Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano datta
My Stepmom's Daughter Is My Ex

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Easily the best LN I have ever read. Watching the anime made me curious about how the relationship between the main two characters progressed.

The author does a great job of jumping between different character's perspectives throughout the story. I think that this makes the story more enjoyable since the author can decide the best perspective for us to see certain situations through.

For example - If one character is confessing to another, the author can decide for us to be experiencing this from the perspective of the character confessing or from the one being confessed to. Maybe the first half of the situation is told ... to us from one perspective. Then half way through the confession, it could jump to the other person's perspective.

I like that that is often how it happens rather than the same situation being told multiple times by different people for different perspectives. That would make the plot move too slowly.

The pacing of this feels just right to me. It moves fast enough to keep me interested but also takes an ample amount of time with finer details in the characters' inner monologues.

The Anime is a decent adaptation, but it just can't take the place of the details in this LN.

I feel that the novel's weakest point is the introduction of the student council. While it wasn't bad, I was a bit resistant to the change at first.

I enjoyed that this novel didn't contain too many characters. So the author was able to do a lot with the few characters we had.

With the introduction of so many new characters through the student council, it took a bit for me to adjust to. I thought that the execution was decent, but it wasn't as well done as the introduction of Mizuto's extended family. (Likely because there were less characters introduced all at once).

I did understand that the student council characters are essential for the growth of our main characters, though.

The progression of the love story is just right. You are first presented with the current situation the exes are in as they are forced into becoming step siblings. You then are able to get some background as to why they became exes. You then see how complicated their feelings are. Then you gradually see their present and how they start to move forward and how they feel about it.

The characters are also just great. While there are characters with some similar traits (some introverted and nerdy, some extroverted, etc.), they all have unique traits about them that make them stand out. Although I was a bit overwhelmed when so many student council characters were introduced almost all at once, I feel that they all serve an important purpose in the story. I don't feel that there are any filler characters.

Even more interesting than the characters themselves are the relationships between the multiple characters. The author does a great job showing the interactions between the different characters. Of course, since this is in a light novel format, sometimes it does get confusing when 3-4 people are having a conversation and you can't always tell who is saying what during a back and forth, if you re-read those conversations you can tell who is who by the way they are speaking.

This has just the right amount of humor, build up, satisfaction, and pacing. I'm not a big light novel reader, but I find myself reading this for hours at a time.

The story slowly unravels itself with such expertise and perfect pacing that I am constantly wanting to keep learning.

The translation is very good. I typically am not able to get too immersed in books, but with this, I find myself lost in this fictional universe as I read while hours go by.

I very highly recommend this light novel.

Having read the light novel up to volume 12, one conclusive statement that can be made is that the novel does a an excellent job when it stays true to its intended theme. This is a story about two ex-lovers being put into an abrupt relationship as step-sibling, and them, through daily interactions, exploring their past, retracing every wrong moves and trying to rekindle their past love.
Chapter 1 to 6 is awsome. 7 introduces the student council( still good), 8 is objectively bad, 9 and 10 covers very important progressions, 11 is a mystery spinoffs, 12 gives the spotlight to the childhood pair. Overall, ... a 7( would give it like 7.6 if the option existed, It's definitely better than a 7 but giving it a 8 would be too much.

Here's what i like about this

(spoilers alert)













-The main characters

Mizuto, at the start of the series, seemed the typical cool guy that seems nonchalant about romance and mostly rational. Most of the time, these kind of mcs can feel bland due to them lacking emotional depth. But the execution of mizuto is really well done. Throughout the stroy, Mizuto always keeps his cool side, but he always make an effort to break out of his shell just for yume. And by volume 12, his character development is very very noticable.

Yume is easily one of my favorite fmcs in the romance game. She doesnt fall under any of the tsundere or kuudere kinda stereotypes. She is ,like most highschool girl, chaotic. And her character gets better with every voulme. She's shy when she needs to be, and she's bold when the time is right. She always have problems with the MC but always manage to sort it out. Vol 4 to 6 were amazing at showcasing this couple.

-The climax

They are simply amazing. The way the plot naturally builds up to reach the climax and just how good they are really make the novel worth continuing.

-The story-telling and pacing

The novel jumps around the character's pov and let the readers explore their thoughts. This significantly enhances immersion and explains why a certain character would do something. The author absolutely nails this feature in climaxes, rapidly changing the povs letting us experience the scenes from both perspective.

