Anime 56768 Tadaima Okaeri Reviews Filter Check 2

Let me preface this by saying I don't think this anime is horrendous, it’s not amazing either. It just exists. The first thing you’ll notice after watching this is that it's set in an omegaverse. This trope first came around as a trope for sexy times - which is non-existent in this anime as it appears to be a slice of life cutesy type. That’s fine, fluffy abo can exist. But tossing all the politics behind, there’s nothing revolutionary about this anime nor does it even do abo much justice. If you are here for the cute times and happy vibes, read no more of ... this review, advert your eyes to a better paradise.

There’s an inherently suffocating outdated Eastern idealism weaved through the entire plot, and it’s very hard to ignore. If you detached yourself from the abo, this is a Prince Charming and Cinderella story at its core. Hiromu comes from a rich well-off family who is the standard all well loving husband to his partner. Masaki is the poor (omega) looked down upon “Cinderella” who found a husband who is all accepting of his identity, in which he happily becomes a house husband for. Can’t believe I’m still seeing the rich CEO falls in love with a poor girl because she’s different, so the mom gives her money to leave his son trope in 2024, I'm talking about when Hiromu’s dad has a talk with Masaki telling him to break up with his son.

I’m not sure how this piece of media is viewed by the west or people who have grew up with western views, but to me, the fact that the premise is using a second gender still cannot escape the good old tradition of get married, have a kid, ideally male (or alpha in this case), if you can, have two kids, one of each gender, then your life is truly complete as a women (or omega in this case). Your honour, is this just nuclear family value to get people to birth more babies in this declining baby birth rate economy? There isn’t much of this type of anime in the hetero setting nowadays because women would not eat this shit anymore, unless they are riddled with systematic housewife dreams, which there is nothing wrong with it by the way, but the predicament of being a housewife is very clear if you ever interacted with one.

Masaki cannot escape this traditional concept either. He’s a good house husband and have doubts about his gender. Did he have a job before he met the rich husband? Does he have hobbies outside of looking after the baby? It’s all very surface level, they introduce the gender discrimination but never talk about it, as if they needed a “villain” aspect and that was the pick. It just sits there awkwardly like a pity factor.

The anime is like backwards and forward at the same time. What’s worst is that Masaki’s own baby, who he birthed does not even call him dad! Baby keeps on calling him Ma-chan, is that because it sounds like mama? Are you afraid that if the baby called him “mom” it’ll be too stereotyping? But calling him “dad” will be too avant-garde, so you chose an option that even a normal family will find weird by addressing your parent by their name directly. (If Ma-chan is a real Japanese term kids call their mom, I apologise and take my "addressing parent by their name" comment back but my hetero point still stands). Masaki gets referenced as “yome”, “okusan” which is “wife” in Japanese, which by default assuming the omega gender is the women, can we ever escape the hetero nouns. The whole gender situation is also unclear in this universe, as alpha x alpha seems to be the norm, which means alphas will also have the ability to carry babies and do they refer to the alpha carrying the baby as the “wife”? Does that mean Hiromu could carry babies too?? I do find it amusing that Masaki considered committing eugenics in his second pregnancy for a split second, I didn’t know the feudal ideology “son(alpha) preference” they couldn’t kill in China is transferred over to omegaverse Japan. We simply cannot escape the patriarch.

Am I reading a little too much in between the lines? Possibly. I did warn you in the first paragraph. I supposed a piece of omegaverse media that don't contain intercourse will have to advert the people's attention to logic.

"Omegaverse, also known as A/B/O (an abbreviation for "alpha/beta/omega"), is a subgenre of speculative erotic fiction, and originally a subgenre of erotic [homosexual] fan fiction. Its premise is that a dominance hierarchy exists in humans, which are divided into dominant "alphas", neutral "betas", and submissive "omegas". This hierarchy determines how people interact with one another in romantic, erotic and sexual contexts...Its main peculiarity is that characters have two sexes: a main one (male or female), decided by their external sexual organs, and a secondary one, that manifests during puberty, determined by their internal reproductive system...Between Alphas and Betas, only females can carry on a pregnancy, ... but male Omegas are often envisaged as being able to become pregnant via a uterus connected to the rectum, and Alphas can impregnate regardless of their main gender."

