I continue to be pretty impressed by 365 Days to the Wedding. Even in a crowded season’s crowded-est day it stands out as intelligently written and distinctive. I haven’t been a huge fan of any of Wakaki Tamiki’s prior series, which was really my only qualifier when I identified this series as a sleeper. But it’s not as if I disliked them or anything, and sometimes a mangaka’s work just clicks with you more than than any of their other efforts. With the staff in place here, the anime always figured to get everything out of the manga it had to give.

It’s clear from his reaction to his father’s lecture than Takuya has a somewhat strained relationship with his family. I suspect this is a situation that will resonate with a lot of Japanese in his age bracket. It’s true that young people from place like Aso in Kumamoto are fleeing for Tokyo or Osaka or even Fukuoka in ever-growing numbers. Fewer and fewer are getting married and having kids (in Japan generally too). But these young’uns have to be pretty tired (“This again”) of being made to feel guilty about it. It does suck that rural Japan especially is slowly dying, but from their perspective they’re pursuing opportunity. Their parents didn’t have to flee their hometowns to find it, but they do. There’s a larger problem here to be sure, but it’s not their fault.

The problem for now is how to deal with his family. Takuya buys some time by promising Kouichi that he’ll return home that weekend to explain everything (and admit the truth, he tells Rika). That’s stressful enough, but soon Kurokawa-san tells him that he’s going to be the “attendant” for the Princess of Liechtbourg (as neat a hybrid of Liechtenstein and Luxembourg as you could want) Claudia (Touyama Nao). Naturally Takuya considers himself the worst possible person for such a task, but apparently the princess has a reputation as a manhunter. And Takuya is as harmless as it gets (and engaged).

Claudia’s visit is cleverly set up by an awkward exchange of Japanese and Engrish before we’re told that while the pair of them are speaking English, it’ll be dubbed in Japanese. This episode is really the misadventures of socially awkward people, as Takuya and Rika cope with this stressful turn. Claudia is quite a handful, but shy as he is Takuya is a pro. He’s researched her and gotten some idea of her tastes (cats). And he quickly reads her and determines that she’s not into checking out the tourist traps in Asakusa.

Takuya takes Claudia to places like Imado Jinja (the maneki neko shrine) and a local school rooftop, the latter on the assumption that like most younger foreigners she’s an anime fan (she is). He’s even brought her a school uniform (where did he get it?) which she enthusiastically dons to do mahou shoujo poses. It all seems to go as well as could be expected, but then Claudia drops the bomb – she invites herself back to Takuya’s apartment. Of course she’s not the person the press has made her out to be, but he doesn’t know that for sure.

Some things can be inferred here with absolute safety. Rika is totally not cool with Takuya sleeping with another woman even if their engagement is a sham. Also, Takuya is as trustworthy as it gets (though no doubt too awkward to engage is casual physical relationships as well). He tells Claudia that she can only come over if Rika is there (we don’t find this out til afterwards but I guessed as much). And he tries to text her to get her to come over, which for some reason she ignores. In the end Takuya does let Claudia in, not that he has much choice. And Rika comes over and has a very embarrassing misunderstanding. But it’s not milked either for laughs or drama, and soon sorted out.

Having Claudia turn out to be a lesbian who’s been putting on an act for the sake of her image was an interesting twist. The message here is as healthy as can be – we all deserve a chance to be with whoever makes us happy. Not easy for her, to be sure. But how does this reflect on the main couple? I continue to feel that the more interesting denouement would be for them to realize they’re happy not being in a romance and that there’s nothing wrong about that, and wind up as very good friends. In the more likely event they wind up falling for each other (as already seems to be happening) at least they can take inspiration from Claudia’s desire to follow her bliss and count themselves lucky that it would be much easier for them than it will be for her.