More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers – Episode 3 Recap & Review

Broken Up, and Not Rekindled

Episode 3 of More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers starts with Akari making a meal for Jiro. She asks him if Shiori was any good at cooking and Jiro jokes that he did not take Akari to be the kind of girl that makes home-cooked meals. Akari wants to impress Minami and asks Jiro to help her with her strategy. She will be giving a lunch box to Minami and wants Jiro to be her sous-chef and taste-tester for the process.

Jiro is enjoying the range of meals he gets to eat and their score is also soaring high since they keep getting along. Jiro tastes the rolled omelette Akari makes and states that he likes them to be sweeter. Akari dismisses him saying that these were not for him but for Minami so Jiro should just eat without complaining.

The next day, Sadaharu is amazed by the fact that Jiro gets to carry such amazing meals to school but his partner hardly cooks great meals for him. As the two boys chat about Jiro living with a total gyaru who is all things hot, Akari shows up shocking them. She asks Jiro to praise the meal box but once Jiro mentions the rolled omelette, the couple starts bickering. Sadaharu sits beside listening awkwardly as he ages a thousand years.

The next morning, Akari makes the final meal box for Minami and lets Jiro taste a piece of the rolled omelette. Jiro notices that the omelette was still not sweet and how hurtful it was that his partner was making a meal for some random guy she liked. Akari dresses up in one of her prettiest outfits and Jiro thinks to himself how she had never done so for him. Akari is nervous too and asks Jiro to kiss her goodbye like the last time to calm her nerves.

Jiro is shocked but then he is eventually about to give in when the doorbell rings. Shiori was at the door and was there to share a box of apple pies with the couple. Shiori claims that she cooks a lot of delicious things for Minami and adds that the latter had a sweet tooth which prompted her to make the pie.

Akari is immediately disheartened and decides against giving her lunch box to Minami. Shiori, on the other hand, hopes that Jiro enjoys the pie she made. Jiro has a fun time eating the meal Akari had made for Minami and tries to cheer Akari up. Akari seems to have given up because she just learned that Shiori was a much better cook than her. Jiro tries to cheer her up by asking her to try out other things to impress Minami.

She feels terrible about herself and Jiro tries to boost her morale by claiming that she had a really sexy figure which made her the woman of every guy’s dreams. Jiro claims that he would love to sleep with her but starts rambling when he realises what he had just said. Akari straddles Jiro on the couch and asks if Jiro had thought of doing it with her. Jiro is panicking as Akari uses his hand to take off her blouse. Just then, Jiro musters up the courage and stops Akari.

He claims that sex is something that people should have with the person they love. He claims that Akari had Minami and Akari states that Jiro also had Shiori. She decides to put an end to pretending to be a married couple. Akari spent most of her time with friends and in her room while Jiro decided to keep to himself, playing video games.

The results for the second week showed that Minami and Shiori had jumped the ranks by getting an A grade while Akari and Jiro were failing with an E grade. Sadaharu asks Jiro if everything was okay and Shiori asks to see Jiro alone. The two go to the school rooftop and Shiori tries to cheer Jiro up.

Jiro goes back home and decides to talk to Akari. Inside her room, Jiro apologises for the way things ended that night and claims that he did actually fantasize about hooking up with Akari but only stopped because he did not want her to regret it later. He hopes to clear the air between them and asks for Akari to be cordial as a married couple again.

Akari laughs at Jiro’s innocence and agrees to work with him as they hope to build up their score which had fallen back down to a 0. That night, Akari thinks back at how she had just told Jiro that she liked him in passing during their conversation.

The Episode Review

The story of More than a Married Couple, but Not Lovers is progressing quite faster than I would have imagined and Akari has already confessed her feelings for Jiro. Now all that is left is for Jiro to acknowledge the fact and for them to get together. However, since all romance stories are full of angst, we won’t see that yet and I am sure the couple is going to have a misunderstanding that will further cause strain in their relationship.

It is a mystery how Minami and Shiori got an A grade after their E grade and it makes me wonder if Minami actually has feelings for Shiori after all. That makes things a lot more complicated for Shiori because she would have not one but three prospects from her class. Sorry, Akari but, who is the real gyaru here?