#The Invisible Man and His Soon to Be Wife

[manga-and-stuff]

Source: The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife Toumei Otoko to Ningen Onna: Sonouchi Fuufu ni Naru Futari 透明男と人間女～そのうち夫婦になるふたり～

by Iwatobineko

[saccharinescorpion]

The Invisible Man And His Soon-To-Be Wife is a really sweet and fun romance in a cool supernatural setting, i would describe it as “wholesome” except every once in a while the author starts playing horny chess in dimensions my brain can barely process

[zenzenzence]

"She’s blind, he’s invisible—They're the perfect pair!"

The Invisible Man & His Soon-To-Be Wife by IWATOBINEKO

[dingostrash]

been picking up random manga every time I'm at the local manga shop that opened up this year, I've enjoyed these quite a bit!

Bonus Muco because her manga is finally being released in English after like 10 years!! Please support her. 🙏

[lion-sensei]

[mirimangarecs]

the invisible man & his soon-to-be wife - iwatobi neko

in a supernaturally diverse world, a blind woman working as a secretary for an invisible-man boss is the only one who can find him anywhere, sparking a sweet love story

the couple: she’s kind and uplifting, he’s mature and romantic. their relationship reminds me of “odette” in a lot of ways, another one of my favourites

story & setting: episodic entries into the lives of the employees keeping a small detective agency running. a lot of care has gone into giving the cast backstories and personal issues that make sense for their unique races and really maximizes the concept of such a diverse world. the bits of lore and worldbuilding are fantastically interesting

the art: it’s delicate, detailed, and approachable. i personally love the splash-of-colour style of adding depth and interest. as well, the pages are full of really ingenious details to convey actions and feelings relating to both of their subjective realities

[nii-chan-tamer]

Such a cute little manga.

[brainbuffering]

The Invisible Man and His Soon-To-Be Wife Manga Review (A: Iwatobineko T: Elena Kirilovna L: Vanessa Satone E: Kristina Korpus)

[ID: English Book cover of The Invisible Man And His Soon-To-Be Wife by Iwatobineko Vol 1. An invisible man in a pin stripe suit and polka dot tie sits on a plush green leather sofa. He reads a book in one hand, and holds the hand of the young woman next to him with the other. The girl has a red/brown bob cut, and wears a long black skirt with a matching black sweater-vest over the top of an untucked cream blouse. Her eyes are closed, and her spare hand grasps her skirt in her lap. Text in calligraphy underneath reads “we were meant to be together.” END ID]

I put this book as my most anticipated for 2023 and so when it finally came out I felt honour bound to write an immediate review! As I said before, I am always on the look out for new series with disabled characters in the lead and as a fan of goofy and cheesy romance this one did look promising! 

The story is a series of short comics following Yakou Shizuka – a young visually impaired/legally blind woman who works as an assistant at a detective agency – and her boss Tounome Akira – a dapper detective whose body is invisible. The series takes place in an 'anything goes' fantasy world that combines Furries, Elves and Aliens in a seamless melting pot. So if you're looking for a serious detective story, this is not the series for you. The "cases" exist mostly for humour's sake, without any sort of reward or character development put in place through them. 

Artistically the series stands out due to its use of sky blue backgrounds. Whilst it definitely makes for a visually pleasing alternative after reading lots of just black and white manga, it does equally feel like a little bit of a cheat's way out of drawing backgrounds. A stone I throw knowing full well that I live in a glass house. I do think that Iwatobineko did an excellent job of drawing all of Tounome's suits though, so if you're a fan of dapper men in dapper suits, it's definitely worth taking a look at. 

I love the concept of a person who cannot be seen falling in love with someone who cannot see. Whilst the series plays into the "I lack one sense so all my other senses are increased ten fold" trope I don't mind it in a fantasy setting, especially as it still presents Yakou's disability as something very real. It's interesting to note that the series only presents her disability as a problem for her in relation to how other people behave. She would not have had a problem walking to work if someone hadn't thoughtlessly left their bike in the middle of the road. If nobody had sat in her preferred spot then she'd never have sat down in someone's lap! It presents these things in a light hearted way, appropriate to the tone of the series, but still does – in my opinion – an honest job of pointing out that it is not always disabilities that are debilitating, but rather having to live in a world where able-bodied people do not take your needs into account.

I also appreciated how Tounome's invisibility was presented as often disabling. Whilst Yakou suffers from bumping into unexpected objects, Tounome is the one being bumped into by strangers. He also struggles to take care of himself sometimes due to not being able to see his own body, something that he and Yakou bond over. With only one volume out so far, we're only just scratching the surface of what sort of stories can be told but I think so far it's off to a strong start.

I am not visually impaired (although my MG does cause intermittent double vision so I suppose jury's out on that one) so I cannot judge in terms of whether the series offers good representation or not, however I was happy to see that Iwatobineko did their research. In the back material they talk about how they consulted numerous visually impaired people at the Kansai Student Library (http://kansaisl.web.fc2.com) before writing the series. This research shows through in the little things, such as Yakou's use of assistive technology in both her day-to-day life and her workplace. 

I appreciated that in the opening page when describing the world that these characters exist in we see not only a crowd of different fantasy races, but multiple disabled characters too! Including what I am going to insist is a cameo of Yuki and Itsuomi from "A Sign of Affection". 

I would add that the series does feature a "Dark Elf" and "White Elf" couple, where the male "Dark Elf" is the only recurring character with dark skin. Many before me have spoken of the inherent problematic nature of "Dark Elves" as a concept. The choice to use "White Elf" as the social counterpoint rather than "Light Elf" is perhaps a little troubling, especially since the series leans into the couple being seen as deviant in the eyes of elf society. The couple themselves are the manga trope of "Husband is a goofball who can't read the room, and the wife is a sophisticated beauty who will drag him away violently by the collar" so I don't feel as though they're falling into any particular racial stereotypes, but this is absolutely a "Your Mileage May Vary" situation that I don't feel qualified to speak on with any authority. I'd be very interested to hear the opinions of BIPOC folks on this one though! 

