Boku no Tsuma wa Kanjou ga Nai

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 arein 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.

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 relationshipbetween 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.

“My Wife Has No Emotion” is what happens when You combine writing suited for a child with subjects and themes aimed at adults. In 1973 “Soylent Green” was released. A dystopian, detective thriller with Charlton Heston playing an opportunistic but ultimately good detective. I’m not going to go deep into that movie but it is worth watching. In “Soylent Green” some people are considered furniture - basically enslaved poor that are “paid” in food, shelter and other things people nowadays would consider normal. The protagonist of the movie even uses one of those women-furniture to satisfy his urges. Despite being human they are treated as nothingmore than items. For some reason the premise of “My Wife Has No Emotion” had me thinking about those furniture and that the authors of the show just inverted the main premise of the interaction. Instead of dehumanizing a human they gave humanity to something not human. Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page… I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them: “What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.” “STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”. I’m gonna be honest I simultaneously like and hate the writing in this show. I like it because it touches on some pretty important and mature subjects like loneliness, morality when it comes to AI and even what are the limits of love (I was a therapist so You don’t really want to know the true answer to that one, trust me), and I hate it because in most cases it does so in a very naive and childish way with a lot of deus ex machina resolutions. Despite some pretty good setups that could lead to some really heavy hitting brain teasers, the most this show does is “It will work itself out”... and in almost all cases it does. I’m not sure who is supposed to be the target audience. It is classified as seinen, but to be fair the writing is a bit too childish for this group. The main hero - Takuma, is an adult and not some teenager, has a job and presumably all other responsibilities that come from being a living alone adult. He even has two different sides to him. He is a pretty well adjusted young man in public, even willing to help those in need as was shown with his first interaction with Super Mina, and can act like a spoiled child when alone with his robot-wife - Mina. I actually like that. Different sides for different occasions. I would consider this pretty solid writing. Most anime and manga don’t really bother giving characters more than one side of personality, so credit where it’s due. It could give You hope that there will be more of this level of thought. Oh my sweet summer child… Don’t get me wrong, having simple writing isn’t a bad thing, especially when You want to serve mature subjects, like this anime does, to a wider audience. There is “simple”, and there is “childish”. This show has problems balancing that. Unfortunately the pacing and messaging suffer for it immensely. Now, there is the problem with the world itself. Despite Takuma and Mina going into public places the world feels empty. The only moment when the world felt a bit organic was when they went for a picnic and some (probably) highschool girls commented on Mina. That is the first and only moment when the world seemed, for a lack of a better word, real. Something unusual happened so of course some people will comment on that. Unfortunately no such event took place when they were at the park itself or when they went to the beach. The beach episode is actually one of two that shows how empty the world is. Without getting into spoilers I will just say that Takuma and Mina get separated and help two different people. The problem? None of them think to ask other people on the beach for any sort of help. Why? That would probably speed up their tasks a lot. No one even comments on seeing a robot with a lot of visible metal in a swimsuit. Nothing. It’s almost like the setting was just a poor excuse to have our MCs meet some new semi useful, plot demanding NPCs. Unfortunately that ends up being the case. Super Mina even becomes the reason for a terrible info dump about Mina’s past. The same info dump could be used as a set up for something more but it isn't. It’s not exactly forgotten, there are moments later that are consequences of it but it’s not a payoff per se. The second episode that showed how empty the world is, showed also that the writers didn’t exactly have a solid idea about Mina herself. First the world. Mina and Mamoru (I’ll get to him) find themself in an unnerving situation. Her GPS doesn’t work and they don’t know how to get home. Now any normal person would just ask for directions. Especially that Mina knows her home address. The problem? There is no one to ask. They end up walking, for what seems like a few hours and meet no one. They live in a city. Before this incident it was even shown that there were people around. Not the case when they get into trouble. The solution that they find isn’t exactly a Deus Ex Machina since it is a logical step and doesn’t use elements that weren’t shown before, but there are some problems with the whole situation: 1. The fact that a robot that mostly acts logically wasn’t able to record it’s path, or even ask anyone for direction is just lazy writing to create a situation where Mina has to work together with Mamoru 2. Why didn't the solution come to Mina earlier? It’s logical, simple and easy. That should be, if not the first, the second option she would take into account. The whole episode just showed me that Mina, despite being a robot is incompetent and probably shouldn't be out on her own. She’s the “wife” and yet she acted without thinking, she was worse than a child at that point. I actually liked Mina as a character up until that point but after that episode my sympathy declined. Mamoru - the “child” of Mina and Takuma, is a good idea but with terrible execution. His eyes and reactions remind me of Inko - a parakeet from “Toradora” (not the worst association if You ask me). The idea of a “child” for Mina and Takuma isn’t a bad one. They should have something like that at some point to give Mina new challenges in her role as a wife so turning her into a “mother” is solid. Takuma also could benefit from something like that to add character development, something he really needs. The problem? It’s way too soon. Neither Mina nor Takuma are in the state where that could be beneficial to the story. They still have a long way to develop as a couple. There is no need to add another element to that. I would first like to see some sort of crisis in their relationship. Maybe have Takuma meet a human woman and become friends (just friends) with her. Get Takuma to go with her for some drink or dinner. Normal things that friends do. Let that not sit well with Mina. Have her have a few days of treating Takuma cold and acting capricious. She is capable of that, that much was shown early in the show. Let them find a solution the adult way. By talking and explaining things. The last two episodes really annoyed me. They were set up for something great. A real hit with reality for Takuma. Takuma visits his parents with his “wife”. The beginning is good. They don’t see her as a family member and treat her 100% as a house appliance. It was nice. I thought that maybe now Takuma will have some sort of crisis. Maybe he will rethink his “marriage” and the way he treats Mina and Mamoru. Maybe he will have a pause and think that he’s just projecting and both of them are just a pair of robots with unusual programming and that they don’t love him back. Maybe we will get a proper, meaningful conflict. Yeah… no. Everything works out great with little to no effort. The amount of potential that was destroyed within those two episodes is astonishing. That could have been an amazing ending to the season. What we got was… abysmal to say at least. I think the best part, with the exception of that one episode I mentioned, is Mina herself. Despite being a robot with programmed functions she often acts in ways that clearly weren’t intended by the corporation that mass produces her model. That makes her unique and perfect for someone like Takuma. During the info dump with Super Mina, we get to know the reason for that but… I don’t really think it worked in the story’s favour. Without that knowledge Mina was unique, one of a kind, something that, we could speculate, happened only because of her encounter with Takuma. After the revelation… it lost a lot of its charm. Turns out that yes, she probably still is one of a kind, but it kills the speculations that it was because of Takuma. From Takuma’s point of view very little changes, he doesn’t even get to know the info that the viewers get, Mina is still his wife and his remedy for loneliness. From the viewer pov however a lot has changed. Mina doesn’t act abnormally from her programming. She is acting like she should. Still the program has to deal with a lot of subjectivity and she’s doing rather well so maybe there is something more to this. Nonthe less almost every episode shows some new “human” actions of Mina. She defends having a wedding ring, is fussy, gets annoyed and even gossips with the girls. It’s actually interesting and keeps You wondering what else she will do. I really wanted to like this show. The premise is awesome, the story is good but the plot destroys much. If the show slowed down a bit and gave some more thought to the plot point it could have been a good show. As it stands… It’s just bad. I still liked the ending song and animation for it.

