Adapted by Tezuka Productions from a manga, which is the same studio behind Quintessential Quintuplets, My Wife Has No Emotion is one of many summer 2024 anime series.
It’s a rom com that focuses on a male MC who after failing in a single romantic relationship, orders a robot girl and weirdly starts to find her attractive.
This is where the title comes from, especially the “wife has no emotion” part.
Surprisingly, the manga version of this anime has decent ratings (in the 7s out of 10), but the anime hasn’t been well received and currently sits in the 6s out of 10 (by MAL standards that is).
With only 3 or so episodes so far, My Wife Has No Emotion seems depressing yet entertaining and curious.
Let’s talk about why that is.
1. It’s an insight into the future of East Asian society
I extend this to the Western world more than anywhere else, and only pockets of East Asian culture like Japan being the obvious choice.
In Japan, there is a man called Akihiko Kondo who married Hatsune Miku years ago (a doll of Hatsune Miku). While this behaviour by large is still uncommon in the 21st century, the future will look very different.
These things will become more common not just in Japanese society unless things change, but other neighbouring countries and even as far as the Western world as well.
My Wife Has No Emotion is an insight into this potential future where artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and Augmented Reality will become the replacement for “girlfriends”.
Especially with men who have lost all hope in a human partnership.
2. A guy who fancies a female robot
The main male MC Takuma is genuinely attracted to a female robot called Mina, an appliance robot he ordered to clean the house, cook, and do household chores.
Mina’s moth doesn’t move (not sure if this is deliberate on the animator’s behalf), but her body communicates all the same which is enough to get Takuma blushing and all types of shit.
When you see the genuine desperation and even innocence of this man trying to win the affection of a robot girl, you can’t help but feel sorry for the guy.
I don’t mean in a patronising way, but in a way, that’s just downright sad and depressing.
This is also why the anime is entertaining but not in a happy, cheerful kind of way.
3. Giving up on “human” romance in exchange for a mechanical wife
Takuma said it himself, paraphrasing: “I tried romance once, but it failed.” This then leads him to buy a robot that can do chores around the house, cook him the best food, help him organize his life, and even treat him the way a happy wife would.
He becomes fully committed to his robot wife Mina, and he even takes it a step further by buying a wedding ring not just for himself, but for Mina.
This is then followed up with placing that wedding ring on the ring finger of Mina, who then refuses to let Takuma remove that wedding ring when she starts to “malfunction” somewhat.
It really is a sight to see but not for a feeling of joy or excitement.
4. An insecure guy wanting a female robot to reciprocate his feelings
Takuma is a desperate kind of guy., He reminds me of Kazuya Kinoshita in many ways from the anime series Rent A Girlfriend.
In fact, he has a similar design and even similar facial expressions and reactions to things.
In the second episode of the anime, My Wife Has No Emotions, we can see Takuma wanting a certain reaction out of MIna, the robot wife.
He genuinely struggled to summon up the courage to ask Mina to hold his hands while they headed out to the park.
While this shows he has courage, we have to remember he has courage for a robot girl and not for an actual woman with human feelings, emotions, and other complexities not found in a machine despite its “intelligence” or functions.
We also see Takuma fish for reciprocation when he asks Mina to “be his wife”, which is followed by her making him a meal.
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5. The mental gymnastics of a lonely MC
Takuma is willing to convince himself that this is the ideal way to be married, by having a robot wife he bought and then treating that robot like a human being and a human wife.
Of course, the latter is actually positive in a sense. He’s treating the robot with respect the way he would a human being, but since this anime isn’t based on “robot” discrimination or anything like that, it’s a moot point altogether.
It’s still mental gymnastics at its core.
It also doesn’t change the sad fact that Takuma is coping with life and this is his way of doing it, especially when it comes to having any shot at romance, the thing he’s terrified of after failing ONCE while young.
The appeal of the fantasy life he has created for himself where things are pretty much real (in a sense) is enough to wash away the loneliness, sadness, and the mundane routine of going to work and then coming home with chores to do (which the “wife” now takes care of).
6. Being aroused by a machine
Various scenes of this anime show Takuma getting aroused at the thought of Mina, the robot wife, reciprocating his feelings and simply doing the things he’d expect of a real woman.
This might be one of the creepier, stranger, and outright saddest elements of this anime “My Wife Has No Emotions”.
Playing the role of a fictional wife, similar to the man who married Hatsune Miku is one thing, but feelings of arousal for a machine that clanks, breaks down, and is robotic visually is something else.
When Mina we’ll say “comforts” Takuma, he also blushes out of control and gets butterflies of sorts.
This might be the anime’s most depressingly entertaining aspect, and this is regardless of whether you are open minded or not.
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In the end, My Wife Has No Emotion is a different type of anime series, unusual to the typical romance and rom com we see on a yearly basis.
But there is no doubt it’s strange, and this is reflected in its ratings.
Stranger anime exists, but this type of anime where there is romance between a human who’s coping and a robot unsurprisingly rubs most viewers the wrong way in general.