Other than the decision to go with "White Elf" over "Light Elf" (although I am still not certain which would be best and would be happy to take consultation on that one!) I felt as though the translation read very smoothly, and everyone had Very clear characterisation. The lettering was solid, and I enjoyed how different typefaces were used throughout to convert tone of voice. I felt as though it helped to aid with the characterisation and humour of the series. 

On the whole, I don't think that this manga is going to be any sort of game changer. It's a fun little series of sweet romance stories about an engaging couple but doesn't really go anywhere beyond that. Whilst I do want to see how their relationship develops, I am not routing for them in the same way I route for – say – Kyo and Tohru from Fruits Basket. If you're looking for a romance featuring disabled characters that has a little more depth to it than "I Hear the Sunspot" would probably be more your speed. 

However, true equality is that there are just as many light hearted romcoms about disabled folks as there are about able-bodied ones! Whilst I wouldn't say that you should rush out and buy the series immediately, if you're looking for some non heteronormative stories that explore romance between disabled people it is something I would recommend reading. 

I would give it a solid 3 stars in total! 

[lovelyplot]

Got a couple books coming Monday and Tuesday!

There any books comin out yall are excited for?? I'm still thinking bout pre-ordering that Bill Cipher book comin out in July 🤔

[justfinishedreading]

The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be-Wife, volume 1 by Iwatobineko

I used to read a hell of a lot of yaoi manga and hardly any shoujo manga, but yaoi plotlines have now started to feel very repetitive, and with the discovery of mangas like Sweat and Soap and A Silent Voice, A Bride’s Story and even The Way of the Househusband I’ve developed a renewed interest in hetero love stories, in particular those told in unique ways.

The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be-Wife is set in a modern fantasy land, one filled with elves and dark elves, animal-human hybrids, cyclops, aliens, regular humans and probably a whole bunch of other odd creatures not yet introduced. There’s no clear lore but all the characters interact easily with each other so their world feels real enough.

This is the story of a blind woman falling in love with an invisible man, it seems like a perfect match as both persons complement each other: he doesn’t need to be worried that his invisibility prevents her from seeing him because she can’t see anyway, and because she is blind she is used to “seeing” in a different way, she can sense when he is the room, by sound, by smell and by other tiny perceptions. She can see him in a way that no one else is able to because they rely too much on vision. From her side she doesn’t have to feel like she is missing out on anything, she can’t see him on a visual level but neither can anyone else.

They are quite a sweet couple together, I was a little worried by age difference, he dresses like a dapper gentleman and runs his own detective agency so it makes it feel like he is a little older, but we don’t really know his age, I’m going to go with early 30s. She on the other hand comes across a bit young, young looking, shy, with not much romantic experience, but towards the end of the volume she starts to dress in a more sophisticated way, because of her inexperience she may have initially come across as young but as she grows in confidence she looks like she could be in her mid 20s.

The only thing I didn’t like about the manga was actually an aesthetic choice, the cover has a very classy colour palette, which I really like, however the inside has one additional colour to the traditional manga black and white, and of all the colours they could have chosen they went with this vibrant greenish teal colour, it doesn’t go with the cover at all. I really hope they try different colours for the interior in future volumes.

Other than that I look forward to continuing this couple’s story.

Review by Book Hamster

[manga-and-stuff]

Source: The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife Toumei Otoko to Ningen Onna: Sonouchi Fuufu ni Naru Futari 透明男と人間女～そのうち夫婦になるふたり～

by Iwatobineko

[faline-cat444]

Can confirm this isn’t everything.Another chunk is due for the mailbox tomorrow and some are arriving around Thursday.

[zenzenzence]

Tounome Akira & Yakou Shizuka chibis

The Invisible Man & His Soon-To-Be Wife by IWATOBINEKO

fan edit inspired by the below image. please do not repost.

[055u4ry]

Ordered this manga from B&N today. It seems really cute and kind of like Magus Bride but focuses more on the romance which I prefer.

[detectivereads]

The Invisible man Soon-to-be Wife vol 3

by Iwatobineko

5/5

This post is fan entertainment, I’m not being paid.

Hi everyone,

Ok this volume is heavy on relationship drama.

Leaving off in volume 2 with our girl Yakuo on cloud 9 after her date and time spending with her new boyfriend, Tounome Akira, especially after her first kiss.

I swear this couple is going to kill me with how adorable they are, I do like that they break the mold in most anime couples that they didn’t really prolong the pining for one other, granted they both work together. But they agree to keep their romantic relationship out of the office.

Now a lot of this manga focuses on another couple entirely the elf couple, it seems the female elf, Light, has left to go back to her parents with out her husband Karuma knowing. Apparently one of her parents is sick and she left to go to take care of them. But the thing is she left so abruptly and Karuma hates to be alone, so he is crashing with Akira.

Now this manga goes into detail about the difference between light and dark elves. Karuma has dark or negative magic but Light kind of balances him out and his magic doesn’t become dangerous.

Karuma evens helps with some of the cases that the agency had to do, and he was very cool. One of the cases has Akira having a panic attack much like in the first volume when he was in the dark.

Yes, later it explains why Light left so suddenly, and that she has no intention to leave Kaurma.

I will leave that a secret.

I highly recommend this manga if you like romance and mysteries.

[lonndoodles]

Me too Eda. I wouldn't be able to keep it together if Raine looked at me like that.