My Happy Marriage is a romantic Anime that should definitely be in your "Must Watch" for summer 2023. Based on the light-novel and manga series of the same name, it is set in an alternate version of Japan’s Meiji Restoration where supernatural entities and abilities are common among Japan’s top families. It follows the main character Miyo Saimori, who after the death of her mother is forced to be a servant of the family she was born into by her father’s new wife and daughter.

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Miyo’s Story is an interesting re-telling of the classic Cinderella story, but doesn’t feel like a cheap imitation. Instead, it feels refreshing against the backdrop of romance anime that have been made recently, thanks to the interesting world and dedication to character development. The story also follows Kiyoko Kudo, the main love interest of the story. I was first worried that Kiyoko was going to be a very one-sided character early on in the story due to the viewers getting very limited views of his personality, but his character has developed quite well so far.

The other characters are believable and help the world feel more fleshed out, with the exception of the villains, though I suspect this is about to change. In the first few episodes we are introduced to a family who only cares about acquiring Miyo for nefarious reasons, and I felt that they weren’t fleshed out well enough to be more than one-dimensional bad guys. After the resolution however, we have been introduced to perhaps the main villain of the story in a family from Miyo’s past with ties to her mother, and I think we’ll see much more believable villains going forward.

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The anime is helped greatly by a beautiful art style that conveys the emotions of each scene quite well. One of my favorite aspects of the artwork is the attention to detail in the clothing of the characters, as well as the interior of the houses. All are animated very well and feel like a lot of care has gone into them. Like the art, the music lends itself so well to each scene.

The music sets the mood for each scene very well, sad scenes are conveyed convincingly with fantastic voice acting and music that tugs at the viewers. Whereas, the happy and everyday-life scenes are often accompanied by calming piano tracks that sound like they could have been in a Studio Ghibli movie. The opening is also very appropriate for My Happy Marriage and has managed an impressive 2 million views on YouTube.

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My Happy Marriage is a great summer anime that has really earned its place at number 2 on AnimeTrendz’s Trending Anime chart. While the music and art style are absolutely fantastic, the story is really well paced and the characters and believable setting make for an anime that has inspired this writer to pick up the manga (and perhaps light novel) going forward.

My Happy Marriage is streaming on Netflix.

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