TsumaSho (2024)
[抻ăć°ćŠçă«ăȘă]
Director: Noriyuki Abe
Studio: Studio Signpost
Starring: Daisuke Hirakawa, Aoi Yuki, Maiko Nomura
Episodes: 12
Synopsis:
A grieving widower is visited by a grade-schooler who claims to be the reincarnation of his wife, who has come to help him and their daughter get their lives back on track.
Impressions:
Just seeing the cover of the manga in the bookstores before this adaptation came out, I thought the eponymous wife was turned into a child Conan-style or something like that with hijinx to ensue. The actual premise is a fair bit heavier, but that gives the story more weight. Red flags might be going up for some of you, but there's nothing untoward going on between husband and wife reunited from beyond the veil. Keisuke is blissfully oblivious, but Takae is rather conscientious about appearances, so the kind of concerns you may have are actually taken into consideration both in and out of universe by the writing. The core concept of Takae's reincarnation as a vehicle for Keisuke and their daughter Mai to overcome their grief and move on with their lives is strong enough, but then you add in the broken home life of Takae's alter-ego Marika, which adds a compelling layer of conflict to the story before we get into the final arc. I wouldn't have minded if this was a simple comedy, but this is actually a rather poignant study grieving and loss, taking responsibility for your life, and moving on, and for that, it's going to leave a more lasting impression. For the skillful handling of the subject matter, I think that warrants bumping up the rating a bit and recommending it for your collection.
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