Based upon a popular light novel series of the same name Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon otherwise known as My Happy Marriage is a romance and fantasy genre anime that gives us the opportunity to see what happens if one day a young woman long bullied and abused by her stepmother and stepsister were to one day be given a chance to change this hard life of hers by marrying into a powerful noble family that her family was eager to cultivate new bonds with.
The catch however was that her intended fiancé the famed head of the Kudo family was rumoured to be one that treated his fiancée harshly and indeed had already gone through multiple marriage prospects to date. But to our dear Miyo long suffered and abused thanks to her nefarious stepmother and sister this chance for a new beginning was well worth the reward if it meant that she was able to finally step foot outside her family home and into the brand-new world that the new age has brought Japan.
Little did Miyo know that her steps into the new age would not only bring her great happiness and allow her to meet many new people and learn many new things but also tie her life with that of the heart and soul of Japan and its people. Just how would Miyo and her friends and allies fare as they face down threats from humans and demons alike as they try to have a great life and enjoy the changes to society and tech that the early Taisho era has brought to the country.
As far as genres and themes go one of the things that drew my eye to this series was its setting and its pairing with the fantasy genre that I felt served to create a unique canvas that the series narrative could make use of as its foundation.
The early Taisho era in Japan was times of great peace in Japan and was a complete contrast to the turmoil that gripped the nation in the previous Meiji era and in this series, this was shown best in the tech introductions that the country was bathing in the form of automobiles, trams , western influence and events that served to give both the nation and the people who lived there including our main leads a new sense of hope and purpose when they step into it. This sense of change when combined with the entry of the long-suffering Miyo into a new world where everything around her from the automobiles she rides in and the trams she sees on the streets and the new bonds that she forms with her new fiancée and the members of his household and the detail that went into the series animation was the aspects that drew me to this series and I have to say I'm glad that it did.
Miyo Saimori
Miyo Saimori is one of the main characters of the series and serves as the narrative’s primary protagonist. At 19 years of age, Miyo is the eldest daughter of the famous Saimori family one that despite their strong lineage like all of their fellow magical families has found themselves in gradual decline due to lack of worthwhile abilities that it can make use of to showcase their worth.
A fact that ensured that at the start of the series Miyo due to her lack of any talent for magic was treated harshly by her family and was effectively relegated to the role of a servant within her own home. As a result of this at the start of the series Miyo was shown to be someone that was quiet, passive and someone that preferred to hide her own thoughts and opinions of matters within herself rather than express them as most girls her age would have. Indeed, at this point in her life, she was someone who thought openly that she was not needed in this world at all and that any kind of kindness and gifts that she received were wasted on her and better suited for others. As a result of this turn of events, Miyo was noted to have a low degree of self-confidence and was someone that was shown to be overly polite to all that she met regardless of their social rank. However, to those few friends and confidants that she possessed, she was someone who while quiet was also nonetheless a kind and humble person who would do all she could to help others if she could.
However, her days of toiling away in the house as a servant and being abused by her stepsister and stepmother were to come to an end one day when she was summoned and arranged to be married into the powerful Kudo family as a means for the family to maintain their bloodline with her new fiancée being the head of the Kudo family Kiyoka Kudo a man who possessed a reputation for being harsh and cold towards his potential brides. For Miyo whose fond memories of her childhood had since been eroded and replaced by those of painful ones as a result of her family's abuse of her this development while effectively a banishment from the house nonetheless to Miyo was also a form of release as it for the first time allowed her to finally set foot outside the confines of her house and see what the world outside looked like.
As the series progresses and Miyo gets to experience not only the many joys that living away from her estranged family and in a new age bring as well as learning to embrace the fundamental elements of society that everyone regardless of age and magical talent should be entitled to have Miyo’s personality gradually starts to change. Due largely in part to both her harsh upbringing and the rumours that surrounded the head of the Kudo family Miyo at the start of their relationship was shown to be wary of Kiyoka and as such opted to focus on being more useful to him as the newest fiancée of the Kudo family and maintaining her passive nature so as not to offend him and potentially risk being returned to her family in shame. However, as their bond improved and Miyo was able to see past the frosty nature of Kiyoka and see what his true self really was like this degree of wariness gradually began to dissipate and be replaced by a desire to not only be an effective wife for him by being able to manage the household but also be able to enjoy life by relearning one of the most fundamental aspects of society in the form of forging bonds with friends and family members alike and caring about them just as they would care about her.
