The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife

If you are reading this and you’re a romance fan genuinely interested in this show, take the following review and my overall score with a grain of salt. I am not far enough up my own ass to not realize that my lack of enjoyment with The Invisible Man and his Soon to be Wife is not an indicator of the show’s quality. It’s probably pretty decent. I’m just not a fan of slow, sweet, fluffy romances, which is exactly what The Invisible Man and his Soon to be Wife is. Regardless, I will publish my honest thoughts regarding the anime, leaving my record. TheInvisible Man and his Soon to be Wife is fine. It’s fine I guess. That’s all I can really say. The OST is alright. The ED and OP are cute. I especially like how the ED utilizes the turquoise coloring from the original web comic. Some shots of the ED are pretty boring, but the direction of both the OP and ED isn’t bad. As far as animation quality goes, I feel like the production committee was shuffled around partly through the series run, because after the halfway point, things start looking very interesting. I’m not a fan of the washed colors, but the animation itself becomes a lot more livelier and interesting to look at. (For some scenes, they even use flat coloring, particularly the opening dinner scene in episode 12!) The character animation is nothing on Frieren’s level, but it's still very charming to watch and gives a lot of personality to the characters. To get to the point as to why I didn’t enjoy this series, I just couldn’t bring myself to care about the main couple. Like, at all. Shizuka was so kind and sweet that she didn’t leave much of an impression on me. I felt like she was way too embarrassed to do romantic stuff with Akira, despite her being an adult, and not a school girl. There may be an argument here about the infantilization of her blindness, but to be honest, her childish nature revolves around her identity as a woman rather than as a blind person. I guess it’s (probably) not ableism? I have similar thoughts towards the male lead, Akira. The couple is just so Nice and Good to each other all the time, that it bored me. Shizuka and Akira are fantastic at communicating with one another. They should be, as grown adults. However, two people in a loving, healthy relationship just doesn’t make a fun show for me. I can see some people liking two mature characters going about romance maturely, but for me, I just couldn’t get invested in Shizuka squealing over Akira every five minutes, while Akira is the most respectful man of all time. It’s interesting that the two are in a relationship for 11 out of 12 episodes. Most romance anime tell the couple’s story before the confession even occurs (and even detail detours that happen after the confession). In that regard, one of the series' pros is how straightforward it is in coupling Shizuka and Akira. However, this little bit of intrigue wasn’t enough to keep me invested, or even invest me at all. Losing interest in the romance, I found what actually kept my attention was the world at large. I found myself wondering what the politics of this society could be like, one where humans are simply one dominant species of hundreds, where creatures of all kinds (and all cultures) lived in peace. My favorite character was Jirashi, a bobcat anthro who had an episode to herself regarding her insecurity about her spotted patterns, and the difficulties of finding clothes that went with them. While I enjoyed this conflict regarding individual identity, I felt a bit disappointed that there didn’t seem to be any major socio-political conflict backdropping against our main couple. In a world where everyone is so vastly different, there has to be some interesting conflicts. If humans can’t tolerate someone who merely has a different skin color, I can’t imagine it’s all happiness and rainbows in a world where a high fantasy elf can be housemates with a sentient giant crab. However, I am not so far up my own ass. The Invisible Man and His Soon to be Wife isn’t about this at all. It would be a bad idea for the show to focus on that aspect, because the show really only wants to and is only designed to revolve around our main couple, and how they interact with the world--and it wouldn’t be a feel good, fluffy romance, if there were socio-political drama. As much as I would like to explore the world at large, that simply isn’t the point of the show, and it shouldn’t be. Regardless, I still desired the musings of the world beyond Shizuka and Akira’s rose colored glasses The supporting cast as a whole was mostly okay. I found that I didn’t love most of the nonhuman designs, as creative as the actual races could be. The dark elf/drow, Karma, is funny, but I didn’t feel very much at all for his and his wife Light’s conflict, especially in the last quarter of the series. Akira and Shizuka’s co-workers are also there. I liked the supporting gay couple, Daichi and Madaraito, but really only because they were a gay couple and were there. I am a fujoshi, but I am also a supporter of the LGBT community, so I appreciated seeing queer couples normalized in a setting that wasn’t explicitly a BL, especially since one of them was fat, and both the characters and narrative were extremely normal about that. However, they didn’t do much for me besides being eye-candy, I suppose. I already said most of what I wanted to say about Jirashi, and while I liked her arc, she also didn’t do a lot for me--and again, because as the show should be, its focus is on the main couple, and not their coworkers. I’m going to have a hard time recommending The Invisible Man and his Soon to be Wife, because I didn’t enjoy it. Despite that, I can recognize its strengths, even if those strengths didn’t appeal to me. It’s hard to tell someone to watch a show you think is probably good but didn’t enjoy yourself. The Invisible Man and his Soon to be Wife will remain at this impasse for me. Perhaps traditional romance fans will enjoy it, but there just wasn’t enough edge to keep me satisfied.

