Days with My Stepsister

I'm sorry but this anime is about two robots discovering human emotions. Where normal humans will laugh and cry, these two characters open their eyes slightly wider and get misty-eyed. For an anime that's been rated 7+ here I find myself, for the first time ever, in pretty big disagreement with the overall consensus. I felt as if i was watching a computer receive new computational input to process throughout an episode. Hell, I have a step sibling who has gone through the experience of a nasty divorce and still has a better grasp on human emotions than these tamagotchi replicants. I gave this alow score because even if I think an anime is "meh", I can usually still "watch" it while playing a videogame or doing some other task. This anime has caused me to stop whatever I was doing and ask, "What the fuck?" so many times that I just gave up. I finished this show out of sheer perseverance.

Gimai Seikatsu, or Days with my Stepsister (DWS) exactly opposes the idea of “high concept media”- it is almost impossible to imagine a story simpler and more grounded. Though low concept media is viable, and can be excellent- look no further than Hyouka- it relies heavily on tightly written characters, and peripherals of its presentation. These include stunning animation or a superb soundtrack for visual media, or elegant prose for written media. Unfortunately, the anime adaptation of Gimai Seikatsu does not carry these aspects to a consistently high enough level to ascend its simple plot. DWS suffers from two primaryissues, the first of which is its ponderously slow pace. Across all its forms, slow-paced media can be phenomenal, but there are diminishing marginal returns when decreasing the pace of plot. DWS, to the extreme, refuses to rush its plot. An example: In one episode of the anime, two characters see a movie together. Later on, a line from this movie is referenced for dramatic effect, while one of the characters recreates the scene. So far, so good. The issue is that four and a half minutes- nearly a quarter of the time an episode runs- is spent showing the movie. The scene in which DWS characters re-enact a small part of it? Only three minutes. Less than five minutes may seem like a small issue, but in a twelve-episode anime, every second comes at a premium. Frequently, simple, everyday chores are shown in such a way that buttering a piece of bread may take 10-15 seconds, and background shots with no dialogue also seem to occupy much of the run time. Add the line delivery, which is so slow as to be occasionally comical, and the pace of DWS seems artificially glacial. Which brings us to the second problem with this show. Animation quality is not all encompassing, and a poorly animated show can still be good- but DWS is absolutely hamstrung by how it looks. Frankly, it is distracting how often still background shots are cut to in an effort to avoid animating movement. The camera is frequently placed below characters’ heads, so their mouth can be ignored. My theory is that the absurdly slow pace serves to diminish the number of slides that need to be drawn. In a show about simple, everyday interactions, the visual quality should be superb, reminiscent of “still life” paintings, but is instead reminiscent of 1969 Scooby-Doo. This is an unfair standard, but DWS is an entirely different show if it looks like Violet Evergarden. Despite my complaints, DWS seems to possess some mystical quality which interferes with the passage of time and makes it surprisingly watchable. Nearly every episode, I would be shocked hearing the ED fade into the background, convinced I had only been 8 or 10 minutes into it. Probably due to its lethargic pace, my mind kept expecting more had to happen in an episode, so therefore I couldn’t be through with it already. Also a note in the positive column is how incredibly relaxing DWS is to watch. Completely in contrast to most anime, the characters not only communicate at the level real people do, but way overshare, which leads to quick resolution of conflicts that aren’t elevated from standard high school trope schlock. It’s not genius, risky, or thought provoking, but it works, so if you want to turn your brain off and enjoy a low-drama romance (not enough comedy to be a romcom) then this may be exactly what you’re looking for. DWS has potential but is very likely hamstrung by budget. In the hands of a different studio, this could be a real gem. It’s just good enough for me to recommend if nothing else is speaking to you.

