Hokuto wants to reach his goal of becoming president of the family corporation (he has an ulterior motive in mind), and to help him reach that height, he agrees to an arranged marriage with bewildered fellow company employee, Chiwa. Hokuto's grandfather wants the chance to repay a kindness that Chiwa's grandmother showed him many years back, and agrees to wipe her fathers' debt in return for the acceptance of marriage. And so begins Hokuto's and Chiwa's journey into uncertainty, discovery, fighting, communicating too much, not communicating enough, borderline sexual assault and 'do your best!'.
Unfortunately there weren't any massive shocks when it came to the story... everything ran as it I thought it might. Plenty of ups and downs occur and of course these events will bring the two much closer together and all of a sudden, with their partner at their side, they can take on anything! But, only until the slightest hiccup occurs and then the doubt creeps in again (this emotional cycle is set on loop throughout the manga).
On a side note: The best bits are when the two fight with each other because they argue as equals and the drawings become quite hilarious to look at.
The art itself I was quite impressed with. It was precise and nicely set out. No massive sceneries, but the characters with their close-ups were nicely detailed. It was a little difficult sometimes to figure who was saying what but overall very pleased with the style.
The supporting characters are just that and while a few appear quite often, you aren't shown much of their personality, just mostly their 'role' in the story as it were. Hokuto is the typical handsome, intelligent but brooding type and I think his only saving grace at the start is that he's not a complete chauvinistic dick that wants to keep a wife that should be 'seen and not heard'. He wants Chiwa to see their marriage as more of a joint venture rather than 'now we're stuck with it'. Chiwa is a blubbering mess throughout the whooooooole manga and she tends to get embarrassed... a lot. But the optimistic 'go get 'em!' attitude always comes back no matter how many times she falters. I did find it slightly annoying that emotionally, she behaves more like a girl would rather than a woman, in quite a few of the chapters.
As far as enjoyment goes... "Hapi Mari" is only my second manga and was overall, a pleasant read. I did consider dropping it two-thirds of the way through, but luckily it picks up a bit in the final chapters. It hasn't made me want to jump into another romance manga but I think that something like this hits all the right notes (as it's got the goods), but just as long as you don't expect to be surprised.
P.S. smut-wise... I thought the consistency was alright? It wasn't so full-on as to detract from the story and the scenes don't go on for aaaaages. But, I also wished it wasn't so one-sided. Women can take the initiative too! ;)
