Boku no Tsuma wa Kanjou ga Nai

Takuma Kosugi is an office worker who does not have enough time to take care of everything at home. To make his daily life easier, he purchases a secondhand housekeeping robot named Mina, who quickly proves her worth. One day, after returning from work and having one too many beers, Takuma somewhat jokingly blurts out that she should become his wife! Much to his surprise, Mina takes his words seriously, and the two gradually begin living as if they are married.

As the days go by, Takuma and Mina grow closer and start doing more activities together, like going on a picnic and spending a day at the beach. However, much of society still considers human-robot relationships unusual. The couple must figure out if their arrangement can succeed and how to convince the people around them of their sincerity.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Mina Main

Inagaki, Konomi Japanese

Kosugi, Takuma Main

Toyonaga, Toshiyuki Japanese

Mamoru Supporting

Wakai, Yuuki Japanese

Kosugi, Akari Supporting

Aoyama, Yoshino Japanese

Ootani, Tomikazu Supporting

Umeda, Shuuichirou Japanese

Kosugi, Emi Supporting

Hiramatsu, Akiko Japanese

Aikawa Supporting

Hori, Soushirou Japanese

Minegishi, Koushirou Supporting

Takase, Akimitsu Japanese

Demeter VI Supporting

Kanemoto, Hisako Japanese

John Supporting

Kawamoto, Kunihiro Japanese

Konishi, Yuuki Producer

Kishida, Takuma Producer

Yoshimura, Fumihiro Director

Itou, Takumi Sound Director

Reviews

Sep 14, 2024

Stark700

Recommended

With technology advanced this far in our society today, we may wonder when robots and machines will take over our lives. It's no secret that AI has emerged as a tool in recent years in various sectors of the industry. When will we have robots roaming around our neighborhood? Or even more interesting to ask, what if robots can build a meaningful relationship with humans?

My Wife Has No Emotions is an anime that crosses the boundary into those questions. It's not the first title that explored such a premise. One might remember a show called 'Chobits' that aired in 2002 that featured a prominent relationship ... between a robot and human. Nonetheless, My Wife Has No Emotion experiments with how a robot interact with a human in similar ways. Because in this show's world, robots truly has evolved to a point where they can become partners with their customers. Takuma Kosugi finds this out after issuing a command to his robot Mina to become his "wife".

As simple as the plot sounds, it can also be deceptively complex. The story presents the opportunity to explore how and what robots feel. The most prominent is the Mina we see in the promotional videos and poster. There are other models including the Super Mina but at its core, the main premise deals with Takuma and Mina's relationship. Their chemistry at its most fundamental level can be described as awkward. While Takuma does have geninue feelings towards Mina, the latter has a hard time realizing what love is. She adapts with her environment, while learning about the real world in a slice-of-life style. Every episode sets off an adventure that experiments with Mina's behavior. At times, it also feels like a sitcom as certain events are situational with various results. It adds humor whenever we see Mina defy common sense. However, adapting this show also faces challenges with it relates to romance. There's no doubt that Takuma adores Mina as a wife. However, Mina has difficulty expressing her own emotions because of her programming. Watching this anime will tests the viewers' patience as it takes time for her to learn about love.

Even as a housewife, Mina displays a remarkingly amount of human-like emotions even in early episodes. She's programmed to do household chores but that doesn't stop her from stepping out of her comfort zone. This includes places such as the beach, going to picnics, or even interacting with other Mina models. She has such a presence that it's impossible to just see her as a preprogrammed bot. It's noticable that throughout the series, she builds an unique relationship with another machine called Mamoru. Unlike Mina, Mamoru is much less human-like. This contrasts with characters such as the Super Mina, who is able to express a hyper level of energy.

With 12 episodes, it adapts the fundamental elements of the series' themes. Beyond exploring the relationship between human and machine, there's also more in depth character study of Takuma. We see that he is deep down a lonely man who wants companionship. Even though he realizes it's not completely real, Takuma values Mina as a wife. No, not trophy wife but a geninue wife that he cares of. It's also no secret that his lonliness causes self doubt. The show skillfully adapts Takuma as a salarayman that we can relate to in the real world.

This show isn't known for its production quality but we should accept that Mina is adapted with care and credibility. She looks, acts, and behaves like a robot when performing her daily duties. The most noticable features are her eyes and lack of smile when on-screen. Because she has no real emotion, Mina behaves like how we expect her to. She says what Takuma wants to hear although at times, she also questions herself that even goes against her programming. Nonetheless, Mina has a delicate face for a robot and her chemistry with Takuma is undeniable. Tezuka Productions is a very old studio but they managed to bring this show to a modern audience.

