The truth is that I started watching this anime with zero expectations, or in fact with the expectation that it was going to be terrible. I mean, the title in English ("Days with my stepsister"), coupled with the tag "Romance" points to be a murky and explosive combination no matter how you look at it. Against all odds, it ended up being my favourite show of the season, and one with surprisingly plenty of substance.
The premise is simple: the parents of the main characters decide to move in together to start a life as an official family after some time as a couple having spent
...
a few years single, and this results in the two formerly only children having to learn to coexist with a step-sibling. What is striking from the outset is the very clear apathy and neutrality with which the two express themselves at almost all times, which together with an art style that accentuates the droopy eyes and muted tones, ends up giving them a markedly robotic aura. Both go to great lengths to keep what they truly feel (both outwardly and inwardly) to themselves and take pride in considering themselves to be neither visceral nor impulsive individuals who analyse problems gingerly before arriving at as objective a conclusion as possible. On top of this, this anime relishes silence. It is not afraid not to use music or background noise to hide it, it is not ashamed to show scenes in which only two or three phrases are exchanged, punctuated by moments of absolute absence of voice or sound effects, all of which ends up being both disturbing and terrific in that it shows a reality that feels… well, real, particularly if we think about the personalities of these characters and the discomfort of their new situation.
And they are clearly wearing a shell. All this trained objectivity and neutrality is nothing more than an armour they put on to protect themselves from feeling or empathising with other human beings. Written like this it seems almost pathological, but I would argue that it is actually a rather sober representation of what actually goes on in modern society, where most of us bottle up our emotions as best we can in order to cope with modern social standards and not have to face the discomfort of introspection. It's a bit like putting a lid on a pot of boiling water to avoid the steam that comes out and wets the walls around it, forgetting about it, and suddenly finding that the pressure inside the pot has built up so much during that time of neglect that it ultimately bursts in the worst possible way.
Luckily, the pots don't explode dramatically here, as there are only subtle leaks that evidence the existence of a problem that needs to be dealt with. We see this in Saki's diary, where she herself seems to be surprised by her own reflections, and even in moments of crisis in Yuuta's thoughts, though sadly in most cases their solution ends up being to put the lid back on the pot and pretend nothing has happened. Much in the fashion of Inside Out, there is a clear case here of repressed emotions.
Assertiveness is a subject that is dealt with, and that the protagonists try to exercise as best they can, but again, as in real life, if one starts from the premise of lying to or deceiving oneself, this practice is doomed to failure. This is like trying to do the integral calculus exercises without knowing how to multiply: you are missing the foundation. Their objective analysis and their discourse of "compromise" are ultimately hollow when their capacity for empathy and self-understanding is so limited (exemplified by Saki being unable to grasp the literary text comprehension drills, where she is unable to fathom the motivations of the characters).
All of this is well summed up in Yuuta's conversation with a cram school friend, where the message of the series becomes clear. We can fool ourselves all we want, bottle up our emotions and try to convince ourselves that they are not there. We can try to justify that we act the way we do because we don't want to be selfish, because we don't want to do harm, you name it. But at the end of the day, we are human, and ignoring a fire doesn't magically make it go out, just as ignoring how we feel doesn't make those feelings naturally dissipate. We expect things from others, we possess needs, desires, a heart that propels gallons of warm blood through our veins, and failing to accept this means denying our own humanity. Yes, we can be selfish, and feelings are unfair, subjective, and yes, terribly egotistical, but in the end they are what allow us to see the world in a real way and to understand it in all its splendour (and this is where the background music, which before seemed so brutally amputated from the composition, gets added in).
Are there problems with the series? Of course there are. There are scenes with very questionable drawing quality, excessive static shots that I fear were included due to budget constraints and not as a design decision, scenes that are completely unjustified (e.g. early chapters with Saki in Yuuta's bed) and seem to be added for the sake of drama that really isn't necessary. But if I'm honest, none of this is enough for me not to recommend this anime. A flawed work, but one that in retrospect shines in conveying a very important message that we often choose to overlook in our lives.
Oct 4, 2024
Gimai Seikatsu
(Anime)
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The truth is that I started watching this anime with zero expectations, or in fact with the expectation that it was going to be terrible. I mean, the title in English ("Days with my stepsister"), coupled with the tag "Romance" points to be a murky and explosive combination no matter how you look at it. Against all odds, it ended up being my favourite show of the season, and one with surprisingly plenty of substance.
The premise is simple: the parents of the main characters decide to move in together to start a life as an official family after some time as a couple having spent ... 
Sep 13, 2024
Bakuten!! Movie
(Anime)
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I started watching this movie assuming it would be an hour and a half of scenes devoted largely to inter-high performances (the equivalent of a national championship between high schools), with perhaps a few more segments focusing on the final weeks leading up to the event so as not to get so much into the competition, but fundamentally I was expecting something Haikyuu-style: one movie, one match.
What I found instead, to my surprise, was a mere 20 minutes, possibly less, devoted to this moment. A performance and a half, not getting too much into specifics, something that caused me to quickly glance at my watch ... 
Jul 23, 2024
Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!
(Anime)
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Before I begin, let me just get out of my head the conspiracy theory that the main heroine’s name (Tomo) sounds exactly like the word for friend in Japanese (友), which would, in my humble opinion, be a horribly cruel way of dooming her to suffer a bad case of being friend-zoned by her childhood friend and love interest from birth. Sorry, Tomo; you deserved better than that.
Now on with the actual review. This is the sweetest thing I have watched in a long time. It is obnoxiously pure in the sense that it’s the story of a bunch of Japanese teenagers who are slowly ... 
Jul 9, 2024
Kill la Kill
(Anime)
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Behind a hefty layer of weirdness, bizarreness, and whimsical nonsense, Kill la Kill is an anime that embraces many of the quirks and eccentricities of some of the great shows of the 90s, like Evangelion or Revolutionary Girl Utena, as well as their passion for deep life reflections in between snippets of world-threatening battles.
Five minutes into the show, I already knew I was in for a treat. The show makes it obvious from the get-go that it’s going to be unforgettably deep while not taking itself seriously at any point. Or rather, it is dead serious about emphasizing the beauty and importance of humanity’s endless ... |
