Ahhh, married life. Some people feel meant for it, others not so much, and some people... just jump right in and do it anyways.

I Married My Female Friend is a short yuri manga about the classic "in 5 years, let's just marry each other" deal that straight women like making actually coming to fruition. (Helps that it takes place in a version of Japan where same-sex marriage is recently both legal and recognized.) You can read it in a couple hours if you're fast and/or locked in.

The story is sweet, simple, and knows how to contain itself. The heart of the manga is Kurumi and Ruriko adjusting to married life as friends, while also independently grappling with the thought of, "What if this ends? Do I want it to end, if it has to? I don't, but why not?" Despite that, it's more or less free of melodrama. Kurumi and Ruriko have their quirks, but they're very normal people, and more than that, they're friends who really care about each other. They screw up - the delicate balance of how much you can or should depend on your partner is a recurring issue - but neither of them wants their partnership to end, so the effort is made to make things right. The progression of the plot itself too is very well measured. It's easy for a short manga to spend too much time on what it sees as Big Moments and rush everything else, but this manga doesn't really do that. It knows that it only takes small disruptions to the status quo to change it, and it uses that well.

The art is nice. At times, backgrounds would be overly simplified and panels would just be reused rather than redrawn, but when the time was spent making it look good, it looked good. In execution it could seem a little dull to some. There's no flashy panel composition and neither of the main characters are fashionistas (a character introduced later is suspiciously well-dressed, on this point). But once again, this is a very simple story that really only has one job and it does it.

As for the characters themselves, Kurumi and Ruriko are opposites in a lot of ways. Morning person/night owl, for one. That particular trait does almost as much for development as more plot relevant ones do - it's very satisfying to see Kurumi adjust herself for Ruriko in acknowledgement of how much her wife does for her. Ruriko is a treat all by herself, honestly. She's clearly in love with Kurumi from the get-go, and until certain side characters come more into focus, it's difficult to catch that she's a little bit of a hardass. It's sweet to see a character who is so diligent and dedicated to her partner actually have that effort recognized and rewarded by said partner.

On the topic of side characters, once again, all opportunities to introduce melodrama are ignored - each and every one of them is pleasant and supportive, and for the most part the conflict is left for the newlyweds to generate and resolve by themselves. Earlier mentioned well-dressed character is particularly charming, veering just off the side of "annoying kouhai" into an endearing lil' pal you want to see succeed.

If you're looking for a sweet, low-stakes romance to binge, I Married My Female Friend is a good bet. It's nice for lookin' at, nice for curlin' up with, and nice for puttin' down if you need to, too.