Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano datta 4j1l2d

Watching My Stepmom's Daughter is My Ex reminds me of the time when I was forced to stay for detention because I made a mistake in class. The real question to ask is if My Stepmom's Daughter is My Ex is a mistake. Yes, it damn right it is.

Based on the novels of the same name, you don't need a vivid imagination to see how our two main characters used to have a history together. It's simple as it gets: they used to be a couple. As fate would have it, Mizuto and Yume would reunite again due to their parents' martial status. The show ... sets up the two to see who can be the more dominant of the pair. Some people may compare this to Kaguya-sama, a successful franchise that masterfully crafted its rom-com elements. Unfortunately, that is not the case for My Stepmom's Daughter is My Ex.

The very first topic I want to address is the amount of fan service. Your eyes aren't fooling you if you've seen the promotional material. The poster might not be obvious but the previews contains suggestive camera shots of boobs and ass. And in one of those previews, you can clearly see the stepsister dressed in a towel. The anime isn't shy about trying to make Yume as alluring as she can be. It's like a test to see how much she can tempt Mizuto when the two live together. We have to that the two used to be a couple so past feelings are still floating around in their heads. What this anime explores is how their past connect them to each other in the present. And trust me, the show just absolutely loves to show the two fool around with the very idea of love.

While the first few episodes dedicates to Mizuto and Yume, it was a matter of time before the two went on various dates for reasons. Why this anime is obsessed with trying to get these two to fall in love is almost like a mystery. I'm talking about the type of mystery that has little taste for mystique or curiousity. The anime obviously set up these two to fall for each other. In fact, Mizuto and Yume seems to have lingering feelings after all this time. It's not unusual to have two people in the real world to react such ways after seeing each other after a few years. Applying to this anime's principals, every episode is a social test that explores their human emotions. Unfortunately, this anime does a poor job with that by injecting humorless gags and fan service for the the sake of fan service.

Outside of our main duo, we can't have a complete cast without the best friend of the main female protagonist so that's where Akatsuki Minami comes in. While being cheerful and outgoing, her presence is mostly overshadowed by the two protagonists. Let's face it, did she ever even stand a chance to be with Mizuto? Right off the bat, she gets rejected by Mizuto and even stopped by her childhood friend Kogure. The show pretty much throws her away like a disposable character except for her occasional appearances. Luckily, the anime does spend more time on another main ing cast: Isana Higashira.

Surprisingly, the show actually makes Isana into a likable character, serving as a foil to Yume. To be honest, I believe she is more compatible for him due to their similar interests and personalities. Their scenes together are also more watchable in the sense that they behave more normally as friends. Rather than as step siblings trying to play mind games towards each other, they act like themselves. Unfortunately, the anime also rejects her being paired up with Mizuto as a couple. No surprise right? This show is dead eye set on the step siblings romance experience. You'd just better strap in and get ready for it.

Unfortunately, the effort poured into animating this mediocre project is nothing short of mediocre. Character designs looks outdated like they were from the last decade while expressions are cartoonish. Like me just say that if you enjoy fan service and suggestive camera shots, then this could be a treat for you. While the story is bankrupt on creativity, the technical elements of its animation quality isn't far off either.

Sometimes, I don't know why these type of shows gets their anime adaptations. Obviously, the easy answer would be for money and attracting fans to buy their products. But let's ask ourselves, why would you use your hard earned money to buy into this show?

"To me, you felt more real than anyone I'd ever met."

Looking back, I can only describe it as youthful indiscretion, but from summer of 2022, I watched what you may call a beautiful anime, with a simple but engaging plot, realistic characters and interactions, and a touching story. With confidence, I can say that "My Stepmom's Daughter is My Ex", also known as Tsurekano, was an anime I enjoyed from start to finish, an anime that never felt like a chore to watch, and most importantly, an anime that connected to me.

Now look, I get why many people dislike this anime. I'm not here ... to debunk on your reasons to dislike it. Instead, I'm here to tell you why I love Tsurekano.

First of all, the story. Let's all be real here; the story is nothing special. We've seen many animes already about stepsiblings + romance. From the title alone, you could already tell what the anime is about. So, what makes it so great? In my opinion, the simple story makes it very engaging. Complicated stories with constant misunderstandings, mess-ups, and drama are getting old nowadays. It feels really nice to sit down and watch an anime that takes a break from all that. It's a down-to-earth, captivating, and brilliant.

