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MANGA RomanceKekkon Suru tte, Hontou desu ka: 365 Days To The Wedding

REVIEWS

• 

  HomuraDesu

  60/100
  Love between two introverts in an office setting? Finally.

  This review contains Very minor SPOILERS for 365 Days to the Wedding
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  # __What do we have here?__

  The only romance anime I wholeheartedly watched during the Fall 2024 season. Not that I think it's peak or anything, but it was certainly a decently enjoyable experience worth mentioning. Let's talk about why you shouldn't wait 365 days to start the show.

  Don't get mad at me for listing its downsides, I'm going to look at it as objectively as I can.

  It's different?

  In all honesty, when I first inserted it into my seasonal watch list, I didn't think it was gonna be anything worthwhile. The production looked mediocre, the characters looked bland and the whole marriage premise felt generic. However, that's not where the magic lies for this particular romcom.

  

  First of all, this may just be the best romance with an adult cast since Wotakoi (not including fantasies). For so long, some romance fans have desired a setting different than a school in a romcom and Kekhon (that's what I'm calling it idc) gave us exactly that. The blossoming love between two office workers pretending to be married, simultaneously trying to concentrate on anything other than love. Did I mention that they were actual introverts? When is the last time y'all seen that?

  Them two

  Instead of some corny exaggerated confession scene or over-the-top drama, what we have are a good representation of overthinking in the form of inner monologues, rational decisions made by adults, and awkward, yet wholesome exchanges between said adults. It's difficult for introverts to open up about what they really want unless it's somebody close to them or somebody worth opening up to, but that's why it works here. From being ordinary acquaintances, to not being able to conversate normally, to gradually following their hearts. Them not being able to fully express themselves provided us with their adorable thoughts, while also making us feel the perfect amount of: (probably what Tama was thinking)

  

  The best part of the show was easily Rika (voiced by Hayami Saori ). I did like Takuya's development with the whole 'stop half-assing everything' spiel, but it wasn't anything special. Rika learning about romance and learning to distinguish this feeling and live with it has given us the best scenes if anything. Contradictory to her thoughts, her heart always leaked out during important moments like:

  The kiss scene or her declaring to try living together

  

  Gonda.

  Man, I did not think I was gonna be invested in this fat man. Lo and behold, I was. At first, he was easily the most annoying character in the show. He constantly complained about his love life to Takuya and it didn't even feel like he was taking it seriously... Until Episode 8 happened.

  He was immature. He decided that he wanted to take his relationship with Kaori before being prepared for anything - mentally and financially. Honestly, the sudden relationship between them felt childish, but that's what Gonda's perspective on romance was like. Childish. When Kaori revealed her position as a single mother, it was difficult to take in for both the audience and Gonda. She did like Gonda as a person, but in her mind, it had to be done. If he can't handle the responsibility of taking care of a toddler that's not even his, if he's not ready to financially support two people, it shouldn't be forced. That's why I believe Kaori made the right call, and hopefully Gonda grew from this event.

  

  Cons

  Naturally, a show is not without its faults (unless that show is Monogatari), so I have to talk about them. I simply cannot perceive Kekhon as a 'good' anime. For me personally, a 7/10 rating is given to those that I think can be called good without hesitation.

  ~Don't get me wrong, it's not bad. There are just certain aspects that I'm obligated to adress. For example, the lack of a strong supporting cast. There was that one episode with Gonda, but what else? I get that they wanted to focus more on their two lovebirds, but maybe we could've gotten more realistic interactions between the office workers and their difficulties in pursuing romance. Instead, we got the common, shallow, NPC-looking cast that exists everywhere.

  ~I enjoyed Takuya and Rika's relationship, but it came out of nowhere. There was no information about their types, so I don't like how they took a liking to each other simply due to their situation. It doesn't work like that. I'm talking about the early episodes, of course.

  ~I do value production unless it's something like Evangelion where the writing and story-telling are top-notch, which is precisely why I deem Kekhon's production as inadequate. Stiff animation, mediocre art, over-used directing methods. I can't get attached to characters who just feel like they're sketches.

  -Also, I don't know if this should be a considered a con, but I liked the comedy. It's just that I think this specific creation is better in manga form. Many elements felt like they were bound to be better on panels, rather than on screen. Manga readers, tell me if I'm right.

  Sooooo

  Fyi, a 5.5-6.0 is not a bad score from me. I utilize the full 0-10 scale, so Kekhon to me is an above average romcom that has its downsides. I don't think I'm gonna miss watching this weekly, but I sure as hell will miss Tama, so for now, goodbye to Fall 2024's top comfort show. Goodnight.

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• 

  HidamariSeashore

  78/100
  A cute rom-com that looks at relationships from different angles.

  I said before in my Zannen nagara Chigaimasu review that if you're going to fall in love with someone, you should take the time to get to know them before deciding that you want to be with them for the rest of your life. I still stand by what I said there, as marriage is a major commitment that will change the course of your life. That being said, some people may be desperate enough to avoid circumstances that they may be pushed into that they'll do whatever it takes to avoid it. Take the main characters of the anime I'm covering today, for example. While the concept was far from original, I decided to watch it mainly because it's based on a manga from the same manga artist as "The World God Only Knows", a series that holds a special place in my heart, despite me not being able to confidently say it's one of my favorite anime. Now, let me tell you about a story about a wedding that is 365 days away from not(?) actually happening!

