AKA: 結婚するって、本当ですか ; Kekkon Surutte, Honto Des Ka? (per Wiki, "Are You Really Getting Married?")

Genre: Romantic Dramedy

Length: Television series, 12 episodes, 24 minutes each

Distributor: Currently available streaming on crunchyroll.

Content Rating: 12+ (Drug/alcohol use, mature situations.)

Related Series: Map for the Wedding, a 10-episode live-action adaptation on Amazon Prime, 2022

Also Recommended: Hansaku Iroha the Movie: Home Sweet Home; I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying

Notes: Based on manga by Tamiki Wakaki, published by Shogakukan

Rating:

365 Days to the Wedding

Synopsis

Rika Honjoji is employed by a travel agency. The agency wants to send an employee to manage a new branch in Alaska, but like others in the agency Rika doesn't want this transfer. So she goes to fellow employee Takuya Ohara with a proposition: since the agency is rumored to only be considering single employees for the transfer, they could pretend to be engaged; they could drop the pretense once someone else is picked.

Review

Look, we ALL know where THIS is going to go; so the question is, is it worth the journey? On balance, I'd give a qualified yes- qualified, mainly because I didn't like the way a secondary character's storyline was left dangling.

But we'll start with our primary "pretend" couple-that-might-become real. In the first place, since Rika approached Takuya rather than anyone else, we'll note that she at least thought him a plausible candidate for a fiancé, even if only for appearances. And it turned out that the two really have something in common: they're both "outdoorsy" people. Despite working in an office, Takuya comes from a rural farming family; while Rika is fascinated by maps- and wants to personally visit the places on the maps, to explore and learn about them on her own. When Takuya's father hears about the "engagement", he starts to plan an expensive wedding, which necessitates a trip by Takuya and Rika to his family to explain that this is just a ruse. (Of course, this also evolves into an extended "date" by our pair, whether intentionally or not.)

At this point I'd like to make a couple of comments. First, there's a neat little scene, shortly after our pair form their scheme, where we have two walkways that end at the middle of a small lake. Each walkway is slightly offset from the other, but they abut each other at the middle, so one could complete a walk across the lake by crossing onto the other path. Now place each one of our pair on ONE of the walkways. I had to admire the obvious, yet subtle, symbolism here. (The show will do something similar again later, with them in a crosswalk.)

Another remark I'll make here is that I thought Takuya's character was drawn a little...well, too young in appearance. (Rika's appearance was fine, but she has some other issues. I'll try to remember to mention those.)

Now, our pair certainly has some great reasons NOT to marry- I mean, besides the take on marriage in Carly Simon's classic "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be", which this show somehow made me think of. A family man in their office, with a young child, now has his wife asking for a divorce. And while Takuya might have a large (and supportive) family in the countryside, Rika is herself a child of divorce. (Other than presenting this simple fact, I thought the show could have done a better job of showing HOW this was influencing her thinking.) And then there's Hiromi Gonda- but THAT guy's situation merits some special treatment, later.

Anyway, one of Takuya's childhood friends from his hometown, Nao Umiyama (who's adorable, by the way) comes to the city, re-encounters Rika (she'd originally met her when Rika and Takuya went to meet with his folks), and becomes a catalyst for Takuya and Rika, though maybe not in the way you'd expect. (Nao's learning an interesting trade.)

The main stumbling block here turns out to be Rika. She tries to dissuade Takuya by showing how "boring" she is (the woman has some self-esteem issues); and Rika goes completely off the rails when the office manager, Asako Kurokawa, suggests she and Takuya do a "picture diary" of their "domestic life" together, which is VERY presumptuous, since just because a couple is engaged, it certainly does NOT necessarily follow that they're already cohabiting. (Kurokawa might more than redeem herself later, though.)

So now I've gotta consider Hiromi Gonda. He's an overweight, sad-sack sort of guy who's had no love life. (Since the announcement of Takuya's "engagement", he's been prodding Takuya for romance tips.) Gonda, through a dating app, meets what seems his ideal woman- she's attractive, and shares his favorite pop-culture obsessions. There's just one problem. Sociobiologists have their explanation for why women in this situation get treated like pariahs by men. If the show had been about Gonda and his struggles with the issue he's presented with, I would have found this more interesting than the show about two introverts (maybe) finding love that it is. The show threatens Gonda with further short-circuiting of ANY hope he might have on the romantic front, though some of that might get averted. His hesitancy, we'll say, arises out of being presented with a scenario way out of the depth of someone inexperienced in love. I would have been intrigued to have seen him work through this, and maybe accept the opportunities (and burdens) that the situation presented. But Gonda's not the lead, so...

The Recs feature, either in realtime or flashback, marriage experiences.

If the show had focused on Gonda's attempts at romance (or at least provided us with a little more resolution about that), I would have enjoyed it more; but I guess people prefer stories about more attractive people, without a lot of baggage. (Granted, Rika carries SOME.) I think we might have lost track of the fate of one or two other characters too. (I do wonder if there was more in the manga.) Rika's turn into silliness in the latter part of the show also bugged me a bit. But on balance it's a pleasant show with at least a post-teenage cast and some great (if insufficiently developed) side characters, so we'll call it a "low 4" rather than a "high 3" show. — Allen Moody

Recommended Audience: Crunchy says 12+, citing drug/alcohol use, profanity, and suggestive dialogue. Mature situations, for sure, in the spot Gonda is put in.