Hitoshi Aoshima is pretty much a loser - he's ranked near the bottom of the class, he's stuck as a benchwarmer on the school volleyball team, and the only friends he has are antisocial Otaku. While he loves to dream about being with girls, particularly the class beauty Ai Wagatsuma, he has no confidence of any of that coming true.
Then, one night, he dreams about it being ten years later, and in this dream he's not only with Wagatsuma, but he's somehow married to her. However, when things referenced in his dream start happening, Aoshima comes to realize that he isn't just dreaming; he's actually slipping into the future. One where he's somehow landed the most desirable woman he can imagine... now if he can only figure out how he manages to win her over...
My Wife is Wagatsuma-san (Wagatsuma-san wa Ore no Yome) is a manga written by Yuu Kuraishi and illustrated by Keishi Nishikida, which was serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine from 2011 to 2014. Its chapters were simultaneously published online in English on Crunchyroll and are available here
in countries that allow it.
This series contains examples of:
- Artifact Title: In-Universe, the DX Brigade, originally formed as a group against Dobashi-san, the school's "prince of refreshment." However, the group quickly abandons their opposition after Aoshima convinces Dobashi to stop putting on airs and be himself. This doesn't end the group or convince them to change their name.
- Bad Future: After getting dumped by Wagatsuma, Aooshima time slips into a future where he's become a NEET who's fallen in debt.
- Bad Liar: Aoshima's lying to Wagatsuma ends up damaging their relationship and causing a Heroic BSoD.
- Book Dumb: Aoshima has the worst grades out of the DX Brigade. As shown by his stats, he's the Master of None to Yasushi's (Matrix 2) Jack of All Stats and Wagatsuma's Master of All.
- Brick Joke: In one of Aoshima's time slips, Wagatsuma mentions that her brother disliked him because the first thing he saw him do was flip a table over. Come chapter 46, he does just that after being invited to her house.
- But Not Too Foreign: Silvia Shimotsuma - half Dutch, half Japanese.
- Butterfly of Doom: Aoshima quickly learns that there can be unintended consequences for his decisions, even if they're not obvious (or, for that matter, even explained). One early one is that he learns that Wagatsuma regretted not being there when her dear dog died in high school. Aoshima convinces her to skip work on the day that said dog died. On one hand, it did mean that Wagatsuma got one last meaningful time with her dog, and she was grateful for that. On the other, this somehow resulted in Aoshima marrying Silvia instead - what's worse, he hadn't even met Silvia in the present yet.
- Covert Pervert: Silvia, if the fact that she ends up readily going with Aoshima's fantasies in futures where they're married is any indication.
- She walks in on the DX Brigade filming a porno to help one realize his dream. Her reaction? She tells them to continue shooting.
- Crash-Into Hello: How Aoshima meets the present day Silvia.
- Failure Is the Only Option: There are some fates that Aoshima simply can't change. He can't stop Wagatsuma from going to Africa and dying from malaria. That is, until the final chapter.
- Future Badass: Aoshima is apparently destined to become an awesome guy that can land a smoking hot lady regardless of what he does in the present (with his actions really just affecting which one he ends up with).
- Future Loser: Several of the people Aoshima knows. He tries to use some of his future knowledge from his time slips to prevent - or at the very least mitigate - how bad it can be.
- I Hate Past Me: Played with in that it's the past version of Aoshima who is displeased with his past self. Either future Aoshima doesn't want to disrupt where things are, or he doesn't remember the time slips; regardless, present Aoshima never hears from his future counterpart.
- Love Letter Lunacy: Aoshima composes a 150-page love letter to Wagatsuma to win her affection. However, when he realizes just how off-putting such a huge letter would be, he decides against giving it to her. Unfortunately, he drops it in the schoolyard. Even worse, the principal finds it, thinks it's a poem, and reads it over the school PA. The entire class - including Wagatsuma - die in laughter upon hearing it. Aoshima is only prevented from dying in shame because he didn't attach either his name or Wagatsuma's to it. Wagatsuma's future self figured out he wrote it on their wedding day - Aoshima apparently wrote his vows to her in the same style, and she turns out to have loved it.
- Mental Time Travel: An inversion. Aoshima's mind travels forward in time to an older body. Through it, he can gather information and change the past.
- Otaku: All of Aoshima's friends, who form the DX Brigade.
- Punny Name: Ai Wagatsuma - "ai" also can mean "love," and one way to say "my wife" in archaic Japanese is "waga tsuma" - so she's literally the love of Aoshima's life and his wife (in the future).
- Secret-Keeper: Aoshima tells Ran, one of his possible wives, about their futures and his power in order to retake his future with Ai. She doesn't believe him initially, but when he mentions the theme of her manga, she comes around. In the fixed future, she names one of her characters after him.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Aoshima learns fairly quickly that the future glimpses he gets are not set in stone; he frequently uses glimpses into the future to learn what is about to go wrong and attempt to correct them.
- Sixth Ranger: Silvia regularly interacts in with the DX Brigade, owing to their similar interests in otaku culture and the former's lack of friends. Later, Dobashi becomes an official member, despite his few appearances.
- Shout-Out: References to Japanese pop culture abound. For instance, Silvia's older brother is a doppelganger of Kenshiro.
- Take That!: Otaku culture is regularly ridiculed.
- This Loser Is You: The series isn't shy about pointing out just how wrong some of the excesses of Otaku culture can be. In fact, in one future that Aoshima does his best to prevent, his friend Itou gets arrested for acting out too far.
- True Companions: Aoshima at one point worries about all of his friends becoming disillusioned and alone, but in multiple variations of his time slips, all of the DX Brigade are still together - one member even conferences in when he can't make their agreed-upon night out drinking.
- Tsundere: Silvia, although her dere dere moments are only seen in time slips when Aoshima gets shunted onto paths that end with him marrying her instead of Wagatsuma.
- Unstuck in Time: Aoshima, who at first randomly travels through time when he falls unconscious (whether it be by falling asleep or blacking out). It later becomes more frequent, and can happen whenever he's sufficiently relaxed. While he knows what situation has to happen before it'll trigger, he can't control whether it will or not.
- Wham Line: "You... are a time-slipper, aren't you?"
