The Packbats' Weblog

We've been following this scanlation by knight heron of Onna Tomodachi to Kekkon Shitemita (Trying Out Marriage With My Female Friend) by Usui Shio, and we've been really enjoying it - it's a cute and sweet story. And we want to talk about it, because we don't know where it will go, but we know one place it shouldn't. Because this isn't just a story about friends getting married, it's also a story about blowing past the "Romances Only" sign on Emotional Intimacy Highway in your friendship car and a little bit worrying that someone's going to pull you over.

Trying Out Marriage With My Female Friend takes place in a world which puts up those signs, and was made in a world which puts up those signs, and it has things to say about those signs. It's a story about beginning and developing life partnerships and a story about being and becoming good roommates, but it's also a story about caring more than you're 'allowed' to and that being a good thing.

Trying Out Marriage With My Female Friend knows what it's about, is the thing. It knows about the hierarchies of relationships enforced by its society, and ours. It knows about amatonormativity - this isn't an accident. And as of Chapter 23, its thesis is pretty clear: amatonormativity is wrong, and this friendship marriage is good.

So no, we don't know where it will go, but we know one place it shouldn't. Because what it's saying so far needs saying.