I had Days with My Stepsister as a potential candidate for episode reviews but purely as a joke. Like, the main reason I’d cover it is just so that people will ask me why I decided to cover it. That said, people do seem to like the light novels of the same name (unironically, even) so I was willing to give it some benefit of the doubt. I covered Domestic Girlfriend back in 2019 so it’s not like I’m above this type of show anyway.
Days with My Stepsister stars a boy named Yūta Asamura (Kōhei Amasaki) and a girl named Saki Ayase (Yuki Nakashima). The two become stepsiblings when Yūta’s father Taichi (Chikahiro Kobayashi) marries Saki’s mother (Reina Ueda). As everyone settles into their new lives, Yūta and Saki both agree to keep their relationship somewhere in the middle, not too close but not too distant either. Of course, as time goes on, the two will grow closer…and I do mean closer.
This premiere doesn’t actually have any romantic subtext between our two leads but it does open up with a narration that all but confirms that this the direction their relationship will eventually go. There’s literally an ad for an in-universe show called “My Little Sister and I Are in Love” so the show is by no means subtle in this regard. As silly as it is to spell it out, it is for the best. People would be caught off guard once the romance kicks in and any potential controversy in this show would be exacerbated tenfold. It’s actually better for the show to be this upfront from the beginning.
Assuming I get further in the show, I am willing to reserve judgment on the romance. Yes, Yūta and Saki aren’t related by blood and yes, they didn’t grow up together. There’s nevertheless potential for their relationship to rub viewers the wrong way. That said, I believe that anything can be done well in writing so who knows, maybe this show can pull it off. It’s admittedly too early to say anyway. This episode is mostly setup and after that, it isn’t terribly eventful. It’s just Yūta and Saki awkwardly figuring out how to interact with each other and those hardly have a romantic tone to them. That’s a bit of detriment in and of itself. I like the slice of life genre but even I find this episode to be sluggish.
What may catch your attention, aside from the premise, is the direction. Throughout the episode, there’s a strong emphasis on lighting and shadows. It suits the slow pace of the episode as well as the contemplation Yūta and Saki is having as they navigate their new lives as siblings. The episode tends to rely on exposition to establish its story but it occasionally has some neat moments of visual storytelling. For example, during a montage where the Asamuras help the Ayases move into their home, there’s a moment where Saki looks at some stickers left on a wall, presumably by Yuta when he was little. The smile she gives suggests that she finds the stickers cute but the fact that she pays attention to it lines up to some comments she made earlier, about how dysfunctional her life was before Saki remarried. I don’t know if it’s the series director, the episode director, or anyone else but someone in the staff at Studio DEEN is clearly trying to elevate this show with some earnest and thoughtful direction. Kind of crazy that it’s for this show but that’s a topic for another day.
Right now, I’m not sure what to make of this show. The premise worries me a little but it’s too early to say the show screwed the pooch. If nothing else, I give the first episode credit in that it is fairly interesting to watch thanks to its direction. Given this type of show, it could have been worse (and oh boy have I seen worse).
Watch Days with My Stepsister on Crunchyroll
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