My Stepmom's Daughter Is My Ex

Episode 11

It's a shame that there were points while watching where I genuinely felt like I was falling asleep despite the fact that this is once again a very well written and emotionally driven episode. This show continues to impress me with its ability to tap into those feelings of longing and guilt from a believable perspective of immature teenagers that are still figuring things out. The main focus of this episode was on Yume finally reflecting on the fact that she might have glorified Mizuto a little bit too much while they were dating. It was already clear that based off of the flashbacks of them together that these two had a little bit of codependency going on considering that they didn't seem to really associate with anybody else besides each other. They were two lonely people that ended up not being so lonely together and then, when there was miscommunication, both of them went to opposite extremes in how to deal with that loneliness. However there never really seemed to be a point where either of them wondered what the other person was going through and Yume seems to take that first step here.

The fact that it's triggered by her visiting Mizuto's family and getting a better understanding of what he went through with his father when his mother passed away so early in his life was kind of brilliant. Mizuto isn't this perfect savior that has all the right answers like Yume subconsciously kept thinking of him as. He's kind of a damaged and secluded loner who needed to be self-sufficient with his dad in order to get by. There's a lot that he doesn't understand and he probably didn't even know that he was having that expectation put on him, which just makes him all the more confused when he gets looked at in a certain way. This episode was definitely a lot quieter compared to previous ones which isn't necessarily a bad thing as being out in the countryside, away from the city and their friends, is probably the best way that Yume could've come to this conclusion. Unfortunately, because barely any music is playing and because the show really doesn't have an interesting visual direction, it's very easy to feel like you're watching a lot of slow moving parts and that can make certain points of the episode drag on. Which again is a shame because this is an interesting episode with a lot to talk about, I just wish that everything else about the show was on par with the writing quality on display.

Now the question is, what was Yume going to say at the end? She's alone with Mizuto and she realizes that she needs to say something to him even though it'll be painful for the both of them, but they don't end up getting that far because they end up embracing each other in a moment of weakness. The point is that we as the audience didn't get to hear what she wanted to say and I think this is going to be the climax for the season. I feel like whatever conversation is on the horizon is going to capstone this emotional tension that has been building up between these two since they were first announced to siblings. It could go in a multitude of different directions and I have my own personal feelings on where I think the show should go, but it's not up to me to determine that. We'll just have to wait and see

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My Stepmom's Daughter Is My Ex is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.