My Happy Marriage is a period piece romance set in the Meiji-eta in Japan. The show includes supernatural elements through the existence of “grotesqueries,” which we learn more about as you get further into the series, as well as “gifts” that take the form of various super powers, like control of fire or the ability to manipulate others. After watching the season, the scope of these powers feel as open-ended as other thinks like cursed energy from Jujutsu Kaisen and stand abilities in Jojo’s, so the sky’s the limit. The first episode has no trace of fantasy elements in it, so if you skip the ... synopsis, like I did, you’ll be surprised when they dive into the main cast’s own gifts.
The first episode gives you all the background you need on the story. Miyo is our protagonist who is treated like a servant by her own family and looked down upon by her stepmother and stepsister. One day she finds out her father has arranged a marriage for her and she’s to leave their home immediately to begin a new life. This creates an opportunity for her to live a better life.
Something that becomes apparent within the first couple episodes is that her fiancé, Kudo, is by no means “saving” her. Instead, Miyo has an opportunity to choose how to live her life in her new circumstances. Kudo is first introduced as cold and apathetic of Miyo. Miyo doesn’t necessarily feel empowered in her new life either. Instead, she is a character reconciling with the trauma of her upbringing and her own low self-esteem that her family instilled upon her while introduced to a man who has no prior opinion of her. What results is a beautiful character arc for the main character as we watch her first recognize her own autonomy and worth, then learning to stand up for what she wants and speak out to her family.
The show continues on by adding conflicts external to our couple, caused by her family’s own grievances when they find how happy Miyo is and other elements that develop as we learn more about the various gifts characters have and the power struggle to have clans hold the strongest gifts through political, arranged marriages. These challenges lead to issues that make Miyo second guess her own worth. Through and through, the show continues to challenge Miyo as these problems that felt like were hinted to develop from the beginning of the series get thrown upon her. Both her own growth and her growing intimacy with Kudo feel organic and earned.
Kudo is a wonderful love interest for our protagonist and the story. Kudo anchors us in the supernatural elements of the show and provides an unexpected amount of depth in this fictional world and some action sequences in his work to eliminate grotesqueries. Where as Miyo’s character growth is front and center for our observation, Kudo’s challenges felt subtle and harder to identify. This might be frustrating if you prefer things explained in clear monologues as some anime might use, but I found his own character struggles to be understandable after having some time to digest his role in the story.
The biggest flaw I found while watching this was the story’s turn of events in the last quarter of the season. Some new conflict arises and for me the actions of the main characters felt really difficult to understand. However, the show revisits the motivations of antagonists and adds some retrospective from the main characters that makes it easier to piece together why things escalated the way they did. As mentioned earlier, Kudo may have been the hardest to follow in all these events due to his lack of exposition, but looking back on the season if we confident saying he had a clear line of justifications as he went through this conflict.
For other elements of the show, the visuals and audio won’t disappoint anyone. The characters are drawn beautifully and their faces perfectly convey all the emotions that might come across in a subtle romance story. The soundtrack is subdued and is mainly used to guide the emotions and tensions of the drama and romance that ensues.
I feel confident giving this show a 10/10. As a romance, it delivers the slow burn and organic character development you would expect from the genre. The overarching conflicts and supernatural element keep other challenges in play for the cast and are good if you want to offset the romance with general drama. If you are a fan of the romance genre I think this is a must watch.
 Alternative Titles Synonyms: My Blissful Marriage Japanese: わたしの幸せな結婚 Information Type: TV Episodes: 12 Status: Finished Airing Aired: Jul 5, 2023 to Sep 20, 2023 Premiered: Summer 2023 Broadcast: Wednesdays at 23:30 (JST) Licensors: None found, add some Studios: Kinema Citrus Source: Novel Duration: 23 min. per ep. Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older Statistics Score: 7.831 (scored by 100,132 users) 1 indicates a . Ranked: #9002 2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #1018 Members: 228,887 Favorites: 2,318 Available AtResources |
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