Weddings in Japan

"Every Japanese is Shinto when he is born,
a Christian when he marries and a Buddhist when he dies."

Most weddings in anime and other Japanese media are Western-style—that is, Christian or Christian-influenced—with white Fairytale Wedding Dresses, tuxedos, rings, and so on. Even though less than 2% of the country identifies as Christian, most modern Japanese do little more than pay lipservice to religion for most of their lives anyway, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that they generally don't feel obligated to hold a Shinto or Buddhist ceremony when they marry. Hence the saying "Born Shinto, marry Christian, die Buddhist."

There's also the fact that in Japan, the civil or religious ceremony of a wedding has no legal status. A couple is officially married the moment they file the paperwork; anything else is just an occasion for a party. Western-style weddings, like many things American/Western, are considered "cool" in Japan, and in this case romantic and elegant as well. Combine with the relative simplicity and substantially lower cost of a Western wedding (and that's saying something) compared to a traditional Shinto or Buddhist one, it's become a common enough choice that it's not even considered outré or "foreign" anymore. Correspondingly, because of their "cool"/"romantic" factor, Western weddings are the way to go for most characters in Japanese media. And they're just more fun for the artist to draw, too.

Western weddings started to become popular in The '80s, and there were two events that codified the trope itself. One was the televised marriage of actors Momoe Yamaguchi and Tomokazu Miura in 1980, and the other was the famous wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, broadcast around the world in 1981.

Japanese brides frequently have multiple wedding dresses, and change between them at various points on their wedding day. Changing wedding dresses is known as oiro-naoshi, and having many expensive wedding dresses to change between is a way in which Japanese brides and their families can conspicuously flaunt their wealth. The oiro-naoshi is also a way to let the couple have a Shinto wedding in traditional kimonos, followed by a Western-style reception in a gown and tuxedo.

The grooms, for whatever reason, generally favor a style of tux not seen unironically in the West since the eighties. Ruffled shirts, tailed jackets, pastels, and white-on-white are the order of the day.

This isn't a Japanese Media Trope so much as a Japanese cultural trope, although the outfits are often informed by media depictions. People in other Asian countries may also prefer a Western wedding instead of their local traditions for all the reasons listed here.

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Examples:

Advertising

• In the Long Long Man series of advertisements for the Japanese candy brand Sakeru Gummy, Tooru and Chi have a Western-style wedding ceremony, during which Tooru wears a white tuxedo. The Long Long Man, however, wears a black tuxedo when he shows up. With a ridiculously long tail.

