“But we’re married” could be the tagline for the first nine eps of this series.

ToniCawa is one of those sneaky shows.  The ones where I already knew it was good, but just how good it is really creeps up on you.  Todd’s recent question in the comments about anime featuring married couples really brought home to me just how damn few good ones there are.  Even widening the net to include serious adult relationships generally, the anime cupboard is distressingly bare.  It’s not hard to understand why, but it still makes you appreciate how precious a series like this one is.  Not only does it fill a desperately needed niche, but it does so with real insight and sensitivity.

Two qualifiers before my next claim.  “Slice of life” is a wildly overused term in anime.  And Tonikaku Cawaii definitely has a plot, even if we’ve just scratched the surface.  That as read, this is really an example of what slice of life should be.  It feels real, the characters are charming, and it conjures memories of your own experiences that make you feel warm inside.  What more could you want from SoL, really?  Nasa and Tsukasa are one of my favorite couples, all the more so in anime form.  It could be tiresome hearing two youngsters (no comment) waxing poetical about why they love each other.  But with this pair I just nod and agree.  They’re both good and nice, in a completely genuine way.

The apartment situation (another mystery – why is the landlord a little boy?  Does he look familiar?) really shows Nasa at his best (as Tsukasa observes).  He’s more concerned about the landlord than his own loss.  He’s calm in a crisis.  And he’s totally prepared – indeed, this is one of those instances where over-preparedness is a positive character trait.  Insurance should be a breeze, but there is the matter of where to actually lay their heads for the moment – not to mention all the practical necessities that were lost and need to be replaced.

I’ve been rough on the supporting cast with ToniCawa, but just to be clear, they aren’t all equal – and the bathhouse pair is certainly better than the mansion subset.  Make that trio, because the Arisugawa’s mom (wonderfully cast as Hisakwa Aya) joins the fray.  She’s something of an amalgam of Aya and Kaname personality-wise, and a bit of a hoot.  Kaname witnesses Nasa fantasizing about spending a night in a love hotel with his wife and is hilariously nonchalant about it, then offers to let Nasa and Tsukasa stay in the family’s vacant granny flat.

It’s certainly a manga conceit that the Arisugawa’s mother-in-law unit is actually a really sweet pad, but given Nasa’s contributions to the family’s survival it’s natural that they’d offer.  The rub here is of course that dwarfstar-dense Aya still hasn’t put two and two together, but Mom blurts out the truth and she’s finally forced to confront reality (my theory is that she knew all along, and is just really good at denial).  Tsukasa points out, quite rightly, that the way Nasa is treated in a crisis reflects just how well-regarded he is by those who know him well – and that’s certainly the case.

At this point, we segue into a couple of wonderful vignettes about couplehood.  First, laundry.  Believe me, that embarrassment factor goes away quickly enough and you’re just glad the other party is doing the work.  But for now these two are still in the flush of young love, and for Nasa even handling Tsukasa’s clothes is a major turn-on.  And he learns something – I confess, even I didn’t know about the net thing (maybe I just haven’t dated the right women but this is the first I’d heard of it, too).  The wrinkle here (pun intended) is that Tsukasa admits she’s going commando while her dainties are in the wash.  And Tsukasa snaps a photo (probably a bit of a regrettable choice, if we’re honest).

The clothes theme continues as Kaname scolds Nasa to take his wife shopping, most of her clothes having been lost in the blaze.  For a lot of guys – me included – clothes shopping with women is really a torture (I blame childhood traumas being dragged along with my mother).  This is really adorable to watch play out.  Nasa worries that Tsukasa’s choices are too revealing (a different side of him).  And things really heat up (heh) when it’s time for unmentionables.  I just love how Tsukasa calmly chooses the cheaper options because she’s a realist and a considerate person.  And Tsukasa actually musters up the boldness to tell her he’d like to see her model her choices – though this immediately sends both of them into a paroxysm of embarrassment.

My only disappointment, in fact, is that we didn’t get to see the two of them shopping for Nasa.  That would have been interesting for any number of reasons, not least because I’d be curious about Tsukasa’s taste in men’s clothing.  Men’s fashion is a much more mainstream thing in Japan than America, and guys tend to be more willing to go bold – though Nasa does happily tell his wife that he does his clothes shopping at the supermarket.  A note here : in Japan large suupa often have clothing and houseware floors, and in saying “department store” the subs actually got this wrong – by admitting he shopped in supermarkets Nasa was marking himself as even more unhip and frugal.  But that’s where wives come in…