Now, the plot. What's the difference between a story and plot, you may say? A story is the setup. It introduces the characters and main storyline, basically reading a MAL synopsis. The plot is how the story develops into a more in-depth show, and Tsurekano does it perfectly. The backstories shown each episode build up overtime and connect like a puzzle. You can see the character interactions develop overtime, and you can see the characters become human. I found the development of Mizuto and Yume to be very engaging, and Isana's growth as a character was authentic. The different problems in being stepsiblings show overtime were genuine, and it really made me say, "wow, this is really realistic". I absolutely loved how true their relationship was portrayed. It definitely shows how fragile relationships are and how it can break up over a single argument. Through their struggles, you can see their perspectives on the situation, and you really can't blame anyone. Just an authentic and true plot.

The characters are annoying. I said it, they're annoying and irritating. Does it mean it's a bad thing? I wouldn't say so. Mizuto is one of the few non-annoying characters, and he's a great one. At first, he seems like the average protagonist; a loner, edgy, and is quick to have comebacks. However, he is much more than that. His insecurities get revealed over the course of the show and how awkward he really is. It's honestly irable. He is also kindhearted, although he may not seem like it. His efforts to help Yume from behind were touching and didn't feel out of place at all. Yume was a bitch, but still an amazing character. She is actually the most real character in the anime. Her struggles to try to be popular were relatable and her insecurities could strike you right down in the heart. She tends to misunderstand very quickly and always acts on them instead of trying to find proof. A perfect example of a flawed person, but truly a legitimate character. Minami was really annoying. She constantly tried to change other people's ways instead of letting them be themself. She's like those manipulative popular girls in your classroom, except taken to the extreme. She's creepy, a stalker, and likes to pop into people's business. Her obsessions are always acted on to a scale of 1000 and anybody near her would never catch a break. I love her. I might be talking a bit too much about realism here, but I felt like she was meant to represent how creepy and manipulative real people could be. Kawanami was just there to be honest, he didn't have much influence and was meant to serve as a potential love interest to Akatsuki. I don't have much to say about him, but he set the mood for a lot of comedic moments and was enjoyable to watch. Isana is the best character out of all of them. She's nice and cute, but also super introverted. However, when she meets the right person, she can become the complete opposite. She makes really strange remarks and honestly is really strange. Her character dynamic with Mizuto is some of the best "friends, but more" dynamics I've seen. Another thing that makes her so realistic is how easily manipulated she is. Isana constantly believed what Akatsuki said was true and was convinced super-fast. It shines a light on many introverts like most of you and it feels refreshing to have a character like her.

The sound was completely fine, I have no complaints. There were emotional sounds at emotional moments, and comedic sounds at comedic moments. The opening and ending are complete fire though. The opening is my favourite of this season alongside Kana Hanazawa's Pokerface and ReoNa's Shall We Dance. The visuals for the opening were nice, and I liked the minor details of who their life was intertwined with. The song was amazing, Dialogue+ never misses. The ending wasn't as great as the opening but served a nice purpose too. The song had some great harmony, and the visuals were adorable.

The art style is the regular ones you'd see in anime nowadays, but most of my attention was on the character designs. When they released the first visual for the series, I seeing comments saying how bland the characters look. I honestly think the bland character designs fit the story super well. It shows how freaky and strange coincidences could happen in such a normal world and normal people. Just imagine this: pink haired and fluffy cute girl used to date prince of the school, until they broke up. All of a sudden, they get reunited as stepsiblings. Doesn't sound too down-to-earth now, does it? The designs were absolutely great for the side characters, showing how contrasted it was. The animation was flawless, I think Project No.9 did a beautiful job on this.

I enjoyed this anime very much. The comedy was right up my alley, the story and plot connected with me, the characters were authentic, plus a banger opening and ending. For me, this was the anime of the season (with LycoReco and Shadows House). If it's not up your alley, don't give it a shot. But if it sounds like something you'll be interested in, congratulations, you've got yourself a new show to watch!

This show can be summarized as follows: Ex-lovers obsessed with one another who later became siblings and are still obsessed and in love with one another in the present. The show is either a hit or a miss for most people, as there is no middle ground. Watch the first three episodes and decide whether it is worth continuing to watch. Even from just watching the trailer, you'd already know what to expect from the show, including the art and sound quality.