Despite the title, Gimai Seikatsu or “Days with my Stepsister” is one of the best written romances of all time in my opinion. It is the first show of its kind to actually illustrate the challenges of two teenagers suddenly becoming siblings and having to navigate the newfound family dynamic. It’s a mature story that feels reminiscent of A24 films in terms of direction, narrative, scene composition and overall vibe. Characters talk with understated realistic diction and tone, and episodes while slow, are fulfilling. This is truly a must watch for any cinema enthusiast, romance fan or those just wanting an anime that feels plausiblefor once instead of the dozens of exaggerated goonbait shows we get every year. I know, I know, we have had quite a few “step-sister” anime in recent years, most revolving around comedic gags, “incest” bait and just your usual silly anime reused tropes. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate that, but after 20+ of them they all start feeling a bit samey. What’s cool about Gimai Seikatsu is that the people act like real humans. They don’t fall in love just because someone said something nice to them, they aren’t sneaking and stealing underwear, getting flustered all the time, etc. Instead, you have two teens are thrust into this unfamiliar situation and try their best to work through things together. Slowly getting to know one another and growing as people in the process. On paper, Saki and Yuta couldn’t be more different as people, but after living together they realise they have a lot of the same insecurities and problems and this acts as a bonding device for the two of them. This was great for me because the way Saki’s trendy gyaru-esque persona is slowly chipped away at throughout the series is reminiscent of the way you assume things about people irl and then come to see they’re not like that at all, and you see you actually have more in common than you thought. Yuta’s distrust for women because of his mother’s actions and Saki’s trepidation towards men because of the rumours she and her mother have been subjected to initially serve as barriers, but are broken down in a very sweet way. The pacing of the show is very slow, it’s not uncommon for entire episodes to be dedicated to 1 or 2 conversations, but the way those conversations are framed and directed makes them feel engaging and they go by so quickly. One example of this is the journal sequences where we get an insight into Saki’s true thoughts and feelings. Those scenes felt so intimate and raw that I got completely lost in them. There’s a level of emotional vulnerability that the author is able to convey in this story that few others can. I often say the best anime are the ones where you forget they’re anime because of how organic and real they feel and this anime has that. The slow burn build up to Saki and Yuta realising their feelings for one another is beautiful. I think it’s right in that sweet spot of not being too slow where you get frustrated, but not being too soon where you don’t care about the romance because of it being shallow or based on a flimsy foundation. I saw a lot of “symptoms” of love in this show that aren’t uncommon in the real world. Often times you start feeling jealous or a desire to be around someone all the time before the realisation comes that you’re in love. Sometimes we go through denial or run from our feelings if we feel it’s an inappropriate relationship as well and this show just captures all that. Now I’ve talked about the step sibling aspect, but another cool part of the story is the step parents themselves. Yuta’s dad is kinda just there, cool guy but doesn’t get a big arc. BUT. Saki’s mom and her desire to be accepted Yuta is really well done. Usually these shows just focus on the kids falling in love, but there’s a whole new parent stepping into the mix and for most people that’s going to take some time getting used to. As a step parent, you obviously want to be accepted by your new son or daughter and you know you’ll never be their biological parent, but there’s that awkward period where you’re unsure where you stand. I like the way this is done between the two of them and by the end seeing Yuta accept her as his step mother and go public with her and Saki as siblings at school is really cool. Minor thing, but just made it feel more authentic to me. Ok I’ve talked enough about the story. It’s great. But the other really awesome thing about this series is the direction. It looks incredible and the cinematography is among the best I’ve ever seen. For this to be a studio DEEN work, I was blown away. Again just goes to show you that staff matter more than studio. The scene composition is absolutely amazing, use of lighting and shadows to illustrate moods, use of spacing and other really cool camera techniques just make this feel more like an auteur adventure rather than a seasonal anime. If you’re at all into A24 films or Robert Eggers, you’ll see a lot of that energy in this anime! Gimai Seikatsu is truly an amazing show and it’s a shame it got overshadowed by stuff like Roshidere this season. It’s one of the sweetest and most authentic romances in this medium and a joy to watch. I can’t wait to read the books. Gimai Seikatsu gets a very easy 10 out of 10.

