My Wife Has No Emotion (2024)

[僕の妻は感情がない]

Director: Fumihiro Yoshimura
Studio: Tezuka Productions, TMS Entertainment
Starring: Toshiyuki Toyonaga, Konomi Inagaki, Yoshino Aoyama
Episodes: 12

Synopsis:
A lonely bachelor falls in love with his cooking robot.

Impressions:
When I saw the title, I thought this was just going to be the story of a guy and his kuudere wife. I wasn't expecting a robot romance, especially not one that defies the usual take on this kind of story and has a comparatively low-tech robo waifu. In this respect, the series takes a look at what robo-romance might look like within our lifetime. Interestingly, despite her expressionless mask of a face, monotone voice and exposed metal body, Mina is able to display a nice range of emotion and shows episodes of going beyond the parameters of her programming (which is plot-relevant). Takuma is the sort of guy you'd expect to fall in love with his toaster, so that might grate a bit depending on how well you can tolerate male leads like him, and it's a bit of a fine line for Mamoru once he's introduced as to whether he endears or annoys. If you were hoping for a deeper exploration of the ethics and social acceptance of a relationship like this, you won't get much and definitely no serious pushback. Some people have denounced this series as an inferior Chobits, which you may or may not think is fair. I think it's well enough worth a watch, but it's a bit of a borderline case. You may want to give it the ol' three-episode rule if you want to try it for yourself.

Rating:
Watch It