Love is Like a Cocktail — Episode 1–6
Quiet but capable, Mizusawa Chisato is a beautiful leader who has a secret that only her husband, Sora, knows about: she loves to drink, and when she’s drunk, she becomes exceptionally adorable! What bliss will Sora’s cocktail bring tonight? “Yoidere,” the drunken comedy cocktail about Japan’s most lovey-dovey couple.
This is how Crunchyroll describes this quietly wonderful anime short based on the web series of the same name. The anime details the lifeof Mizusawa Chisato the chief of a successful PR company and her househusband Sora. Chisato is the epitome of the working professional, in the first episode helping her co-worker Koharu finish off her workload as part of her role as being Chief. Straight through to chapter 5 where she works late nights to complete a
presentation for a project proposal in work. She’ll often go above and beyond the call of duty and has injured herself in the process but is reluctant to get the assistance of others. She is focused and dedicated to her work ensuring that she can provide for her family. Her focus has the opposite effect than intended, where she can subsequently come across as a little cold. However, for those who know her true nature like Sora, knows she is very gentle and sweet it just takes a little bit of encouragement for it to show.
That encouragement comes in the form of a drink; it turns Chisato from someone who is quite quiet and reserved to someone who is far more articulate with her feelings. However, she reserves this part of herself for her husband, Sora. Articulating early on in the anime that she doesn’t like to get drunk around anyone else other thank Sora, as she knows the alcohol makes her a bit funny.
Sora acknowledges this shortcoming about his wife, merely saying that “some people find it difficult to express themselves without it.” This doesn’t mean that Sora is underhanded in the way he conducts himself with his wife. In the third episode,
(appropriately called Cinderella) when Chisato has a fall in work and has to be carried home by Sora after they check on her foot, she asks for a drink and Sora insists that it’s probably not a good idea. I won’t spoil anything from here, but Chisato doesn’t quite get her way. He is never in any way forceful with her when she is slightly inebriated but continuously dotes upon her as he would when she was sober.
Sora and Chisato’s relationship makes this anime. There is something so wholly relateable about their relationship and something that is legitimately genuine about the characters writing and affection. You know for a fact this is a series created with a lot of love and understanding of what the dynamics of marriage is like (well, ideally).
That ebb and flow, the give and take is a grand thing to watch. At 3 minutes long per episode, it gives that punch to the narrative that you wouldn’t get otherwise. It’s an anime that has a level of self-awareness to it — and it doesn’t outstay its welcome, leaving you with just enough of a longing for more.
Watch Love is Like a Cocktail at Crunchyroll http://www.crunchyroll.com/love-is-like-a-cocktail #crunchyroll via @Crunchyroll