Wagatsuma-san wa Ore no Yome
My Wife Is Wagatsuma-san

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Let me start this off by saying the only reason I wound up reading this anime is because it was available on the Crunchy Roll manga app. If it wasn't I would never have found this brilliant slice of life comedy. Wagatsuma-san wa Ore no Yome is a manga about a boy named Aoshima that time slips 10 years into the future and finds out that he marries the school idol. The manga ultimately revolves around him using the information that he gains through these time slips to mold the future into what's best for him and his friends.

Now by far the best part of ... this manga for me was the characters, specifically Aoshima's group of otaku friends. They consistently had me laughing out loud at least once every chapter. I do feel as though the female cast was somewhat under used, and not all of them got a closing to their story, but for the most part the character interactions involving them was well done.

The art in this manga, while simple, does what it's supposed to very well. As part gag and part romance manga there are a lot of cut away gags where the art changes drastically from the usual. Think the scenes from One Punch Man where Saitama suddenly becomes very serious. The character designs are fairly simplistic, a lot of them following fairly generic character tropes. You've got your big boobed foreign exchange student, the NEET otaku in the making, and your generic male protagonist. Despite this each of the characters feel unique in their own ways.

The story is easily the part that I'm conflicted about. As a gag manga there isn't much need for a large overlapping story, however because it's also a romance story there are certain events that carry over throughout the run. I will say that the story that is there had me entertained, until the last 8 chapters or so that is. Unfortunately the ending to the story came across as feeling very rushed, and was fairly unsatisfying ultimately. I really wish that those last 8 chapters had been stretched out over 20 or so, I feel the end would be more meaningful that way. The ending to me the way it was done felt like a bit of a cop out, a way to ultimately make readers happy with how things wound up (although I think that there were many other ways it could have ended that would have been better)

Ultimately I think Wagatsuma-san wa Ore no Yome is worth reading. It kept me entertained right up until the homestretch, just don't expect the ending to be as good as the rest of it.

Overall Synopsis: "My Wife Is Wagatsuma-san" is a pretty cliched series with some flaws (lack of characterization being one of them), but the laughs and unpredictable moments in the time slips makes it enjoyable.

Assuming you've already read a summary of what the story's about, I'll just cut to the chase.

The various sight gags, accompanied with the series unique art style, make for some very enjoyable reading. The flash forward style time skips (think Family Guy combined with Butterfly Effect.... yeah that sounded awkward), which you would think are predictable, are surprisingly not in some cases. Because as the protagonist Aoshima learns, the future isn't ... set in stone and is prone to various changes based on his present action or inaction.

As for the characters themselves, there needed to be some more love spread around in their development. The most developed character actually turns out to be Ran Itou, who goes through quite a roller coaster ride of changes. However, the titular character herself, Ai Wagatsuma, is that typical Mary Sue trophy wife trope that we've come to see in many other series (think Belldandy from "Ah! My Goddess"). Other than a few moments that humbly characterize her - the swim meet, a weakness for certain TV shows, and even a string of jealousy - she ultimately has no true character growth. The same goes most, if not all, of the cast of characters. As much as I like some of them (Masao Komatsu is my personal favorite and an awesome scene stealer), they seemingly remain static throughout the series.

That's not to say our lovable loser Aoshima isn't without his merits. Although he fills in that cliched useless main character with no redeeming qualities, I find that to be ultimately false as the story progresses. As one of his benefactors later point out, he rises beyond himself to face certain occasions, and he carries his companions with him as he does. He is also quite a compassionate person and would go out of his way for people, even total strangers. And after seeing his various time slips just to secure his future with Wagatsuma, you start to notice that he overlooks his own desire for the sake of his own friends to save them from trouble, and even for a stranger to save his life. These are all observable qualities that, in my opinion, make him rise above the typical character trope of a useless guy everyone loves for really no reason than for the sake of the story - I'm calling you out, Tenchi.

The story wraps up a little fast at the end and leaves some unanswered questions. I think if it had at least one more chapter as an epilogue, it would have left a more satisfying ending. In spite of that, I'm glad to have read Wagatsuma and I've enjoyed my time with the series.

(Tl;dr at the very bottom of this review)

Wagatsuma-san wa Ore no Yome , or My Wife is Wagatsuma-san is a fairly straightforward series. Our lead, Aoshima Hitoshi, has for whatever reason acquired the ability to "jump" back and forth between time. The only problem is that he is not exactly in control of when this happens. During his first ever leap, he finds that he is several years in the future and is now apparently married to the most popular girl at school. When he returns to the past, he seeks to make this future a reality. This premise, though uninspired, actually had some ... potential in its earliest chapters. However, it fizzled out almost completely by the end and leaves us with an underwhelming ending that is almost insulting to its readers.

Wagatsuma-san is first and foremost a comedic slice of life, following our lead as he attends school. Chapters are connected, but tend to mostly be episodic in nature. The comedy is very peculiar; one moment it's referencing Japanese pop culture, and the next, our characters are dancing Michael Jackson-inspired choreography. Since it's such a wide range of comedic elements, there are bound to be times when one left puzzled as to why that gag or joke means. However, about midway through the series, it takes a turn for the dramatic. This is perhaps where one begins to notice a drop in the quality of not only the comedy but also the story.

The art was, for the most part, passable. When there was a sight gag, the art style changed to accommodate this. However, the art as a whole did change towards the end, and the art style went from passable to completely mediocre.

Stop me if you've heard this one. Our lead Aoshima is your average high school student with nothing at all remarkable or special about him. Of course, because he is such a nice guy, all the women (including a teacher!) fall for him, even as he is blissfully unaware that there are other women in the world besides Wagatsuma. Ugh.

Wagatsuma herself stayed completely static throughout the series. This is par for the course, I suppose. Some attempt at characterization is attempted by making her a bit of a drama fanatic. This ties into a later story arc. Though I enjoyed the way that he initially got her attention and the subsequent relationship they had, by the end of the series, I cared little about either character. This is of course due to the story became more melodramatic and less comedic.

Surrounding Aoshima is a strange cast of characters, including an aspiring mangaka, a half-Dutch exchange student, and his supportive if somewhat precocious sister. Unfortunately, few of these characters get much development and what we are left with are, for the most part, flat, one-dimensional characters. This becomes especially apparent with the DX Brigade, Aoshima's "lovable" band of loser friends. They start out as good comedic relief, but by the end of the series they are little more than perverts, idiots, and obnoxiously unfunny. These characters had potential to be more than what they ended up as, and would have made the series much more pleasant to read.

I wanted to like this manga. Though the concept is cliche and has been done before, the comedy was strong enough to carry it for a very long time. When our leads finally get together, it's cute. However, the story dragged on for too long and left too many ideas unexplored to be considered anything above just average at best and completely forgettable at worst.

Tl;dr: I would recommend you skip this manga and find something else to read, such as The World God Only Knows (harem, similar comedic situations, and even time travel as a plot device).

I apologize for the wall of text, and thank you for reading through it all.