If My Wife Becomes an Elementary School Student, an anime released in early October, is coming to an end as the year begins to wrap up. Also called TsumaSho, The anime centers on Keisuke Niijima and his daughter Mai Niijima. The plot takes place ten years after the death of Takae Niijima—the wife and mother of Keisuke and Mai. Keisuke and Mai suffer deeply from the loss of their beloved family member. Their grievance did not shake in the face of ten years passing by; none of the two could walk out from the trauma of losing their loved one.
Witnessing the circumstances Keisuke and Mai were in, Takae awakens her past-life memories in the body of Marika Shiraishi, who was exactly 10 years old at the time. When Marika meets the Niijima family again for the first time in a long while, Keisuke and Mai take Marika’s presence as a gift, none of them dare to take the time they have together for granted again. Keisuke and Mai are happily struck by the reunion of the family, which motivates them to shift their grievances to their personal achievements again.
Everything seems to be moving in the right direction until one day when Marika suddenly lost Takae’s memories. After a year of reunion and family bonding, Keisuke and Mai have to witness a major character shift in the new yet familiar face of Marika. They notice that the elementary student in front of them is just an ordinary child, that there does not seem to be any traces of Takae. This should not be the case of reincarnation because there must be connections between the person and his or her past life. This new-found information causes Keisuke to wonder if Marika is the reincarnation of Takae, or if Takae took over the body of Marika.
The anime covers a wide variety of topics ranging from familial love to what it takes to be a teenager. The story emphasizes on the ability to move on in the face of losing loved ones because no one lasts forever. As shown in the case of Takae returning to the family ten years after her death, she did not return as Takae Niijima but instead as Marika Shiraishi, which shows that nothing stays the same. This concept grows more apparent when readers later find out that Takae’s return is only temporary. The anime does not try to create a happy ending by reviving Takae and bringing her back to the family—instead, overcoming the loss and readjusting on self-improvement are what bring real joy. The anime is coming to an end, and the only way to find out the ending is by watching the anime!