Anime and Manga

• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Rentarou and the girls host a mock wedding in Chapter 146. Half of the girls wear Japanese wedding dresses and the other half wear Western wedding dresses, while Rentarou splices together Japanese and Western groomswear Two-Face-style.
• Monster Musume: Pretty much all the girls in Kimihito's Unwanted Harem fantasize about having a big fancy western style wedding with him, and in the opening theme of the anime they all appear in western wedding dresses.
• An early Sailor Moon Episode involved a monster targeting a Bridal Fashion show (and using Usagi's former Old Maid, now about-to-be-married home economics teacher as the actual victim), and Usagi constantly fantasizes about a Western Wedding (with a bunny stained-glass window). The end of the episode features the teacher's actual wedding.
  • In the manga and live-action show, Usagi and Mamoru end up having a Western wedding, complete with a Catholic church.
  • In the R series, Mamoru's nightmares about Usagi dying if they get together include a Western wedding that ends in disaster.
• The early Magical Girl show Wedding Peach features heroines who fight in Western wedding gowns. The series is centered around wedding themes, and includes lots of information about Japanese weddings. The Magical Girls also perform the oiro-naoshi to change into more traditional magical girl costumes halfway through most battles.
• Love Hina:
  • Although it has not yet been animated, the manga ends with Keitaro and Naru's Western-style wedding. Keitaro also fantasizes western-style weddings a couple of times — in the first episode, with the unknown girl of the Childhood Marriage Promise, later with Naru who turns out to be one of the two girls he made the promise to - the other is Mutsumi.
  • There's a brief scene in volume 8 where Keitarou feels like his life slipping away from him, and in particular, imagines Mutsumi (as the groom) and Naru (as the bride) getting married and leaving him in the dust...
  • Seta and Haruka sort-of have theirs near the end; sort-of because the only ceremonial aspect present is Haruka's wedding dress - which she actually had on for quite a while, and only tidied up for the moment to tie the knot.
• Ranma ½:
  • In the chaotic and completely ruined wedding that caps the series off (well, in the manga, anyway) Ranma's in a tux and Akane in a Western wedding dress. Additionally, at the beginning of the arc, Soun, Genma, and Nodoka dressed Akane in a white kimono (after knocking her out) and proposed they just do it right then.
  • Much earlier, during Mousse's re-introductory arc, there is a confused moment where everyone believes Akane has been turned into a duck and Ranma is thus forced to marry "her" (long story). The result is a hastily performed mishmash Shinto ceremony.
    • An anime-only episode has Happosai apparently dying, whereupon Soun and Genma decide that Ranma and Akane must marry as soon as possible.
    • Also, Shampoo and Ranma have been depicted as having a Western wedding ceremony in the "Curse of the Reversal Jewel" story, and both a Shinto one and a Western one in the anime-exclusive "Shampoo's Red Thread of Dread". In the latter case, the first "wedding" occurs in Akane's imagination, while in reality Shampoo receives a Western-style dress, with she and the tuxedo-clad Ranma actually going to a church to conduct the ceremony.
• One episode of Inuyasha has Kagome momentarily fantasizing a prospective (Western-style, of course) wedding between her friends Miroku and Sango.
• When Kyoko Otonashi and Yusaku Godai of Maison Ikkoku get married at the end of the series, they decide on a traditional Shinto ceremony. A Justified Trope for several reasons:
  • Rumiko Takahashi often uses her works to try to preserve knowledge of Japanese culture and traditions in the face of increasing Western influences.
  • Kyoko and Godai got the money from Grandma Godai, who basically told them they should have a traditional wedding.
  • They also decided on a traditional wedding because Kyoko's marriage to her dead first husband Soichirou had been Western. Kind of a way of saying, 'My husband died and nothing will replace him in my heart, but I can love someone else without it being an insult to his memory.'
  • The Godais may be a bit traditional, one of Godai's (many) daydreams has him in a shotgun! Shinto wedding to Kozue, while Kyoko and Mitaka are seen in Western dress (Ironically, Mitaka's actual wedding to Asuna was almost certainly Shinto).
• Futari Ecchi contains several weddings. Makoto and Yura had a Western one, while Kouichiro and Kyoko actually had a Shinto-themed wedding.
• Hell Girl: A flashback sequence shows Hajime and Ayumi getting married in traditional Japanese style. Inori in episode 19 marries into a very rich and traditional family, so they also go for a Shinto ceremony.
• An episode of Kodocha has an engaged couple arguing whether the bride should wear a traditional kimono or a Western wedding dress.
• The Tokyo Mew Mew manga ends with a "wedding" ceremony between Ichigo and Aoyama.