Yume and Irido's chemistry isn't all that great to begin with, and from a logical standpoint, their relationship appears forced with little to no ... chemistry. To be honest, I'd like to speak for the majority when I say that the Mizuto and Isana pairing would have easily outperformed the ship the show is aiming for. With the exception of Akatsuki and Kogure, the side casts don't really add much to the story, and we can see that the show is actively shipping the pair, with the obvious childhood friend route.

As one would expect from a typical romcom, the show lacks substance, with only basic back and forth feelings relayed from the character archetypes they portray, in which case both the MCs portray the edgy smart-ass character type that reminded me of Hachiman and Yukino in Oregairu. I wouldn't mind if the show focused more on the side casts and developing their characters rather than actively shipping the MCs. That would have made the show more interesting and entertaining to watch. We did, however, learn more about Yume and Mizuto, their past, and how their relationship came to be, though to be honest, the reason for their breakup seems childish and unseemly. Though one could understand that they're teenagers, but given that Mizuto and Yume are both well-educated and embody the high intelligence vibe, that kind of seems out of character for them.

If you're a typical romcom enjoyer, this show is not much different from others, and I would recommend it to you. However, if you can't stand formulaic shows and relationships that appear unhealthy and obsessive and follow the same pattern, you should skip this show. Everything just felt kind of lackluster in general, which resulted in a low emotional investment in the show, but the show did become interesting from time to time.

this review is written as within 3 episode after airing.

mamahaha no tsurego ga motokano datta, or tsurekano for short, was a title that i wasn’t well aware of until a few days before it started airing. i was expecting something a little like oreimo or eromanga sensei for some reason (totally not the incest vibes). but holy shit was i wrong. it came out to be more enjoyable than some of my favorite romcoms.
story: 9.5/10. the premise is set straight and went full dive from the start. i found the comedy very cringy, but it was really funny as well and gave me a good ... laugh to brighten up my boring days.
art: 10/10. i absolutely dig this art style. props to project no.9 as they made other great shows as well. characters look great, especially yume and mizuto.
sound: 9/10. the voice acting is so good here. some of my favorite seiyuus are voicing characters from this show, and are doing a great job at it. opening and ending songs are banger as well, and really catchy. deneb to spica is in a league of its own though, scoring a 1e103842/10 for how addicting it is.
characters: 10/10. both main and side characters are fun and enjoyable. yume is my favorite character because of her reactions to everything and her personality. mizuto is right behind. he has a similar personality to me, so i can quite relate to him. nonetheless his calm and calculating personality in contrast with yume’s extroverted and outgoing personality is a great mix.
enjoyment: 3^1029233/10. i should definitely not be enjoying this as much as i am, but this show is just too addicting. i just feel like i’m being gently transported to elysium as i watch this. wait, what am i saying…
overall: 10/10. absolutely no doubts here, and nothing could change my mind. this show is overall one of the best of the year and anyone who hasn’t watched it should check it out.

I rarely write reviews but this adaptation is a huge disrespect to the original work by Kamishiro Kyousuke. Yes, the title of this anime is certainly giving a 'trashy' impression to viewers but I can promise that the original work runs far deeper than that.

In the light novel, a key part of Tsurekano is about its intricately written plot on the conflicting emotions of Yume and Mizuto regarding their complicated relationship. Their relationship gradually develops and improves as they are forced to live together in the same roof, forcing them to reassess their prejudices and failures of their previous relationship as a couple.

Unfortunately, none ... of these emotions were handled adequately by Project No. 9. They were cut short or simply skipped in the adaptation. Instead, the studio spent its effort on mostly fan service (such as in Episode 1) to generate publicity. Many scenes, including important ones, were literal PowerPoint presentations, showing little to no effort to make them memorable. As a light novel reader, I am really disappointed and angry to see that the anime adaptation is shallow and lacks any sort of substance.

Nonetheless, I think I might certainly have been a little bit biased because I have read the light novel myself and the anime alone might be enjoyable after all. However, please take this review into consideration before judging Tsurekano because in my opinion, the anime does not project a right image on the series itself, which is a huge shame in my book.

One of the best romance anime I've watched, right below kaguya sama and bunnygirl senpai.

The reason the rating is low is because of the title.( My stepmoms daughter is my ex) note: it doesn't have to do with the stepmom and step sister things you all watched on PH. In fact it doesn't have as much fan service as some other romance anime.

