The two main protagonists, Akari Watanabe (left) and Jiro Yakuin (right)
More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers (夫婦以上、恋人未満。, Fūfu Ijō, Koibito Miman) is a manga series by Yūki Kanamaru. It has been serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's seinen manga magazine Young Ace since March 2018, with its chapters collected and published in nine tankōbon volumes as of October 2022. An anime television series adaptation by Studio Mother aired in October 2022.
The story centers on third-year high school student Jiro Yakuin, who gets saddled with his gyaru classmate Akari Watanabe for the class’s "marriage training" project about practicing to be a married couple. Jiro is the complete opposite of Akari, but the two know that if they do well they will be able to switch partners to end up with their respective crushes, and so they force themselves to act like the perfect married couple. Naturally, it soon starts becoming more than an act...
Tropes:
- Accidental Kiss: Jiro trips and falls onto Shiori while they're in the infirmary, causing them to kiss.
- And the Adventure Continues: The anime ends with both main couples reaching the top ten and therefore are now able to switch partners if they so choose. However, Akari has gotten over her longtime crush on Minami and now wholeheartedly wants to stay with Jiro, while Shiori has also made her intentions clear as well, leaving the choice up to Jiro.
- All Love Is Unrequited: There are several chains of unrequited affection as the Love Dodecahedron expands. Jiro had one-sided feelings for Shiori. Shiori likes Jiro in high school, but then he starts falling for Akari who was in love with Minami who in turn has feelings unrequited feelings for a former tutor. Oh, and Shiori's best friend Mei might have feelings for her. Also, Terafune, one of Minami's friends, has a crush on Akari.
- Arranged Marriage: Zig-zagged in that there’s no actual marriage, with it instead being a school project where a boy and girl are randomly paired together and made to act like a married couple. Getting along with each other increases their grades, while the opposite happens if they don’t (to the point where it’s possible to score negative points if the two are hostile to each other from the get-go as demonstrated by Akari and Jiro in the beginning). However, there is also the rule where the top ten couples are allowed to switch partners, becoming the motivation for Akari and Jiro to make things work between them so that they can get the people they respectively want.
- Becoming the Mask:
- Akari. She and Jiro are assigned together as a "married couple" by their school, and although initially against the idea, she starts to slowly fall in love with him over time. By Chapter 26 she moves on from Minami after finding closure with him and begins focusing her attention on Jiro.
- Jiro as well. Much like Akari, he also starts developing feelings for her but has trouble admitting to it due to his own feelings for Shiori, believing that Akari is in love with Minami, and his own feelings of insecurity in believing that any girl would fall in love with him.
- Betty and Veronica:
- Shiori is the Betty, being all sweet and pure whereas Akari is the Veronica, being all seductive and daring, to Jiro's Archie.
- Jiro is the Betty; he's plain, boring, and a virgin. Minami is the Vernoica, who's popular and good-looking. And Akari's the Archie.
- Bookends: The first episode opens with Akari and Shiori visiting a shrine. The final episode ends the same way, only this time they intended to go together; and also Jiro pays respects alongside the both of them.
- Custom Uniform of Sexy: Akari's school uniform is revealing even by Gyaru Girl standards, with cut outs on the shoulders and a half way unbuttoned shirt that shows off her cleavage.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Akari has a brief moment of explaining how to properly put ketchup on her omurice in an inadvertently suggestive manner.
- Happens with Shiori as well later with her and Jiro learning how to put whipped cream on a coffee drink. The following scene then takes it up a notch when Jiro squeezes the piping bag too hard and makes a mess of both his and Shiori's faces.
- Fireworks of Love: When Akari and Jiro are watching the fireworks from their shared house balcony, she asks him to make the ribbon bow with her yukata that he said he liked and grabs his hands on her waist.
- Fourth-Wall Observer: Jiro's friend Kamo is well aware that Jiro is in a harem anime and regularly points out how lucky he is. In episode four he completely breaks the fourth wall to point out that he has yet to be properly introduced or named.
- Gyaru Girl: Akari and her friends fall under the kogal variation of the subculture, wearing short skirts and unbuttoned tops and having bold and straightforward personalities.
