"I love you. My precious wife..."
Wife and Wife (Fu~fu) is the tale of Sumi and Kina, a young lesbian couple who have just recently moved in with each other. The manga follows the pair as they make their heartwarming first steps since taking their relationship to the next level... from what they should call each other, to buying their first bed, and everything in between. Billed as "the loving story of a leisurely life together", the series lives up to this promise by remaining surprisingly angst and drama free.
Wife and Wife is a seinen Slice of Life manga written and illustrated by Hisanari Minamoto. The series began its run in 2009 in the Yuri Hime S magazine and concluded in 2013. The manga shows strong influence by Miyabi Fujiedanote , with whom Minamoto collaborated on a K-On! yuri doujin earlier.
Wife and Wife contains examples of:
- Angrish: When her older sister makes a pass at Sumi, Kina doesn't take it too well.
- Author Appeal: The author wanted to read a manga about a yuri couple that was already together and still flirting like crazy, so he made one himself. In an author talk page, he straight out states "I decided to pack it full of stuff I love."
- Beta Couple: Hayase and Komugi, who have just moved in together in chapter 5.
- Big Word Shout: "Honeymoooooooooooon!"
- Book Ends: Both the first and last chapters have the same pose, seen in the image at the top of the page, once in pajamas and again in wedding dresses with nearly identical dialog."I love you. My precious wife.""I love you forever and always. My precious wife."
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- "Isn't that summary a bit too simple?"
- And later we get this:
Sumi: Usually I wait until the last two or three pages to do this but let's jump right in!
Kina: Calm down, Suu-chan.
Caption: No breakin' the fourth wall!- In fact, fourth wall breaking became a staple in the manga after four chapters or so.
- Cast Full of Gay: Thanks to Kana, there's exactly one character so far who hasn't shown some lesbian inclination, possibly because she gets no lines.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Kana. She dates multiple girls at a time, but not because she's mean-spirited; she just "loves them all so much."
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Kina is adorably daffy, but all the characters have their moments.
- Cool Big Sis: Kana, though Kina doesn't seem to admire her that much.
- Cute Little Fang: Kina sports one here.
- Cuteness Overload: Sumi keeps erupting into luminescent blushes or glomping Kina whenever the latter does or says something that is exceptionally cute — which can be surprisingly easy, actually.
- Death Glare: From Hayase of all people. See Yandere below. Doubly scary since it's the one and only time her eyes are actually seen.
- Didn't Think This Through: Sumi's secret plan to get rings for her and Kina comes with a small hitch: Keeping it secret means she doesn't know Kina's ring size.
- Does She Have Another Sister? After Kana and Shirayuki become an Official Couple, Arata eyes Kina for a few seconds. And then asks if she has another sister.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Kana tends to invoke this effect, attracting girls regardless of the others actual inclination.
- Expressive Hair: Kina's Idiot Hair does this on occasion.
- Eyes Always Shut: Hayase
- Fanservice: Averted, but this manga loves to tease you, and it's clear from the dialogue that they have a very healthy sex life.
- And then they decided to forget the teasing, and gifted the readers with a shot of Kana and Shirayuki in a hotel room.
- Hidden Depths: Who would have thought Kana of all people would have the closest the series has come to a sad back story?
- Homosexual Reproduction: Kina pretends to be pregnant by stuffing a cat under her shirt.
- Hot Springs Episode: Chapter 4.
- House Wife: Kina takes care of the main couple's domestic tasks, though there aren't any children involved (yet).
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The chapters are labeled "1st Night", "2nd Night", etc.
- The Idiot from Osaka: Subverted with Kina, who, despite having the overall mentality, is not only shown to be rather insightful at times, but can also be quite devious in her knowledge of how to push Sumi's buttons.
- Idiot Hair: Kina, as adorably shown when she was moving over to her wife's side of the blanket.
- If It's You, It's Okay: Kana has this effect on just about every woman she meets.
- Intertwined Fingers: As shown in the page image.
- Iyashikei
- Ladykiller in Love: Kana for Shirayuki in chapter 7.
- Lipstick Lesbians
- Lovable Sex Maniac: Kana.
- Love at First Sight: Kina apparently has that effect on a total stranger. Surprisingly she responds to this as if it were a Drama Bomb.
- And in the following chapter, we find out why. Cause Kina reminds Arata (That's her name) of a frequent customer that she never had the guts to confess to. Turns out she reminds her of said customer, cause it was Kana.
- Make-Out Kids: "We wanted to count all their kisses in a day, but after 8 panels, there's no end in sight. We're going to call it off early. Thank you for understanding."
- Not What It Looks Like: When Kina stumbles out of the apartment, wearing a pair of cat ears, Hayase assumes they were doing... something. And insists there's "No need to explain."Kina: It's even worse if yer understandin'!
- Paper-Thin Disguise: When Kina goes to the cafe with Arata to turn down her love confession, Hayase, Komugi, and Sumi decide to follow her to see how it goes. Sumi's attempt at going incognito is... tying her hair into a braid.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Kina and Kana.
- Pun-Based Title: The phrase 夫婦, pronounced fūfu, means "married couple" (the first kanji by itself means "husband" and the second one by itself means "wife"); the title for this manga is this pronunciation written phonetically in hiragana: ふ～ふnote . It just so happens that if you were to take the kanji meaning "wife" and repeat it twice, the result (婦婦) could be pronounced the same except for the absence of the long vowel (fufu or ふふ); hence, "Wife and Wife".
- Written a different way, fufu is also the sound of playful, teasing laughter, such as between bantering lovers.
- Really Gets Around: Kana, who would bed pretty much any cute girl in the vicinity on the grounds of "loving them all equally".
- Sibling Rivalry: Between Kina and Kana.
- Shipper on Deck: Kana ships Sumi/Kina, though she's not so open about it — at first.
- Sleep Cute: All over the place with Kina and Sumi. Played with in the case of Hayase and Komugi - the first time they're pictured in bed together, Hayase is cuddling Komugi like a large teddy bear... while Komugi's elbow is buried in her cheek.
- Slice of Life
- Straight Man: Sumi, despite being neither straight nor a man.
- Super-Deformed: Spends about half the time like this.
- Tiny Tyrannical Girl: Komugi towards Hayase.
- Title Drop: In an exchange between Sumi and Kina at the beginning of the series.Kina: "I got it, Suu-chan. I'm gonna be yer wife after all. An' yer gonna be my wife... So that's it! We're Wife an' Wife!"
- Unusual Euphemism: After being turned down for the first time, Kana mentions that "Normally, we'd be gettin' our Wildrose on right 'bout now" (a reference to the adult magazine of the family).
- Yandere: Hayase surprisingly shows herself to be one when presented a hypothetical situation of Komugi being stolen from her. The room suddenly goes dark, her face shadows over, she opens her eyes, and rumbling begins. And then everything snaps back to cuteness. (Then again, the hypothetical situation specifically stipulates that Komugi was being stolen against her own will, rather than being seduced into loving someone else over Hayase.)Hayase: "... I think... I'd prolly get very... upset... if that happened..."
- Yuri