The story which is basically the title is a 7/10 for its originality.
The character development is a basic key in a romance story so its guaranteed to be good.

And once again if it wasn't for all the internet clowns hating on everything ... and the countless memes the ratings would have been a lot higher.

Starts off pretty good.
Irido and Yume are exes. However one day they find out that their single parents are getting married to each other.
So now Irido and Yume are stepsiblings living in the same house.

Irido is the emotionless one, he loves reading books, keeps to himself, and doesnt stress about most things. A really great character.
Yume is a former nerd aiming to reinvent herself as the class princess.
The two have a love hate relationship but must try to be on their best behavior to keep their parents happy. But at the same time trying to control the fact that the feelings they ... had for each other is resurfacing.

Like i said it starts off pretty strong. But then devolves into boring, dragged-out garbage.
Mainly because Yume is such an unlikeable character (◔_◔) And the second half of the season focuses so much on her.
She doesnt make a good tsundere. She is written so annoyingly. Always shoving her nose in her ex's/stepbrothers business. And is also a giant c*ckblock. And very possessive.

The other female characters are also a little "crazy" in their own way but atleast they are entertaining. Not like this killjoy who acts like her life sucks when it really doesnt.
She's constantly monologuing in her head about her childhood, and its so tiresome to watch over and over again.
Another thing that drags on for too long is the whole shyness thing. Its so tiresome seeing these shy girls take forever to complete a sentence.

There are other characters like Minami who asks Irido to marry her so she could get close to Yume. A good plot that gets tossed aside way too quickly. Because at this point Minami is a very fun character. But after that plot Minami becomes almost as unlikeable as Yume.

Isana is the best character. And should have been the main character. She has big breasts and is kinda tomboyish. She is very close friends with Irido, and they have a buddy relationship. The interaction between the two is the highlight of the show. Seriously every time these two are together and are just being comfortable with each other it is the best thing ever.

Meanwhile you have Yume and Minami trying to push Isana into a romantic relationship with Irido, even though Isana prefers her current friendship with Irido just as it is.
This is when Yume and Minami are at their most annoying. Trying to play matchmakers. Trying to turn Isana into something she is not.

But Yume is the one you're supposed to be rooting for... You are supposed to be rooting for Irido and Yume to get together. The problem is the other girls would make much better girlfriends for him.
Sometimes the anime isnt sure who is supposed to be the love interest.

Typically in a romance the viewer should want the two main characters to end up together ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Here im rooting for them not to be together. Thats not a good sign.

Total score 7/10
Teenage is the wildest and most vulnerable phase any human has to go through, It is portrayed in anime mainly in the two extremes some have the time of their lives finding the love of their life after an arduous but fulfilling journey, and others go through horrible situations and/or are led to the wrong path only for the Nakama power to save them much later.


This show really went like this for me “ holy shit they are so immature …. I was too … *sob sob*

The scale is balanced just right, the characters are SADLY very relatable even though ... the setting of the anime can easily set off the trash alert of any audience…. Even the ecchi enthusiasts.

Review time

Plot (7/10)
It’s a plot full of convenience, of course, the characters just happened to be ex-lovers and now they just happened to be forced into a situation to be together again, and they happened to decide on an absolute BS method to assert dominance over each other as “ELDER”.Lots of references to other popular LNs and manga are scattered throughout.

Characters (9/10)
This is actually a very cleverly written character drama, you expect trope-filled trash but what you experience is the tragedy of young first love, naiveness, and misunderstandings. The secondary characters are nice and unique too and are actually not one-dimensional and in many cases feel and off as real people with real lives and feelings and they have made some VERY REAL mistakes, that people IRL do quite often as well.

Sound and VA (6/10)
The OP is surprisingly catchy, Ed isn't to my liking. the VA of the MC seems like he is not trying very hard but maybe that's the chara he was given. The other Va s do a very average job, nothing worth being excited about. Very traditional romance OST is also present.

Art and animation (5/10)
The most basic ART that I have seen in quite some time xD, Animation is also not a concern, it kind of feels like a low-budget 2014 moe show.

It is actually pretty enjoyable AS LONG AS one is looking for character chemistry and drama. In other departments, it has not got much promise. If you like a character-driven dialogue-heavy show, this is an easy watch.

tl;dr: A messy but interesting anime about a very messy but interesting relationship.

