Gimai Seikatsu
Days with My Stepsister

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I doubt that many people will see this review since this LN isn't that popular as of now. This was a really refreshing read and I'm glad that I started it.

To delve into the positives, the male lead and female lead are both good characters, and I hope that they get even more development in the future. They can act maturely and reasonably, and it's great to see people who can communicate so openly. The romance aspect is slowly built up instead of just being dumped on us suddenly. The side characters are not the most developed, but they all have their own little ... quirks that make them enjoyable. Not much to say about the story since it's mainly SOL and there isn't much to delve into.

Volume 1 and 2 are both great reads, with Volume 2 being more romance centric than the first novel. I'll update this review after the release of Volume 3.

Now onto the negatives. As another reviewer mentioned, there are parts that can get repetitive and slow. This is mostly internal dialogue chunks though, and I would actually recommend just skipping over them after you've read them a few times (pretty easy to identify) for maximum enjoyment. There are also some instances where the story decides to excessively explain some things that don't really need to be explained with that much detail (once again this is just background stuff and internal dialogue bits).

Edit for volume 3: Volume 3 was definitely the best volume so far. It spices things up more while keeping the same enjoyable format, despite the author still rambling too much when it comes to inner monologues. I think so far this series has been a great subversion of certain tropes and it's still a very good read. Here's hoping that the author can keep things fresh. Easy 8-8.5 for now

A cup of pure and clean water with a spoonful of honey. This would be how I describe the book in one sentence.

Gimai Seikatsu, portrayed a beautiful story between our two main characters, Ayase Saki and Asamura Yuuta. One very important feature which attracted me very much in this book is the characterization. The development between our two main characters Saki and Yuuta is what makes this book so good. The author depicted the feeling in their heart very nicely, we can see how their thoughts and beliefs have soon changed as the story goes on. This light novel switches between both Yuuta's and Saki's ... POVs, so the readers can understand what both of the characters thinking at that time. Unlike other stepsisters generic light novels with a lot of horrendous drama, Gimai Seikatsu actually portrayed a very realistic story throughout the ordinary slice of life.

Obviously, this is a romance story. But the romance takes place very slowly, however, as I mentioned the development between both of the characters is keep going every volume. The reason I would say this series is a cup of pure and clean water with a spoonful of honey is that throughout the ordinary slice of life, it actually shows some of the sweetest scenes I have ever seen. The series did not force some very romantic, and cute scenes like other light novels which focused heavily on fluff. The reason I said it is sweet is that our two main characters sometimes will do some very little things, very little details which are truly heart-warming. It can be just a sentence of admiration, it can be just a very little considerate movement during the story. These little things make the story so sweet.

This is definitely a very worth reading series I would recommend it to everyone, especially to those who love reading stories with a heavy focus on characters' development and depiction of their feeling. I have now completed volume no.5, and I would say what a beautiful ride, volume 5 is what everyone would want to see in this series I would say. I'm glad the story goes like that in volume 5, I can now die peacefully. I would definitely consider this as some of the best romance light novels I have ever seen.

Also, do not always judge the book by its title. (>ᴗ•)

This series has gotten quite popular. It won a spot in Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi which is amazing. I've been making a review on each volume and this is the review of the 4th volume.

Been a while since I read this series, I liked the amount of retold information and scenes in this volume. Not too boring nor too vague, just the perfect amount. I think the author has improved on his writing style, not much of description of the place, which was hella boring in v3 if I remember correctly.

Spoiler warning!
It was said in the book that anyone with little exp. ... with the opposite sex will fall for them for the smallest help and support because they don't have any expectations of the opposite sex. There's a reason for people to love each other, which is why I found the point of their dating not being good because the have no exp. and fell for each other. I think it's completely okay because there should be a reason and it could be whatever as long as it's ethically right.

And as always, nice guys finish last. [This is unrelated to the paragraph above, incase you're confused ;) ]

Thanks for cclaw translation for the articulate translation, they never disappoint me.
If you have made it this far, thank you and you are amazing.
Stay relentless.