- Wikipedia

I know, absolutely buck wild paragraph to open with, but this is absolutely necessary information if you are not in the know. If you happen to already know what the omegaverse is (like myself) I presume you skipped it to save you some time. Either way, welcome!

Tadaima, Okaeri is, officially, the first omegaverse anime. The Omegaverse, despite being conceptualized and most popular in the west, has been a quite popular setting for manga for quite some time, and one has finally been adapted into an anime. Finally this subgenre of homosexual pregnancy kink erotica based on outdated wolf science has hit the silver screen!

Except it hasn't, really. I would hardly call Tadaima, Okaeri "omegaverse."

I may be being snide, but don't take this as a bashing of the omegaverse genre. Just the opposite, in fact. Though I found it strange at first, being as immersed in fandom culture as I am meant I soon found myself appreciating it beyond strange kinky erotica and into a perspective of worldbuilding, which Tadaima, Okaeri really does not seem all too concerned with. The social dynamics of alphas, betas, and omegas gets some screentime, however the biological aspects relating to the male pregnancy (and often female siring) are not present at all. It's mostly just a story about a young couple raising a family with omegaverse in the background.

Weirdly enough, however, if an omegaverse work doesn't focus on worldbuilding, it's just there to be kinky, and that's not what Tadaima, Okaeri is either. Tadaima, Okaeri is actually *negative* kinky. It is one of the most wholesome, g-rated things I have ever seen.

So what gives? Why include the omegaverse at all if not for the kink or for the worldbuilding? Maybe I could buy that it *was* for wolrdbuilding purposes, however the omegaverse aspects tend to be rather irrelevant, leaving me unsatisfied. It is such a unique genre of speculative fiction, barely including the elements of it is frustrating.

And Tadaima, Okaeri isn't even a "true" omegaverse story, by the common definition.

Now, omegaverse is a folksonomy, so there is no one way to do the omegaverse. Every omegaverse writer will have their own take on it, some sticking to the very traditional ideas of it, and some not. This is one of those that does not. In fact, it's so far removed from omegaverse tradition that omega males aren't defined by their ability to carry children (and usually alpha females by their ability to sire them), but rather everyone appears to be some degree of intersex and can both carry and sire children---if I had to wager a guess, anyways; they don't really explain it. I say this because it also lacks the *other* key factor of the omegaverse: omega/alpha relationships. Or, rather, the main couple is an omega and an alpha, however that is not the norm. Rather, alphas are expected to marry other alphas, omegas other omegas, and betas other betas.

I...hesitate to even call Tadaima, Okaeri an omegaverse story, as it lacks the two things that define omegaverse: omega males possessing the unique ability to carry children by alphas, thus leading to alpha/omega relationships.

However, I'm not the president of omegaverse so I can't define it. Court of public opinion says it's omegaverse and I can't even disagree, considering it still resembles traditional omegaverse.

Now, not being a traditional omegaverse story is fine (although, if you're unfamiliar with the genre, I don't recommend this being where you start), there's no one way to do a genre, but this brings me back to my previous complaint: they don't focus on it enough. Not only are they not giving enough screentime to the elements of the genre that make it what it is, but it's such a different take on the genre that it could re-spark interest in desensitized omegaverse fans!

And they're...not focusing on it.

I suppose, technically, there's nothing wrong with leaving worldbuilding as a background element. But it honestly feels so irrelevant here it would be extraordinarily easy to write out.

I don't really have complaints about the rest of the show. If you enjoy slow, quiet, slice-of-life stories, that's exactly what this is. At times I find it a bit too slow, and certain plot points feel very done-before, but those are nitpicks.

Tadaima, Okaeri is a story within a very cursed subgenre of speculative fiction originating in kinky, kinky, fanfiction. And it does not embrace its bizarre genre enough.