Moreover, they require careful, compassionate observation, and they can’t escape on their own-for that to happen, they need assistance. They also need sizable bowls in order to truly shine.

At a birthday bash, Sakura is informed by feng shui fortune teller Mei (Ren Hanami) that forlorn childless women should get themselves a pet… like a goldfish! Thus, Sakura goes to the nearby goldfish store, where she meets its proprietor Haruto (Takanori Iwata) and, in one of innumerable moments that dip into slow-motion, experiences love at first sight.ĭuring a meet-cute phase that will have tremendous ramifications for them both, Haruto explains to Sakura that goldfish suffer when they’re kept in dirty water, but tender-loving care can rejuvenate them. In present-day Tokyo, Sakura Hiraga (Ryôko Shinohara) finds her marriage to husband and salon-business partner Takuya (Masanobu Ando) falling apart due to Takuya’s rampant cheating-he’s introduced having passionate shower sex with apartment complex neighbor Yuriha (Kyoko Hasegawa)-and to his abusive violence. While Fishbowl Wives’ title might not immediately tip one off about its subject matter, it quickly hammers home its central metaphor.

Infidelity comes in all sorts of variations-and occurs for all types of reasons-in Netflix’s eight-part Japanese series (based on Ryô Kurosawa’s popular manga Kingyo Tsuma), which blends episodic storytelling with an ongoing serialized plot about an unlikely extramarital romance and the trouble it causes for everyone involved. Marriage is misery in Fishbowl Wives (out now), and in most instances, the best way to alleviate that unhappiness is by falling into the arms of a man or woman who isn’t your spouse.

Japanese soap opera