Bubbly in here…

Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon is a vexing series, make no mistake about it.  There’s a big gap between how I somehow think I should feel about it and how I actually do.  That being the case it doesn’t surprise me that it seems to be going over very well, but I just can’t jump on the bandwagon.  Maybe it’s inching upwards a hair as the plot progresses, but the things that are holding me back aren’t really getting any better.  At least not yet – next week could be telling in that regard.

Here’s the thing.  Every scene involving Miyo’s family is just fingernails on the blackboard with me.  I know there are plenty of awful people in the world.  And sometimes awful people are depicted convincingly in anime.  But these people aren’t (especially Kaya – Sakura Ayana’s performance really is a dumpster fire).  It’s all so hackneyed, so broadly played.  And I don’t think it has to be that way.  It’s not the situation, it’s the execution.

Then we have Miyo herself.  That’s the one area where things might improve, given events this week – but boy, does she get on my nerves.  This is another seiyuu performance that grates, though I suspect Ueda Reina is just delivering what she’s being directed to deliver.  It’s not like I don’t feel for Miyo in her situation – it sucks.  I just don’t enjoy watching the character (or listening to her).  Kiyoka is slowly helping her get through that, which is one part of the story that works.  But even that’s kind of a puzzler, because I’m still not buying that this is the same guy who built that awful reputation.  That rings false and smacks of plot contrivance.  And I don’t think we really know why Miyo’s father betrothed her to him in the first place.  Why not just give him to Tatsuishi as he promised?

Speaking of him, Tatsuishi-san is using shikigami to spy on Kiyoka and Miyo – which I would have to imagine is pretty over the line for one magical family to do to another.  He’s another in the moustache-twirling villain brigade, but at least he actually has one.  This angle has the potential to be interesting, which is one of the reasons I’m sticking around – is there a full-blown clan war brewing on the horizon?  That and what happens when Miyo inevitably awakens her latent supernatural power would certainly take Watashi no Shiawase no Kekkon in a very different direction.

This gulf is an odd one – the pathos inherent in the premise is out of whack with what’s actually delivered in the execution of it.  There are moments where the gap closes and I genuinely feel emotionally impacted by what happens, and this episode certainly had a few of them.  But not enough of them, at least at this point.  My experience tells me the dynamic is unlikely to change – when a series doesn’t fit with me this far in, that’s usually that.  But there’s enough that’s strange about this specific case that I feel like I have to give it at least a little more time.