Holiday Review: THE FULL TIME WIFE ESCAPIST

I also don't want to imply that there was no good josei either.  Kodansha took up the mantle there too, albeit mostly digitally.  The obvious choice would be Akiko Higashimura's Tokyo Tarareba Girls, but since that's getting a print release next year I'm going to hold off on that.  Instead I want to talk about another great josei series that mostly slipped under everyone's radar.

THE FULL TIME ESCAPIST'S WIFE (Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu), by Tsunami Umino.  First published in 2012 and first published in North America in 2017.

PLOT:

Mikuri spent her twenties working on a graduate degree in psychology, only to find herself unable to find work in both her field and through temp agencies.  To support herself, she takes up a housekeeping job for Tsukazi, a standoffish salaryman, but this job is put into peril when Mikuri's parents decide to retire to the countryside.  That's when she and Tsukazi come up with a bold plan: the two will go through with a common-law marriage to keep up appearances, but otherwise continue with the same professional arrangement they had before.  Things seem to go smoothly at first, but can these two fake being married without feelings ever coming into the picture or anyone learning the truth?