My Happy Marriage (わたしの幸せな結婚, Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon) is a web-novel-turned-light novel series written by Akumi Agitogi. The light novel series features illustrations by Tsukiho Tsukioka, and is published by Kadokawa under their Fujimi L Bunko label. It has a manga adaptation by Rito Kohsaka serialized in Square Enix's Gangan Online. The light novel is licensed by Yen Press in English, while the manga is licensed by Square Enix USA. A live-action film adaptation premiered in Japan in March 2023, while an anime adaptation by Kinema Citrus aired from July to September 2023. Netflix simulcasted the series. A second season has been announced. See the teaser trailer here
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Beware of unmarked spoilers
My Happy Marriage contains the following tropes:
- Altar Diplomacy: High-ranking families with supernatural abilities, known as "gifts" marry into one another in a bid for securing power within society. The main plot is kicked off when Koji, who has low-level supernatural abilities and a crush on Miyo, is forced to marry her half-sister Kaya who also has a supernatural gift. Miyo for her part was married off to Kiyoka by her father and stepmother, both as an excuse to finally get her out their household and to keep the powerful Kudo family from being even more powerful. However, as Miyo and Kiyoka's relationship becomes stronger, Minoru, Koji's father, conspires with Kaya to kidnap and force Miyo to marry into the Tatsuishi family, since Miyo is a member of the Usuba bloodline, a family of powerful gifted.
- Ambiguous Time Period: In the afterword of the first volume, the author mentions that the story loosely takes place in the Meiji and Taisho eras.
- Barrier Warrior:
- The Saimori and Tatsuishi heads have this among their gifts, being able to create defensive barriers. Not that it helps much when faced with Kiyoka.
- Once she awakens her dream powers, Miyo becomes able to create powerful barriers.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Koji refuses to go along with Minoru and Kaya's plan to kidnap Miyo, and force her to marry him, while Kaya marries Kiyoka. When Minoru leaves the Tatsuishi estate and heads to the Saimori estate to carry out the plan, Koji follows him, thanks to Kazushi untying him. Koji then goes to Kiyoka to beg for help in rescuing Miyo and stopping his father's plan.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Koji is in love with his childhood friend Miyo, but he eventually recognizes that he won't be able to bring her happiness like Kiyoka and lets her go.
- Cinderella Plot: Miyo is mistreated by her stepmother and half-sister for most of her life and forced to work as a servant in her household despite being the oldest daughter. Her life improves drastically when she becomes engaged to Kiyoka, as he buys her new clothes and treats her gently. Her family kidnaps her back to force her to break off the engagement so that her half-sister Kaya can marry Kiyoka instead, but Kiyoka rescues her just in time and takes her back to home. The first episode even has a scene where Miyo is mocked for having ashes on her face.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Miyo remembers her mother Sumi as a kind, gentle, and beautiful woman.
- Defrosting Ice King: Kiyoka had a reputation for being cold and unfeeling, but being with Miyo, a woman who's unlike any of the others he interacted with before, softens him up considerably.
- Fantastic Ableism: It is apparently common for non-gifted children of gifted clans to be treated rather poorly. Miyo's case, however, is noted to be especially abhorrent as she was essentially enslaved by her household.
- Generational Magic Decline: This phenomenon is occurring with most gifted families, especially with the advent of technology making certain abilities obsolete. Kiyoka notes that even though he is known as the most powerful ability user in his generation, he is nothing compared to the ability users from several generations ago. The only exception to this seems to be the Usuba family, which is why one of their members, Naoshi Usui, has apparently gone rogue and started a cult to preserve and even spread artificial gifts to combat the decline.
- Hair-Contrast Duo: Miyo is a soft-spoken and quiet girl with black hair while her half sister, Kaya, is a haughty and spoiled girl with light brown (almost blonde) hair.
- Hidden Elf Village: The Usuba family, despite having incredibly powerful Psychic Powers, are very reclusive and don't show up on official records, so there is almost nothing known about them.
- Humans Are Psychic in the Future: Inverted. Psychic powers or Gifts, were much more prominent and powerful in the past as the advent of human progress has resulted in their general decline. Powerful gifted are becoming increasingly rarer and the extinction of all psychic abilities is a looming possibility.
