The new romance anime Days with My Stepsister, which is based on the light novels and mixed media project by Ghost Mikawa, premiered this week with its first episode.
An episode that kicked off the latest Studio Deen anime in a very strong manner, as it introduced the two protagonists — high school student Yuta Asamura and his new stepsister Saki Ayase — and quite deftly laid the groundwork for what is to come.
All of it being done in a lovely calm and relaxed slice-of-life manner, with an undertone of something more serious to come, that made this anime pure joy to watch.
Here then is our recap of the entire first episode of the Summer, 2024 anime. An anime that, in my opinion, is in the Top 3 out of the other 11 series I have watched so far.
Days with My Stepsister, Episode 1 recap
The first episode of the anime begins with both Yuta and Saki talking about what it means to suddenly have a step sibling.
Both say it means that, no matter how long you live together, the other person remains a stranger as you never really have any shared experience with them to cause you to grow closer together.
Yuta in particular points out that, if this was a novel or a movie, chances are the boy would fall in love with the girl. But, in real life that is generally not the case.
The anime then switches to the two parents, plus Yuta and Saki, heading towards a first meeting with each other, before it switches again to the past.
Yuta learns his father is remarrying
It is here Yuta’s father tells him he is getting married to a woman who worked at a bar his boss took him to.
And what is interesting about this is that, instead of being upset about his father remarrying, Yuta seems quite nonchalant about it.
He is, however, surprised to learn that his father has already set up a meeting with his soon-to-be new wife that same evening, with Yuta commenting to himself that it seems like a rash decision.
But, as long as his father is happy, he tells him, he will be happy too. Besides, he plans to just continue doing what he has always done.
His father states that may not be completely possible as, once he remarries, Yuta will have a new little step sister.
The next scene shows Yuta traveling to meet his father and his new wife, while looking at a photograph on his phone of his new step sister, who is a very cute young child.
When he gets to the restaurant, however, he is surprised to learn that his new sister — Saki Ayase — is the same age as himself.
The reason why the photograph he was sent showed Saki as being so young is because, nowadays, she does not like having photographs taken of herself. She believes she is not very photogenic.
This is the first inclination we get that Saki may have self-confidence issues.
Later, while getting drinks at the restaurant, Saki tells Yuta that she is quite happy with the situation as, when she was first told about her new stepbrother, she thought he may be quite scary. As it turns out Yuta is not scary at all.
She has also been told that he works very hard, and gets good grades.
Later in the evening, while the pair are outside the restaurant waiting for their parents, Saki stresses, now they are living together, she doesn’t expect anything from him and she hopes that Yuta doesn’t expect anything from her either
Yuta replies that he is actually quite relieved, and that he hopes they can keep this same stance going forward.
Saki and her mother move in
A few days later, Yuta and his father are cleaning the apartment, as Saki and her mother will soon be moving in.
When Saki and her mother arrive, they are loaded down with flowers, balloons and gifts. They are also surprised to see that the apartment is so clean and smells so nice.
The scene then switches to Yuta showing Saki around the apartment, and taking her to the room that will be her own.
Saki immediately comments that the room is very big. She then goes on to explain that she and her mother lived in a very small, run-down room apartment.
They didn’t share the same bedroom, however, as her mother worked in the evenings, and so Saki slept alone. In other words, they lived lives with completely different schedules, and Saki spent a lot of time by herself.
In some ways, she seems to have had a lonely existence.
Saki then asks why Yuta is speaking so politely to her. After all, she would prefer it if he spoke more casually to her.
After all, she explains, even though she asked friends at school to speak to her casually, they had thought this was strange. Because of this she had cut off all of her friends except one.
She commented it didn’t really matter, as she only kept people around that were worth keeping anyway.
It is at this point that we are even more sure that, while Saki is beautiful and seems like a nice girl, she also struggles to get close to people.
The next few scenes are a lovely little montage of Yuta helping Saki prepare her new bedroom, while we also see their parents cleaning and organizing the kitchen.
The scene then switches to Yuta noticing that Saki has a uniform hanging in the closet that is familiar to him, and he asks her if she goes to a specific prep school.
She comments that she does, and wonders if he is surprised that a flashy girl like her goes to such a serious school (more signs of insecurity). He replies no not really, and then explains he also goes to the same school.
He then says it may be better if he pretends he doesn’t know her when they are at school.
Saki replies she doesn’t really care one way or the other, but then changes her mind and agrees it may be for the best.
A few minutes later, Yuta gets a phone call and is called into work at short notice. Once at work his co-worker comments that he smells like perfume, and teasingly asks if he has a new girlfriend.
She then asks about his new sister and explicitly wants to know if she is cute. Saki replies that she is quite beautiful actually.
But, he insists, it’s not like anything is going to happen between them.
He then confesses that having a new sister is actually stressing him out. After all how are they supposed to act like brother and sister when they are not?
As we learn that Yuta is actually more uncomfortable with the new living situation than he is letting on, his co-worker advises him just to act naturally.
Later in the evening, Yuta arrives home and walks into the living room to find Saki already sitting there.
When he says “I’m home”, Saki seems a little stiff, and then apologizes saying nobody has ever really said “I’m home” to her before, so she didn’t know how to respond.
She explains that, before they moved in with Yuta and his father, she was at school while her mother was sleeping, and when she came home her mother had already gone to work.
Yuta comments that it seems as though she and her mother get along though, to which Saki admits that they do.
After a short conversation about who should take a bath first Yuta then heads to the bathroom to bathe before going to bed.
When he is finished, he hesitatingly heads back to the living room to tell Saki that the bath is ready.
The final scene is then a lovely little thing, as Saki comes back from having a bath and wonders backwards and forwards in the hallway trying to find the light switch.
Sure, she may be trying to act nonchalantly about their new living situation as well, but it is still an odd situation and will take some getting used to.
Where the first episode of Days with My Stepsister stands out is with the sweet and relaxed plot that is wonderfully written — both the story’s pacing and the dialogue — as well as with the gorgeous art style, and the mellow way the story slowly unfolds.
What makes it even lovelier is that, instead of like other anime, where a situation like this may be more jarring as one of more of the people involved would be disgruntled, obnoxious or rude, in the case of Saki, Yuta and their parents, they are all simply nice people in a new situation, and figuring out the best way to go forward.
You can watch, and enjoy, Days with My Stepsister, Episode 1 over on Crunchyroll, with Episode 2 of this utterly wonderful anime due out soon.