“Looking back, I can only describe it as a youthful indiscretion, but from my second to third year of middle school, I had what you might call a girlfriend. We can’t go back to how things were. We can’t bring back the happiness we felt back then. And yet… my feeling from that time are still etched into my soul. For now I’m okay with that. We still haven’t fully moved on. But it’s fine. Because I… No, we… have a chance to weave a new tale.”

This anime is the very strange tale ... of Mizuto and Yume, who went out during middle school but broke up at the end of it, only to discover not long after that their respective single parents were getting remarried to each other. Seeing as both of them are good kids that care about their parents happiness, they decide to keep this a secret and do their best to get along as step siblings. However, that’s much easier said than done. The lingering feelings from both their relationship and breakup still remain, and living together just brings them to the forefront.

This anime is one that I found pretty interesting from beginning to end, but at the same time the vast majority of it made very little sense to me. The way both of them act did not feel like that of step siblings nor exes. And by that I mean both exes that hate each or exes that wants to get back together. I suppose this does make sense as it was trying to portray their relationship being a messy combination of all three of the above. They’re incredibly inconsistent and constantly flip flopping, but I suppose that’s the point. And I will be completely honest in saying that I can not even begin to imagine how people with such feelings in such a situation would actually act. So I can not definitively say that this isn’t a realistic depiction. But at the same time, what the hell are these two even doing? Still, even if it doesn’t make sense, how unpredictable it was was pretty engrossing and that was enough to make it entertaining.

The core of why it’s so hard to understand them is that something very important is left with very explanation, the details of their relationship and breakup. The explanation given early on is simply that they came together because they both loved books and then just kind of drifted apart so they broke up. But that really doesn’t explain much. Yume also has a character arc that persists through the first half of the anime centered around her trying to be more popular, but it’s never really elaborated on why she wants to, so she just seems kind of vain. And it really makes no sense at all why Mizuto is trying to her in it, considering he’s a socially aloof introvert.

All of this starts making sense, or at least more sense, in the final third of the anime which goes more in depth into their past. And their relationship turned out to be a lot more interesting than I expected. It’s essentially a relationship that forms between two loners. However, Mizuto was a genuine introvert, while Yume was an extrovert lacking social skills and confidence. And getting into a relationship boosted Yume’s confidence, causing her to become more outgoing which resulted in her drifting away from Mizuto who wasn’t changing. Throw in that they’re both pretty stubborn and not particularly good communicators, and I would be more surprised if their relationship did survive.

The final arc involves fleshing out Mizuto’s character better. As a result Yume really starts thinking about Mizuto and her relationship with him, past and present. As their past relationship has properly been explained at this point, it’s much easier to understand her thought process and in a way Mizuto makes a bit more sense as well. Furthermore, I felt that the plot started moving in a very interesting direction. While the anime was pretty amusing throughout, I feel the last third is where the actual substance of the anime really came into play, and I was really satisfied with it and am very much interested in reading where the story will go from here.

There are also various side characters, though most of them have pretty minimal presence. The ones that stood out were Minami, Kawanami, and Higashira. Minami and Kawanami are basically just thrown in to give each of Yume and Mizuto a friend respectively. It kind of felt like their personality was a bit malleable in order to fit whatever the story needed them to be and the story was also fine with them having long periods with no presence when they weren’t necessary. As such they didn’t leave much of an impression. Much more important was Higashira. She serves as a foil to Yume in that she’s a lot like what Yume used to be like, though with the difference being she’s a genuine introvert and thus clicks even better with Mizuto. As such her presence in the story is to serve as a contrast to Yume, but honestly she has quite a lot of charm of her own and is generally dominates every scene she’s in. She definitely made the anime overall much more enjoyable.

The art and animation were pretty solid. The designs are also decent enough for the setting and were used decently enough. The OP had pretty solid visuals but I can’t say I was much of a fan of the song. On the other hand I absolutely adored the ED’s visuals, song, and especially how they worked so well together. The soundtrack was pretty solid in context but none of the tracks were all that memorable in and of themselves.

