Review of Days with My Stepsister

"Deceive your heart all you want, but if you don't resolve this, it will scorn you. And before you know it, you'll be scarred forever." Story & Characters: Days with My Stepsister is truly a wonderful anime series to experience, and I'm not sure if I could treasure this more in a controversial topic. It speaks to what happens when stepbrother and stepsister start to have romantic feelings for each other and the obvious complications that come with such a taboo. I, of course, am I talking about Saki Ayase and Yuuta Asamura. The former's mother and latter's father get married atthe start of this series, and it's here that our characters meet and make every attempt they can to make sure their new family stays as one happy family.

There's so much to unpack as to why I like this series, but I think I'll start with the thing that sticks out the most. That is the tone that series sets at every turn. It takes a extremely mature take on this topic, mirroring the dialogue that an older series known as Love Wind, takes. At first, it's completely about trying to make sure their family meshes. Saki and Yuuta have very strong feelings about how their parents should have the best life, due to the natures of how their previous family broke down. While this isn't dug into too much, we know enough to give us an idea why our characters treasure family so much. As our characters go through their daily lives, they slowly start to realize something is amiss - that they believe they are having romantic feelings towards one another, a taboo in most everyone's minds.

Saki and Yuuta put on very strong fronts, not because they're always headstrong, but because they feel they need to. They have their birth parents - who work tirelessly long hours - who they treasure now that their other birth parents are not in the mix, they have their sibling, who they need to get along with because they're now step siblings, and now they have their step parent, who makes their birth parent so happy. It all makes sense, and they will look for no angle that will sour on their experience as a family. I love this about them because they don't show malice towards their new living arrangement. But what happens when it starts to push too far into loving their stepsibling?

Contrary to the title, Saki feels more like our main character than Yuuta, especially in the second half. As she spends more time with Yuuta, she tries to pull herself into his space, but does so gently, and slowly. It's here that she tries to learn through "experience", to see if her heart is telling her the same things that she thinks, and it's all wonderfully well written. She doesn't have a ton of friends to confide in, and what really only pushes her is someone she meets near the end. I didn't love how this particular scene played out because it kind of bounced out of nowhere, but the conversation at least felt correct for the feel the series is going for. Maaya, a female classmate of Yuuta's, hangs around both of them and somewhat adds a nice element where we have someone that observes both of them, but she's not serious enough to really push the envelope. This is something I appreciated because the overall feeling of the series seeks to stay mostly light. Yuuta fights his feelings his own way too, but is far more outgoing that we start to see something leak out when he talks to colleagues. Shiori is a coworker of Yuuta's and I'm uncertain how to feel about her. She starts to feel like she has the Maaya role near the second half of the series, and feels somewhat redundant because of it. Still, I appreciated that she adds more eyes onto both our main characters because the series is light on conversation as it is. Near the end, Yuuta's classmate at cram school, Kaho, enters the picture and she's excellent for the series. Her backstory is extremely harsh. This really threw me off but she's such a welcome addition. She pushes the story forward and somehow, Yuuta feels very comfortable talking to her calmly.

Where audiences might take issue with this series, outside of the controversial topic, is that issues aren't tackled head on. It's not handled directly until the final few scenes. Our characters withhold their feelings for one another so much, and Saki goes so far to say that she's keeping it "bottled up" and knows that she can't continue to do so without going crazy. The series, overall, retains this relaxed feeling most of the time, and even when intense dialogue enters the fray, the series depends on us reacting to what's going on screen, when it seems possible that we might not. Some people may go "well, is that it?". I get it, but I was so into this series that this never occurred to me. (Story: 10/10, Characters: 8/10)

Art: The animation was strong is very specific areas and weaker in others. Studio Deen has done some excellent work with series such as Seven Deadly Sins and Sakura Trick. Backgrounds went for a watercoloured shading, though had this weird line pattern through some scenes. Not sure if this was intentional, but you can barely notice it unless you're looking really hard - it's not that obvious on mobile either. Character designs were a mix of strong and different. What I mean by the latter is that they had a habit of showing characters without their eyes at far-off camera shots. While not terrible, I'm not sure what the goal was there. However, lighting made this series really shine (pun not intended) during some of the nicer shots. I was a huge fan of this. Random thing, I was a huge fan of the way they coloured our characters' eyes though. (8/10)

Sound: The atmosphere they go for is to constantly try and remain laid back, and the OST sure did that. The OST is almost entirely light piano tunes and this matches up very well with the series. The OP and ED also do the same job. VA work is strong throughout - I would have liked to see how this series would have panned out with the right English dub actor because there was so much raw emotion that Yuki Nakashima (Saki) put through here that I don't feel like I truly appreciate when it's in a language I don't naturally understand. (8/10)

Overall: Days with My Stepsister was fantastic, and should be a watch for any fan of the romance genre. It doesn't try and be stark like Domestic Girlfriend, but rather, take a more serious approach that Love Wind does. Yes, if you don't care for this subdivision of the romance genre, then this won't be something you'll enjoy. But the story was so well written that I don't think I ever thought twice about not finishing this series. If more were to come out, I'd gladly pick it up. (9/10)