Name: If My Wife Became a Dead Wife and I Had to Deal with the Grief that it Entails.
Item: TsumaSho
Rating: 83
Author: YTPizzer

Waifra

If My Wife Became a Dead Wife and I Had to Deal with the Grief that it Entails. · Waifora

Before I start, I need to address the elephant in the room. The show's English title is really ragebait-y, which I'm pretty sure literally everyone has said already, but the actual show doesn't do anything egregious, and the fact that she's an elementary schooler means they're talking entirely about wholesome love and nothing physical, so you can kinda give it a pass. There's definitely freaks in the audience that took it further than that, you just have to ignore them, and let the writer cook, because morally I don't believe they do anything wrong in the end. Okay, now onto my actual thoughts.

As a reviewer, I tend to value the story itself more than anything else in a show. The narrative here is about moving on after the loss of someone really important to you. It's quite possibly one of the worst things a human being in most developed countries can go through, and it's something a lot of people can relate to. I've personally yet to experience a rough loss, but my infinite sympathy goes out to those who have been through this before. I'm not really one to talk, but the story feels as though it was written with sincerity from someone who has experience with this. Characters in narratives are all about trauma and how they learn to overcome it (not necessarily always trauma in the therapy-needing sense), and this story tackles a really difficult one.

This is probably the #2 anime I've cried to most. I cried a lot for Your Lie in April, I reckon this is 2nd place. I always find the topic of loss really tearjerking and this anime is a rough exploration of what it means, and how it can affect your life.

I really appreciated how it handled the concept while still taking interesting turns and doing novel, but still thematically appropriate, things with it. (Continued with spoilers on Takae's new family, covered relatively early in the anime, in the next spoiler)

Spoiler, click to view

Your wife is dead and returns possessing the body of an elementary schooler, but that kid lives in an abusive household, with a mother that has been dealt a really rough hand in life. Now her own kid has been possessed by another, more experienced mother, that raised a child in a stable household. That's a strong enough concept to be it's own standalone narrative, honestly. The way the pieces interlock is well-planned out, and the pacing ensured it remained consistently gripping. Beyond loss, the explorations of what it means to be a parent and Takae's regrets were quite engaging.

I only really found one thing sorta clunky about this, the end of the final episode. (Continued in the next spoiler)

Spoiler, click to view

I understood where Keisuke was coming from by having lied to his wife about getting remarried so that she could move on like she wanted, but it's just a little strange that she would come back to him in a dream kinda implying she knows he lied. They didn't say it directly, but I don't really see why she came back in the dream in that case. The only issue is that if she knows, it technically leaves her with unfinished business again. You could just put that up to him having been able to accept that his love is dead, and finding a way to mentally overcome the loneliness hurdle, and tbh I was too emotional to let it ruin the moment for me.

It's not like perfect, (Spoilers for stuff throughout the entire show in the next spoiler)

Spoiler, click to view

... the dialogue writing was just fine (there isn't a tonne of "active listening" required), the pacing on Mai's relationship was a little breakneck and we only got a little bit of chemistry building between the two, Moriya as a character was just a tiny bit underexplored, and I really wasn't a fan of what I thought the show was implying with Moriya's age gap with Keisuke until the final episode where you learn the true nature of their relationship. I'm glad they took it in that direction. Fundamentally, not only is there a huge age gap between the two, Moriya didn't really have a terrific reason to be in love with Keisuke, and Keisuke didn't have much of any reason to love Moriya.

By the end of the final episode, Keisuke chooses... (Continued in the next spoiler)

Spoiler, click to view

... not to move on from his late wife and carries the baggage with a positive outlook. Throughout the series he's very hard on himself, and it's hard not to sympathise with him. It's unfair, it's so sad, and the fact he choses this proves he loves his wife that much more, which only makes her loss sadder. It must really hurt! I'm gonna make myself cry again! Fuck!

This show shines for its narrative, in terms of the other stuff (art, animation, music, voice acting) nothing really stood out as a weak link, nor particularly remarkable, at any point. I do recall that the music was doing a good job enhancing the emotions of the scenes toward the end. Again, as a reviewer, I tend to care most about the narrative, so these reviews aren't usually the most balanced.

Anyways, rare well-paced single-season anime, rare anime that actually ends, rare complete absence of degenerate bullshit beyond the title, we cannot take these things for granted. It makes me wonder if these stupid anime titles are just the meta for creating media in Japan. But yeah, if you're looking for a bit of a cry (if you're the sorta person that does cry) and a story that actually earns it, or want to watch a good exploration of loss, give it a shot.