My Stepmom's Daughter Is My Ex

Episode 9

Well this was a surprising but much needed turn of events. Most of the show has given us little hints and insights into our main couples past relationship almost as if it's using it as a framing device to properly set up some of the issues that are left unresolved in their current relationship. However, this episode is 95% flashback, going into the main bulk of the relationship between these two in the past right up until they finally broke up. Some of it does dip into melodramatic territory and that classic issue of two people misunderstanding things and waiting for the other person to reach out, but I think the show does justify this being the payoff for how these two ended up in the relationship that they're in right now because at the end of the day, they're just young adolescent kids that still don't know how to process their emotions.

I define romance in both my personal life and in art by the amount of legwork that goes into building that relationship up and maintaining it. It's easy to get lost in the simple pleasures and pains that come with being in a relationship, but the important thing is being able to contextualize and work through those highs and lows. These two did the first half but they were clearly having issues with the second half. A lot of the little moments and promises that they made felt good, giving them a sense of happiness to look forward to. However, inversely, little things were also made to be bigger deals than they should've been due to their own personal insecurities. When that communication continued to get strained between them, they both went in opposite directions regarding how to cope with it and it didn't look that good from the other side. At first Yume seemed to wait for Mizuto in the same way that she always did because he always sort of came to her rescue. But he got jealous that she started spending more time with other people and in some ways, probably didn't need him as much as she originally did. So when communications got strained and she started spending even more time with her friends to fill in the void, that probably looks like she was choosing those things over him.

Inversely, Mizuto might act all cool and collected but he is very much a social recluse. He keeps a lot of things to himself and doesn't generally interact with a lot of people because it doesn't seem like he really needed anybody else besides Yume in his life. It's not that he wasn't friendly with people when they approached him, but he arguably put a little bit too much stock in his relationship with her and that's why it hurt so much when they stopped spending as much time together. When he dealt with the lack of communication by isolating himself even more, Yume saw that as a sign of being ignored and neglected. Neither of these two handled things the best and it's clear that the issue stemmed more from their own personal insecurities rather than not working as a couple. Sometimes that's just what happens in relationships and while there were some accusations that I don't think were necessarily needed, like I said, I can forgive it because of just how immature these two were and arguably still are. It's kind of the point.

The ending was interesting because I feel like it opens up the possibility of where these two can go from here. There was a part of me that thought that the show would need to end with them establishing some kind of new relationship but as it went on I wasn't sure if it needed to be inherently romantic anymore. These two definitely have lingering feelings and an overall attraction towards each other but if you think about it, the frustrating nature of their current situation has sort of forced them to comfort each other in ways that they originally didn't. The fact that Mizuto just straight up said that he chickened out on getting physically intimate with Yume when he couldn't admit that before was funny but it technically shows that these two are better at communicating their feelings towards each other or at the very least, they aren't afraid of holding back their feelings from each other in a way that's different from before. I won't say it's better or anything because just because you are able to communicate doesn't mean that hostility should play a part in it but it was a nice way to round out the episode and have things come full circle. Now that we know the full story though, I feel like these last couple of episodes will primarily focus on where to go moving forward because anything else would just feel redundant. What kind of relationship do these two want from each other and will they develop the mental and emotional maturity to do it? Those are the two questions that I would like to be answered before the show is over.

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