Review of Days with My Stepsister

Sister fucker series, stepsister or otherwise, tend to be tropey trash, but this is a slippery sibling slide that has an arty pretension and few, if any, of the typical tropes associated with this taboo subset of the romance genre. Given the lack of consanguinity or even long-term brother-sister roleplay, it's questionable if one should call this taboo at all (the tourist doth protest perhaps), instead acting as a sort of silly framing device to have them enter a role that is oddly intimate yet acts as a barrier to a relationship, though their apparent autism and insecurities act as more of a barrier thantheir respective roles.

Just to give an example of their modus operandi, let's look at some dialogue: Right out of the blue, in a bizarre and humorless non sequitur, with the only context being a brief exchange about how laundry should be divided within the household, the imouto blurts: I don't adhere to strict gender roles, so I don't want to assume that you're not into wearing panties and crossdressing.

MC: Huh (my thoughts exactly)?

Imouto: UwU, onii-chan, your eyebrows are shaped so nicely. Do you get them done at the salon? Maybe you should crossdress (I would add a teehee, but she doesn't strike me as having enough of a sense of humor to laugh). "Don't you think it's hard to force all sexual difference into just two categories?" While I could blame this on western politics worming its way into Japanese media... Seriously, does she have a crossdressing fetish and is trying to get her step-onii-chan to play into her kink? Or maybe she's a rotten-to-the-core fujoshi? Perhaps the author has a crossdressing fetish that he's insecure about? "But still, prejudice leads to discrimination." Time to turn the channel to Gundam. Using this as anything other than a fetishy joke is something I can't take seriously. Either way, it's not how I'd imagine even an autist would break the ice. Then again, I've known enough autists to think that maybe this is a believable discussion, and I should simply accept it as a character quirk that defines the character study. Anyway, it's a shortish scene that leads to growth of the relationship, so it's not all for naught.

Another tiring strand of dialogue delivery is the constant back and forth about doing favors (not the fetish fuel kind, get your mind out of the gutter, this is a wholesome rather than Peepi-oriented show!) for one another that the couple have. "I want to show my gratitude for what you did for me." "But I've done nothing to receive your gratitude." "No, you did a lot for me." "Well, maybe just a little, but it's not really that much." And they go on and on, comparing what each one did for the other, haggling all along the way to see who can scratch the other's back more, and it has me thinking, "Shut the fuck up!" This aimless blather will go on for minutes at a time! One of the most awkward scenes of all is the autist in the elevator scene, which is somehow stretched to an excruciating 2-3 minutes (in a 23 minute episode, no less!). Sometimes people insert umms and ahhs or interject with relatively useless lines when talking so as to gather their bearings and figure out what to say, and I feel that's what the staff are doing with this hemming and hawing. Perhaps there's a way in which it seems fitting for the characters, as they express their concerns for the other and simultaneously downplay it as if to avoid getting too close, but it's not a very good use of time in a script.

They're both pretty stunted, with her being far more so and failing to understand anything that isn't conveyed in a blunt way, for, in relation to literature, "I can never really understand how the characters feel and all that stuff." Not only does she win the award for the most humorless poker-faced fujoshi, but she can't read a room to save her life. I think it's safe to say that she's on the spectrum, and her onii-chan is either much less on the spectrum or is introverted and emotionally restrained enough for people to suspect he is autistic. It's additionally hilarious how obvious the animal inserts are when it comes to different scenes representing the characters or aspects of them. Like the constant shots of fish. I believe there are only 2 fish in the bowl! Tell me these two kids don't feel like the gold fish heading to the rim of the bowl and blowing you a kiss, in all their autistic, fish out of water, glory! They'll cut away to two birds flying, and so on. This is a common motif in fiction, but it seems absolutely hilarious here. I think with how slow it is and how bottled up and uncomfortable they are when expressing themselves that it comes across as more obvious and hysterical. As a crude exaggeration of the kind of symbolism this show dabbles in, maybe they'll head to the zoo, and when he's thinking of how he loves her, it'll show two animals copulating. It reminds me of that Naked Gun comedy movie where he's driving, and he's upset because he misses his ex-wife and says, "Everywhere I go I see her and can't get her out of my mind." Then it cuts to a shot of two farm silos close together that look like a pair of tits. And he's like, "See what I mean?"

The more depressive and alienating (relative to anime) art film sensibilities and light experimentation often reflect the state of the characters adequately, and there are a few commendable parlor tricks here and there, along with decent, well-balanced composition (when it's not using grotesque rule of thirds composition) and great directing, considering what little there is for the staff to work with. Might even give off a feel similar to select cinema verité or John Cassavetes at times, though relying on more crafty techniques than is the norm for those. Cinematography takes precedence over animation, and this is pretty obvious even from the first frame, where the camera is slowly panning over a bright city and the FMC in what appears to be an elevator, featuring multiple rack focuses used more dramatically than tends to be the norm in anime. Usually, when it's done at all, we rack focus between two different characters, with each having an important line, but this is done in an intensive mood-setting and emotional way. Even though the diary segments mostly relay information we already knew or could infer, the kind of nostalgic imagery used to convey the character's more honest inner thoughts was a compelling shift away from the static angles and alienating minimalism of other scenes, representing a stiff formalism that gives way to a looser stream of consciousness. The music could be syrupy at times, but the sound design is well above seasonal standards, and there's a pleasant blend of ambient, piano, and a sparser amount of choral elements, which combines fantastically with the imagery, mood, and emotions. It's somewhat of a barebones or bargain bin arthouse romance and depends on you caring about these characters or being invested in a kind of character study romance, and it's easy to be indifferent. Still, as an autist character study romance, the artsy independent film feel and aesthetic strongly reinforce the relationship, making this a commendable effort from a directorial standpoint. It's like the staff figured out how to make the series as autistic as the characters, contrasting their controlled and carefully calculated behavior and mannerisms with turbulent outpourings of their inner feelings that they cannot hope to express!