Before I watched "The Invisible Man And His Soon To Be Wife", I didn't have high expectations. I saw some posts about it on social media and although it didn't appeal to me at first, since I found the premise kinda goofy, I decided to give it a try out of mere curiosity. Well, as the anime shows us: you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. From the first episodes, I was enamored of Shizuka and Akira's blooming relationship. Their chemistry was very natural and I loved their interactions from the get-go. They were the heart of the story, since it revolved around theirdeveloping relationship and I always looked forward to see more of their growth as a couple. I was relieved to see that there were no meaningless conflicts between them and that they shared their problems with each other. Although there were some child-like moments, their overall relationship felt very mature in terms of communication and it was nice to see that they were always there for each other. Shizuka and Akira were very intriguing as individuals, too. Both of them had their own personal struggles and insecurities and both of them came from a different background. It was amazing to see a blind protagonist in a romance anime and in terms of representation, the creator handled Shizuka's character perfectly. We saw her having to navigate through life and even struggle at times but she wasn't defined by her disability. As for Akira, it was so interesting to see his own insecurities regarding his idenity as an invisible person and what it felt like for him to find acceptance in a world where society held prejudice against his species. Both Akira and Shizuka had to deal with personal problems but they were always able to rely on each other. Their relationship provided them with safety and they weren't afraid to be vulnerable in front of each other - especially Akira. Their relationship relied a lot on trust and acceptance, they never forced each other to change and they weren't afraid to voice their fears and feelings in general. The side characters were equally entertaining to watch. I was so ecstatic to see a same-sex relationship featured in a non-queer story and I was so happy to see how respectfully it was presented. Kousuke and Daichi were a breath of fresh air and I adored their interactions, I really wished we would have seen more of them but even the brief scenes we got were enough to establish their dynamic and relationship. Luna was so cool and funny and Light and Karma had a very interesting relationship, too. Although the side chracters weren't as developed as the main couple, they still had their own traits which made them stand out and the dynamic between them detective team was hilarious and yet so heartwarming. Despite the urban fantasy setting, the story tackled some relevant issues by incorporating them in the universe of the anime. It was so interesting to see the approach of the topic of racism and discrimination being highlighted through the different species. Since this was a light-hearted romance story, I didn't expect a thoroughly commentary but it was still pleasant to see a romance story bring awareness to important issues. The animation was very nice and cute but where the animation department really shined was during the last two episodes. It had a bubbly vibe and the characters' movements were more fluid, which added extra layers of vividness in an overall charming story. The voice acting was another reason why the series was so fun to watch, every voice actor matched their character perfectly and they encapsulated their personalities accurately. The OST was pleasant to listen to, the intro is one of my favourites this season. I would have preferred it if we had seen more development regarding the secondary characters, while I really appreciated their scenes and their struggles, sometimes the way they were handled felt superficial and rushed, which is by no means bad but it could have been slightly better. There were also some moments which made m feel kinda indifferent but overall, the story was very cozy and and the anime has become one of my most favourites. I really hope we'll get a second season!

I really enjoyed this show. It was a unique premise and I liked that we were laughing with the characters instead of at them. There was a really welcoming vibe to the show and it made Thursday anime time enjoyable. I think its biggest strength was its characters and making them each unique to themselves. It was also nice to have a romance with an adult cast that wasn't pervy but didn't shy away from the fact that people think pervy stuff sometimes. It made things relatable and added to the comedy. If you're looking for a unique slice of life screwball comedy then you'llenjoy this. If you want something that's a little more grown up, then you might get frustrated by the pg-13ness of it all.

Every season we have a ton of romantic comedies. "The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife" is another one on the table, and the big catch initially in the title is Invisible Man. A romance where the protagonist is invisible. What the title doesn't tell you as well is that the female protagonist, Shizuka is blind. So here we have a setup of a man who can't be seen mostly and a woman who can't see. This is the big thing about this show because it really dives into the difficulties that our leads can have. How does Akira struggle in not being seen? While, ofcourse, for Shizuka how she deals with her blindness. The show strikes a good balance in treating their disabilities seriously but not dwelling on it too much so that it makes the show a downer. As this show strives for a more wholesome vibe to it. However, the depth in the characters does not stop at the show's leads. This shows the same for our side characters, each of whom has a partner to showcase this dynamic. The great thing about this is that it treats the characters more as individuals with their own issues rather than just as tropes. Which is a problem in many RomComs. On the production quality, this turns out to probably be Project No. 9's best work. The visual quality is very consistent and even had some impressive highs, like episode 11. If you are a fan of wholesome RomComs please give this show a chance because I am sure you will love it.