More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers – Episode 4 Recap & Review

A Hero, but Not the Main Character

Episode 4 of More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers starts with Akari and her friends talking about their respective ranks and partners during the sports period. Meanwhile, Jiro watches Shiori and Akari both be enamoured by the way Minami plays basketball.

Sadaharu adds fuel to the fire of an already jealous Jiro by telling him that Minami had declared that he would never switch his partner. Sachi also tells this to Akari and the latter starts thinking about what the future holds for her. Sadaharu mentions that at this rate, Minami and Shiori could be getting married to each other.

Jiro takes the liberty to imagine a mortal combat situation between himself and Minami where he ends up getting both Akari and Shiori while Jiro is left empty-handed. After school, Shiori is talking to Jiro about his rank. She mentions that she did not know if she was going to switch her partner but only would do so if Jiro too had an A rank.

Just as he is about to confirm, Sadaharu rushes to tell Jiro that he saw Akari making out with Minami. As it turns out, Akari was punished for talking during the game and was made to keep the mats in the storage room. When a box of sports items is about to fall on her, Minami rushes to save her and she realises that he still made her heart pound.

She had asked Minami if he planned on staying with Shiori forever and he had stated that he would. Akari was hurt and started crying. Since Minami had seen her crying, Akari had lied to Minami that she had gotten something in her eye. Minami was only helping her clean her eye when Sadaharu noticed and misrepresented the situation.

Minami and Akari find Sadaharu talking to Jiro about them and the situation is tense with Shiori waiting by. Minami leads Shiori back to class and Akari walks past Jiro without saying a word to him. In class, Sadaharu narrates the incident between Akari and Minami in the storage room and Jiro is heartbroken but acts as though the situation does not bother him.

Jiro goes back home and tries to congratulate Akari for kissing Minami. She clarifies the incident and Jiro is embarrassed about his jealousy. Akari starts mocking Jiro but eventually ends up crying about the fact that Minami was sure he would never switch partners. Seeing her cry, Jiro grabs her and hugs Akari so as to calm her down.

Akari sobs to her heart’s content. That evening, Jiro regrets hugging her because he was sure she would not have liked it. However, Akari seems different as she starts addressing Jiro by his first name and has worn one of his T-shirts after showering.

Akari sits close to him and tells Jiro that he was the first person she had kissed. She also adds that she was a virgin. The entire revelation is so shocking to Jiro that he completely freezes despite his happiness about the information. 

The Episode Review

This episode radiated so much angst and I am not sure why these characters are not just talking to each other instead of moping about misunderstandings. We know that Akari already has feelings for Minami and if she could only tell him that she liked him, it would all come to an end and they could start dating if Minami was interested in her.

The same goes for Shiori and Jiro who are both in love with each other but do not want to share their true feelings for each other. I think this is the point of the show but seeing these characters pine about their feelings for their respective crushes is getting exhausting already.

I wish Akari and Jiro come to terms with their feelings for each other and just date to end our misery as well as Sadaharu’s who is somehow always caught in the middle just like us.