GIMAI SEIKATSU

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedyGimai Seikatsu
NOVEL ComedyGimai Seikatsu

REVIEWS

• 

  melamuna

  70/100
  A decent down-to-earth simple and mature blossoming taboo romance story... but the light novel is better

  ---

  __Part 1 Step-Siblings__

  _“I cannot fall in love with you. Because, after all, we were step-siblings.”_

  Romance is often unpredictable. You can be tainted for years unfazed by the romantic hints that are showered around you, but there can be that unexpected moment where you've met the person you deem to be a viable romantic partner. Initially, you are unsure of the things you feel and moments where you denied and ignored their existence in order to create a temporary peace with yourself and the people you had feelings with, but you cannot deny that the feeling inside your chest is slowly blossoming day by day until it eventually bursts. Normally, people would just confess to satisfy their feelings, but due to specific circumstances, they weren't able to. In this anime, we follow Yuuta Asamura (Kouhei Amasaki) and Saki Ayase (Yuki Nakashima), both high school students who were strangers to step-siblings overnight because their parents remarried. Initially, they've started their step-sibling relationship as nothing more than cautious, considerate, but rather distant. As time went by, they started to notice each other, which eventually led to them having unrequited feelings for each other. A classic falling in love story. However, there is an obvious obstacle that stopped them from taking a step forward, and that is the label of a “step sibling.”

  Step-siblings are in an awkward situation. As the show implies, both of you are practically strangers at one point, forced to be siblings due to contractual and social reasons out of your control. There is a clear point in society that you should never have anything related to romance or intimacy with your siblings. Society condemned the act as undesirable, whether socially or scientifically, but what about step-siblings? On one hand, it would justify its act of intimacy in a scientific light since these characters are not biologically related but rather just contractually related. But the latter option is where it holds back. The morality of having romantic intentions with your stepsister can still be a taboo topic regarding its relation to having romantic intentions within the family. As the characters in the anime put it, it's inappropriate—or rather immoral—in the situation.

  It would be an easy answer to say, “Just don't do it and find another person,” if you are looking from an outside perspective. But falling in love with a person is not a switch you can just turn off at ease. Love is complicated, even when it is morally forbidden. Many animes taking the step sibling trope would usually gloss over the bombshell and just play the romance as it is, either in a comedic light or an entirely ignorant take. With that being said, Days with My Stepsister presents this moral dilemma topic in a more realistic and down-to-earth way that really challenges a person’s perspective over this relationship, whether which side of the morality you side on.

  _Following the social norms, or being selfish?_

  This anime obviously would not change your current perspective on romantic intentions among stepbrothers, nor would it change the status quo, but it would enlighten you to be open-minded about the silent screams of the characters’s hearts. ***

  __Part 2 A Blossoming Romance__

  One of the main takeaways, especially in Episode 1 of this anime, is that it is slow in many aspects. I would like to talk about how this series was directed, but I will save that for Part 3 of this review. For now, I would like to talk about the slow, progressive romance in the series.

  A slow romance story is something viewers mainly tick off. You invested your time following these characters, and there is very little development between them. A lot of romance anime have this issue lightening up around them and can make or break the overall series. However, this anime takes that “slow” romance as an advantage and an addition to its already sensitive topic. Like I mentioned in Part 1, these characters are having a dilemma about going forward with each other because of the status quo. It felt refreshing that the trope of being distant towards the person you are slowly developing romance with has a stronger impact and a sense of interpersonal threat.

  You are greeted with these characters, who are distant and awkward towards each other. It makes sense that they would, since they were caught off guard by the circumstances they were given. As the story went by, they started to notice each other, finding out little things and doing mundane tasks that can be an eye roller to some, but this was a significant moment between these characters, even if it was as simple as noticing how one speaks or having that odd comfort of just eating alone together in silence.

