there anyway to pad out the runtime. Once the characters are established, the dialogue starts focusing mostly on the relationships between characters, and this is where it finally becomes interesting. While the writing never gets to become anything really that stand-out at least by episode 5 or so, It's not flat out boring anymore. The last kind of line in the show are the ones that are unintentionally hilarious. Every once in a while you will see a character say, do, or suggest something completely out of left field, only to be forgotten about. The best one was when the ethics professor started lecturing Saki on why she really SHOULD fuck her brother. However, there are a lot of people that push the relationship between these two step siblings that you really wouldn't expect. Overall, the writing is the weakest part of this show, and it will really shine in other places.
3/10

Characters
The characters are where this story really shines. I won't go too in depth into them to avoid spoiling things, but both the leads go through a lot of character development for how slow the story is. Every single episode, the characters learn something new, change their perspective and grow as people. Saki especially goes from someone who seems to be totally inept with the world, relying on Asamura more than she should, to be the mature one over Asamura by the end of the series. Asamura breaks the mold of being a generic male self insert protagonist, by actually having worries and stresses of his own. One thing that slightly annoys me is how neither main character seems to really have a hobby. We are said that Asamura loves books, but this doesn't seem to affect his character at all outside of a few interactions. Saki has no hobbies whatsoever, which considering the fact she is kind of an unstable person makes sense, however it still makes for two characters that start off as incredibly boring before we get to know them.
8/10

Directing
The direction of this show is what really makes it stand out. Remember how I said almost nothing happens? well, the directors are somehow able to keep this show incredibly interesting. It has it's hiccups in the beginning, much like the rest of this series, with some incredibly weird long shots, however by the end there is so much tension in the scenes you could cut it. Despite the obvious budget limitations, The directors are able to create the awkward atmosphere that would come around 2 people suddenly living together so well, as well as the tense nature of 2 step sibling stressing over being in love with one another. I am not very well researched with the production side of anime, however whatever they did here was certainly impressive. It made the show stand out way more than it ever would have.
10/10

Music
The music in the show is beautiful, however it's use is incredibly strange. Most of the soundtrack is composed of very slow emotional pieces you might hear at the end of a very long drama series, but they decide to play the tracks as early as the first episode. The music is amazing, but it's use makes no sense to me. Every scene feels like it's trying to be a somber finale.
music: 8/10
use: 4/10

Enjoyment
I had a great time with this series, it was something quite different from a lot of the anime getting made currently, and It kept my attention all the way through. As stated earlier, the first 5-6 episodes had me yelling in my seat for the to do SOMETHING, however once they actually did, the early episodes paid off with how they built up the characters. I almost dropped the show on episode 4, as there was an incredibly baffling writing decision in that episode, but thankfully it was retconned. Overall, the show was above average, and as I rate things based on enjoyment here is my personal score:

7.4/10

I would recommend you check this show out. Despite it's flaws and strange subject matter, it delivers an interesting experience.