I Married My Female Friend

"Hilarious! Two friends getting married after a light joke? What a plot." Was my initial reaction, and is still my reaction after finishing the manga. However, the ride was much more enjoyable than I thought it would be when I first engaged in this manga. Onna Tomodachi to Kekkon Shitemita is a manga about two friends getting married as a "joke", and how they have to find a balance between marriage, and their friendship. Of course, that's no easy task, so for majority of the series we're just watching them learn how to coordinate together, and what exactly even changes when shifting from friendship to marriage.When simplified like that it may come of as "boring" to a lot of people, which is a common complaint that I've seen, but really it all just comes down to preference. If you're a fan of series that make use of slow burn, then this is your cup of tea: The plot develops gradually and has a lot of cute moments in-between. For people who'd prefer something more grounded and faster pace, then not so much. Synopsis and pacing aside, the characters are also worth briefly mentioning. This is just my interpretation, but the characters could be better. I do like the whole opposites with opposites type of vibe the series captures, but I found myself wishing that the leads were a little bit more entertaining. For a slow burn series, having good leads is a crucial thing. This isn't to say that the characters are terrible, because they're not, they're just iterations of common characters we see often in these Yuri works which is quite upsetting. The characters designs and artwork are beautifully drawn. The scenery and the environment come off as extremely eye catching and make the world feel as if it's genuinely being inhabited, aside from the two main leads. That's something this story does quite well which deserves props. Overall, 6/10. While I believe it's enjoyable, there's certainly better Yuri works quite similar to this that provide a slightly better reading experience. Me saying this isn't an attempt to drive you away from this manga, not at all. It holds up well, but it's in the shadow of so many other works that have done the exact same thing. The plot was a great twist, but everything aside from that wasn't unfortunately.. Certainly not a bad read, though.