With insane names like So I’m A Spider, So What?, Reborn as a Vending Machine In Another World! and I Want To Eat Your Pancreas out there, most fans don’t bat an eye when yet another crazy anime title comes along. But I did do a double-take when I saw TsumaSho, aka Tsuma, Shogakusei ni Naru, or My Wife Became an Elementary School Student. Let’s check out why this might be the most touching and awesome anime of the season!
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My Wife Was Reincarnated as an Elementary Schooler? What!?
One reason I prefer the shin’ya (late-night) anime slot over the shounen genre is the massive variety of stories it offers us. While fans might complain about too many isekai, idol, and light novel-derived anime with ridiculously long titles, there’s always something fresh and unexpected waiting for us right around the corner in the 2 am broadcast slot. And this season, that show is TsumaSho.
Keisuke Niijima had the perfect life after he married his work colleague Takae and had a daughter with her. He was a hardworking employee at his company and had a meaningful life with his family. Then, one day, time came to a stop when his beloved wife died suddenly, and life for him and his daughter Mai lost all meaning. Ten years later, a young girl passes by Keisuke as he enters his home and suddenly remembers her previous life from before she died. She is Keisuke’s wife, Takae, reincarnated as an elementary schooler!
Takae is shocked to see how both her husband and daughter have given up on life in the aftermath of her death. Like any good mother, she takes them to task for their poor eating habits, buying food from a convenience store rather than cooking healthy meals. Her daughter Mai got a job after finishing school but quit soon after because she didn’t like the environment. The ten-year-old Takae gives her advice about not wasting her twenties working from home when she should be out of the house, working at a proper company, dating and looking for a man to marry. Which sounds adorable coming out of the mouth of a ten-year-old.
TsumaSho Is a Heartwarming Tale of Family
The show is super touching because of the reincarnation of Takae, a true miracle that restores the family’s happiness. And there are plenty of humourous moments when Keisuke is unable to hide his love for his wife despite her being in the body of a ten-year-old now. Society frowns on that kind of thing, after all.
Then there are the scenes of Marika (the reincarnated Takae) trying to get along as a ten-year-old in elementary school, despite having the life experiences of a 40-year-old, which are also cute. Their unique family situation gets more and more complex. What happens when the “widower” Keisuke gets a special person in his life despite his strong connection to his ten-year-old reincarnated wife?
An Amazing Performance by Yuuki Aoi
Yuuki Aoi is a fantastic voice actress who makes anything she’s in better. In titles like Youjo Senki, The Apothecary Diaries and So I’m A Spider, So What? she really shines, bringing her characters to life in ways that no other seiyuu could. She plays dual roles as both grown-up and ten-year-old Takae, and as usual, does a fantastic job.
Why Is Anime So Great? It’s the Feels!
While some of us might have become anime fans because of the exciting action, the transforming mecha or, um, the bouncing boobs, I believe the reason we stick around is that anime tells stories that reach us on a higher emotional level. No matter what genre we might want to explore, anime lets us experience more love, more joy, and, yes, more sadness than any other medium could.
When was the last time you cried during a Hollywood movie? I don’t think I ever have. Even a series like Game of Thrones, one of the pinnacles of modern entertainment from the West over the past decade, didn’t affect me that deeply.
But the number of anime that made me cry? I could probably list 50 for you. Clannad After Story. Violet Evergarden. Toradora. Plastic Memories. Gurren Lagann. A Silent Voice. Your Lie in April…you get the idea. And this emotional power is magnified when we watch anime live, feeling a strong connection with thousands of fans all over the world when the final episode of Anohana: The Flower We Saw On That Day is broadcast, and all of Menma’s friends are finally able to see her.
Anime Is Just Different
In the end, anime is fundamentally different from other forms of media in how it can make our hearts soar when two lovers we’ve become emotionally invested in finally come together, or experience deep sadness at some sad life event that can’t be avoided. This is why we’re all anime fans for life.
Thanks for reading this blog post about TsumaSho, or My Wife Became An Elementary School Student. What do you think of this unique anime concept? Will you be watching? Tell us in the comments below!
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Did you know you can order anything you want from Japan? It’s true! Just visit Megumi Express.com, open a ticket to the J-List staff, and fill in the details of whatever you’d like to order, and we’ll send you a quote within a few hours. Now you can get anything from Japan, even if J-List doesn’t already have it!
