There’s this weird sub-genre in manga that’s appeared recently that mixes criminal stereotypes with the domestic. There was The Way of the Househusband, where a former Yakuza becomes a househusband in what turned out to be a one-joke series that went on and on but was incongruously popular, and there’s Sakamoto Days, where a former ace hitman leaves the life to get married and work a regular job, that’s actually surprisingly good. And then there’s this one, which is unfortunately at the crappiest end of the spectrum.
Like a lot of mangas these days, for some reason, its catchy title also summarises the premise: a guy (and it is as bland as that - the husband “character” is so featureless he doesn’t even have a name) happens to be married to a hitman. Hitwoman? And that’s it. They play baseball, he meets her whiny little sister, they buy a kotatsu (a uniquely Japanese invention - like a heated coffee table with a built-in blanket), and go shopping. But she’s a hitman and that makes him nervous around her which is supposedly funny, and it’s definitely not.
It’s such an underdeveloped series. Give the protagonist a name at the very least - start there! Then, how did they meet? We get they got married because they fell in love, but how? Was it fast? It feels that way because there are a lot of scenes where they’re enormously awkward around each other, like they get all bashful about even hugging one another, let alone having sex. They’re married!! They’re (supposedly) grown-ups!!1 What is this shit??
There are no consequences to the wife, Setsuna (she at least has a name), being a hitman by the way. It’s just a contrivance for the husband to be weird around her and, apparently, for her to act like a robot because that’s how the creator, Donten Kosaka, seems to think assassins behave.
Not that having a name makes Setsuna a good character. In Kosaka’s hands, she’s the pitifully idealised version of a stereotypical housewife that’ll appeal to a certain kind of man: she has the cliched manga girl look (giant eyes, no nose, long flowing hair, big bewbs) with an innocent-bordering-on-braindead demeanour that’s mostly submissive and demure. She cooks all the time and the guy gets to perv on her big bewbs while she infantilises him.
The gratuitous bewb shots were just embarrassing - really the whole relationship made me feel sorry for everyone involved. And, as if there weren’t enough bewb shots of Setsuna, Some Guy’s neighbour is also a big bewbed bimbo whom he also pervs on.
A boring, pathetically unimaginative waste of time, My Lovey-Dovey Wife is a Stone Cold Killer, Volume 1 left me stone cold - the worst manga I’ve read in some time.
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