A Waifu Who Doesn't Speak? Pen to Wappa to Jijitsu Kon Confirms Anime Adaptation

Unusual marriage proposals have just found a new benchmark on the small screen. The production company King Amusement Creative officially announced this Friday the production of a television anime adaptation based on the work Pen to Wappa to Jijitsu Kon (known in English as A Pen, Handcuffs, and a Common-Law Marriage). To accompany the announcement, the committee released a first teaser-style promotional video and a commemorative illustration.

This peculiar seinen manga written by Shinichi Sawaragi and illustrated by tank Gasuyama has been serialized in the pages of Hakusensha's Young Animal magazine since December 2022, recently surpassing the milestone of 400,000 copies in circulation. Although the video preview is brief and uses inked panels from the original work, it clearly projects the mystery atmosphere and the dynamics that define this romantic comedy.

The challenge of animating a silent protagonist

Bringing this premise to the anime industry represents a massive technical and narrative challenge. The story's writer, Shinichi Sawaragi, openly confessed that because the heroine does not utter a single word throughout the entire story, he believed that securing a television project would be a flat-out impossible task. He thanked the readers for their support and admitted to being very intrigued to see how the directing team will handle the scenes without relying on traditional dialogue.

For his part, artist tank Gasuyama focused on the advantages of the format, highlighting that body movements, sound work, and musical themes will provide a layer of expression impossible to capture on printed paper. At the moment, the production company has not revealed the identity of the animation studio or the projected premiere date for the series.

A 40-year-old detective and a drawn marriage proposal

The plot of this unusual rom-com marked by an age gap follows Eiji Kirisame, a highly strict 40-year-old detective dedicated heart and soul to his police duty. During a meticulous inspection of a crime scene, his path crosses with Tsugumi Kuchinashi, a mysterious high school student who was present at the scene.

Tsugumi's defining trait is her voluntary muteness; she communicates exclusively through doodles and quick strokes in a small sketchbook. Accustomed to solving complex cases with fragmented evidence, Eiji takes each of the girl's illustrations with absolute seriousness to try to piece together the case's puzzle. However, his rigid professional routine completely crumbles when one of the young girl's drawings ends with a blunt and baffling phrase: "Will you marry me?!".

How do you think the animation studio will handle moments of comic tension without relying on the protagonist's voice?

© 澤木伸一・ガス山タンク／白泉社