Days with My Stepsister - Don't, and NEVER, judge a book by its cover. If there's one thing that I absolutely loathe about the AniManga industry of the current age, most particularly of new incoming anime fans since the turn of the COVID pandemic, leasing anime to pretty much just about anyone, it's that humanity's brain cells have slowly lost all reasoning to what makes the series stand out, more than just looking at the cover of a book (say manga or novel) and judging by the assumption that it'll end like so and so. Such is the case with novelist Ghost Mikawa's Gimai Seikatsu a.k.aDays With My Stepsister, which, despite showing off a boy and a girl living together as stepsiblings that could potentially cross into "Sweet Home Alabama" land, is the BIGGEST misconception you could ever have to assume what this series is all about. And it winning the 3rd place in Takarajimasha's annual Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! guidebook in the new work category in 2022, this award in and of itself should say a lot about how the domestic audience really loves the series, and how you, the audience, should feel the same. The story / plot about complete strangers coming to form a family with different given and family names, these cases may or may not be uncommon to whatever you perceive relationships and marriage to be, but circumstances like divorce are realistic enough that the idea of re-marriage to a different person feels surreal, much less having to call someone who isn’t blood-related their own stepsibling. This is exactly the case for the main stepsibling “couple” of Yuta Asamura and Saki Ayase, of whom their respective parents, the former’s father Taichi and the latter’s mother Akiko, once had a divorce for various reasons, and remarried towards one another, seeking a new life after a past disappointment. Their respective children, on the other hand, must get to know each other, but also keep a distance against each other after seeing the toxic relationship that their now single parent had to deal with, and mutually agreeing not to sow anymore discord in the foundation of the new family. It’s quite the story, if you ask me, taken from real-life examples. And this is quite the ride for novelist Ghost Mikawa, having seen the project through its paces from its humble beginnings not from the LN, but from it being a mixed-media project starting with the YouTube channel of the same name right around the turn of COVID in April 2020. However, it’s important to note that what came out of the LN is quite different (or inspired) from the content on YouTube, and the latter’s start was derived when the author himself learned of the existence of a reader who had a request to "deeply dig into the daily life of the characters", and was interested in seeing what would happen if he tried to write an unusual work, which was when he decided to write a story depicting the relationship between stepsiblings. Ghost Mikawa may be the original author, but the script of the story is handled by multiple writers, and the writing style of each writer is shown in each script of the videos, so it is often taken as it is. Regarding the story that the novelist decided to pen on the LN since then (taking excerpts from his interview with Anime Corner), Gimai Seikatsu is basically the result of him formulating a work of art and theme, based on observations, guesswork, and sometimes by confronting himself to find out what kind of problems people in society are facing, what kind of issues they are feeling, and what kind of values they are living under. This is ESPECIALLY important looking within the context of Japan, where its society is suffering from late marriages and domestic problems, and that many individuals are suffocating from problems in love and social interaction due to conflicts, whether on-site or online with the rise of social media and infamy for doxxing. The idea was to depict two ideal people who can overcome such relationship problems firmly and powerfully. What sets both Yuta and Saki apart are the genetic traits taken straight form their parents: the latter is much more subservient on her own life’s duties, considering that her mother Akiko works in a red-light district effortlessly and tirelessly to raise her, Saki has always been left alone (isolated would be a better word for this) most of the time, and that slowly grew to her being an independent state who doesn’t know when to speak up if she needs to be tended to for help. That’s where Yuta steps in as her opposing equivalent, someone who cares not just for his father, but also the friends around him so much that he is an invaluable partner and confidante in the long run, being someone who serves the need whenever he needs or senses to. Something which Ghost Mikawa himself notes on the “relationship” of both characters, most notably on the “rom-com” genre that the series is painted, is that the romanticization of Yuta and Saki is pretty much intentionally done, not just