Teppeki Honeymoon

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This is a fluffy age gap, fake marriage story with good character development. The main character, Ena is a strong female lead who princess-carries her fiancee. She becomes the fiancee of a family of bodyguards when she's able to pull a sword out. They end up living together. Ena gets money to do for agreeing to the whims of his family.

There's good tension between our main couple. Ena is in her last year of high school while her bodyguard fiance, Sakae is twenty-five. The story delves into grief and how families cope with it. I'm a sucker for shoujo that weaves family into their ... storyline.

While the storyline isn't original by any means, this manga is kind. It tackles grief in a way that's believable. It's kinder, to me than Fruits Basket was. I experience grief and unlike Fruits Basket, where it frankly hits you, I'll argue that Kyou doesn't get to be kind to himself throughout the storyline, this is the opposite. It's kind. Through a romcom, it's able to delve into the complexities surrounding grief and guilt in a way that's subtler, less dramatic, but still as effective. Our main couple has an obstacle to overcome and its woven well.

Why Tanaka Meca's work tends to stand out is that she doesn't use the love triangle trope that seriously. When she utilizes it, she incorporates humor and comedy.

Much needed after binging Bridgerton season 2.

I think this might be Tanaka's most compelling story just yet... BUT.
The premise is absolutely interesting. Tanaka has a way of writing realistic, strong female leads that make use of reason and feel like actual thinking people. Ena might be one of the best in that sense: she speaks openly about her feelings and thoughts as to not cause misunderstandings, she trusts the man she loves without being overcome by jealousy the way most shojo protagonists still do, she's loyal, hard working, and is overall the kind of girl you'd truly get from her environment. The male lead, although a cliche heir, stops there ... with the stereotypical role: his family's trade isn't a fuzzy one related to stocks, but a security company, he works a job like any other adult and it has nothing to do with his position as heir, even the premise of him losing that title at any moment is refreshing... all in all, he's just, truly, Some Guy, but what a guy he is. Kind, mature, respectful, and with a good head on his shoulders. Tanaka has a way of writing age gaps where you really get them the least gross and concerning they can possibly get (which is not a 0 but well, it's something), and I think the most refreshing thing in this story is the complete trust and respect the main couple have for each other, and you can actually believe they want to be on equal ground.
Now, as for the BUT. A bit of a spoiler, but Ena's magical barbaric strength (she's even depicted to be able to carry a man at least 70kg+ with ease)... suddenly disappears once she starts dating the ML. And for some reason she seeks to be the perfect housewive as a way to... support him? Because that's her strength from now on? To put it nicely, Tanaka starts tripping over the characterization she herself made so solidly, and to put it bluntly, she clearly got lazy after the confession and took out some completely different characters of her *** to spur the romantic plot along. So maybe she should have ended it after 20 something chapters, but we'll see if the chapters after that mark are dragging filler that ruin a plot that should have just been left alone, or bring some sense into a suddenly scattered plot.

Story 6/10 :
A nice change on the cliche contract marriage by making the reason for picking the FL her strength. That part was quite funny ngl.
Other than that we get very cliche situations that sometimes require the fl to forget she's powerful because we need the ml to save her which is the dumbest thing ever. Could have picked a situation where power wasn't evolved but no.. The cuteness gets dull by the chapter and the cliche ridiculous and boring situations don't help at all.

Characters 3/10:
The characters are dead out flat. The ML is your typical heir who excels at everything while he's as ... slim as a stick until he suddenly takes of his shirt and we see some muscle. Nothing really stands out in his personality.
The FL is your typical lost a parent, has siblings to feed, has debt, works hard. Her only plus is her extra ordinary power (e.o. cuz she also is a stick until the glowup she develop "chest" muscles).
All the characters are straight out of the book, huh we even have the evil cousin who hits on the fl and his personality couldn't be anymore cliche.
The only characters that stand out are the grandparents. If they were the mcs this would totally be a 10.

Enjoyment 5/10:
I'm pretty sure the biggest failure of this manga is it being a series rather than a oneshot. Cuz with only a quirky idea ina cliche storyline a manga can't go far. 5 chapters in and I felt as if I'm forcing myself to read any further. You just loose interest...