is a Japanese

romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

josei , also known as and its abbreviation , is an editorial category of Japanese comics that emerged in the 1980s. In a strict sense, ''josei'' refers to manga marketed to an audience of adult women, contrasting ''shōjo'' manga, which is marke ...

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written and illustrated by Tsunami Umino. The original title is from a Hungarian

proverb A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phra ...

: "Running away is shameful, but useful" (, ). It was published by

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

, with serialization in ''

Kiss A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

'' magazine since November 9, 2012 and eleven volumes released across the whole series timeframe. The series later got a live-action adaptation that began airing on TBS in October 2016, with

Yui Aragaki is a Ryukyuan Japanese actress, model, singer and occasional radio show host. She has been selected several times as the most desired girlfriend and the most desired female celebrity face in Oricon's yearly survey. Early life She was born on J ...

and

Gen Hoshino is a Japanese singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and writer. Career Music Since 2000, Hoshino has led the instrumental band Sakerock, where he plays marimba and guitar. They released over ten albums before disbanding in 2015. As a solo artist, ...

as the leads. Viki has licensed the series in North America.

Characters

; :Portrayed by:

:The 25-year-old protagonist. A graduate student who was recently fired from her temporary job. Mikuri studied psychology in graduate school and is a licensed clinical psychologist, and often internally psycho-analyzes Hiramasa. After losing her temp job, she is given the chance to become a housekeeper at Hiramasa's home, desperate for any source of income. After learning that her parents were about to move to the countryside when her father retires, she enters a contract marriage with Hiramasa, allowing her a place to live and a stable source of employment. ; :Portrayed by:

:The 36-year-old male lead. A salaryman of who is one of the top workers in his company. Despite being 36, he is still a virgin and calls himself a "professional bachelor". He enters a contract common law marriage with Mikuri because he thinks it will be useful to have someone live with him who can take care of him if need be. Fairly quickly after marrying Mikuri, he begins to have feelings and desires for her, which he tries to suppress. Mikuri speculates that Hiramasa struggles with hypervigilant narcissism, as he completely avoids any situation that may interrupt his way of life or self image. ; : Portrayed by:

Ryohei Otani is a Japanese actor and model. He began his modeling career in Japan, then entered Korean entertainment by being featured in a commercial for Dunkin' Donuts in 2003, followed by Hyundai Motors, Olympus and SK Telecom. His popularity helped him la ...

:Hiramasa's coworker. He is 27 and often wonders if marriage is a good thing, and breaks up with his girlfriend in the first volume after she wants marriage and he does not. He later moves into the same neighborhood as Mikuri's aunt Yuri. ; : Portrayed by:

Yuriko Ishida is a Japanese actress and essayist from Nagoya. She was the Japanese voice of the title character San from the 1997 animated film ''Princess Mononoke''. She is the older sister of Hikari Ishida, also an actress. Filmography Films *''Gokudo no On ...

: Mikuri's 52-year-old aunt who insists Mikuri calls her by her first name and not as "Aunt." She is single and has never married, and mentions that she made it to menopause a virgin. Yuri is shown to be a career woman with a good amount of wealth, but laments that she should have gotten married when she was younger even if it would end in divorce. She sees Kazami break up with his girlfriend at the restaurant and holds resentment towards him. ; : Portrayed by: Arata Furuta : Hiramasa's gay coworker who socializes with him and Kazami. When he is first invited to Hiramasa and Mikuri's apartment, he shows his skills as a great cook. He catches on early that Hiramasa and Mikuri are not a real couple, but fantasizes that Hiramasa married Mikuri to hide that he is in a relationship with Kazami, which is untrue. ; :Portrayed by:

Takashi Fujii , born March 10, 1972 in Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan) is a Japanese comedian and singer who belongs to the Japanese entertainment conglomerate Yoshimoto Kogyo and is the popular host of '' Matthew's Best Hit TV'' (as the character , and various ot ...

: Another of Hiramasa's coworkers, he is a typical married man with kids.

Volumes

Reception

Volume 5 reached the 47th place on the weekly

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

manga charts and, as of April 19, 2015, had sold 20,288 copies. The series won the award for Best Shōjo Manga at the 39th

Kodansha Manga Awards is an annual award for serialized manga published in the previous year, the event is sponsored by the publisher Kodansha. It is currently awarded in three categories: '' shōnen'', '' shōjo'', and general. The awards began in 1977, initially w ...

. The television drama was very popular and the ending theme

Koi or more specifically , are colored varieties of the Amur carp ('' Cyprinus rubrofuscus'') that are kept for decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds or water gardens. Koi is an informal name for the colored variants of ''C. rubrofuscus'' ke ...

(恋) by

featuring the cast dancing the ''Koi Dance'' ("love dance") became a craze in Japan. The music video for the song currently has over 200 million views on YouTube.

References

External links

*
Official TV drama website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Full-Time Wife Escapist, The Kodansha manga Romance anime and manga Shōjo manga Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (Shōjo) TBS Television (Japan) dramas 2016 Japanese television series debuts Works by Akiko Nogi Television shows set in Yokohama