While not achieving mainstream success, My Wife Has No Emotion can be watched just about anyone. It's recommendable because of how both simple and deceptively complex both the main characters are. Also, it's a breath of fresh air when every season in recent years is dominated by fantasy, isekai, and rom-coms. Sometimes, a show like this is just made to enjoy.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 15, 2024

literaturenerd

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

My Wife has No Emotion is a series that I watched at the behest of an offline buddy who has always fancied himself as somewhat of a contrarian. He goes out of his way to avoid watching anything popular or anything that anyone in his social group recommends to him. Instead, he searches for hidden gems that aren’t well liked but that he can try find his own value in as opposed to trying to appreciate masterpieces based on what other people have said about them. “An ounce of my own wit is worth more to me than a ton of knowledge that comes from ... others”. This quote actually comes from the narrator’s father in the novel Tristram Shandy but could easily be something my longtime friend would say. Anyways, this anime is much like the man who recommended it to me in that it’s difficult to easily categorize and also really frustrating at times.

My Wife has no Emotion is the story of a 24-year-old virgin male who slaves away at a shitty office job and doesn’t have the time to really bother with dating. Even if he tried to make time, he’s socially awkward and in the bottom 20% of the social pecking order. He’s completely given up that he will ever find anyone. So, he decides to alleviate his crippling loneliness by ordering a gynoid robot that is programmed to cook, clean, and obey his every command. However, something odd happens with her programming and she begins to show signs that she cares for him, which causes him to fall madly in love with her and marry her. The immediate assumption that one might have based on this description is that this series is a shameless fantasy for Japanese incels in their 20s. To this I would have to respond with the cliché answer of “Yes…but also no.” In a traditional fantasy for lonely guys, the robot girl Mina would be heavily sexualized, and this would lead to a lot of spicy moments. This anime really doesn’t have a sexual element. This is entirely about some form of companionship to battle against lifelong loneliness. Mina looks like a robot, talks like a robot, and acts like a robot. She is incapable of performing sexual acts and nobody would even want her to. This is a fantasy aimed at extremely lonely guys, but nobody is going to point fingers at it and call it “gross” or “sexist”. Instead, the first half of the series is best described as just…sad. Really sad. This is a fantasy in which the answer is just to completely give up and buy yourself a ChatGPT with a vaguely female shaped body and live with a mediocre imitation of other men’s fulfilling relationships rather than having nothing. We’re not that far off from having the technology where this could be entirely feasible, and this series is here celebrating it. I don’t know how to feel about that.

This is an anime that will keep you guessing, by which I mean that it never really goes the way you think it will go. There are a number of directions that the story could take with its premise. You could have a slapstick comedy with jokes coming from the fact that she’s just a robot and it leads to hilarious misunderstandings. You could have a wholesome romance that wishes to defend non-traditional relationships by teaching the audience that not every couple needs to have kids to have meaning and value. You could create a dystopian satire that skewers Japan’s work culture and the modern dating scene in the internet age. You could create a psychological drama in which the guy sees his robot as his beautiful wife, but it’s clear to the audience and everyone else in the series that the guy is completely insane. My Wife decides to go with an odd mixture of option 1 and 2. However, it doesn’t really accomplish either very well. It doesn’t succeed as a comedy because it’s not funny. It’s never funny, even on accident. It doesn’t really accomplish the second because Mina is a robot that acts like a robot. Chobits works because Hideki and Chii have chemistry. They’re actually really cute together. Chii is an actual AI that doesn’t act like a stereotypical robot. Chobits doesn’t give a shit about the 3 Laws of Robotics or the legal ramifications of owning a robot or any of the stuff that My Wife goes into detail with. That’s because Chobits is largely using human x robot relations as a metaphor for something else. Something that would have been a little controversial to outright celebrate in a 2002 anime airing on Japanese television. Japan was culturally at different place in 2002, where even the Utena manga had the cut down on the gayness since one of the illustrators was deeply disgusted by homosexuality and threatened to leave the project if Ikuhara insisted on making Utena lesbian. I went WAY off topic, where was I? Ah yes, back to My wife. My Wife really does want to be about human x robot relations, and make it wholesome, and celebrate it as an alternative to being a forever alone loser. I honestly don’t think it succeeds very well in this.

