Granted, considering My Happy Marriage is largely a Cinderella-type story first and foremost, its premise is fairly rote, and nothing you haven't heard before: 19-year-old Miyo Saimori's life has been hell for as long as she can remember. Born without the gift of being able to see monsters or use psychic powers, she is treated less than a servant in her noble house. Her father ignores her, and her stepmother and stepsister take delight in tormenting her every chance they get. As a result, Miyo is dead inside. Even the one light of hope she has, her childhood friend Koji Tatsuishi, is taken from her, set to be engaged to her younger sister in a political marriage. To make things worse, Miyo's father tells her that she is going to be married off to a powerful military commander named Kiyoka Kudo, who has a reputation of being so cruel and heartless that he drove off previous brides-to-be all within days of their engagements. With no home to return to, Miyo resigns herself to her fate—and soon finds that her pale and beautiful husband-to-be is anything but the monster she expected, even if he is rather brusque and blunt. As they slowly open their hearts to each other, both realize the other may be their chance at finding true love and happiness.
From an animation standpoint, My Happy Marriage is not only given amazing production values by virtue of being animated by Kinema Citrus, it really feels true to the overall look and vibe of the light novels, and even the manga by extension. Character animation is subdued, preferring subtlety and characterization over stylized bombast, the setting is well rendered and well researched, with nothing that betrays the time period its in (the light novel writer mentioned that the series takes place in an alternate Meiji/Taisho era), and the series does make great use of both lighting and the environment to show the characters' emotional states. In the first episode, the colors and lighting are all bleak, muted, and use earthy, rustic colors to convey Miyo's complete and utter despair in the bad environment she lives in. In contrast, when she leaves the house and experiences life with the Kudos, the lighting is brighter, the colors are more vivid, and the world around her comes to life. Kinema Citrus and Kadokawa even put out a short behind-the-scenes video showing the process behind the show's production, which you can watch on YouTube. The character designs are true to the novels, and mostly period accurate, and a lot of emphasis is put on things like subtle facial expressions and body language. Then again, with some exceptions, My Happy Marriage eschews histrionics and exaggeration in favor of subtlety and atmosphere. I only have one gripe with the animation: What's with the mismatched hair color highlights? Miyo, Koji, Yurie, Kaya, and Kazushi don't have this problem since the shading on their hair matches their actual hair color, but for some reason, everybody else has highlights colored in ways that clash against their actual hair colors, making them look like they're wearing colored headbands, with the biggest offenders being the ones on the Kudos. I mean, blue highlights on ash brown hair? Dark pink on blonde? Olive green against black hair? Really? Not only do these make them look like they have colored halos floating over their heads, they clash horribly against their actual hair colors and looks really jarring in what's supposed to be a low-key period piece with a touch of fantasy.
The soundtrack is also really nice, and a lot more versatile than you'd initially assume. Acoustic guitar, violins, kotos, pianos, you name it, it was used for the OST courtesy of Evan Call, and the opening and ending sequences are great, not just in their music but the imagery used for them. Of course, you can't have a solid show without good characters to back it up, and on this front, I feel My Happy Marriage manages fairly well. The main characters—Miyo and Kiyoka—are great, three-dimensional individuals who grow and change even across the series' short tenure and manage to carry the series perfectly, rounded out by equally colorful side characters such as Yurie, Hazuki, and Godo, who manage to help them in their own ways. I wouldn't have been invested in them had I not read both the light novels and manga beforehand, and the anime maintains their characterization from the source, never betraying who they are. Some may argue that Miyo's family, the Saimoris and Koji's father Minoru, are shallow villains who are just there to be evil, and I can understand where they're coming from, and in a lesser story, that would absolutely be a detriment. However...would making them more nuanced and sympathetic really work in this case, though? Giving them additional backstory and sympathetic traits wouldn't change the fact that they treat Miyo like shit over stuff that's not her fault, and unlike, say, Hawkmoth from Miraculous Ladybug who doesn't really bother to do anything to the heroes aside from corrupt people and hide in his hideout, the Saimoris actually do try to get stuff done, and even succeed at some points. Yes, the Saimoris and Minoru Tatsuishi are as stereotypical as you can get, with the slight exception of Kaya, but the series is aware of this and knew that it needed villains like them to really do what it wanted to do. Plus, it's not like they don't have their own motivations for what they do, petty as they are (Something that the series itself points out via Kiyoka), so whether you like the villains in this show or not, they are used to good effect here and fulfill their roles just fine. I know I'm perfectly content with hating the Saimoris for being so cruel to Miyo, and that's what the series wants you to feel.
