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 Ive seen that are praised as creative or well directed arent 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. Its easy to see why a lot of people who are searching for more creative directing than average wouldnt 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 cant blame them I first saw this series being recommended alongside Otonari no Tenshisama 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 didnt even try to have comedy then when I saw the author notes explaining things about the episodes that were posted on the authors social media Id 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 Im sure that people who want to watch actual incest and not NBR stuff would not look at this series at all but Im 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 theres actual no problem with it after all some people will look down upon anything thats even remotely close to looking like incest so unless you are an extremely sensitive snowflake there shouldnt be a problem with this type of relationship and theres also the fact this series focuses more on the characters 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 Sakis point of view and shows you things you already knew about but with Sakis 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 Im 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 Sakis 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 Im wishing in romance series without doing anything exaggerated and I honestly really liked that scene Shiori could have won right there and I wouldnt have minded but alas she isnt the main girl so of course nothing would happen. But this is the kind of scenes that work for me while you definitely cant expect for something too exciting to happen the downtoearth feeling that they have is what makes the series in general work. Thank you for reading