The Outsourcing Wife
Episode 2 of Fishbowl Wives begins with Sakura waking up next to Haruto. It’s calm and peaceful; a million miles away from her suffocating relationship with Takuya. The pair eventually share a breakfast of ramen, while Takuya continues to rage over Sakura’s absence. Unfortunately, he takes his anger out on one of the workers, forcing them to swallow an entire bottle of alcohol in order to stock more of that brand. As the poor guy begins downing the alcohol, sputtering and coughing, Takuya walks away uninterested, scoffing that he can’t believe the guy took him seriously. News of Sakura and Haruto’s extra-marital affairs begin to do the rounds. Pictures confirm as much, as the apartment block women all gasp and whisper over what this could mean. Still, Sakura and Haruto don’t care, as they continue to get closer together. Sakura even helps out around the shop too. Those pictures do inevitably get back to Takuya too, who’s livid and remains determined to figure out what this means. Given Sakura left all her stuff at home, Takuya starts going through her phone. He stops on a picture of the goldfish. Meanwhile, Yuka is given extra responsibilities at work. However, this is a direct contrast to her personal life, where her husband Minoru seems disinterested in her. He won’t have sex with her and worse, he shoots down the idea of having children too, claiming they should go slow. However, as fate would have it she receives a message from Jun, her ex-boyfriend. So naturally, Yuka decides to entertain him and heads out for dinner and drinks with Jun. Yuka comments how she wants a goldfish after admitting she’s been married or 2 years after dating for one. Jun is pretty forward, even guessing correctly that she’s not having sex. However, when he tries kissing her outside, she initially rejects him… and then stops. Now, given he doesn’t exactly have consent, the music is unusually whimsical while Jun grabs her and encourages Yuka to join him while they have a “short rest”. She refuses though, and hurries home. The thing is, she’s actually ovulating and tries to be sexy with Minoru when she heads home but he brushes it aside, telling her he has work in the morning. The shaman though runs into her in the hallway and tells Yuka that “once two bodies touch, they don’t want to separate again”. This is, seemingly, a direct reference toward Jun and their kiss outside. Lusting for that warm embrace from someone who actually takes an interest in her, Yuka gives in to temptation and meets Jun. While this is going on, fireworks explode overhead. It looks beautiful in the reflection of the goldfish tank, which is what Haruto and Sakura end up watching, while Takuya is completely nonchalant to the fireworks while he sits in his apartment alone. In the morning, Yuka shows up at the goldfish shop, remembering what the shaman said before about Feng shui. On her way in, she spots Sakura and the pair talk on the roof. Yuka comments how bright she’s looking now but is caged and reserved over exactly what’s happened to make her feeling that way. However, Yuka opens up instead and talks to her about Jun. Yuka makes a bold decision and decides to delete his number. Only… he shows up before her, taking the goldfish and naming it Yuka. Why? Well, it’s named after the woman he loves. It’s enough for a smile to cross her face as he takes Yuka’s hand and the pair leave together. Meanwhile, that worker from Takuya’s workplace shows up, demanding to know where Sakura is. He doesn’t give her up though, but a scuffle between the two sees Haruto hurt his arm. After, Sakura decides to name her goldfish Haru, because Haru and Sakura go well together.
The Episode Review
The attention this time turns to Yuka and her issues involving her current boyfriend Minoru and her ex Jun. Their ties work well in the context of the themes around extra-marital affairs, while the continued trials and tribulations of Haruto and Sakura remains the focal point of the show. There’s a nice ebb and flow to this series too, although some of the pacing is a tad slow at points. Still, it’s not too much of a deterrent and the idea of having a different wife included in a subplot spiraling around this main couple is a nice touch, although I’m sure the quality of these episodes is going to be dependent on what story it chooses to focus on next. Fishbowl Wives has enough charm to stick with for the time being, and it’ll be interesting to see what’s next for our characters.
