Days with My Stepsister Volume 2 Review

Back in March, I reviewed the first volume of Days with My Stepsister which got off to an okay start ahead of its anime debut here in the Summer season. With its adaptation now airing, what better time to return for Volume 2? Let’s dive in and see if it has improved at all.

As we reunite with our protagonist Yuuta Asamura, we find him having adjusted to his new life with his new stepsister, Saki Ayase. The two are comfortable around each other at home and remain distant at school, to prevent any kind of unsavoury rumours circulating about them.

Now the summer break is fast approaching, but before that, the two must face the end-of-term exams. While Yuuta is lucky enough to pass all of his, Saki fails one of hers and turns to Yuuta in hopes of learning better studying techniques. Feeling indebted to her as Saki continues to cook delicious meals for him every day and having failed to find her a high-paying job so far (as she requested in Volume 1), Yuuta is happy to offer her some tips and tricks to help her pass the exam.

Yuuta even turns to his co-worker, Shiori for advice. Shiori is older than Yuuta and already in college, but since Yuuta started working at the bookstore part-time, they’ve developed a firm friendship. Shiori is light-hearted and easy to talk to; she teases Yuuta but it’s always with good intentions and our protagonist has been able to be himself around her. He trusts her perhaps even more than Saki who often still puzzles him.

And while this volume is about helping Saki, a large portion of it is dedicated to Yuuta and Shiori’s relationship. For the first time, Shiori invites Yuuta out to watch a film with her and while she’s quick to deny it’s anything more than two friends going to an after-work showing, it’s clear that bubbling under the surface there’s something else here.

While the structure of this book remains the same as Volume 1 in terms of taking place over a week (with each chapter dedicated to a single day), it didn’t feel as slow as the previous instalment. This is partially thanks to all the characters being established and Yuuta spending more time at his job, but there was also much more happening.

The dynamic between Yuuta and Shiori is also more interesting than his and Saki’s, largely because the stepsiblings are too similar. Shiori is a fun character to spend time with and while I know this likely won’t happen, I wouldn’t mind seeing her and Yuuta date in the future, But with Saki’s growing jealousy it’s clear that this series is aiming for a stepsibling romance, even if it takes a while to get there. Although I will say, author Ghost Mikawa is slowly bringing Saki out of her shell and she is growing more interesting as the series goes on, so I’m sure I will come to appreciate her relationship with Yuuta more in the future.

Most of all, I appreciate that the author has dedicated themself to showing us these two characters growing closer slowly, bit by bit. It better reflects real-life relationships, which is important, given how much Yuuta goes on about their situation not being like those in manga or light novels. And it’s true that while there is a little bit of drama here and there, most of the situations play out closer to how they would in reality rather than fiction. It’s this grounded storytelling that will keep readers invested for the long haul (provided you don’t mind the stepsibling romance angle).

Days with My Stepsister Volume 2 comes to the West thanks to Yen Press under their Yen On imprint and continues to be translated by Eriko Sugita. While I still feel the translation is a bit stiff (particularly when it comes to depicting Yuuta), this did read better than Volume 1 on the whole so I came away happier with it than the previous book. This release comes complete with colour pages, as well as character profiles which are always a helpful addition for remembering who’s who!

Volume 3 was released in English in June with #4 set for a release in November. As mentioned, there is an anime for this one currently airing and that’s available to watch on Crunchyroll. I certainly recommend the anime as although it has been cutting some content here and there, it is very artistic and captures the slow daily life element extremely well. Yen Press is also releasing the manga adaptation.

Overall, Volume 2 of Days with My Stepsister proves to be quite an improvement on its first outing. Some of that is due to shifting focus to other characters, but it’s mostly due to the fact this is a slow-burn series that clearly has a goal in mind but will take its time getting there.

Our review copy from Yen Press was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.