TV Series - The Full-Time Wife Escapist (2016, 2021) [+]
Sep 27 2023
The Full-Time Wife Escapist (2016) is an 11-episode Japanese romantic-comedy drama based on a manga. Mikuri Moriyama (Yui Aragaki) is a recent graduate with a psychology degree but is laid off and then can't find a job. Her dad gets her a job as a part-time housekeeper to mid-30's introvert software developer Hiramasa Tsuzaki (Gen Hoshino). Working for Tsuzaki she does her best and finds housekeeping and cooking meals quite satisfying.
But then her parents decide to move to away and Mikuri won't be able to afford her own place. In desperation she comes up with the idea to become a full-time live-in housekeeper for Hiramasa, in a strictly employer-employee relationship. Hiramasa eventually agrees and to keep up appearances they tell their parents they're getting married (though secretly it's a common-law marriage which I guess is more of a formal thing in Japan).
The rest of the series is the two slowly becoming attracted to each other, starting to date, and eventually getting married for real. Meanwhile they have to keep their work relationship secret and inner conflicts that threaten to keep them apart: both do a lot of inner monologue and it's interesting how every little incident is misinterpreted by both parties. The series turns on the two leads but they're both attractive and nice people (Yui Aragaki is incredibly cute) with foibles but not nasty foibles.
Meanwhile there's a subplot between Mikuri's aunt, successful advertising manager but forever single Yuri Tscuchiya (Yuriko Ishida), and Hiramasa's womanizing and charming coworker Ryota Kazami (Ryohei Otani). Yuri finds Kazami quite annoying but eventually his charm wins her over and in the last episode they finally decide to start dating which is a neat older woman-younger man thing. As an aside it's a small miracle how all the plots are wrapped up in the last half of the last episode without making it looked hurried.
We Married as a Job Special (2021) "We Married as a Job" is I guess the official title in Japan though Netflix calls it The Full-Time Wife Escapist. Anyways five years later we get a two-hour special. Everybody is back about two years later and the main plot is Mikuri becomes pregnant and how that affects their relationship. It's more stressful after the baby is born because three months later Japan starts going into lockdown due to COVID-19. Hiramasa has to keep working so Mikuri and baby move in with her parents which makes for a stressful time.
All the characters get a bit of screen time to update their stories and unfortunately Yuri and Kazami broke up a few months before the start of the special, though by end there may be hope now that everyone has gone through the pandemic and maybe Yuri's insecurities (she broke it up because she thought she was too old to keep up with Kazami) may have been resolved due to isolation and a health scare.
In any case, the special as good as the series and I think you can omit it and be happier with the series ending.
But then her parents decide to move to away and Mikuri won't be able to afford her own place. In desperation she comes up with the idea to become a full-time live-in housekeeper for Hiramasa, in a strictly employer-employee relationship. Hiramasa eventually agrees and to keep up appearances they tell their parents they're getting married (though secretly it's a common-law marriage which I guess is more of a formal thing in Japan).
The rest of the series is the two slowly becoming attracted to each other, starting to date, and eventually getting married for real. Meanwhile they have to keep their work relationship secret and inner conflicts that threaten to keep them apart: both do a lot of inner monologue and it's interesting how every little incident is misinterpreted by both parties. The series turns on the two leads but they're both attractive and nice people (Yui Aragaki is incredibly cute) with foibles but not nasty foibles.
Meanwhile there's a subplot between Mikuri's aunt, successful advertising manager but forever single Yuri Tscuchiya (Yuriko Ishida), and Hiramasa's womanizing and charming coworker Ryota Kazami (Ryohei Otani). Yuri finds Kazami quite annoying but eventually his charm wins her over and in the last episode they finally decide to start dating which is a neat older woman-younger man thing. As an aside it's a small miracle how all the plots are wrapped up in the last half of the last episode without making it looked hurried.
We Married as a Job Special (2021) "We Married as a Job" is I guess the official title in Japan though Netflix calls it The Full-Time Wife Escapist. Anyways five years later we get a two-hour special. Everybody is back about two years later and the main plot is Mikuri becomes pregnant and how that affects their relationship. It's more stressful after the baby is born because three months later Japan starts going into lockdown due to COVID-19. Hiramasa has to keep working so Mikuri and baby move in with her parents which makes for a stressful time.
All the characters get a bit of screen time to update their stories and unfortunately Yuri and Kazami broke up a few months before the start of the special, though by end there may be hope now that everyone has gone through the pandemic and maybe Yuri's insecurities (she broke it up because she thought she was too old to keep up with Kazami) may have been resolved due to isolation and a health scare.
In any case, the special as good as the series and I think you can omit it and be happier with the series ending.