• An episode of Kaitou Saint Tail had the title character go after a stolen wedding dress design at a fashion show by sneaking in as one of the models. This also gave her best friend Seira, acting as her decoy, an identity crisis of sorts — she's a nun.
• Lampshaded in Lucky Star, where Kagami ponders on the religious ramifications on her sister, a Shinto shrine maiden, wanting to have a Western-style wedding.
• In YuYu Hakusho, it is revealed in a flashback that Kurama's human mother Shiori had a Western-Style wedding.
• In Super Gals, the final chapter involves Ran and her family and friends taking a graduation-present trip to Hawaii. Coincidence leads to most of the cast appearing as well, and they spring a surprise wedding on Miyu and Ran's brother, which is a Western one with the bride wearing a gown and the groom a dark tuxedo.
• The very last page of the last chapter of Fruits Basket has in the background what is most likely Kyo and Tohru's (or their son's) Shinto wedding photo.
• The June episode of Bottle Fairy had the four fairies imagining their prospective weddings to Sensei-san.
• In Code Geass, Ohgi and Viletta get both Shinto and Western wedding ceremonies. Kallen attended both ceremonies and has photos of both in her bedroom. Lampshaded in an official picture where the groom wears a wedding kimono and the bride wears a Western bridal gown, which makes sense, seeing as where the bride and groom are from; by that time they're probably rich enough to afford both types of weddings.
• At one point in the Ah! My Goddess manga, Keiichi had a dream about a Western-style wedding with Belldandy. Tamiya was the priest, complete with skullcap and pectoral cross, and Otaki was the altarboy.
• This happens three times in Fushigi Yuugi.
  • In the first instance, all the dead Suzaku Seishi return for the final showdown with Nakago, and the only one missing is Tamahome. It suddenly cuts to a sequence where everyone is preparing for Miaka and Tamahome's wedding (which was about to take place in a Catholic church), showing up in tuxedos. After a conversation with his father, Tamahome (who was himself wearing a white tuxedo in this sequence) learns that it was all a dream and resolves to go back to fight Nakago.
  • It happens again in Eikou Den, where Miaka and Taka are finally married in a traditional Western-style wedding in a Catholic church. Contrary to the dream sequence, Taka was wearing a black tuxedo, underlining the difference between him and his past self Tamahome.
  • Also invoked in the Suzaku Ibun Dating Sim game. If Madoka Ohtori succesfully romances Mitsukake, prevents his canon death and unlocks a certain scene, a special ending in which Mitsukake is reincarnated on Earth (like Taka/Tamahome) will be unlocked. The CG is about his and Madoka's Western wedding, with the groom in a black tuxedo (again, like Taka/Tamahome) and the bride in a cute wedding gown.
• Hell Teacher Nube:
  • Ritsuko is possessed by an obake that makes happy brides out of its "victims" (it's generally a benevolent, well-meaning spirit who helps couples tie the knot.) Nube is ecstatic, of course, and they very nearly conduct a traditional Shinto wedding... until Nube realizes that Ritsuko only agreed because she was possessed, and slaps the obake right outta her with his sutra.
  • Near the end of the manga, Nube and Yukime are to wed at a church, in standard Western fashion. The artist makes good use of two page-wide Splash Panel to show off Yukime's absolutely gorgeous, hyper-detailed wedding dress.
• Bakuman。 has a seemingly Western-style wedding in which Akito Takagi wears a tuxedo while his wife Kaya (who had legally married him a little while before, and scheduled the ceremony for when they had time), wears a wedding dress. During the wedding, Akito's partner Moritaka's mind is mainly on the question of whether they should stop working on Tanto.
  • And the cover art for the final chapter indicates that Mashiro and Miho opted for a Western-style one as well.
• Photographs in Tiger & Bunny show that Kotetsu and Tomoe had a Christian-style wedding, which wouldn't be remarkable in the anime's New York-influenced setting were it not for the fact that the Kaburagi family is depicted as observing many Japanese cultural traditions, including Tomoe's Buddhist burial.
• While Ureshiko in Oku-sama wa Mahou Shoujo wanted a western-style wedding, she opted for a Japanese one. Reason being, the western ceremony requires a kiss, and if she kisses someone, she'll lose her powers.
• In Kimagure Orange Road, Madoka's older sister gets married in a Western style ceremony. In the anime, it also gives an excuse for a rather funny episode in which Kyousuke sees Madoka in a Western wedding dress, thinks she is the one getting married, and tries to crash the ceremony - it turns out she's just replacing her big sis in a wedding rehearsal. Complete with The Graduate parody and all.
• Case Closed features some Western weddings:
