お酒は夫婦になってから [おさけはふうふになってから, osake wa fūfu ni natte kara, Love Is like a Cocktail] is a series of three-minute (including a 30-second ED) shorts that aired this autumn. It’s also the only series I watched on reasonably regular basis this fall season. It tells mostly stories of homelife of a recently married couple – the Mizusawas, an assistant manager and a (now former) bartender.
The wife, Chisato, works hard as an assistant manager promoting her company’s products, often taking work home and in critical situations pulling all-nighters. Meanwhile Sora, the stay-at-home husband, keeps their apartment spotless, the fridge stocked and meals ready. He is also the only one, who knows Chisato gets drunk very easily and won’t drink in public because of it. When they’re alone though, he puts the skills from his bartender past to use and makes her wonderful cocktails.
In a way it’s reminiscent of the Bartender manga (and anime), which also introduced one drink per chapter. The manga had an overarching story though, which took precedence over learning about the bartender’s job and cocktail. The anime was closer to お酒は夫婦になってから, in the way it introduced the drinks. The story was mainly about the bartender’s job and stories of various people, who visited his bar. He mixes them a drink and helps them with their problems. If you liked お酒は夫婦になってから, I definitely recommend Bartender.
(Actually, there are some scenes that might be a tribute to the Bartender anime in episode 11…)
Cutting back to お酒は夫婦になってから, I would like to talk about its origins. The source is a manga (as you can see from the first picture) and it’s much better than the anime in my opinion. After all, there’s so much more space in nine regular pages (it’s not a yonkoma) than in three minutes (including the ED). Sora, the husband, is much more than a sleazeball, who forces alcohol onto his wife every night. And Chii-chan is much cuter and generally a more elaborate character than in the anime.
I should also touch on the art style – both the anime and manga have a very average style. There is nothing interesting about it, but it doesn’t drag either of them down either.
Bottom line: if you liked it, you should check out the manga. If you haven’t seen it and are on the fence, I recommend you watch 1.5 episode of Bartender instead. (13 × 3 minutes make up roughly 1.5 full episodes.) I give this anime a 5/10.
a dash of dorry 