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.

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.

This is a LN I didn't expect to like as much as I did, and here I am giving it my first review ever.
While scrolling through a catalog of LNs, I happened to stumble upon Gimai Seikatsu, and if someone asked me why I got into it, then I'd have to admit that the cover photo alone piqued my interest.
I'm not that big of a reader in general, only a few manga here and there with this being my 2nd LN, but I do love SoL and Romance, and both of them together are nothing I'd avoid. Upon reading the title, one would get various ... ideas as to what this story is all about and where it could be headed, and with it being how it is, it certainly didn't disappoint me. The one thing I was sceptical about when hopping in here was just how many cliches and generic events/characters are we gonna see, that fellow SoL lovers encounter excessively, but there was no need to worry about that!

The characters' thoughts and how they process different ideas, how they tackle problems, and just how "real" the way they react and deal with things is something I'm really enjoying. It's something fresh, realistic, enjoyable and relatable to an extent. The story is simple, but it's up to the author to decide what to do with it and where to go, and so far it's going pretty well. With the ending of the 3rd volume (the latest volume available at the time of writing this), there are many ways it can go from here, but I have faith in the author that we will get amazing development from here on out and that we will end up being very satisfied with the story, as the only thing that's left for this LN to hit is a nice ending, as I believe the story so far checked out.

Now, I've been praising it and all, but it's not perfect by any means. There are a few events that get repetitive at times, which even I myself found skipping from time to time (as they didn't play a role in the story), and this isn't a book for everyone by any means. At times, it gets a little bit "too Slice of Life-ish" where some would wonder "Why even write this?", but personally I don't mind this at all, however, I can definitely see where people are coming from when they pose these questions (as is an often occurrence with SoL in general, anime, manga or LN), but I encourage any fellow reader and lover of such genres to give this LN a shot, and I'm sure you won't be disappointed.


However, everything I wrote here is heavily biased with my love for SoL and Romance forms of media, so take some of these comments with a grain of salt. I saw that this LN was originally an anime on YouTube with the same name, but I haven't seen it yet so I can't comment on anything surrounding that. A solid 9/10 so far from me though.

Thank you for taking your time to read this attempt at a review!

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.

This review is for the LN. As per time of writing, i finished all until vol 5.

As you can see in the synopsis and the tags that stated that this is "Romance" and "Slice of Life", there is not much to laugh in this LN. Also it is not the comedically dirty type of interaction between step siblings.

Personally, i would add "psychological" to this as it really gives roller coaster of emotion, and it shows how people feel and think when facing problems. For the slice of life part, the story really give an image of how a person thinks and acts, growing up ... in a broken home condition. While the story uses high school student as the main character, i do think that the story makes more sense towards young adults and adults. For romance part, it's not the type of big romance with big act, but more towards small simple daily routine things that actually matters and it's wholesome in it's own way.

Character development is a thing here and it takes time. I like that the author did not rush things up as it surely takes time for two strangers to develop feelings between them, and especially to do things. I also like how the characters slowly change their way of thinking, adapt and actually do something to achieve what they want.

Artwork is cute and beautiful. Sometimes the art makes character looks more mature or adult that it should be (high school), but it is not a big problem.

if you want to read about SoL Romance that is realistic and different background story, you should give this a shot. But if you are looking for a fast paced story, this might not be the correct one for you as the writer gives some hint that this will be a long story

TBH when I was reading the first volume of this series, I already liked the series as it is even though it came off as a slow-paced slice-of-life type of story. But then, I just finished reading volumes 3 and 4, and that's where this story has fully caught my interest and now I can proudly say that I support the relationship these two step-siblings have. Idk if this is how you should describe their relationship but they are just simply cute.
In conclusion, I highly recommend this Light Novel to those looking for a good slice of life, romance story but also likes a ... bit of spice. Also, if you like those types of relationships where they just give off cute vibes and you just really support their relationship, this story will suit your tastes(Though it's probably only my personal opinion that a step-sibling less than lovers relationship is cute).