Nigeru wa Haji daga Yaku ni Tatsu

The story ended up turning to more than I had expected. I was initially turned off by the premise. Girl around my age fresh out of grad school (like me) gives up after getting laid off to enter a common-law marriage with her employer: she earns a salary doing housework and cooking for her husband/employer. I thought how dumb. This is straight out of a kdrama! Like what work can she really be doing for a two-bed room apartment for a guy who's working all the time? The absurdity was the reasons for me continuing with the manga. First impressions are deceiving. I would say the pacing picked up its speed/sparked my interest once the two MCs finally get together unofficially. It was so awkward (intentionally) - the two liked each other. Once they do reciprocate their feelings like any kdrama plot line, that's when I realize the characters are changing/developing, specifically the heroine. At that point (past volume 4-5) is when the story becomes interesting for me. So yes, it started off incredibly banal and boring, but it was the absurdity of the initial premise that made me stick with it. Yes I still think their initial marriage proposition is absurd and stupid, but thankfully the series convinced me that the star duo can work together and her husband becomes someone she can trust and share her thoughts and feelings with. So the pacing of their relationship seems pretty realistic: trust takes its time to develop.

It became something realistic and relatable from there on. There are two translations for the title: We got married as a job or The Full-Time Wife Escapist. Maybe I was being super judgemental to Japan's obsession with housewives, but you realize the story unravels to reveal that the heroine is killing some time, getting paid to do housework and cooking, trying to find out what it is she really wants to do fresh out of graduation. She insists she not do free labor. The layers unravel when you realize how unsure the heroine is with what she wants out of job. She initially studied psychology hoping to be a licensed psychologist only to find that path isn't as straightforward as she thought it was. It took honestly halfway point of the mange for the characters to start unravel and become dynamic. This manga really took its time to unravel their characters and their motivations. I've really begun to appreciate how their relationship/marriage developed. Her husband really becomes someone who is there for her, not merely providing her with wages and salary.

So yes unlike other josei mangas the beginning was abysmal and boring for me. I thought this is really the better of the josei's in terms of how relatable I found myself with the heroine. Yes it's very easy to assume judgements over someone doing housework/getting paid to be someone's caretaker/chef/housecleaner. The thing I took out of this manga is that you don't know where your life will turn out. For example, one of the heroine's childhood friend/bestie changes careers many times and life happens. So I really thought that was realistic. You don't know what will happen. In other words, it's not until you stick around with the characters do they reveal themselves to you, much like with people. I would recommend this over Tokyo Tatareba Girls.

There is a running joke among my friends, you put a "warning: adult content" image in a post and then talk about your work, children, spouse, health or about the lack of any of those things. The joke being that most actual adult themes are not that thrilling, just the kinds of things that happen in a normal life after the adventures of the 20's pass.
This manga is an adult manga.
The story can be read either as a work-related or as romance, but either way, it's an adult story, its worries are not easy to understand for someone young and the plot is not of the mind-blowing sort. Someone is looking for a job and gets a job, someone is trying to find love and love finds them. All very normal and extremely exciting for someone that never sees that kind of story in the wild (most josei and seinen manga that I have access to are either about children and teens or set in fantastic, science fictional places. Even the adult romances are usually unrealistic).

Other than the blatant realism, what actually makes the series are the characters: all multifaceted people with opinions, lives and interests. Their conversations, their relationships and the way their lives intertwine are extremely compelling.

I also enjoyed the art, because its simplicity serves the story so well, without overshadowing or short-selling anything. I specially like how each character has a wardrobe (not the same clothes all the time, but a handful of clothes that they switch around) and how people look different when they've just woken up.
Those little details, coupled with an extremely tight narrative and paneling* made me actually miss this manga after I finished it. It's like missing talking to your last job's coworkers, a strange kind of nostalgy.

So I really recommend this story. That is, if you're an adult and interested in other people.


* I actually feel nostalgic for good storytelling in manga because so many mangaka take 160 pages in a single fight scene, date or impact event.

The Full-Time Wife Escapist, AKA NigeHaji is a work that isn't what it seems. The first 2 volumes focus on making the characters look shallow and unlikable. The main woman comes off as a whore and the 2 guys are basically having a content over which one of them can cuck themselves harder. After this, we are shown what they hide underneath their shells and what type of personalities do they actually carry.

The series focuses on 4 people. Young woman who is lost in life. Young man who is disappointed in women. Over 30 years-old man who has never been in a relationship, and a woman on her 50's who has remained virgin her whole life to a point where she can't have her own kids anymore.

The pairings in this series are decided very early on - and unlike almost every single other romance - the real story begins where others end. The main focus from this point on is within building a solid relationship and learning to live with eatch others as a couple, as two people.

The content offered is rarity. Subjects that are not present in almost any animanga nor even in other forms of entertainement. We get to see content such as two people studying the best way to comfort each others with the power of hugs.

Perhaps more accurate genre for NigeHaji would be "relationship" instead of "romance", but then again, it's not like many works such as NigeHaji exist. I will refer to it as an essential read for the fans of realistic romance.

I have just finished Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu. It’s great. It needs more than one read may be I will do that later. It criticizes the society indifferent many ways and aspects for example why id it a given that a house the woman’s responsibility? Marriage, economics, way of living.. etc. I like the side romance with the really huge age gap which I don’t usually like. It previews it realistically. It also takes the usual predictable turns in a whole different direction

The heroine is not typical and she’s great. She doesn’t jump into conclusion like other heroines. Instead she analyzes situations and uses her imagination to solve problem. She puts the psychology she studied in use but that doesn’t mean she’s not fixated on some problem of her own.



The story is different but I can recommend Toukyou Tarareba Musume with ease to you if you liked this or that. The heroines might be a bit annoying there but it’s for a purpose. As a female and someone who's interested in studying society I find these interesting and great even if I am from a totally different culture