Review of My Happy Marriage

If only I could rate this season on the quality of the first 6 episodes alone, it would be an easy 9 out of 10. Unfortunately, this is a 12 episode (+ 1 special) season. The first 6 episodes are a solid and emotionally effective story about trauma and healing. The main character Miyo has a clear arc, developing from a passive and traumatised girl, into someone willing to fight for her own happiness. It's a story as compelling as it is expertly told. Then comes the second arc, and the show begins to languish in slow pacing and formulaic plot developments. We are introduced to newcharacters that are portrayed sympathetically, despite their actions (at least initially) being worthy of nothing but the protagonist's contempt. In order to square this circle, Miyo is forced by the plot to regress to the passive girl she once was. Finally it comes to an end, but said end consists only of a pedestrian psycho-analysis through a bit of dream diving, and a climax featuring almost exactly the same message as the previous one.

This is a show with obvious quality, but unless you're enamoured enough with the story and world to sacrifice hours of your time on mediocre and repetitive drama, I recommend stopping at the end of episode 6. It's a far better climax to this story than the subsequent 7 episodes of slow, formulaic tedium.