  • There's an episode known as the "June Bride case" which surrounds the Western-themed wedding of Shinichi, Ran and Sonoko's former teacher Sayuri and how she's poisoned to almost death by the vengeful groom, Toshihiko. It's also the episode where the audience meets Megure's boss and recurrent character Kiyonaga Matsumoto, who is Sayuri's dad and the actual target of Toshihiko's Revenge by Proxy, as he accidentally caused the death of Toshihiko's beloved mother.
  • In a much later case, a couple that's about to marry in the Western style goes to the police after they get threatened by a Serial Killer. They stage a fake wedding to get the killer caught, with Takagi and Yumi Matsumoto acting as the couple's Body Doubles... and it's a good thing since one of the wedding guests is found burned to death. Again, the culprit is the groom, who was planning to marry and then kill his bride for Financial Abuse reasons. Too bad the girl he tries to stab is a disguised Sato, whose dress has a rather thick corset...
  • In a filler case, Sonoko ropes Ran and Conan into going with her to a family friend's luxurious wedding... and this time both the groom and the bride are killed off, one almost immediately after the other, right after the reception. The culprit was the bride's younger brother, who did it because he was in severe debt and, as her closest relative and only prospect heir, wanted the money that would come from her and her very rich husband's inheritance.
• The wedding between Simon and Nia at the end of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is shown to be of a Western style, with Rossiu as the priest.
• In Captain Tsubasa, Tsubasa and Sanae got married in Western style at the end of World Youth Cup. A two-page picture features almost everyone in the whole cast attending the ceremony, with rather... hilarious levels of Off-Model involved.
• Bartender has two separate weddings show up. In the first one the couple are wearing western attire, but following Japanese custom (though The Lad-ette of a bride made a faux pas by drinking all the ceremonial sake in one gulp). The second one is never seen, but the drama involves a deeply traditional Japanese man trying to come to terms with the fact that his son is set to marry an American woman, and wondering "how will she be able to wear a wedding kimono?" indicating they are going for the full Japanese monty.
• Zigzagged in the Marmalade Boy anime:
  • Miki and Yuu's parents must wait for six months after their divorces to get married and thus legalize their couple swap. They solely go through the aforementioned civil ceremony, then celebrate with Yuu and Miki by having a fancy dinner in a restaurant.
  • In the last episode Meiko and Namura get married in a Western ceremony attended by Miki, Yuu and their friends. The wedding itself isn't seen, only the reception party; neither Namura nor Meiko are seen in their wedding clothes, but in a pastel-colored suit (Namura) and a dark red two-piece outfit (Meiko).
  • The ultra-last sequence implies that when they actually get married, Yuu and Miki will play the trope completely straight.
• In one of the Bleach novels, We Do Knot Always Love You, it's stated and shown that Renji Abarai and Rukia Kuchiki got married in very traditional Shinto style. Considering who the bride and groom are and where the wedding takes place, it's completely justified.
• In the GeGeGe no Kitarō TV series from 1996, a young woman from the countryside is about to marry in the traditional Japanese style and is even seen trying on her wedding kimono. But then she's attacked by a Face Stealer youkai and the marriage ceremony must is suspended, so her little brother writes to Kitaro so he and his friends can help his big sister. They exorcise the demon, the bride recovers her lost face, and the wedding soon takes place.
• The final bonus short for Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid featured skits of the dragons having different types of weddings with Kobayashi. Elma was Shinto, Lucoa was Aztec, Kanna was Russian^note the Ushishir Islands, the home of Kanna's mythological counterpart, are currently under Russian control., and Tohru was Western.
• Naruto: In the credits for The Last: Naruto the Movie, Naruto and Hinata are shown to don kimono for their wedding, which means they have a Shinto wedding. Justified, since the Hyuga are an old school and very Japanese family (even if their abilities are rooted in Chinese martial arts). The wedding is elaborated upon in the final episode of Naruto Shippuden, adapted from Konoha Hiden: The Perfect Day for a Wedding.
• In Domestic Girlfriend, Natsuo's father and his new stepmother simply register with the ward office and then go out for dinner, instead of having a wedding.
• Both the wedding of Gale and Sakura (Haru's parents) and the one of Haru and Elie in Rave Master are western-styled, as the story is set in a world that is based more on the western world.
• Mr. Right Turned Out to Be a Younger Woman!? ends with a Western-style wedding of two of Shiina and Takagai's coworkers. While Shiina and Takagai are a couple, the fact that same-sex marriage is not legal in Japan prevents them from getting married.
• I Married My Female Friend ends with the two leads, Ruriko and Kurumi, getting married in a Western-style wedding.