This hidden gem has left me smiling, laughing, and even tearing up a bit. As someone who's grown skeptical of romance anime, this series completely won me over. The premise intrigued me. I was worried it'd be cheesy or cringeworthy, but trust me, it's anything but. Our protagonist, Takuma, is relatable and endearing. His past heartbreak makes his journey with Mina, the female robot, all the more poignant. Mina's character development is phenomenal. From her initial kitchen-assistant programming to gradually exhibiting emotions, I found myself rooting for her. Their relationship's progression feels organic and genuine, making their interactions adorable and heartfelt. What struck me was how well theanime balanced lighthearted moments with deeper themes. Takuma's family accepting Mina as his partner warmed my heart, and their jealousy-fueled moments had me blushing and chuckling. The animation is sleek, and the soundtrack is infectious. That opening song still has me humming along (I'm guilty of replaying it multiple times). The ending theme, too, is ridiculously cute. Special mention to Konomi, Mina's voice actress - your performance brought Mina to life! This series deserves more love. It's underrated, but its thoughtful storytelling and lovable characters make it a must-watch. I'm craving an OVA or movie to explore more of Takuma and Mina's daily life. If you're looking for a feel-good, unique romance anime, look no further. "Boku no Tsuma wa Kanjou ga Nai" will capture your heart. Favorite Moments: - Takuma's drunken confession - Mina's first emotional response - Takuma's family's heartwarming acceptance Favorite Quote: "I want to be with you, Mina." - Takuma Recommendation: If you enjoyed "Clannad," "Toradora!", or "March Comes in Like a Lion," you'll adore this. Give this hidden gem a chance. You won't regret it!

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