REVIEW: My Happy Marriage Season 1

SPOILERS: My Happy Marriage, available to stream on Netflix.

When My Happy Marriage landed on Netflix in July 2023, it didn’t just hit the ground running; it was an outright sprint. Social media was abuzz about this new anime and everyone raved about it, which was rather unusual for a series like My Happy Marriage. Unlike the other popular anime who have seen mainstream success, My Happy Marriage is a romance. There are no grand battles or high world-ending stakes. The story featured a young woman as the protagonist and centred around the development of a romantic relationship between the two characters.

Based on the light novel series written by Akumi Agitogi, featuring illustrations by Tsukiho Tsukioka, My Happy Marriage is a fantasy romance that is set in an alternate version of the Taishō era. Miyo Saimori is the disgraced daughter of the Saimori family because she has no supernatural gifts, unlike her stepsister, resulting in years of psychological and physical abuse. Once Miyo turns 19 years old, she is married off to the cruel commander Kiyoka Kudo by her father. However, when she arrives at the Kudo residence, she doesn’t find the any of the rumoured coldness and cruelty from Kiyoka. Instead, she finds something much more surprising: love and hope.

My Happy Marriage is Beautiful, But Too Ambitious

One of the main draws to My Happy Marriage is its quality animation. It’s gorgeous to look at with attention particularly honed in on each character’s eye colours. There were times that I found it almost too beautiful, just on the edge of unsettling, but it was nonetheless a feast for the eyes. Kinema Citrus and all of the animation staff did a spectacular job.

When the terrified Miyo came to the Kudo residence, she always seemed to have an apology ready on her tongue. The fear she harboured of getting kicked out led to her tiptoeing around her new home. She was always second-guessing every move she made and every word she uttered. Miyo slowly began growing into herself, gaining more confidence as she went on. It’s a nice message that My Happy Marriage has, knowing that someone who loves you and using their love to bolster one’s confidence. Episode 6 was an especially powerful scene because Miyo finally stood up to her stepmother and sister. Every other time her stepmother and stepsister confronted her, she would weakly protest before being forced to obey their demands. But this time was different: not only was Kiyoka the one person she couldn’t ever give up on, but Miyo was different from the meek girl that had lived in the Saimori residence. She was stronger, more confident, and braver.

As much as I enjoyed Miyo’s development, I was also quite frustrated. A majority, if not all, of Miyo’s insecurities stem from the abuse she suffered from her stepmother and stepsister, not to mention, her father’s neglect. She thinks she’ll only be “worthy,” or in other words, have worth, to Kiyoka if she can transform herself into the so-called ideal wife. That’s why she throws herself into learning how to be a “proper lady.” I was disappointed that she hadn’t grown into her own person and have an identity that isn’t just “Kiyoka’s wife.” Beyond her relationship with Kiyoka, I don’t particularly find Miyo interesting. She shares a number of the same traits with the other shojo female protagonists: kind and unwaveringly selfless. As a result, she doesn’t stand out to me.

My Happy Marriage suffers from doing too many things at once and not tying them together in a cohesive manner. I went into the anime, expecting a romance and suddenly, I was hit with supernatural gifts and powerful entities called Grotesqueries. I’m fine with that. It can be a great twist in expectations — if executed well. And that didn’t happen for My Happy Marriage.

The fantasy elements felt incredibly detached from the rest of the story, like My Happy Marriage was doing too many things at once without any kind of cohesion. The world wasn’t fleshed out extensively and the lore wasn’t explained very well. Miyo suddenly getting the power-up to save Kiyoka in the finale also came out of nowhere. Did all of that knowledge come from awakening her powers, therefore not needing any practice whatsoever? I don’t buy it.

As far as antagonists go, the Emperor is hardly a threat because he’s hardly there. He hides behind a curtain for most of the series. It’s also unclear to me why he fears Usuba and Kudo family coming together, other than they’d be extremely powerful. And then when the Emperor is caught for opening the Gravestone, there are no repercussions other than the prince saying his father will atone for his sins.

It was nice seeing Miyo and Kiyoka interact in the later episodes as they grew more fond of each other, but honestly, (whispers), kind of boring. It’s a slow burn kind of romance but it still needs to burn and the series lacked that. Plot-wise, the story is slow and drags, but the relationship between Miyo and Kiyoka went from 0 to 100, jumping from Kiyoka treating Miyo indifferently to him being attentive to her needs.

I’m hoping My Happy Marriage, as it enters its second season sometime in the future, will work on deepening each character as an individual and focus on its world-building elements. It’s a bit of a shame that the story was executed so weakly when the animation quality was at such a high bar.