Review of Days with My Stepsister

If I'm gonna be honest, I originally picked up this anime because I wanted something to laugh at. I am an avid hater of the stepsibling-to-lover trope and actively avoid it every chance I get. Most of the time, it's just a chance for Onii-chan and his imouto to get it on without it *technically* being an incestuous relationship. But soon after picking this anime up, I realized that I was quite wrong. As much as the stepsibling thing does still bother me, Gimai Seikatsu, or Days with My Stepsister, has done it in a rather tasteful way. The fact that they're stepsiblings and have romanticfeelings for each other is very much part of the plot, rather than just some ploy to feed into the watcher's fantasies. Honestly, if I was just basing my review on the writing, story, and dialogue itself it might make its way up to a 9/10. However, there are definitely some things this show struggles with.

1. Animation.
This is definitely my biggest gripe with this show overall. The animation's not bad, but it's below average. It's not a pain to watch, but there are definitely noticeable errors. Anytime this show genuinely looks nice, it's on a still image, rather than a moving character. I think the style in general is pretty, but you can tell they did not have the budget to back it up. Sometimes the movement ends up wonky, especially in comparison to the environment the characters are in (e.g. walking down a road and their feet fall/move in a way not corresponding to the road they're walking on. This happens more than once). A lot of the time the camera will completely cut away from the action to avoid animating extra movements, however this never bothered me too much because I think the moments it was done made enough sense.

2. Pacing
While this is the main thing that everyone complains about (and I definitely understand why), it was not an issue for me. Personally, it made the story and characters feel more real. Not every moment of your life is a rollercoaster, sometimes the quiet conversations make a difference too. And in this anime, I believe they do. The slow, quiet moments between our two main characters is honestly what really sells their romance for me. However, despite that, I do think it is a problem. As much as *I* enjoyed the pacing, it wasn't objectively good. It is definitely very slow, and yet, in that slowness, I found something very enjoyable—authenticity.

3. Writing
While this tends to be the downfall of all stepsibling romances, this is what makes Gimai Seikatsu really shine. The moments between these two are gentle and quiet. I found myself relating quite a bit to the characters about their worries and anxiety about love. It's not overdone, it's just real. This story was a nice step back from all the other anime I've watched. While there are other important characters in the story, the focus really is on our two main leads, and more specifically, their feelings. Everyone knows that you shouldn't date your stepsibling, because, no matter how you put it, the word "sibling" will always be there. This theme is dealt with very carefully, and in the end, I think it ended up in the right hands.

Overall, Gimai Seikatsu is not an anime you want to watch if you hate shows that are slow paced. However, for me, that's exactly what made me enjoy it. As much as it's slow, it's also gentle, careful, authentic, real, and even beautiful. The characters aren't overdramatic, nor are they emotionless. Gimai Seikatsu is not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but that's okay. I enjoyed it, and I think if you're someone looking for a change of pace from you're regular action shonen, or even high-stress, full-of-misunderstandings romance, you will too.