because he’s not the kind of person who feels that the lovey-dovey stuff would be too “fake” for a story that’s all about people dealing with real-life relationship circumstances, but because he wants to portray the merging of the broken families in a realistic manner and get the audience to see and watch its genuineness as if they're real people, as fictionalized as they are to begin with. From the life-sized daily life situations to fanservice (i.e. not in the way that Masachika Kuze and Yuki Suou’s sibling relationship in RoshiDere is handled) that are just fun and cute, there is a limit on the extent of realism vs. fakery enough to keep the series as entertaining and introspective as it is the way it’s being done. To that, I can tell you that most authors just ham-fist what they think they’re good at, but it takes the psychology to tell apart amateur authors from ones like Ghost Mikawa to write their series as plentiful and immersive as can be to deliver an experience that touches the heart of the human soul. What the series ultimately sums it all down to is this: “Is it whether the characters have souls or not? No matter how good a plot you have, if the characters are not lovable as human beings, it will not feel like a good story. If you are so preoccupied with technique that you neglect the most important characters, readers will not be pleased with your work.” And I wholeheartedly agree with Ghost Mikawa that his thoughts are right on the log, as the series is basically a daily diary between both Yuta Asamura and Saki Ayase, two complete strangers studying in the same school, with one being an average Joe and the other being like a school Madonna figure of admiration. The young high school adults having to skirt around the realization that the fact of them being stepsiblings will warrant a whole barrage of questions from friends both in school and outside and keeping a mutual agreement on their relationship as nothing more than just the usual family-business-donned brother and sister figure. If both young adults want to keep their relationship as the uncommon status quo, no one is forcing them to become a couple, and this is for the best interests of time, place, and occasion, even if they end up being one in the long run with the approval of both the new-found family and friends around them. And I’ll tell you that I love stories like this that are fictionally unorthodox, but still gives a full hint of realism enough to believe that no stone goes unturned, and every decision has weight that could pay the price in significant ways, if not handled maturely. Studio Deen has long since been the epitome of bad production cycles, but in the hands of capable people, even 3rd-rate studios can punch out some magnificent animation, as is the case for Gimai Seikatsu. Even though its staff team doesn’t consist of notable people, it’s all under the hands of debut director Souta Ueno to deliver Ghost Mikawa’s expectations to the small screen, and dare I say that he exceeded them. The use of cinematography to tell through the days of the daily diary log, and the always vibrant lights and dark hues that don’t disguise the real-life imitation of realism, this anime is undoubtedly one of the best and most consistently produced shows of the season, and I’m not kidding at all if the beautiful and gorgeous sakuga like this hasn’t gone appreciated by the masses. Props to Souta Ueno and his staff team for their commitment to this passion project of a show. It’s been a while since we’ve last heard fhána (since Kobayashi-san no Maid Dragon), and while their OP song is definitely a lot on the brighter side, it’s also enticing to a degree that’s just unmistakably fhána. Kitri’s ED is also slow, but smooth-sailing and warmly inviting. Going back to my main point about Gimai Seikatsu a.k.a Days with My Stepsister, it is a show that you absolutely CANNOT objectify and classify it with other siscon-based works out there (case in point, Ghost Mikawa’s favourite series of all time: OreImo). That said, I will argue that this show does serve a niche target audience that will test the patience and divide the crop into a love-hate affair, aside from the constant complaint of “boringness” of static moments where introspection takes place. It’s a thinking man’s game, yet one that’s intentionally and purposefully bulked with sympathy and empathy enough to put yourself in one’s shoes to see it from their POV, and as I’ve already eluded that this show does so much good to not only respect the adaptation of the LN, but also to restore humanity with its elevation. Not everything needs to be the abridged version of a fanfic, even at the cusp of pressure, and I just love the anime so much for respecting that basic aim. I respect Ghost Mikawa for not pandering to the masses and knowing his trajectories enough to give us a solid series that’s worth all the immersive enjoyment, and at the end of the day, it's one brillant message: fiction, but with a touch of realism.