Todays manga: Kingyoyasan no karisome fuufu (1)

Sometimes when browsing manga on Surugaya, I come across manga that I ultimately end up buying blindly. This manga was one of them! I am very happy with my purchase, and am so excited to get my hands on volume 3~

Info about the manga

If the title was in English…

The title of this manga could be translated as “the goldfish store’s contractual couple”. The title also perfectly describes what the manga is about!

I borrowed a description from Seishun:

“I’m sorry. I know this is our first time meeting, but will you marry me?” Asahi and Nana are newlyweds who run a goldfish shop. At first glance, they seem to be a normal couple, but in fact, they’re a contractual couple who got married because of their mutual interests! They’re not true husband and wive, let alone lovers; and yet, Asahi gets easily flustered by Nana! She even has delusions about him naked?! At this rate, will they be able to keep their contract marriage intact?!

How many volumes, and other manga

As of right now, there are 2 volumes released! Another notable manga by the same author is Heroine Hajimemashita.

If you want to try it out before buying, you can download a free sample from Amazon here.

Why I like this manga

I ‘ll always be drawn to a good opposites attract story. Our female protagonist, Asahi, is an energetic, very expressive girl. She comes from an affluential family, and aspires to be a novelist. She is also the one to propose to our male protagonist, Nana, at first sight. Nana, the inheritor of the goldfish shop, is rather expressionless, and has a lot of difficulties expressing his thoughts clearly.

Where Nana is cold, Asahi is warm. Where Nana has difficulties expressing himself, Asahi has difficulties not expressing herself. I find them to both be rather cat-like, but on exact opposite sides of the spectrum.

As the two are so opposite in so many ways, I found their dynamic to be so much fun to read!

Other themes found in this volume that I generally enjoy:

found family
following your dreams
strangers to lovers

Is there drama? (we’re generally not a fan of drama)

While there are quite a few misunderstandings that take place throughout this volume, I feel like they all have their purposes! i.e. not just drama for the same of drama.

Because Nana is so difficult to read, Asahi often assumes that she is annoying him. Nana quickly grows to understand that these misassumptions are all caused by his aloofness, and seems to genuinely try to change.

Nana’s two friends introduced halfway through the manga also seem to be there really only to stir the pot, but I never found myself annoyed by them! I do however find the female friend to wildly overstep her boundaries, and I’m really hoping that she’s introduced as his family member…

Maddies Ratings

Romance

While there are a few scenes that have some pretty good romance imo, there isn’t enough of it throughout the volume for me to give it a higher score. This isn’t a negative point at all! I actually prefer it when manga start slow so that character relationships feel more natural.

World building

Because of the type of manga this is, I don’t feel like realistic world building is all that difficult. It is a slice of life manga, that takes place in an old neighbourhood of an old city, filled with unique hobby shops. This gives it extra charm~

Character development

While we do only have one volume to base this off of, I do feel like both characters did grow quite a bit throughout! Nana comes to realize he needs to get better at expressing himself, and Asahi realizes she might actually have real feelings for Nana.

Is it entertaining?

This was as entertaining as a non-action manga can be for me! The pace never slowed down too much, and new elements were added in at the perfect time. I read it all in one go, and was surprised by how quickly I read it!

Am I motivated to read the next volume?

Yes!! I am so glad I bought volumes 1 and 2 together~

Have you read Kingyoyasan no Karisome Fuufu yet?

Maddies Manga