Comic Books

• In the Super Mario Adventures comic, Bowser's wedding tuxedo uses the Japanese model, being white and fancy rather than the plain black of most Western tuxedos.

Films

• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer ends with Reed and Sue getting married in Japan.

Literature

• One episode of Sister Princess is centered around the sisters making wedding dresses out of bedsheets so they can all pretend to be their brother's bride.
• In Slayers, Martina and Zangulus have a western-style wedding at the end of Slayers Next. However, Slayers itself takes place in a Western European setting, so a western-style wedding is only logical.
• In Rummer Godden's In This House of Brede a group of Japanese girls come to an English Benedictine abbey to go through the novitiate and then return to found a branch house in Japan. One of the girls wants to have two bridal gowns—one Japanese, one Western—for her 'clothing' (the ceremony where she is symbolically 'married' to Christ); the Abbess & the Novice Mistress talk her out of it.

Live-Action TV

• Several Super Sentai series have episodes that revolve around the Monster of the Week targeting brides and/or the heroes staging a fake wedding to entrap the bad guy, almost always in western-style ceremonies. Even the rare hero weddings that are entirely legit, such as in Mahou Sentai Magiranger, tend to be western-style.
  • Samurai Sentai Shinkenger had a mix of both types in its bridal episode, with Mako and Ryuunosuke disguised in the Shinto wedding kimono.
• Recent Kamen Rider has had a few more weddings than usual: Nago and Megumi in Kiva, Akiko and Ryu in Double, and in Movie Wars Core Eiji and Hina from OOO pose as a bride and groom to play roles in a movie. All these weddings were western-style.

Video Games

• As a counterexample, the last episode of the second Sakura Wars OVA series depicts a formal Shinto wedding as held by a very traditional Japanese family.
• The rereleases of Chrono Trigger featured a Western-style wedding in one of the cinematic anime endings. Justified since the characters involved are from a Western-style medieval setting.
• In the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons series, most of the games feature your character getting married western style, complete with black or white tux and white dress.
  • ZigZagged in Story of Seasons (2014). If you pick the cheapest wedding, the wedding only has one option: the bride will wear a white fluffy dress while the groom wears a tuxedo, and there won't be anyone there but Veronica as the officiant. But the other two levels offer the option between the Western and Eastern Wedding. The Eastern Wedding is explicitly Japanese themed, where the bride and groom wear formal hakama and an elaborate kimono, respectively.
  • Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns offers three styles of wedding, but it's not picked by you—it's dependent on your spouse-to-be's hometown. Westown has a western style ceremony, Tsuyukusa has a traditional Japanese style, and Lulukoko a vaguely Pacific Islander.

Visual Novels

• My Forged Wedding:
  • Takao's route ends with a western-style wedding, which neither of the participants consider in any way binding since they're not planning on filing a marriage license and are just doing it to make Takao's grandmother happy.
  • The "Wedding Kiss with Yamato" side story also involves a western-style wedding, this time a mock ceremony being put on to promote a wedding planner's services.
• In CLANNAD ~After Story~, Tomoya and Nagisa elope because they can't afford a "real" wedding, but plan to have a ceremony when they have the money.
• Shows up in the epilogue for Rea's route in Dies Irae where they engage in a Western style wedding despite living in Japan. Though it is possibly justified given that it is heavily implied but never outright stated that Rea is a Catholic Christian as well as being quarter German.

Western Animation

• There's a wedding in the Grand Finale of Samurai Jack. After falling in love and finally arriving back in Jack's original time period, he and Ashi intend to get married in a traditional Japanese-style wedding—part of one anyways. Unfortunately for Jack, due to the fact that his bride was the biological daughter of Aku and him vanquishing before he could conceive Ashi and her sisters, Ashi suffers from a Delayed Ripple Effect and ultimately ceases to exist.

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