In the second half of the series, Mina buys a medical robot to take Takuma’s temperature and keep him healthy while she’s getting some upgrades at the factory. Due to a plot convenient programming error, his factory set personality is deleted and his AI learning picks up habits and characteristics of both Takuma and Mina, making this weird little bird robot their “son”. The little bastard looks and sounds like this toy called “Gotta Go Flamingo”…and yet he’s the best part of this show. Mina’s jealousy and resentment towards her “son” Mamoru offers the first bits of character drama and development in this mess. This was a show entirely without conflict or drama of any kind, so this is very welcome. The little shit is also pretty cute, which allows My Wife to actually hit some of those wholesome scenes that it’s been wildly missing up to this point. In the climax of the series, Takuma presents his wife and son to his parents. You would think that they’d be deeply disappointed which leads to a big confrontation for the finale. Nope! They are maybe just a little disappointed, but they had no hopes for the lad anyways and this is better than nothing. Um…cool? There is actually a pretty well-done scene where Takuma is talking to his father and his dad tells him that not everyone needs to have biological children to be loved and accepted. He tells Takuma that he needs to stop worrying so much about what others think and focus on living his own best life. I must give credit where it’s due to My Wife for the fact that its last episode was easily its best. It went out swinging and I have to respect that! It was sadly too little too late to save the series from a 4 rating, but it actually tried when I thought it was just going to rest on its haunches.

My Wife Has no Emotion is one of the odder entries of the season. It’s not a great anime I would recommend to people, but it’s not just pure trash. It’s certainly wish fulfillment for lonely men, but not like you would expect. It made me think and question things, but this is far from being an artsy or philosophical series. This was made by Tezuka Productions and some talented people worked on this, but most of the time it doesn’t really live up to its pedigree in the visuals department. Both the OP and ED are quite catchy as if someone really had faith in this production, but based on its visuals I don’t think it was a high budget project for Tezuka Productions. The manga this series is based on isn’t very popular or critically acclaimed on either side of the Pacific, so I’m not entirely sure how this even got made. Not only did it get made, but it aired on Japanese television on the same mainstream channel that aired all the JoJo anime and Attack on Titan! It’s puzzling, it’s bizarre, it’s…kind of meh. I’d probably just skip this one if I were you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Sep 22, 2024

Chuy_diazz

Not Recommended

Well-written

A rather shady story, but it still tries to make you the only one who thinks it's shady.

The theme of a relationship between a robot and a human has been explored in many other works, so it shouldn't be something new. The problem is the way in which they decide to approach this theme. In the case of this anime, from the beginning they sold you in a very convincing way that the robot is an appliance. She can't process emotions or understand the emotions she receives. The protagonist often treats her like an appliance, but they still want to sell you that they are ... in a marriage. The whole story from chapter 1 to chapter 12 is a mere self-indulgence of the protagonist. They constantly show you situations that are not right or feel strange or uncomfortable, but they still give it to you as any other event of the romance genre. The truth is that the robot, unable to process emotions, only bases her actions on an algorithm that is based on the desires and requests of the protagonist. Which makes the robot the ideal woman for the protagonist, but with no conflict.

The romance never grows, because from the beginning you can see that what there is between them is not love. It is something sadder, it is an illusion created by a lonely man with enough money. I think that exploring the loneliness of the average Japanese was an interesting idea and it tries to show this idea but it falls short. They may have realized that showing the reality of the situation would be too sad for a "romance". The work feels like we take our cell phone, set the assistant to a female voice and introduce her to our friends and family as our wife. Just thinking about it feels weird, it feels uncomfortable and yet the protagonist's environment is written to satisfy his selfishness and not tear down the weak happy life he has built.

Multiple scenarios, multiple events where they try to recreate the typical events of romance, but instead of generating a warm feeling, everything feels so cold. The robot constantly reminds us that she is a household appliance, that she only plays along with the marriage because it is an order from her owner and denies being part of the family that the protagonist claims to have. Not only us, the viewers, notice something strange in this situation, the protagonist's relatives also notice it and question it. What happens is that the script handles the claims superficially so as not to delve deeper into the issue of loneliness and ends up supporting the relationship with weak arguments and without support from the protagonist.

If what you are looking for is a romance or a criticism of modern technology, you will not find anything here. You will only see the sad reality of a man who only has as consolation what his money can buy.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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