TsumaSho

A story that made me cry... but because of how poorly adapted the story was. At the beginning of the season, people sold me this as the drama of the year and that I would need a box of tissues to watch each episode. I naively fell into the trap of the premise, since the story of how a family overcomes the grief of the loss of the family matriarch seemed interesting. Even so, the fact that the wife was reincarnated as a 10-year-old girl seemed quite dangerous and that at any moment a morally improper line could be crossed. Although the story remained within themoral, many of the protagonist's attitudes still felt uncomfortable and out of place. The story was cut short and the production didn't even bother to hide the scissors with which they carried out this massacre. Many subplots developed off-camera, making any kind of progress of the subplots feel inorganic or unnatural. The biggest example is the whole daughter subplot, since her entire love relationship was developed out of the viewer's sight, making you not understand anything about her development. In the end, she was the character most affected because her growth was null and in the end she just feels like a big girl throwing a huge tantrum. Another one of those affected was the character of Moriya, who without giving spoilers, what they did to her was to directly trample her. It's normal that the story feels rushed since the +100 manga chapters were adapted into 12 anime episodes. The anime tries to avoid the construction of the sad moments and only gives you the drama to force a tear or two in the viewer. Only without construction you are just watching a random moment with sad music in the background. I don't doubt that in the manga this is a wonderful story full of life lessons, but the anime fails to sell its counterpart and doesn't even make you want to read the first chapter of this story. I feel bad for the fans who waited for this for who knows how long, but the production didn't try even a little to make something decent. Although I must say that not everything is bad in the anime. The subplot of Chika and Marika is told in a satisfactory way and it is the only story that can genuinely awaken some feeling of empathy or sadness. Seeing a mother try to recover and repair her relationship with her daughter is always something nice to see. The bad thing is that you have to watch the whole main story to be able to see these little moments that are worth it. I don't recommend this even to the biggest fan of the drama genre. I think there are other media that adapted the story better, the anime was just a failed attempt to live off the name of a popular manga.