- Impoverished Patrician: The Saimori and Tatsuishi families used to be more prominent and respected, but with the lack of powerful new ability users being born, the two families are currently in a decline. This is why the two heads of the families are so desperate to marry off their children to regain their former glory. Minoru Tatsuishi in particular kidnapped Miyo to force her to marry Koji because he is desperate to get her Usuba blood into the family.
- Irony: When Kiyoka comes to rescue Miyo, Minoru says the former will destroy the Saimori mansion if he doesn't have Shinichi's help. It doesn't work, so Minoru tries throwing a giant fireball on the grounds of a wooden mansion. That also fails to stop Kiyoka as Minoru sets the place on fire. For bonus points, the kidnapping plot's exposure ruins both families, which might've happened even if it had actually worked.
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Initially, Miyo's family sent her away to be married to Kiyoka believing that he might kick her out after finding out she has no gift. To their surprise, the two soon form a close bond, with Miyo gaining more confidence in herself and Kiyoka opening up to her.
- Power Limiter: Sumi placed a seal on Miyo's Dream-Sight powers so no one could take advantage of them. Unfortunately, the seal began to wear off by the start of the story.
- Psychic Powers: These are referred to as "Gifts" in this setting and in many varies. Unfortunately, gifts have been on a decline since ancient times, a fact exacerbated by the march of scientific progress.
- Rich Sibling, Poor Sibling: Miyo is abused and treated like a servant while Kaya is loved and pampered by her parents. Their situations get reversed at the end of the first volume with Miyo now officially engaged to a rich man while Kaya is sent to an ordinary family to work as a servant after the Saimoris are punished for their role in Miyo's kidnapping.
- Rule of Symbolism: In episode 6, Miyo stands up against her family, which means they completely lose the emotional power they had over her. As Miyo lets go of her past, the mastermind of the kidnapping plot accidentally sets the family mansion on fire trying to stop Kiyoka. Miyo's family gets literally and figuratively ruined because of their own flaws and selfishness, and because she found (an) actual love that was greater than anything they could do to her.
- Seers:
- Spirit-Sight is the most common ability a gifted individual usually possesses, which allows them to see Grotesquerie/Spirits and perform clairvoyance with shikigami charms.
- Succession in the imperial family is determined by which heir possesses the gift of Future-Sight with the current wielder being Prince Takaihito.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: After Kaya is rejected by Kiyoka, Kouji tells her they need to leave as the fire is spreading throughout the Saimori mansion. When Kaya breaks down and tells him to go since he cares more about Miyo anyway. Kouji responds that she needs to shut up as if she dies, Miyo, despite all the hell Kaya put her through, will mourn her and he refuses to allow Kaya- and himself by extension- to make Miyo suffer anymore and forces her to run out.
- Step Servant: Miyo is deemed to be worthless because she doesn't have a "gift", and is forced to work as a lowly servant for her father, stepmother, and half-sister. When she's old enough to marry, Miyo's betrothed to Kiyoka, a powerful gifted military officer known for chasing away any fiancées, both to finally get her out of the Saimori household, and to keep the powerful Kudo family from gaining even more power.
- Super Breeding Program: One way gifted families have tried to combat the decline of gifts. This was Minoru's initial intention for Miyo once she married into his family before her abusive parents threw a wrench in his plans by unexpectedly marrying her off to Kiyoka.
- Superpowerful Genetics: Certain clans have a greater affinity for manifesting specific gifts over others:
- The Usubas, Miyo's maternal family, exclusively manifest mind-related powers like telepathy or illusion projects.
- Kiyoka's maternal family has a greater affinity for healing gifts, as demonstrated by his sister, Hazuki, and his uncle, who is noted to be one of the best healers in the present.
- Wicked Stepmother: Miyo's stepmother Kanoko treats her the worst out of the whole Saimori family because she and Miyo's father Shinichi were lovers before he was forced to marry Miyo's mother Sumi. When Sumi died, he immediately married Kanoko. Kanoko takes away all of Sumi's things, leaving Miyo with nothing to remember her mother by and only got worse from there.