Domestic Girlfriend part two came out(Only Joking). My Stepmom’s Daughter is my Ex had a weird premise to get behind, I won't lie, and although I could see why a lot of people would have a hard time watching this, it genuinely had its own little charm as both MCs have they’re own issues and are not over the past relationship that they had, and this anime does a good enough job at explaining their backstory with each other and their own personal flaws. However, unlike its similar counterpart Domestic Girlfriend, this anime didn’t really suffer from moments that were really hard to watch, but ... it was more that it suffered from genuinely really boring and uninteresting stretches.
Art: 7
The art is good for the type of show this is. The animation isn’t anything special, and to be honest, I’ve seen better character designs in the past, but the anime is very dialogue heavy and the colors popped out really well so I can cut it some slack.
Sound: 6
The overall sound design was fine. It wasn’t bad, just not really memorable. I can say the same for both the opening and ending as well. The background music throughout the show wasn’t great either, but it's not annoying and didn’t affect the anime negatively in my opinion.
Characters: 7
Both of the main characters are good in their own right, as I said before the anime does a good job at expressing their flaws, and in all honesty, they act how you would expect teens to act(minus the step-sibling part). I also think Isana is a good addition as she improved the overall pace of the anime, but everyone else kind of falls flat for me, and when they are on screen doesn’t really provide that much entertainment.
Story: 7
The story actually isn’t that bad. I think the characters go through some decent development and they did a really good job at showing the complexity of the ex-couples relationship, and what feelings they still may or may not have. If it wasn’t for some really boring stretches I think this genuinely could've been even better. Overall it's an entertaining quirky anime that yes is a little awkward, but not a bad watch at all.

–Spoiler Free Compact Review–

We’ve hit a new low. Mamahaha no Tsurego is a rip-off of the infamous show “Domestic girlfriend”- but worse. For those who don’t know this story is about how ex couples become siblings. As bad as it sounds there are some aspects which I enjoyed, and some I didn't.

Story 4/10: The story is bland and quite shallow. The comedy is underwhelming and cringe. This show lacks any form of storytelling and substance. If I had to say one good aspect of this show it would be that it's an easy bingley show late at night due to its second rate nature. ... It does have its moments here and there.

Art/Music 5/10: It is certainly Average. It has a forgettable intro and art style along with the fact that the entire thing just seems flat. It just seems so ordinary, I can’t dislike it nor can I genuinely like it.

Characters 3/10: Like the story the depth is lacking. It is unremarkable and empty. Like watching a blank canvas slowly being covered in dust- the development is unremarkable. It is hard to connect to the characters on an emotional level because they seem so fake and unnatural.


Overall the show is underperforming and mediocre. I believe it had many things going for it- which sadly didn’t work out. I wouldn’t recommend this show to anyone because there are countless better shows. There are better ways to spend your precious time. Stay safe guys.

4/10 on the anime meter

My Stepmom's Daughter Is My Ex is cringy but still fun show

Story 6/10
The story is about yume and mizuto before they were siblings they used to be dating but broke up and then there parents got married and now they are brother and sister. The story has some cringy moments but it is a decent story.

Art 5/10
The art is decent not amazing but not horrible.

Sound 5/10
The music is again decent just your standard romance opening.
...
Characters 4/10
The characters are just a bunch of tropes. The main male character is silent but smart protaginist and the main female character is a girl with a brother complex not really the best main characters.

Enjoyment 5/10
My enjoyment of this anime is all right it may cringy but it is still fun.

Overall 5/10
Overall watch this show if you like cringy romance animes.

This anime is a mess. The title is absolutely degenerative and give the anime community a bad rep. These kind of animes only get attention because of how ridiculous and shitty it is. However to my surprise, this anime was oddly entertaining.

Story, Characters: 5 ; Art and Sound:6
This story is as generic as it gets. Probably the most tropey shit I've seen in a while. It has everything you expect. Lewd circumstances, weird coincidences, bad jokes, all the female characters have big boobs, an introverted male lead and forbidden love. MSDIME is not special, it doesn't even try to.

Enjoyment: 7.5
Despite all the shit I threw ... at the anime, it is still so damn entertaining. I can't pinpoint what exactly made my watching experience so enjoyable. Was it the because MSDIME embraced its degenerateness? Maybe it was because it is actually well written? I have no clue. Towards the end though, the episodes became somewhat serious and lost some of its charm. But besides that, I laughed at pretty much every episode.

Overall: 6

One of my favorite Manga to ever exist is Domestic na Kanojo (Domestic Girlfriend). Which had a very similar concept to this anime here, that being former lovers becoming step siblings, the only difference conceptually here there's only one stepsister. Which can be seen as an up or downgrade. My Stepmom's Daughter is my Ex takes this award-winning concept that has for some reason been used twice and offers a much more lighthearted and wholesome story than that of its counterpart. Which at the risk of sounding perverted, I would say is not as good of a way of writing this dynamic.

