The Lunchbox Wife

Sakura and Haruto are trying to separate the goldfish in the shower. Haruto’s injuries are getting worse and he’s struggling to lift things.

Sakura is a part-time worker and has a ring on. She pretends to be a part-time worker and given she has a ring on, it doesn’t arise too many suspicions from her. Or does it?

Noriko’s husband asks Tsuta to join them in some extra-marital activities, but before he agrees to that he wants to talk to Noriko first.

Noriko and Tsuta ended up holding hands while her husband urged them to kiss. However, Nori was not comfortable with the situation and despite leaving the room, they decided not to kiss and just chat instead. ..

Ironically, this is actually enough for Nori’s husband to burst back in, aroused, and taking his wife to bed. Tsuta is left to stand around awkwardly.

Noriko is a bit of an outsider around her husband’s fetishes and predictably, ends up meeting the shaman for advice. The wise woman encourages her to be more free, which in turn sees Tsuta and Noriko actually take the plunge and engage in his fetishes.

Nori has been thinking a lot about Tsuta lately, as the two of them have been getting closer. She even brings him food to his house after learning that he’s sick. ..

Nori has a fetish for watching Tsuta eat her food. This is because she sees how Tsuta enjoys it and gets turned on. This inevitably leads to them having sex, with Nori climaxing while thinking about Tsuta eating her food. ..

Meanwhile, Takuya eventually shows up at the goldfish store and calls out Haruto for keeping Sakura upstairs. He mentions Sakura’s name…disguised as a fish but it’s clear this is a ruse to try and unsettle the pair. ..

Sakura is suspicious of Ran and eventually tells her to break up with Haruto. Realizing they’re together, Sakura wasn’t fooled by Ran’s ring. In fact, she tells her to break things off. ..

Sakura takes this to heart and shows up at her apartment. Unfortunately, Takuya is there and he demands she apologize. Instead, Sakura busies herself with his goldfish. It turns out, she only showed up to help feed the fish and keep it safe. That’s all she wanted from him.

Takuya is furious and as he tries to shout at his wife, she instead drops her wedding ring on the table and leaves. It’s a moment of strength from a woman who has been denied it for so long, and Sakura returns to Haruto with the goldfish. She has no intention of breaking up with Haruto and instead, decides this is where her home is now.

The Episode Review

The episode feels like it’s missing a key ingredient, and it’s not clear what that is. It could be that the writers are trying to create a more light-hearted tone, but it doesn’t feel very successful. It could also be that they’re just not sure what the story is anymore and need to find a way to bring it back into focus. We won’t know for sure until we see what happens next.

The third episode of “Kimi no Na Wa” was largely disappointing. While there were some good moments, it felt like the show was missing its usual strong thematic backbone. Additionally, championing Nori cheating on her husband - properly this time, not part of the kink - felt bizarre. ..

Despite the fact that Fishbowl Wives is an enjoyable show, it seems rather amusing that Netflix released this right around Valentine’s Day of all holidays! ..