  Although this anime mostly leans on slice-of-life aspects, focusing mainly outside of the character’s home while also interacting with side characters that are significant in their own way, It kind of worked in some way, demonstrating their inner thoughts and the retrospection space of these characters. ***

  __Part 3 Directing a Light Novel Adaptation__

  Light novel series are generally harder to adapt than manga series in terms of the directorial side. Since mangas already have visual cues, you can just add in-between scenes with a director’s flair. However, light novel adaptations are generally dialogue-driven, letting the director (Soudai Ueno) and the staff fill in the rest of the gaps, which is huge. It is generally not a huge problem since this is what adaptations are about. Just take time with the production and give those creative minds time, but we all know about the open secret in the anime industry that things get rushed more than they should have been. If the story is already strong, then it's fine, but it can be dragged down by its direction.

  One notable example I can give is Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten, which is a Winter 2023 anime from a light novel adaptation. The original source material is considered really good by the readers, but looking at reviews of the anime adaptation on AniList, for example, showed a rather significant amount of negative reviews. These reviews mainly pertain to how “boring” or “dull”. One main reason for it is how the adaptation was handled. The Light Novel was rather fast-paced but didn't involve that many visuals around the characters. So if you adapt a series that is mainly about that, you will result in an adaptation where their animation mostly revolves around moving lips and a bit of character movement here and there. The charm of the story is still there, but it is pushed down by its uninspiring animation. There are a lot of examples that support or oppose this argument,but the reason I have brought this up is that this anime adaptation might be a repeat of what I said above.

  To see it through, I read the light novel and watched the anime simultaneously to see what could be a huge difference when it comes to its direction, and I would like to say that the anime has some highlights and bold choices that make the overall direction of this series stand out, but there are still things that hold it back.

  For instance, I appreciate it that the anime took a more melancholic and silent approach with its adaptation, giving off those slowburn western indie festival film vibes that complimented well with the story they wanted to tell. The story acknowledges its taboo subjects and the overall nature and personality of the main characters in the series and incorporates it in subtly quiet shots with a bit of flair with its dialogue-focused sequences. The distinction between inner monologues and diary sequences alongside character interactions really helped the overall immersion of the series. This is best illustrated in the second half of Episode 8 where Saki and Yuuta are in the living room together, sharing a conversation and a bite of food. The silence in these scenes helped the gravity of the emotions characters felt, and I think it's quite a genius move to do so. However, the unique direction this anime took can be something that drags this series down. In comparison to the light novel and anime, the anime is pretty slow. I can already see a lot of reviews heavily leaning towards this, which can be detrimental for viewers who are not used to this kind of format. If you ask me, this direction definitely worked for me since this tone is also how I imagined it while reading the light novel.

  Despite what I have said above, there are some main points where it is detrimental to the series that even I, as a light novel reader, can find quite disappointing. One main factor around which the issues revolve is not understanding what these moments mean for these characters. In Episodes 2 and 3, there is a significant moment regarding Ayase, but the anime adaptation brushed the moment off and presented it as something that doesn't hold much importance. Another one is the side character of Shiroi Yomiuri (Minori Suzuki), where it's obvious for someone who reads the light novel and compares it to the series that this is not the same character in the light novel. This is especially true in Episode 5, where Shiroi is subtly portrayed as a losing heroine, whereas the light novel doesn't. These are the major inconsistencies that stand out to me, but there are many that have been sprinkled all around.

  Is this a passable light novel adaptation? I would say the tone nailed it, and I definitely enjoyed and connected to the somber tone it presented, but understanding these characters in specific moments unfortunately got lost in translation. ***

  __Conclusion__

  Days with My Stepsister is one of the most unique romance anime out there that tackles a taboo subject and takes it in a more down-to-earth tone, complimented by its slower burn tone than counterparts would otherwise aim in the opposite direction. However, there are some moments that feel like you are missing a huge piece of the puzzle inside its unique directorial style. If you want to experience this story in full, I would highly recommend reading the Light Novels instead, since there are a lot of plot-significant details that are glossed over and/or recontextualized in the anime. If you are an anime watcher only, you might feel that sense of incompleteness from its mature storytelling that you unfortunately have to fill in the gaps on your own. ***

