Review of My Happy Marriage

A shoujo story inspired by Cinderella blended with magic powers and demons, set in an urban fantasy-type 1910s Japan, Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon is a slow-burn show that eventually results in an adequate pay-off for a one-season anime. The story revolves around the main couple. The woman, Miyo, is a young noble who has suffered intense emotional and physical abuse since the death of her mother. Due to being born without magical talent in a family with such power, she is deemed useless to the family, particularly when it comes to the succession. Her original intended is betrothed to her younger sister and she herselfis shipped off to her new betrothed, Kudou Kiyoka. As expected, he's the man, in more ways than one. You see, Kiyoka has a legendarily bad reputation amongst the nobility, as the daughters they send over for a prospective betrothal are all chased out of his home. Why? Because our boy Kiyoka <i>hates</i> gold diggers, and all the noble daughters sent to him thus far have been gold diggers who only care about his noble status and his money. So what happens when Miyo shows up? Well, nothing immediately, because she's not a gold digger. She genuinely wants to stay because even the minimal courtesy Kiyoka shows her is leagues above the abuse she's been getting every day for the last ten years or so. The lack of gold digging, the genuine kindness and helpfulness she displays towards Kiyoka's childhood nanny (who continues to serve her beloved master even after he's grown up, and he loves her just as much), spark his interest. What follows is the two treating each other with growing kindness as Kiyoka slowly starts healing Miyo of her traumas and investigating exactly what happened to her in the past. This being entertainment, they're not allowed to continue this character development without outside forces meddling to try to drive them apart.

From what I can tell, this series covers the first two volumes of the light novel, which leaves another five out in English, so like many other anime, it's designed to sell its core media. This is not a bad thing, as the animation is well-done and the main couple as they develop become more passionate. I'm genuinely curious how this tale is going to continue, and that despite not being a fan of the shoujo genre. The animation is generally quite well-done, especially for a Netflix production (look at High-Rise Invasion for an example of anime on the lowest of low budgest animations). What's interesting to me is that Miyo as a character begins passive and submissive, slowly begins to develop her own strength of personality, but also suffers from backsliding, like any normal person would. The fact she backslides yet continues to persist in trying to attain the happiness she's always wanted is to me a nice touch of realism, the sort of persistence that many people need to remember is an active choice. People don't get to do one and done, so to speak, on their own development. It's something they have to choose to do, again and again. Nobody's perfect, so they'll occasionally suffer from cowardice or weakness, but Miyo stands up and tries again, even though the pain terrifies her.

There are flaws, of course, since there are some weaknesses in story delivery, as things in the last third or so are rather rushed. The series is absolutely a slow-burn, so it takes time to really get into it, so I wonder if it would have been better to only adapt the first book and reduce the episode count. Still, by the third episode you'll have decided whether or not to stick with it, as I personally think it was entertaining.