This aspect of Miyo’s gradual relearning of how to love others again and how to forge bonds with those around her I felt was synergized well with not only her role within the narrative as an ability user but also with her determination to walk a path that she had chosen with the one that she loved the most. Notable moments within the series that I felt symbolized this growing bond between Miyo and Kiyoka and the outside world was Miyo’s tears of joy in ep2, their first outing to the city in ep3, learning how to make handicraft in the same episode and the meeting with Kiyoka’s sister Hazuki the latter of which served to showcase a visible desire and determination for Miyo to improve herself and be strong enough to stand beside Kiyoka and support him when needed.
Overall as a character Miyo Saimori I felt was a character that was both well designed and developed and made great usage of the two sides of despair and hopelessness on one side and hope and learning to love on the other that served to make her not only one that was easily relatable but also one that we all wanted to root for in her desire to live a new life as a result of all the hardship we seen her experience as a result of her family’s desire to stay relevant in the new age.
Kiyoka Kudo
Kiyoka Kudo is one of the main characters of the series and is the fiancée of Miyo Saimori. The 27 years old head of the Kudo family and a member of the military’s elite anti-Grotesquerie unit that he heads Kiyoka from his initial appearances was seen to be someone who was quiet, calm, and composed by nature and while intelligent and someone who understood the need for change in society was nonetheless wary of sudden changes to his surroundings as shown in his first interactions with Miyo.
Though a calm and quiet person Kiyoka was nonetheless noted to be someone who was relatively direct in both attitude and conversation which when combined with the rumours of him being easily angered and harsh on those around him really served to make him somewhat of an oddball when it came to political marriages among the nobility. However, this aspect of his personality while certainly off-putting to the noble ladies who had hoped that marrying into the famous Kudo family would allow them to have an easy life I felt proved to be a perfect catalyst for his eventual bond with Miyo that would not only open his eyes to the joy that can come from living with someone that you genuinely care about but also ensure that he would do his utmost to protect her from harm.
As the series progresses and Kiyoka’s bond with his new fiancée gradually improves it can be seen that beneath the cold and harsh nature that he shows to others, Kiyoka was actually someone that was kind and caring to those that he trusts and was someone that actively looked out for others, when possible, as shown in the good relationship he had with his housekeeper Yurie and the concern that he showed Miyo when they first met with this latter point being shown best when he commissioned new kimono’s for Miyo having seen how frayed her existing ones were.
While a polite and honest person who was able to function effectively at a social level Kiyoka was noted to be someone that found it difficult to live a normal life due to a combination of his strong focus on his duties and his inability to express his true feelings and thoughts to others something that even his housekeeper and sister were shown to worry often about. This aspect of his personality however I felt served as an excellent catalyst that allowed him to forge not only an excellent bond with his fiancée but also make him realize not only the sense of warmth that can come from having someone that not only cares deeply about you and keeps the household ready for your return but also more importantly serve as a raison de’etre for using his powers outside of his duties as a member of the military namely to protect the women that he loves from suffering the same hell that she’s suffered for the last 19 years of her life a fact that is shown best in the spectacle that was ep6.
Overall, as a character, I felt that Kiyoka was a character that was both well designed and developed with him not only having excellent romantic chemistry with Miyo but also as a result of their mutual self-development learn to be an effective foil for her as well in their quest to rediscover what love really was. No matter the era a knight In shining armour is always welcome for any maiden and more than anything Kiyoka was the perfect knight for Miyo.
AMV
Animation wise I felt that the overall animation for the series was excellently animated that featured not only excellent detail but also featured a rich colour palette as well. The character designs for the series' main and support cast I felt while reflective of the time period that the series was set in also served to enhance the main and support cast members as they flowed through the overall narrative providing not only a symbolic and emotional connection that linked them together but also one that connected them with the fantasy aspect of the series.
Locations wise while the amount of locations that the cast visited was not especially large the ones that we came to see within the narrative I felt were ones that while simple were ones that nonetheless held great emotional value to the cast members and represented many things that were crucial to their development as characters with notable locations being the Saimori family home that represented a mix of warmth and despair to Miyo, the Kudo family home which represented hope and a new found beginning, the nearby town that Miyo and Yurie visit that represents progress and time and lastly the Ursuba family home which represents truth and revelation for Miyo.
While My Happy Marriage’s main premise is that of a romantic love story I felt that its inclusion of the fantasy genre and through this the existence of abilities really served to showcase not only how intertwined they were with the social fabric of this world but also how powerful these can be when used to protect as well as secure the safety of ones that you love with notable moments within the series being the storming of the Saimori home to rescue Miyo and the fight with Arata at the Ursuba family home fights that were both beautiful and yet also reflecting well on the high stakes that were in play by that point of the narrative as a result of the strong bonds that had been forged between Kiyoka and Miyo over the course of their bonding.
