I’m a sucker for romantic comedies… even if the premise looks like hot garbage. That seems to be the case for My Stepmother’s Daughter is My Ex (Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano datta). I’ve seen this whole stepsiblings in love story before but this one seemed to have a bit of a twist on it. Can this really set itself apart and do something that shows like this fail to pull off? In other words, can this not be a hot garbage guilty pleasure?
Let’s Go!
First Episode Synopsis
Mizuto and Yume find themselves as brother and sister after their parents remarried. Before the marriage, they used to date but broke up because they couldn’t stand one another. Now, they have to put on an act in front of their parents while hiding their past from them.
Right off the bat, we are taken to them squabbling over trivial matters… such as who should be regarded as the oldest sibling. Technically, it is Yume since she was born 34 minutes before Mizuto on the same day (which I found to be a rather cheap plot device). Then Mizuto had the nerve to argue about ancient Japan and how they determined which sibling was the oldest. It just seemed like really poor writing over an obvious answer all for the sake of “comedy.”
Next, they start their first day of high school and while Yume is making friends, Mizuto finds out that some boys like Yume and are just using him to get to her. That storyline goes nowhere and just kind of gets forgotten all for the sake of moving on to building some tension between the two while they are at home alone. Yume tries to tease Mizuto but they end up almost falling in love with one another until the well-timed return of their parents.
The reason why this is significant is that the entire episode sets up the main premise where the two of them decide to play a game with one another where they are forced to act as brother and sister and if one of them fails to do so, they receive a fault. The one with the most faults at the end of this game has to acknowledge the other as the older sibling and address them as such… even though it should be, by all technicalities, Yume…
Worth Watching?
MAYBE – While the first episode’s writing was a bit non-sensical, it wasn’t a total dumpster fire that I expected it to be. There were some sweet moments but it needs better balance. Going back and forth between hating each other, liking each other, tolerating each other, and then acting like caring siblings at random points is just weird. It’s like the show was trying to find its identity rather than establishing it.
Outside of those qualms, there is room for some good comedy here but the first episode didn’t really have much that would be considered good. In addition, it’s working with a formula that will get old really fast unless it establishes a centralized plot to work everything they set up so far around. That could very well prove to be a challenge as shows like this tend to just go for the one off joke while throwing in a bunch of romantic tension followed by predictable squabbling.
While this show isn’t going to win any awards, it has the potential to be a good time killer which is why I’m giving it a MAYBE instead of a NO. I see the potential here and I want to hold out just enough to see if the show can reach it.
That… and plus I’m a sucker for romcoms…. Even if they are trashy. Perhaps a fault of mine?
Meh.