The reason being, ... at its core, this still absolutely only exists because of an author's sick fantasy. It's quite hard to sell this as some cutesy wholesome relationship dynamic. It's much more of a comedy as well. And I did laugh quite a lot with my sick sense of humor. My expectations for character writing were nonexistent, but for what it's worth I was sort of impressed. The two main characters work very well off each other. Any other characters are sort of bland as in "My whole character is I'm clingy" or the more notable "My whole character is I have big boobs and don't wear socks so you can see my feet" (Although jokes aside I did kinda like her). I may have to read the novel of origin as I did with Domestic na Kanojo to truly appreciate My Stepmom's Daughter is my Ex. Who knows? It's worth a watch at least, the final episode was especially really good. and even without that it's at least pretty funny.

Also, I know this really has nothing to do with the anime, but the peppy opening goes hard as fuck. DIALOGUE+ are the queens of making "Just okay" anime memorable with their opening (EX: Higehiro, This).

In conclusion, Domestic Girlfriend never left me with an itch for more lovers-become-stepsiblings romance, but if it did, this would absolutely scratch that itch. 7/10.

Tsurekano is this season’s generic romcom and doesn’t really do anything to distinguish itself from any of the others that came before it. Nothing in the series is original or refreshing, it’s a stale/bland copy pasta of anime tropes.

When the previews came out, I distinctly people talking about how the show would be wholesome and cute, and while I will certainly agree that the show is not nearly as degenerate as the title would have you think and there are occasional cute moments, it’s still just another mediocre rom com that introduces a best girl only for her to lose. The MC and his ... step-sister/ex gf’s relationship makes absolutely zero progress over the course of 12 weeks and the best moments of the show are when she’s not around. Yume is such a painfully boring and one dimensional love interest that I really wanted to just turn the TV at some points. The whole backstory with she and the MC is so simple and lacking in any type of depth or rationale for me to become invested in them, it was almost comical how much the show tried to shove it down our throats. Of course, when a girl gets introduced who actually does logically flow with the MC, she’s quickly shot down in traditional romcom fashion.

Tsurekano ended up being one of my comfort watches during the season. It’s not a good story by any stretch of the imagination, but it provided some “turn your brain off and enjoy” type of fun. I think if you missed out on this while it was airing it’s not really worth going back to check it out, but there were some genuinely funny moments.

From a technical standpoint nothing really stands out in the show. The designs are rather bland and generic, voice acting is ok, but nothing to write home about and the OST is decent.

Overall Tsurekano is a rather forgettable romcom that we seem to get 2-3 of every season. It has a few funny episodes, acts as a LN plug for Kadokawa’s other properties and provides some mindless entertainment.

Tsurekano gets 6 flashbacks out of 10.

I love anime, the title didn't set any bad expectations even though the premise might already be done to death. If you love these types of anime, this one will not disappoint, the interaction between the two main character is lovable, it has heart, and will stay with you for a while. The pacing is consistent and the show remains fully committed to it's main theme and premise. The couple have great dialogue between each other, a mixture of one-liners, comedy and just general love struck interactions mixed in with tsundere, and you can see their relationship strengthen as each episode goes by. It ... also made me purchase the LN, which expands more on the story and has more flavor. Season 2 needs to be made.

If you are interested in this anime because you are expecting spicy hot domestic girlfriend 2.0 dumpster fire you would be wrong. The step-sibling troupe in this anime was only used as the premise for two ex-couple who have broken up to start learning about each other and themselves and to come to with what had happened.

If you had been in a relationship before or were close to someone and ended up having a fallout. This anime really makes you look back on the mistakes you may have made, such as a lack of communication or a lack of general sense to understand ... the other person. It might make you reflect back perhaps you should have been more forgiving or listened to the other person more. This is what I think is the true beauty of this show.

Throughout the series, this anime bomb you with fan services, and if that turns you off, that is okay. However, the fan service does not remove the fact that this anime has an important message that I believe people, in general, need to learn, whether you had a relationship or not.

If you just started watching, the first half of the series will be more light-hearted like a typical romcom, but the latter half of the series will start diving into their past relationship and I think it is what makes this anime more distinct from the rest. Most anime are either in a relationship or progressing into one, but not many anime I know are about obtaining closure from a breakup.