Music-wise wise the series made use of one opening and ending theme which was Anata no Soba ni (By your side) and Vita Philosophica that were performed by Riria and Kashitaro Ito respectively. The series opening song Anata no Soba ni I felt while a very catchy song was also one that was complemented nicely with the themes of tech advances and a desire to overcome Miyo’s past tragic upbringing shown in this case as her child form by taking the first steps into a new life as the wife of the head of the Kudo family where she would be surrounded by friends and family that care about her. The visuals for the opening I felt while richly animated and coloured also served to enhance the themes that were used within it with the walk through the town with Yurie and Miyo’s time on the tram travelling through town being especially impressive.
The series ending theme Vita Philosophica on the other hand represented something of a contrast in that its themes had a stronger focus on the kind of suffering that Miyo had suffered at the hands of her family and the sense of despair that she had grown used to living with before encountering the light that is Kiyoka. While both songs had a level of emotional weight to them as a result of their respective themes, I felt that this one featured the most in that regard which served to enhance the song's impact when used in conjunction with its accompanying visuals. The OST that was featured within the series I felt was another aspect of the music that the series really excelled at thanks to the enhancements it provided for the emotional moments that Miyo encounters over the course of the narrative as well as the dramatic moments when force was needed to ensure her safety with the best examples shown during the rescue of Miyo by Kiyoka and the events at the Ursuba family home that we see near the closing ends of the series.
Voice acting-wise wise I felt that the series main voice cast all did an excellent at portraying their assigned characters whether they were main or support ones. Reina Ueda and Kaito Ishikawa who portrayed the main characters of Miyo Saimori and Kiyoka Kudo respectively I felt did an excellent job of portraying their characters that really drove home the kind of strong bonds that can be formed between those who truly love each other and how far one can go to protect them from all harm whether it’s from people that should be caring for them as family or from people that’s determined to take advantage of their unique abilities to make power plays in this new world.
While Kaito Ishikawa did well in portraying the kind of physical and emotional strength that was needed to see things through as part of his oath to protect Miyo from all manner of threats including the usage of abilities in open combat Reina Ueda’s portrayal of Miyo I felt served to contrast this as she managed to infuse a large degree of emotion into her lines that while showing well her emotional fragility also served to showcase the strong bonds that she had forged with those around her as a result of her engagement to a man that she can happily entrust herself too aspects that served to make each of her emotional scenes within the series that much more impactful on an emotional level.
Of the supporting cast of the series, I felt that Houko Kuwashima and Yoko Hikasa who portrayed the characters of Kiyoka’s servant Yurie and Kiyoka’s sister Hazuki did an excellent job of portraying their assigned characters with them representing well the first family members that not only did not treat her like trash but instead treated her like a proper member of the family and serving to give Miyo some much-needed stability as she sought to change herself. Hazuki trying so hard to get Miyo to bond with her was just a delight to see within the series. While I despised the characters of Kaya and her stepmother Kanoko for the emotional trauma that they inflicted on Miyo over the years I did feel that Ayane Sakura and Kana Ueda did an excellent job at portraying their assigned characters that really contrasted the two lives that Miyo had to experience this early in her life.
Overall conclusion
In overall My Happy Marriage I felt was an excellent anime that had among its main strengths its excellent narrative, well-designed and developed characters, animation, music, voice acting from a capable voice cast and its seamless combination of the classic Cinderella love story with the more adult themes of abuse, bullying, nobility and bloodlines and its connection to the nation and the strong emotional connection that Miyo forms with not only her cherished fiancée but also everyone that had supported and helped her overcome her trauma and learn to love again.
In overall I felt that My Happy Marriage was one of this season’s best series as a result of not only its high-quality animation but also its strong narrative that made use of themes that many would not come to expect in classic Cinderella romance stories that I felt was blended in seamlessly and was further enhanced upon by the excellent voice acting of the main leads of Reina Ueda and Kaito Ishikawa who really brought out the emotional connection that had been forged between them in their characters. As a final score, I would say this series easily deserves a final overall score of 9/10 for not only for its simple but strong emotionally charged narrative and cast that were relatable but also of the promise that no matter how dark human society can get as a result of humanity’s constant desire for power and greed that there are always people around you that would be able to help you rediscover the light that still shines in society. You only need to brave enough to step forward.
As a final note, it goes without saying that the characters of Kaya and Kanoko Saimori while utterly despicable are at the end of the day fictional characters and that their assigned seiyuu’s are simply acting out their characters as part of the narrative. Please refrain from showing hatred towards them in any form.