(MAJOR SPOLIER)

[spoiler]hidden text[/spoiler]It took 9 volumes for them to finally get back together but most of these volumes greatly contributed to their relationship, and in fact it would be more unrealistic for them to get back together earlier in the series.[spoiler]hidden text[/spoiler]
Overall, the pacing is very good only with the exception of the student council arc.

Some other things to consider. These are not clears flaws or dislikes (some are) but depending on the reader, reading experience may vary.

-Higashira

Let me clarify. i dont dislike her but she is very confusing as a character as her role in the story is very unclear. She's got too much screen time and character depth to be passed off as a comedy relief or fanservice character, but she didn't put up much of a fight to be called a love rival. Her chemistry and interactions with mizuto are very enjoyable, and this kind of dynamics would have worked way better if the author didnt make higashira a love interest.

-The student council

I know that this arc was meant to serve a plot point for yume where she would become more confident and learn from everyone around to further develop her relationship with mizuto. But with the introduction of many new characters and their relationships, it just feels excessive. i don't find the couples in this arc interesting at all, and overall the novel would have been far better without this arc.

-Adult scenes and language

I don't personally mind it but the series doesn't really hold back when it comes to topics of sexual interactions between characters. I find this part realistic but may feel explicit for some readers.

-The side couple

Kawanami and Minami were mostly there just to support the main couple in the earlier volumes. They themselves didn't get significant romantic progression until later in the series. But as characters, they both are very well-written and, even without romantic progression, they each developed their character along with the main couple. Overall, they make the story more enjoyable. The only very specific problem would be for some readers to prefer the side couple over the main couple and wanting progression.

The art

-Yes, this is nitpicking. Artworks are not really important for light novels, but if the art is not consistent or up to standard, it can break immersion because in a normal book, we let our imagination do the work of visualizing the character. But when the author does it for you, the characters' appearances become universal. So it leaves you a bit disappointed when the art is not good. The cover arts of this novel are great but the inserted art between pages don't get the same treatment. They are inconsistent and sometimes just look bad. But this is by no means a major issue and doesn't effect the story at all. So this part can be ignored.


Overall, the series is worth reading if you can only focus on the good part. If you can ignore some parts of this, the series easily becomes a 100% recommended because the romance part of this feels very realistic and mature. So a 7 would be reasonable for this series.

Like many people, I was intrigued by the premise having seen an ad for the anime on Youtube, and wound up reading the manga followed by all eight (8) volumes of the Light Novel (thanks Hellping) because I grew invested in the story.

If I was to sum up the pith of the narrative, it is about two people finding their place with each other as sibilings / potential lovers, despite carrying the baggage of having broken up with each other some two weeks before the main narrative begins. The key questions are: what does it mean to be a lover, where does the line ... between former lovers / family get blurred, and the inbetween.

I will admit, while I was initially thrilled by the direction taken by the author for the first 6 - 7 volumes, I slowly came to realise what a train-wreck of a story it started to grow into by the final and most recent volume (8).

Being primarily a romance story, I will focus on that aspect in this review to see if it holds water as a "romance" story.

In terms of the romance between the titular main couple,

[spoiler]

my humble opinion is that the author has either totally lost the plot, or has decided, rather disingenuously, to string readers along with a patently meaningless love triangle, particularly WRT Isana, whom the author has expressly said in various of his afterwords for the earlier volumes, that she wasn't even in the race to begin with.

Having read all of the author's afterwords in from Vol. 1 - 7, and then finally reading Volume 8, I cannot help but feel that the author has totally betrayed his characterisation of the Mizuto in a complete volte face by causing him to suddenly develop feelings for Isana, when at least up to to the end of Vol 7, Mizuto states in no uncertain terms that he is interested / loves Yume.

I can appreciate that "love" is a complex things. Sometimes "side-baes" or love triangles in anime / manga / LNs receive characterisation so that they are not built as flat characters. And to that end, it is true that Mizuto condoning Isana's flirtations towards him ARE the source of his own destruction / the destruction of the Mizuto / Yume ship... but what I cannot accept is that the author has simply written Mizuto as a character that repeats again and again that he has no feelings for Isana, and that he has eyes only for Yume, and yet that catastrophe that was Vol. 8 could happen.

This coupled by the fact that the author's afterwords from Vol. 6 onwards seem to imply (to me at least) that he is extending the story for the sake of it. Money? Unclear... but this feels like a sus callback to what is happening with feaking Oregairu and its money-eyed author.

Call it "realistic" writing, but I feel cheated. [/spoiler]


*edited to make spoiler section clear - don't know how to blank out the spoiler portions.