  Continue on AniList
• 

  Ionliosite2

  60/100
  More than its title let's on

  Gimai Seikatsu was a surprise, not because of the premise, but because it is not every day that I can confidently say that one of the best directed shows in a season is a romance anime. Most romance anime I’ve seen that are praised as “creative” or “well directed” aren’t, well, creative or well directed, however, this anime definitely makes use of framings and visual techniques that you would usually never see in a show of this kind, the director definitely did a good job, which is surprising given he has no other experience being the main director of a series.

  It's easy to see why a lot of people who are searching for more creative directing than average wouldn’t even give the time of the day to this series, after all, the title Gimai Seikatsu or “Days with my Stepsister” would probably remind you of some kind of porn instead of an actually well done romance series, and I can’t blame them, I first saw this series being recommended alongside Otonari no Tenshi-sama and that series was terrible, so I decided to watch it to laugh at it, but once I started watching it, it definitely caught my eye that it didn’t even try to have comedy, then when I saw the author notes explaining things about the episodes that were posted on the author’s social media, I’d say that this series surpassed my expectations by far, mainly because my expectations for it were really low, but it got me to actually be invested on it. And I’m sure that people who want to watch actual incest and not NBR stuff would not look at this series at all, but I’m actually glad that this series touches the theme about relationships between stepsiblings, because while the characters obviously see that a if they were to enter in a romantic relationship it would be seen as “wrong” by society, it also makes multiple points about how stepsiblings are basically strangers that were suddenly put to live together so there’s actual no problem with it, after all, some people will look down upon anything that’s even remotely close to looking like incest, so unless you are an extremely sensitive snowflake there shouldn’t be a problem with this type of relationship, and there’s also the fact this series focuses more on the character’s emotions and their way of rationalizing around their new situation and less on the fetishy side of wanting to fuck your stepbrother/sister.

  The diary episodes gives you what happened from Saki’s point of view and shows you things you already knew about but with Saki’s inner thoughts included, and they are shown as if watching an old filming roll, which I guess it is fitting for showing you something you already watched but as a memory, and these episodes worked pretty well for me, because I’m sure a lot of people, including me, see the average romance anime and asks to ourselves “why is this girl in love with the guy?”, and these episodes pretty much answer that question as thoroughly as it can, it gives you a bigger exploration of Saki’s character, and by being presented as her diary it makes sense why she would go in such overexplanation of her emotions instead of saying it out loud for everyone to hear.

  The scene where, after watching the movie, Shiori starts saying some dialogue from it and then Asamura follows along, I paused the episode to stare at the ceiling, I mean, her reaction seemed completely in tone with being stopped midway by a freaking vending machine, it definitely made me feel the kind of emotion I’m wishing in romance series without doing anything exaggerated, and I honestly really liked that scene, Shiori could have won right there and I wouldn’t have minded, but alas, she isn’t the main girl so of course nothing would happen. But this is the kind of scenes that work for me, while you definitely can’t expect for something too exciting to happen, the down-to-earth feeling that they have is what makes the series in general work.

  Thank you for reading

  Continue on AniList
• 

  Kippu

  74/100
  A slow show with direction that keeps you watching.

  [This review was also posted on my MAL Page]

  Days With My Stepsister is an incredibly strange show. From it's title you might expect something along the lines of OreImo or Eromanga Sensei, however it couldn't be further from those shows. I was surprised at how much popularity this show garnered, considering both the original light novel, and the manga adaptation were not very popular. however, Studio Deen, has made some incredible shows in the past, as well as some not great, but still intriguing ones. Deen certainly delivered with this one.

