Reviews

The story ended up turning to more than I had expected. I was initially turned off by the premise. Girl around my age fresh out of grad school (like me) gives up after getting laid off to enter a common-law marriage with her employer: she earns a salary doing housework and cooking for her husband/employer. I thought how dumb. This is straight out of a kdrama! Like what work can she really be doing for a two-bed room apartment for a guy who's working all the time? The absurdity was the reasons for me continuing with the manga. First impressions are deceiving. I would say the pacing picked up its speed/sparked my interest once the two MCs finally get together unofficially. It was so awkward (intentionally) - the two liked each other. Once they do reciprocate their feelings like any kdrama plot line, that's when I realize the characters are changing/developing, specifically the heroine. At that point (past volume 4-5) is when the story becomes interesting for me. So yes, it started off incredibly banal and boring, but it was the absurdity of the initial premise that made me stick with it. Yes I still think their initial marriage proposition is absurd and stupid, but thankfully the series convinced me that the star duo can work together and her husband becomes someone she can trust and share her thoughts and feelings with. So the pacing of their relationship seems pretty realistic: trust takes its time to develop.

It became something realistic and relatable from there on. There are two translations for the title: We got married as a job or The Full-Time Wife Escapist. Maybe I was being super judgemental to Japan's obsession with housewives, but you realize the story unravels to reveal that the heroine is killing some time, getting paid to do housework and cooking, trying to find out what it is she really wants to do fresh out of graduation. She insists she not do free labor. The layers unravel when you realize how unsure the heroine is with what she wants out of job. She initially studied psychology hoping to be a licensed psychologist only to find that path isn't as straightforward as she thought it was. It took honestly halfway point of the mange for the characters to start unravel and become dynamic. This manga really took its time to unravel their characters and their motivations. I've really begun to appreciate how their relationship/marriage developed. Her husband really becomes someone who is there for her, not merely providing her with wages and salary.

So yes unlike other josei mangas the beginning was abysmal and boring for me. I thought this is really the better of the josei's in terms of how relatable I found myself with the heroine. Yes it's very easy to assume judgements over someone doing housework/getting paid to be someone's caretaker/chef/housecleaner. The thing I took out of this manga is that you don't know where your life will turn out. For example, one of the heroine's childhood friend/bestie changes careers many times and life happens. So I really thought that was realistic. You don't know what will happen. In other words, it's not until you stick around with the characters do they reveal themselves to you, much like with people. I would recommend this over Tokyo Tatareba Girls.