TsumaSho a.k.a If My Wife Becomes an Elementary School Student. - The title alone sells the premise, but by the standards of the 2020s, it has become the misogyny to trigger even the tiniest of Karen-type fascists to force a name change...idiots. As humans, the adage of "forgive and forget" is an often-quoted term that can be the bitch (or vain) that would not be suppressed in our system so quickly. Case in point, the loss of loved ones that family and friends can only get the news and be shell-shocked by the sudden loss that it could take days to weeks to move on, astory that we fickle humans must learn to accept no matter how hard the pain can be. Case in point (again): mangaka Yayu Murata's Tsuma, Shougakusei ni Naru a.k.a If My Wife Becomes an Elementary School Student, a title that since its release has been the subject of a litany of triggering people's Spidey senses to the point for just about every outlet to refer to it as the shortened Japanese nickname instead, just because of its "sexual" inference. But believe me, this drama-filled story is more nuanced once you get into the show firsthand, then dig into the manga for what the anime chose to omit for its limited runtime and come out feeling like an emotional trainwreck in totality. It's not easy being given the news that a loved one has died due to a freak accident, and the family and/or friends having to grief like there's no tomorrow for what life is left to expect. This is the family of the Niijimas, of husband Keisuke, daughter Mai, and the dead wife/mother Takae, who's been killed in a car accident. For 10 years thereafter, both father and daughter having lived their lives on their own accord with a broken family that has gone with words not exchanged between the two (mostly on Keisuke's end), which without their beloved mother, the Niijimas' household descends and plunges into total darkness. That is until the appearance of an elementary school kid, who, chancing the gloominess of both Keisuke and Mai, barges straight to the Niijimas' door...to proclaim that she's a reincarnation of their mother, Takae. Of course, any sane person would dismiss this word outright, but the bizarre premise takes the twist to prove that despite being in a different body and having a different name, she is indeed Takae in every sense of the fact, knowing full well of every fibre of their being to attribute her motherly traits, remembering her past life, which reassures both Keisuke and Mai that their mother is "back." The fault of the matter, however complex it may look, is quite the simple construct that teaches a lesson about the fickleness of life. If you're one to take in those emotional notes, this show will undoubtedly wreck you to the point of onion tears. Second chances don't come often in life, much less the anxiety of feeling grief and healing knowing the near-impossible of the supernatural of someone ACTUALLY being like Jesus Christ "rising on the 3rd day and living out the monumental years of the Saviour's life." It's both a blessing and a curse for the Niijimas acknowledging that Takae is back in another form, though it clearly puts a strain on the new identity that isn't Takae all at the same time. To have the elementary school kid of Marika Shiraishi "be enabled" with Takae's past memories intact, both Keisuke and Mai may not have believed that the impossible came true, but they clearly have to grapple with someone else who has their mother's identity, yet let her live like the person that has her soul being reincarnated from another. Reincarnation is the keyword here, and it'll change the dynamics of the Niijimas as they have to come to learn to "forgive and forget (or rather, move on)" that their mother, despite being in another body, will never come back to the face of the Earth again, as much as it has her loving kindness showing through the physique of the other. And this drama, despite being fictional, does have some sense of realism of the bonding of the Shiraishi family and the other characters that would come to understand where both Keisuke and Mai are coming from and help guide their path towards the future to reassure them that things would be alright even without Takae by their side, though it can be quite the ugly sight at times of human-natured tendencies to act impulsively and go out of order. It's just that dramatic, though sometimes to the degree of weird, and Yayu Murata certainly got what he wanted to tell out of this story on the right notes for a premise that's all about "living life to the fullest" and "life or death incarnate, till death do us part." The obvious nitpick about the anime adaptation is largely the sum of many parts, other than the one aspect that does well. Story-wise, as a manga reader, I think that leaving the second half out of the anime certainly makes the show feel incomplete from the Average Joe's point of view, but I would take the first half over the second any day, as the other half goes into even more bizarre plot armour about Takae's reincarnation phase (and new characters that relate to her) that honestly would just not sit right having a sequel just to explain all of the shenanigans that would otherwise hamper the overall feeling of the anime as a whole. Think of this as the family drama version of Horimiya's compressed adaptation, and you're all set to go. Being a Studio Signpost production, the show may not look as refined, but it honestly doesn't need to be one to get the story moving in animated form, and it's a decent, but admirable job done to simple satisfaction. Even the music is plentiful at times, though for a drama of this calibre, it has to be to hit its emotional notes at the right spots. And a great example of this is the contrast between Pachae's rather delightful OP and Ms. Ooja's melancholic ED, of which, just by song tastes alone, the ED is a cinch above the OP. Despite being the complete-but-incomplete adaptation, though with the manga's rather childish nature when it comes to its art style, I'd suffice to say that the anime is the way to go if you're down for emotional but mature drama stories like Tsuma, Shougakusei ni Naru. if you need a cut from on all of the excessive Isekai/fantasy BS that the AniManga industry is heavily focusing on these days and leaving works like this in the dust. It may not be for everyone, but it's a substantial lesson worth noting of the fragility of life, its devastating effects, and the outcome of moving on to better things ahead.

You Can trust me when i say that this is one of the most objective review you will saw of this anime for the good reason that I was one of those people who thought this anime was going to be one of those "Loli bait anime" with an old guy who is going to flirt with his wife reincarnated as a kid BUT OH MY GOD I WAS WRONG. The first episodes are going to be really boring and cliché (I even took a break for a while because of that) BUT BELIEVE ME the anime is going to suddenly become extremely interesting, adultand mature (Be careful I didn't say "Dark", it's not the same as mature or adult). In short it's an anime that talks about subjects related to adult life and family as a parent and various subjects around the death of a loved one, there are some serious twists and turns and especially moments much more interesting than I could have imagined.

It's a beautiful anime, the concept is great and it's executed nicely... But unfortunately it's lacking. It's supposed to be an anime that gets you emotional, that hits hard about the meaning of death and how to cope with losing a loved one, but this anime wasn't able to do so. I can't pinpoint how it went wrong, but at the end of it we are left with an impression that this anime was wishy-washy. I noticed that they strongly focused on Mai (the couple's daughter) in order to avoid issues about the age gap between the couple, and that was a highlight of this anime,but on the other hand it made the Father merely a father and not a "husband". It made his character weak and unlikeable. This is "mixed feelings" because I think that the story is worth it, but the anime isn't. So I would instead recommend watching the live action instead.