Review of Days with My Stepsister

I have my issues with the story but I have to admit that this is an excellent production. It's so artistic in its style that in the first few episodes it seems like it might've been an arthouse psychological film. Maybe that will alienate some people that will find it too slow, but I'm into that. The directing, soundtrack, shot composition are excellent, and even though the style of animation it uses most of the time isn't cutting edge for different purposes it stylizes animation depending on the occasion was a really clever choice. There's a very skillful use of non linear storytelling for spots. We'll seesomething about to happen, next scene is the next day, and in the next episode we're shown what happened in very efficient flashbacks. Or we'll see details of how another character experienced the same moment in a different way. And they're so well done, it doesn't feel like a flashback in the tedious way most shows in a "We interrupt this for a drawn out flashback".
And beyond just flashbacks a lot of details are shown as memories to let the audience know why and how a character is thinking as they navigate their feelings.

Even the way the framing of scenes is done to convey details of what's going on in the story is uncharacteristically cinematic for anime, and even more for this genre. For example, when there's scenes of people drifting apart, the "shot" will frame characters looking physically distant even though they're sitting at the same table. And even the way the directing allows for silence to play a role in the dialogue during arguments is really impressive.

The only problem I have is that the story let me down. The first two episodes had me intrigued. For a change it seemed like it WOULDN'T follow the formula of the step-sibling trope and the guy with a friendly co-worker, but it very disappointingly did. It felt we were in for a more unique take on things, but it weirdly speedran its way into all the clichés out there. To the point the last two episodes and first two feel like completely different universes and characters. Also, around episode 6, the story started to revolve exclusively around the sister and how our MC suddenly decides to make it his mission to help her and a lot of character nuance that had been established about him fades into the background.
And this probably won't be an issue for 'newer' watcher, but for someone like me who remembers watching Clannad After Story as it came out weekly, archetypes don't work on me that much anymore.
And, despite it being very well done from a technical aspect, as I pointed out, ultimately the story felt like the weakest link.

The characters did stand out for actually having a personality at first, but then it became a frustrating mess. And it doesn't help that the main girl reminds me a lot of my second girlfriend, and that brought up some unpleasant flashbacks of my own as the similarities in personality were uncanny at times. The manipulative arguing, the weaponized self-pity and trying to get as close as possible only to randomly start pushing people away... It might sound silly but that resonated with me in an unpleasant way.

I can't say it's a bad show, because it isn't and I did enjoy it for the incredibly skilled production it is, but I can't say it's great either.