- Hidden Depths: From Jiro's perspective, Akari is the stereotypical gyaru who seems to have no boundaries and is constantly flashy and provocative. The more he tries to measure up to his perception of her, however, the more she reveals how innocent and vulnerable she actually is despite the front she puts up.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode name follows the format of the main title, "More Than [X], But Not Yet [Y]". The only exception is the finale, which retains the recurring phrases in Japanese (ijou and miman) but takes on a different meaning in English. note
- Love Dodecahedron: As the story progresses more characters get attached to the initial love square: Jiro likes Shiori, and Akari likes Minami. Shiori likes Jiro back but is afraid to confess, while Jiro thinks he was friend zoned. Due to being paired as a mock married couple Jiro and Akari begin having feelings for each other as well. Shiori's best friend Mei has feelings for Shiori but is reluctant to act on them due to Incompatible Orientation. Minami's friend as well as Mei's mock husband Terafune has feelings for Akari but is aware that she has feelings for Jiro and Minami. Minami has feelings for his older brother's wife a.k.a his former tutor and rejects Akari because of it.
- Ms. Fanservice: Akari, naturally.
- Spit Take: Jiro chokes on and spits out his hot chocolate when Akari asks him to call her by her first name out of nowhere.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Akari has pink hair while Jiro has bright blue hair.
- Poor Communication Kills: Unknown to Jiro, Shiori does have feelings for him, but in middle school she unknowingly friend-zoned him when she told him "they'd always be friends". This caused him to back off at the last minute when he was about to confess to her, and before she could invite him on a future date.
- Romantic Spoonfeeding:
- In episode 2, Jiro imagines Shiori feeding him her cooking when he's sick and regrets eating it immediately before she had the chance to feed him.
- In episode 3, Akari convinces Jiro to eat some of the food she prepared for Minami saying it's leftovers. She expectantly extends her hands with the food and he eats a rolled omelet complete with Love Bubbles in the background.
- Sacred First Kiss: Jiro accidentally takes Akari's first kiss (and by extension his own), when she demands a "goodbye kiss" which he thought would be on the lips, while she thought it'd be on the cheek. Later, Shiori gives hers to Jiro as well.
- Shipper with an Agenda: Akari and Jiro are trying to get their score up to S-Rank because students in the S-Tier are allowed to trade partners, but that won't mean anything if Shiori and Minami don't reach S-Rank too.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Kamo, Natsumi, Sachi and Mei don't appear in the final episode.
- Shout-Out:
- Jiro is regularly seen playing an old school Final Fantasy esque game.
- In episode 4, Kamo gives an extended shout out to Yu-Gi-Oh! figuring out what sort of card he should play to diffuse a tense situation.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Kamo and his older brother are complete opposites in terms of social standings: Kamo is a social outcast Otaku while his brother is a popular jock. They are both however similar in being cheerful guys.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Jiro and Akari are less than thrilled to be paired up with each other considering the two of them are complete opposites, only working together so they can get a high enough grade to switch partners with Shiori and Minami.
- That Came Out Wrong: When Jiro tries to cheer Akari up by listing all her good qualities, he says she's sexy, beautiful, has a great figure, makes daring fashion choices, every guy's dream, and when he reaches the "any guy would want to have se-" part he realizes he messed up as it's all just about her looks. He tries to explain that this isn't what he meant but makes it worse. Not that it affected her as she just asked if he thinks too as well.
- Through His Stomach: Played With. An entire episode centers around this, but it's not a recurring theme throughout the series.
- Akari tries to make a fancy lunchbox to woo Minami involving rolled omelets but when Shiori reveals that he likes sweet food and that Shiori already made apple pies for him, she gives up and gets discouraged but Jiro eats it all instead.
- Jiro is already crushing on Shiori but her Orgasmically Delicious cooking sends him to cloud nine of happiness.
- Twice Shy: Jiro and Shiori both have feelings for each other, but they are too nervous to act on them. Jiro is somewhat downplayed since he believes Shiori thinks they're Just Friends.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Jiro has feelings for Shiori, but he believes Shiori thinks they're Just Friends. After getting paired up with Akari, he begins having feelings for her as well. All while Shiori is trying to confess her love to Jiro and becoming increasingly smitten with him.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: After eating some chocolates that turned out to have alcohol in them, Jiro wakes up the next morning to find Akari in her underwear sleeping next to him. He had passed out by the time Akari got home and she couldn't wake him. She then played up the misunderstanding as a roundabout way of finding out if he slept with Shiori or not.
