So you know how in my previous post on My Blog About Whatever, I implied that my 101st review would be on this movie? Yeah, that's not what ended up happening!
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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