Review of Days with My Stepsister

Let's be real, both you and I saw the title of this show and thought this was some trashy sibling rom-com like many others before. When I put it on my list I thought I was about to watch a trashy show that I could turn my brain off and laugh at. I was shocked when the show presented itself as a very serious commentary about falling in love with your new step-sister. No, really. At the very beginning the show sells this idea that it's not a love story, but it absolutely is, it just trying to fuck with you. Honestly I won't even entertainthe idea the show is trying to promote. It basically says that liking your step-sister is a really though situation that requires a lot of thought and some bullshit that is honestly so dumb I cant eve believe they tried to pass of as a very serious topic. Basically, the show takes itself waaay to seriously, not only when it comes to the story but the animation as well. "Days with my stepsister" loves doing these "March comes in like a lion" shots that are awkward and linger for too long. You see, in that show it works because they do those shots to showcase the degrading mental state of the main character. Here, they do it because....It's artsy? They don't fit the theme of the show at all and the whole message they are trying to send in such a serious manner, through both animation, pacing and story-telling, tumbles in on itself because at the end of the day we are talking about a sibling romance story. The worst part about the show is that it doesn't even manage to be so bad it's enjoyable.
Some points in the story that aren't so bad are the characters which feel pretty realistic and well put together. They do act similarly to how sad teenagers who feel that they are doing a bad thing by depending on their parents, even at their young age. Its a point the show does pretty well in.

Its not all doom and gloom though, some of the music in the show is actually pretty good and the opening and ending are inoffensive enough that they don't bother with anything. A problem I do have with the sound design is how sometimes the show just mutes the music in these normal scenes and then lingers shot for to long which result in "Serial Experiments: Lain"-esque kinda spooky atmosphere which is in some ways so bad its laughable. The art-style is probably the best part about the show with good looking character designs and back-grounds. The animation manages to be ok, not counting the art-direction, being fluid enough and not having any glaring issues. It doesn't impress either tbh.

That's why my final rating for this show is a 5.5/10. It is a slow-paced, boring sibling romance. Do I even have to tell you if I recommend it?