  Story
  Days With My Stepsister is a show where ultimately, almost nothing happens. The story moves painfully slow, especially at the beginning, and skips a lot of the events you'd actually expect stuff to happen, instead replacing them with journal entries. However, the show also has no real filler. Except for the movie sequence, every single minute of this show goes to developing characters or forwarding the relationship between the main 2 leads. Despite this being one of the slowest shows ever made, more development happens in it than the majority of romances. The story actually really gets going near the end, and it becomes an incredibly realistic depiction of what a relationship between two step siblings would look like. There is some jank in the story, but overall it is really great. Not very many stories even attempt to pull of a normal-ish romance like this anymore, which is why I'm happy to see it.
  8/10

  Writing
  The dialogue is a different story, it goes from impressively boring to unintentionally hilarious. A lot of the dialogue in this show is one of a few things, first being a boring incoherent "philosophical" conversation between the two leads. This is mostly what occupies the beginning of this show, and has a serious negative impact on the show. The show also attempts (and fails at) comedy, mostly with Yomiyuri. Like a lot of other rom-coms Not a single intentional joke actually made me laugh, or even chuckle, but they are there anyway to pad out the runtime. Once the characters are established, the dialogue starts focusing mostly on the relationships between characters, and this is where it finally becomes interesting. While the writing never gets to become anything really that stand-out at least by episode 5 or so, It's not flat out boring anymore. The last kind of line in the show are the ones that are unintentionally hilarious. Every once in a while you will see a character say, do, or suggest something completely out of left field, only to be forgotten about. The best one was when the ethics professor started lecturing Saki on why she really SHOULD fuck her brother. However, there are a lot of people that push the relationship between these two step siblings that you really wouldn't expect. Overall, the writing is the weakest part of this show, and it will really shine in other places.
  3/10

  Characters
  The characters are where this story really shines. I won't go too in depth into them to avoid spoiling things, but both the leads go through a lot of character development for how slow the story is. Every single episode, the characters learn something new, change their perspective and grow as people. Saki especially goes from someone who seems to be totally inept with the world, relying on Asamura more than she should, to be the mature one over Asamura by the end of the series. Asamura breaks the mold of being a generic male self insert protagonist, by actually having worries and stresses of his own. One thing that slightly annoys me is how neither main character seems to really have a hobby. We are said that Asamura loves books, but this doesn't seem to affect his character at all outside of a few interactions. Saki has no hobbies whatsoever, which considering the fact she is kind of an unstable person makes sense, however it still makes for two characters that start off as incredibly boring before we get to know them.
  8/10

  Directing
  The direction of this show is what really makes it stand out. Remember how I said almost nothing happens? well, the directors are somehow able to keep this show incredibly interesting. It has it's hiccups in the beginning, much like the rest of this series, with some incredibly weird long shots, however by the end there is so much tension in the scenes you could cut it. Despite the obvious budget limitations, The directors are able to create the awkward atmosphere that would come around 2 people suddenly living together so well, as well as the tense nature of 2 step sibling stressing over being in love with one another. I am not very well researched with the production side of anime, however whatever they did here was certainly impressive. It made the show stand out way more than it ever would have.
  10/10

  Music
  The music in the show is beautiful, however it's use is incredibly strange. Most of the soundtrack is composed of very slow emotional pieces you might hear at the end of a very long drama series, but they decide to play the tracks as early as the first episode. The music is amazing, but it's use makes no sense to me. Every scene feels like it's trying to be a somber finale.
  music: 8/10
  use: 4/10

  Enjoyment
  I had a great time with this series, it was something quite different from a lot of the anime getting made currently, and It kept my attention all the way through. As stated earlier, the first 5-6 episodes had me yelling in my seat for the to do SOMETHING, however once they actually did, the early episodes paid off with how they built up the characters. I almost dropped the show on episode 4, as there was an incredibly baffling writing decision in that episode, but thankfully it was retconned. Overall, the show was above average, and as I rate things based on enjoyment here is my personal score:

  7.4/10

  I would recommend you check this show out. Despite it's flaws and strange subject matter, it delivers an interesting experience.

  Continue on AniList

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