Title: Days with My Stepsister Vol. 2
Author: Ghost Mikawa (Original Story), Yumika Kanada (Story), Hiten (Characters)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 162
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Drama
Publication Date: January 21, 2025
The Story
The biggest focus in the second volume is on getting Saki to study properly to clean up her one weakness… modern Japanese. She has a difficult time understanding the characters in books because she cannot relate to their emotions, feelings, and mannerisms towards certain situations. Yuta decides to help by seeking advice on study habits and, eventually, gets advice from Yomiura about using background music. He finds a soothing hip-hop track and lets Saki listen to it and it helps her out greatly.
With things going well with Saki, Yuta goes to work and finds an ordering error for a new book. Yomiura ordered twenty copies but only received two. She wanted multiple copies because the movie adaptation had been playing all summer and she thought that it would make the store some money. Yuta realizes that summer is coming to a close soon so he would need to see the movie soon. Yomiura suggests seeing it after work and so they go and watch it. Yuta tells his father he’s going out but opts not to tell Saki since he doesn’t see a reason she would need to know.
When Yuta returns, Saki is passed out in the living room with her textbooks open. The next day, Saki begins to think about Yuta, why he didn’t text her, and what that could mean. It also makes her interested in checking out books so she pays a visit to the bookstore; however, her visit turns into something that Yuta never expected to happen!
Characters
Yuta continues to try and be a proper brother to Saki. He went through so much trouble by asking a few different people about effective and efficient study methods to help Saki get her grades up in her one weak subject. It shows that he’s trying really hard to make this work so that his parents can be happy and comfortable with their decision to re-marry. In addition, he wants Saki to be comfortable around him. Throughout the volume, the biggest thought on Yuta’s mind is that he hopes he and Saki and become more like real siblings.
Saki, on the other hand, seems indifferent as usual; however, she does show deep appreciation for all of the work Yuta is putting in to help her. While she’s not doing anything over the top, offering to make him breakfast is a subtle way for her gratitude. When Yuta rejects her offer and says that he’ll just grab a piece of toast, you can see the hurt in her eyes even though, on the outside, she accepts his decision. Her subtle jealousy over him going to the movies with Yuimura is another sign that things are changing inside of her… and what really sells it is her sudden interest in the bookstore. If anything, Saki is changing much more rapidly than Yuta!
Yuimura, on the other hand, is still silly and outgoing. She’s a fun character but there are hints here that she has a thing for Yuta; however, I wonder how legal that truly is since she’s in college and he’s still in high school! Still, there are hints of romantic interests there but it could just be Yuimura being Yuimura since she can be kind of a flirt for no reason at all.
Final Thoughts
Having seen the anime first, there were some things cut from this volume. The whole music video when Saki listened to the song is gone and the whole movie that they showed when Yuta and Yuimura went to see it was cut, too but it’s understandable because how are you supposed to convey those things effectively in black and white still images? It’s a bit hard and that’s why anime adaptations can be a bit more profound.
Other than that, things were spot on; however, it’s still the same observation that I had with the first volume in the sense that the manga reads more upbeat than the anime where things were serious and silence was used masterfully. Here, you don’t feel any of that and it makes you feel as if you are reading a standard slice-of-life story than watching a drama unfold but in a sense, this is great because as you read each word, you can absorb yourself into the things that are happening more and get a better understanding.
Either way you slice it, this was a great follow-up to the first volume. Watching Saki change faster than Yuta is interesting; however, there is definitely some evidence there that suggests Yuta is aware of, at least, some feelings for Saki. For now, he’s just telling himself they want to be better siblings but when he talks to Yuimura about seeing the movie and she asks if he’s going to text Saki to let her know he’ll be out late, that’s where those subtle notes begin to play… not necessarily in the dialogue but the facial expressions. This is a series that makes you pay attention and when you do, it’s so rewarding!
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