If you've read this far in, you're probably thinking "Come on! How is My Happy Marriage different from every other Cinderella-type story that's come before it? What could MHM possibly offer in an age where we get adaptations of Cinderella on the regular? What does MHM have to say that other stories like it haven't said already?" That, my friend, is actually an easier question to answer than you think. Most Cinderella stories tend to just end with the happily ever after, giving the message that just shacking up with a handsome prince will solve all her problems, and we all know real life doesn't work like that. Furthermore, not every Cinderella adaptation does this, but just as many tend to make the heroine seem a little too well-adjusted for her own good. Seriously, with all the abuse Cinderella was made to endure over possibly a decade, one would think that she'd develop serious psychological and emotional problems. My Happy Marriage decides to zero in on exactly that, showing that yes, all the abuse Miyo went through completely destroyed any semblance of self-esteem and self-worth she could have developed, making it extremely clear that no, marrying her off to a guy who appreciates her isn't going to solve all her problems. That's not how healing works, and I admit I'm not a psychologist so I can't claim to be an expert on the subject, but anybody who's ever read actual medical/scientific studies on how abuse can affect people mentally, or even autobiographies written by people who experienced it first hand, can easily glean that the road to healing is a slow climb. Everything, from the original light novels, to the manga, and the anime acknowledge this, and it shows in Miyo's character development through the series. Even as her life gets better, she still remains a shy, quiet young woman, and sometimes falls back into old, self-destructive habits and thought processes. Her progress is slow, but progress is still progress, even with setbacks. My Happy Marriage isn't solely about the romance, nor does it present the idea that the romance in and of itself can solve all of Miyo's problems. It takes kindness, a support network, and taking the steps to leave the toxic environment in order for healing to truly take place, and to me, that's what makes My Happy Marriage stand out from other Cinderella stories, because it really goes deep into how decades of abuse can shape a person's psyche. Granted, because the pace in which Miyo grows and regains her autonomy is deliberately slow, impatient people may be quick to dismiss Miyo as being passive, spineless, whiny, and weak even after she displays some degree of growth because it's apparently not fast or blatant enough for them. Seriously, if you think Miyo is spineless and weak, just watch the second episode of Bibliophile Princess. Elianna's got Miyo beat in the passivity competition.
Can you tell I love this series yet? Other than that one animation quibble I mentioned above, the only other flaw the anime has is more to do with the fact that it leaves out some additional context and backstory for some characters in the latter half of the series. Some of it isn't too bad, like with Kiyoka's sister Hazuki, but for some, like Miyo's extended family the Usubas, the removal of some context behind their actions makes the characters in question come off a lot more morally questionable and less sympathetic than they were in the light novel. I know it's inevitable that some things have to be left out when working on an anime, especially a series that's 12 episodes long and doesn't allow for a lot of time to flesh everything out, but I do feel like the second half of the series could have benefited even from an extra episode to smooth things out and not rush through the second arc. Hell, some may argue that the whole supernatural powers subplot in the second half feels extraneous. I don't, as they were pretty established early on (Though the anime doesn't do so until episode 2), and later novels dive into them a bit more. My Happy Marriage may not be a series for everyone, but there are reasons why it managed to get so popular, and you know what? I'm damn happy that branches of Netflix outside Japan gave it a chance and actually bothered to make it accessible to people, whether it be dubbing it or actually bothering to put some effort into promoting it! Anime for girls deserve the same chances as the popular shounen anime. The fact that a third season of Kimi no Todoke was just announced, with plans for it to air on Netflix, alongside adaptations for stuff like A Sign of Affection and Apothecary Diaries coming up gives me hope that a comeback for shoujo or female-led anime is in the cards.