It would've been ok, but it got generic.
This anime is not special, nor original. It just had at least something different from most generic cliché seasonal anime. Two exes, forced to live together, have to pretend they don't know each other in front of their parents. Also, they had some sort of rules, by which if one of them showed behaviour typical of a couple, they wold receive a punishment.
I'm not sure if this hasn't been done before, as I usually don't watch this genre, but at least it wasn't just another harem romcom, and it kind of remided me of Kaguya-sama. So I thought, ... why not.
Well, the anime became just another harem romcom.

Those rules? Forgotten the next episode, and only brought up when convenient. I thought the anime would focus on how their relationship will develop as now siblings, trying to forget (or not) their past while putting a front for their parents. How would they act if their past relationship was exposed, how will they reconcile their past feelings. Especially as the male protagonist is actively trying to move on, but the female protagonist realices she still has feelings for him.
But no, after some episodes all we see is generic high school scenarios. Stuff seen in any other high school anime. (Almost) nothing to do with the main plot.

To me, the only "interesting" characters are the protagonist. 2nd girl exists solely to create reasons to do more high school stuff, 2nd boy I doesn't do anything, 3rd girl is just there to be taken advantage of.

Would not recomend, unless you enjoy watching the same high school scenarios with slightly different characters.

What can you say about a show, where the plot can be predicted by just reading its title.

Honestly.
This show was supposed to be a refreshing take on the whole high school genre where the MC is actually experienced in relationships
But, without spoiling you the reader.
Here's how it goes
They met, they met again through unforseen circumstances.
They regret, they feel the need to go back.

and of course it's now Sweet Home Alabama but stepsiblings.
...
When despite of their family connections and rules that they put themselves and with almost zero character development.
It's the same game of ego boosting and outright predetatory approaches a day by the day.
What's infuriating is the MC,an actually refreshing take on the usual spineless species.
Despite his backlogs, he's capable of thinking and breathing on the same time.
Yet he goes the way to please one at the cost of multiple others and ultimately himself.

yeah yeah you might go thinking,yeah that's his feelings.

but it was so predictable.
That is what makes it so outright bland and boring.
Thanks for reading.

Looking back, I can only describe it as youthful indiscretion. But the summer between undegrad and grad school, I watched what you might call a dumpster fire.

Every few months, I get an urge to randomly select and then watch a show that I am squarely outside of the target audience for and that I don't particularly expect to enjoy. I like to think that it's a good way to keep my finger on the pulse of artistic movements outside of my otherwise-narrow bubble and, in all honesty, I sometimes come away quite surprised. There are three or four shows like this that I've seen this ... year alone that really blew me away; these positive experiences always end up leaving me encouraged to keep expanding my taste and trying new things. They push me to keep doing what I'm doing!

My Stepmom's Daughter Is My Ex is not one of those shows. Shows like this make me feel like a desperate masochist at the best of times.

Where can I even possibly begin with a show wearing its fetishistic influences so proudly on its sleeves? What is there even to say about a show whose Venn Diagram of influences are a near-even mix between step-sister porn, bad light novel romances, and quippy one liners à la super hero movies? My Stepmom's Daughter Is My Ex puts the trash into trashy and owns it.

It's also absolutely infuriating in its competency.

See, if this show was just a trashy, taboo romance anime, I'd have given it a low score and moved on feeling nearly assuaged in my resentment toward myself for wasting my own time. Nothing about it would have annoyed me so greatly as to write about it.

What pushes this show over the edge and what ultimately pisses me off about it more than anything else is how "fine" it is. The acting is fine, the art is fine, the characters are fine, the pacing is fine, the sound design is fine, the visual story telling is fine, the musical motifs are fine - nothing about the show's structure is anything but fine.

It drives me crazy! How can a show that flirts so brazenly with incest from bottom to top be so competently crafted and just "fine"? How can a show so openly misogynistic be so "ok" in everything about its structure?

The story is bad, reprehensible even. Playing into an incest fetish more and more every episode is not good (wow so brave of me wow). The very notion of this show being taken on by a studio with a decent reputation and being handled so competently is genuinely unsettling and deeply aggravating. Every time a My Stepmom's Daughter Is My Ex gets produced, a different, almost certainly more deserving story gets snubbed. In the zero sum game of corporations controlling art, the mere existence of decently made shows this reprehensible to the core can't be anything except disturbing.

This is the shit that gets made because this is the shit that sells. It breaks my heart.