I'll Live a Long Life to Dote on My Favorite Stepbrother! – Anime Review

Alba is a 4-year-old child who lives with his mother. He has the unique gift of remembering his past life. Previously, he was an office worker who spent most of his time playing video games. He got especially absorbed in a dating sim called Infinite ∞ Destiny, to the point where he was spending half his salary unlocking new content. His favourite character from that game is Lord Orsis. Alba remembers every detail of Orsis's backstory, including his rocky childhood.

Now, Alba has been reincarnated as a character from that video game. Everyone around him treats this place as their reality. Only Alba knows he's actually inside a game. In this world, everyone is born with magical abilities. However, Alba suffers from Laonen's Dysmagia Syndrome. This illness causes magic to drain from his body and puts his life at risk. When his condition worsens, it can feel like having a severe asthma attack. Four-year-old Alba has already come close to dying many times.

His biological father worked tirelessly to keep his sick son alive, but he died in an accident. Now Alba's mother has remarried. His stepfather is a wealthy man who adores her and even paid for Alba's medical expenses. He also has a 9-year-old son named Orsis. Yes, the same Orsis from the video game, except he's the younger version. Alba is thrilled to meet his favourite character in the flesh. Best of all, they're now part of the same family. Alba and Orsis are gonna be stepbrothers.

As excited as Alba is, he has one big concern. According to the game's lore, Orsis becomes distant from his family after his father remarries. Orsis, who still mourns his late mother, resents that his father has moved on. He's especially bitter that his father is so strict with him, yet so tender with his new stepson. That jealousy turns into hatred toward Alba, even though Alba hasn't done anything wrong.

Alba worries that he might be the cause of Orsis's miserable childhood. Orsis is his bias from the video game, so he only wants the best for his favourite character. Alba sets out to repair the relationship between Orsis and his father. Even though the canon story says Orsis grew up unhappy, Alba believes he can change history. Despite being just a kid, he already has a surprising amount of influence over Orsis and the rest of his family.

I regret watching I'll Live a Long Life to Dote on My Favorite Stepbrother. From the first episode, I had a gut feeling I wouldn't enjoy this anime. The story felt way too childish. Also, I kept wondering whether it was mislabelled as BL, given that the main character is only four years old. I considered quitting rather than wasting my time on this. But then again, the whole series is only 40 minutes long. How bad could it be…? And now, here I am, forcing myself to review an anime I have zero enthusiasm for.

The anime has a quirky premise. Alba used to play a dating sim, and now he's literally reincarnated inside that game. Cool concept, right? Alba lives in a world full of magical fantasy, yet we hardly see any of it. I wanna explore the magical spells and see how this fantasy world compares to ours. Think Harry Potter… Think Percy Jackson… Those beloved series put magical realism front and centre, which makes them so unique. Unfortunately, this anime never elaborates on the setting. For a story that takes place inside a fantasy video game, it weirdly ignores the most interesting part of the plot.

This anime focuses a lot on Orsis, the older stepbrother. He's literally in the series title, so you'd think the anime would bother to develop him. Nope! Alba fawns over Orsis like he's the most amazing person alive, and I'm sitting here like… why, though? Who the hell is Orsis? What makes him interesting? The anime has no answers for me. Orsis exists purely so Alba has someone to dote on. He's a plot device with a face. Zero personality. Never does or says anything memorable. Orsis is supposed to be a central character, but the story gives him no meaningful development.

Both main characters are really young. Alba is 4 years old, while Orsis is only a few years older. Even though this anime is branded as BL, there's nothing romantic. It's mostly just Alba acting starstruck around his stepbrother, sparkly eyes and all, exclaiming things like "Oh, he looks so cool!" Technically, the BL element is buried in Alba's flashbacks, where he had a crush on Adult Orsis from a dating sim. Now THAT sounds like a fun anime. Too bad we didn't get that storyline. Instead, we're watching two children have an innocent sibling relationship and calling it BL.

I'll Live a Long Life to Dote on My Favorite Stepbrother doesn't look like a modern anime. It goes for a storybook illustration style, so everything has a softer and dreamier appearance. I don't mind that artistic choice. If done well, it can look really charming. The problem is that the art quality sucks. For every decent scene, so many others are just drawn terribly. Oh my god, Alba would look SO ugly sometimes! Truly a face only a mother could love! The animation is also as minimal and low-effort as it gets, limited to the characters moving their mouths or reaching out their hands.

Early on, it dawned on me that I wasn't the target demographic for this anime. This feels like a bedtime story for kids. The plots are very simple, partly because the series is really short, so there's no room for depth. But also, the writing is too basic. The plot developments are too obvious. The morality lessons are heavy-handed, like somewhere along the lines of "Yay! Everyone should get along!" Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I didn't enjoy I'll Live a Long Life to Dote on My Favorite Stepbrother. It's poorly written, poorly drawn, and it's not even BL. It has failed on every level.