  365 Days to the Wedding, known in Japanese as "Kekkon Suru tte, Hontou desu ka", begins when the manager of a travel agency known as JTC announces to the other employees that a new branch of the company will be opening in Anchorage, Alaska, and someone will need to move there in order to get this branch up and running; furthermore, unmarried employees will be considered first in the decision of who it will be. Our two main leads, Takuya Ohara and Rika Honjoji, fit the bill of "unmarried employees" that would be up for consideration, but both of them are introverted and uninterested in moving away, with the former even having a cat to consider in all of this. Thus, Rika comes up with a proposal (pun not intended): she and Takuya will pretend to be engaged so that the company doesn't choose either of them to move. Takuya agrees to this plan, and thus, the newly-formed "couple" have to act like they're in a loving relationship in front of their coworkers and keep the fact that they're not actually getting married a secret. Surprise-surprise, this leads to them gradually developing real feelings for each other.

  As I said, the concept of this anime is nothing you've seen before. There are a handful of anime that also tackle the topic of a false relationship, such as Rent-A-Girlfriend and the appropriately-named Nisekoi. However, 365 Days to the Wedding isn't just about a false relationship; it also aims to look at relationships from different kinds of angles. Whether or not marriage is really something that everyone should be hyping up as much as most of the JTC workers are when they find out about Takuya and Rika's engagement is called into question at multiple points; there is even an episode where one supporting character goes through a divorce, and we see how badly it affects him, albeit some parts of his reaction are more comical than one might consider realistic. We also see, however, how love can really make someone grow as a person. In my personal favorite episode of the entire series, another supporting character falls for someone who he decides he wants to marry, but upon finding something major out about that person, he realizes that he's not truly ready; although I truly wish things could have worked between these two characters, as they had genuinely good chemistry, I also acknowledge how mature it was that this supporting character made this realization about himself, despite it not seeming like he would.

  That's all great and all, but what about the main couple? At first, despite their personalities being somewhat similar, it's kind of hard to believe that they would be a convincing couple. I mean, it makes sense; up until the start of the series, they barely interacted, even at work. As they interact more, however, you can really see just how much they're starting to fall for each other. Although it seems more like teenagers having crushes on each other than full-grown adults, I don't mind; their interactions are cute nonetheless. Plus, both of them are very relatable characters on their own ways, especially Rika; her tendency to come up with elaborate plans to make the whole "fake marriage" work and to ramble on about things that interest her were both relatable and amusing to me. Also, despite how little he actually appears throughout the series, I absolutely love Kama, Takuya's cat; his personality reminds me a lot of my younger brother's cat.

  The animation is done by Ashi Productions, who did a decent job on it. I liked the way everything was colored and how the way the characters were designed for the anime were actually a close match to Tamiki Wakaki's artstyle; however, the animation can look a little bit stiff and awkward at times. I mean, Ashi Productions was also working on "How I Attended An All-Guy's Mixer" this season, so I guess something had to give in that department. I also really liked the voice acting here; Saori Hayami did a great job as always as Rika, and while I'm not too familiar with Kentarou Kumagai as a voice actor, I do think he was a good fit for Takuya. (I just wish Natsumi was more prevalent in the show just so I could hear more of Kana Asumi's voice....) Finally, the opening theme ("Kirakira" by HoneyWorks feat. HaKoniwalily) and the ending theme ("Tsumari wa" by Gohobi) are both cute songs that fit the anime well. I also liked the artstyle used for the ending theme; it was very cute!

  Overall, 365 Days to the Wedding is a cute anime, even if it's nothing groundbreaking. I'd recommend it to those who love cute romantic comedies or The World God Only Knows fans who want to see more anime adaptations of Tamiki Wakaki's work. I'm not going to call you and tell you to watch it with an autotuned, menacing-sounding voice, though!

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• 

  Jingling0613

  85/100
  decent romance about marriage and cohabitation

  If you want to see two blossoming love between two autistic adults, then this is the perfect anime for you!!! The premise of the story is a forced marriage situation and in the end, they do develop feelings for each other, so that is predictable, but the strength of this show are its characters and how they navigate the theme of marriage.

  For our main couple, we have Rika-san who's obsessed with maps and topography and Takuya who's obsessed with his cat Tama. Takuya can be described as a chill guy and passive with his way of going about his life. One of the main story arc and development that he goes through is to be more assertive, as I'm pretty sure he went through with the marriage proposal only because it was suggested to him. Rika's development concerns her shutting a part of herself off and not letting her childlike personality come through, as we can see when she plays with her maps. This developed only because she was left by herself when she was young because her mother was away often and so she had to grow up and be a big girl. So she shuts away the emotional side and let the logical side of her dictate her personality, as she plans out literally everything, including conversations and dates for their fake marriage. It's very elaborate. As a result of this, their fake marriage feels very robotic because they're trying to be considerate of each other, but it's to the degree of overthinking simple things. At first I did find it annoying, but they are progressing each episode in their own quirky way to being somewhat functional and heartwarming.

  The setting is your typical office romance, with the twist being that this is a travel agency. Generally, authors employ the office setting because they don't care about the setting, but this anime does play up the traveling theme a bit with scenes of popular spots in Japan, as our main character goes on dates in them.

  The side characters don't have as much depth as our couples have, but the show continues to use them for the theme of marriage and connects them to our couple. There is Gonda, the single guy that has a crush on the pretty Komiya. Not much happened with these two but he did get into a dating situation with a fellow fan group buddy, who happened to have a kid. She asked if he was ready to take care of her and the kid, but he hesitated and she took that as a no. Another episode happens with Shinshi, a middle aged man who is happily married with a boy, but one day got divorced. He thought he was doing everything well, but he never considered his wife feelings, which have been put on the back burner. These situations with the side characters happen all the time in real life, and they serve as a reminder that marriage is difficult and require a lot of work for it to function well.

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