Gimai Seikatsu
Days with My Stepsister

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A breath of fresh air, along with such a beautiful wholesome story. Gimai Seikatsu takes a truly realistic and relatable approach to the situations presented within the story. That said, the story stands out when compared to other Slice of Life/Romance novels. The author doesn't use the overused tropes found in nearly every Rom/Com either.

The main characters are very well done. They truly grow and develop through each volume. One main thing is that they are not dense and ignorant, like many SoL/Romance characters are more often than not.

The illustrations are beautiful and nail home crucial events.

Personally, for me, each chapter leaves me wanting ... more, and each volume leaves a heartwarming feeling behind.

Art : 10/10
Hiten masterclass art as always, i really love all of the female character designs in this series especially Ayase Saki design.

Character : 8/10
All of the female character personalities will leave strong impression for you but there is still some flaws in male char which i feel kinda generic and not unique enough.

Story : 6/10
The pace is kinda more slow after volume 5 and I feel that with so many good characters, it's kind of a waste to make a story solely about a step brother and sister relationship."

Overall : 8/10
If you enjoy a good art with many strong female characters and have no ... problem to deal with slow pace and step brother-sister relationship kind of story then this is the series for you.

The setting and the premise is good. The step-sister angle provides some natural dramatic tension. The translation is also good. The romance is slow burn (not really a positive or negative for that). Where it is weak is in the tone and voicing of the story and in the believability of the characters.

Too often, it feels like the author is just using the characters to convey his LN/YA-level deep thoughts, rather than telling a story. Ironically, the characters themselves acknowledge the same thing. The most recent translated chapter (Vol 11, Ch. 7) gives a good example: ... "It may seem like we are talking about something pretty deep, but it's actually quite simple when you think about it." This type of thought-expression, where characters are philosophizing or documenting their thought processes, is prevalent throughout the series and can get very cringe at times. To me, it conveys a pretentiousness from the author that damages the credibility and believability of the characters as real teenagers. I've seen others bring up the realism of the series when defending the slow progress, but these characters speak like obvious creations, not real people at all.

A little further along in the same most recently translated chapter (Vol 11, Ch. 7) is a good example of the level of feels that the romance provides: '"Can I touch you?", "Yeah, it's okay... Can I touch you too?", "Yeah". Our conversation was almost business-like, which I suppose was typical for us in its own way.' The level of detachment the main couple has for each other makes it feel like the reader is a voyeur over a strange relationship between two autistic people rather than vicariously experiencing a romance. So overall this is a 4 or 5 out of 10 for me. It's an easy read but it's pretty long. If you're only happy reading solid 7+ series, just stick with the anime or manga and save yourself some time.