Kekkon suru tte, Hontou desu ka

As introverted colleagues at a travel agency in Tokyo, Takuya Oohara and Rika Honjouji both cherish their happily single lives. After work, home is where they feel most at ease: Takuya unwinds with his cat, while Rika studies various maps. However, an uncertain future looms over their treasured tranquility when their company plans to open a branch office in Alaska within one year and transfer an unmarried employee there.

During a day off, Takuya and Rika accidentally meet and, despite never having spoken before, open up to each other about their relocation fears. Feeling encouraged by Takuya facing the same predicament, Rika suddenly proposes a daring solution—to pretend to be engaged for 365 days. Takuya accepts, but little do the two know that the path to marriage may, in many ways, change forever the very lifestyles they struggle to preserve.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Honjouji, Rika Main

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Oohara, Takuya Main

Kumagai, Kentarou Japanese

Kama Supporting

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Kaori Supporting

Taketatsu, Ayana Japanese

Komiya, Natsumi Supporting

Asumi, Kana Japanese

Kurokawa, Asako Supporting

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Van Liechteburg, Claudia Maria Supporting

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Gonda, Hiromi Supporting

Ochiai, Fukushi Japanese

Oohara, Kouichi Supporting

Genda, Tesshou Japanese

Oohara, Izumi Supporting

Sasahara, Yuu Japanese

Katayama, You Producer

Kudou, Masayo Producer

Ikehata, Hiroshi Director

Naya, Ryousuke Sound Director

Reviews

Dec 19, 2024

Marinate1016

Recommended

Adult workplace romance will always be near and dear to my heart because we just don’t get enough of it in modern anime. As I get older, it’s harder for me to sit through the, frankly, cringe gimmicks and tropes of high school romances. Not to say they’re ALL bad, but on the whole they usually have a lot of the same repetitive story beats and unrealistic character traits that becoming grating over time. So when something like Kekkon Surutte comes along, it immediately catches my interest. While it’s not immune from some common flaws of the genre which I’ll go into shortly, on the ... whole it’s a really sweet watch with two adorable knucklehead leads that we see grow quite a bit as the season goes on. The romance is nice and wholesome, the story is simple, but effective and it’s a relaxing watch.

So to clarify my earlier statement on the flaws this show has, I’ll specify. A lot of adult romance animanga fall into this habit of basically making adult characters with all the shortcomings of teenagers. So instead of acting like mature adults, they feel like big kids. Blushing at the slightest hint of intimacy, running away, being loud, walking in on someone showering and feinting, you get the drift. This show isn’t awful with that, like for the most part the leads do feel like adults, albeit with severe social anxiety, poor social skills, maybe a slight tinge of autism etc., but they do have a few moments where I’m like “ok come on now you’re pushing 30.” Regardless, Ohara and Rika might be cringe lords, but they’re MY cringe lords. I really enjoyed their relationship developing from one of necessity to one of choice and genuine affection. There’s a nice progression as the characters get to know one another and I found the conclusion to be satisfying.

I do have two issues narratively, with only one really being significant. First of all, the whole premise that led to them having to pretend to be married was honestly a bit dumb. The other which is a bit more significant, is that Ohara feels like a substantially weaker character than Rika here. I really didn’t care for him even as the series reached its climax. Not a bad character, just nothing impressive or that really stuck out to me. Rika on the other hand, is quite an interesting character because of her relationship with her mother and the impact that not having her mom around growing up had on her, etc. Like there’s some cool psychoanalysis you can do on her, that’s just not there with Ohara since he doesn’t warrant it. In fact, I felt like Ohara’s best friend was a way more interesting character than him and wish we would’ve got more of him and his relationship situation in the series. Maybe in the manga? Ohara’s not bad, but definitely needs some more seasoning and time in the oven. In fairness, though this is just 12 episodes and I believe the manga has more story, so I’m sure he gets fleshed out more there.

Character analysis aside, the romance is nice and fluffy here. I enjoyed every moment the two leads were together and how pure this show is. There’s no fanservice or cringe sexualisation of female characters, just good old fashioned vanilla workplace romance as two people come out their shells. I don’t think it’s in the top tier of adult romances, but it’s very solid and certainly the best complete romance this season.

If you’re someone shopping around for something cute to watch that doesn’t feature sexualised minors, fanservice or an overly complex plot, look no further you have a great option here. Sweet as pure sugar, but easy to digest. Even with its flaws I enjoyed this a lot and will miss it airing on Thursdays!

Kekkon surutte gets 8 rings out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Marinate1016 (383)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Dec 19, 2024

griddyweeb

Mixed Feelings

This was so hard to enjoy. The premise had more potential than how it turned out.

The pacing is awful, at first I thought it was just a bad adaptation, but as it turns out it wasn't rushed, it adapted 50/110 chapters in a pretty normal way. Yet it feels like it's all over the place, soooo much screentime was wasted on reaffirming that both MCs are awkward that it was insulting, at the same time there were really good chapters cut short for no good reason (in hindsight).

The last episode especially, while it delivered what we've been looking for, it felt out of place solely ... because there were not enough emphasis on the MCs romantic feelings, it was always about their anxieties and not how they truly feel about one another. And it's so annoying because one could say "well that's what this anime is about" which is true, but would it have been really that hard to make it 20% romance/80% anxiety instead of 10/90? There's just not enough "proof" of their love the way it was delivered, it feels like something's missing and saying that their love has always been there behind their indecisiveness and low self esteem is just not enough. And it's such a shame because the last 10 minutes were so enjoyable, seeing them happy and all, but the journey was awful.

I liked the side characters a lot more, they achieved the same depth as characters as the MCs with just a fraction of their screentime, they're even more interesting and meaningful.

If this gets a second season (which I doubt) then it can easily outshine this season, the last episode (and a few episodes focusing on side characters) showed that they can easily make this anime good and meaningful without wasting all the damn time showcasing the MCs awkwardness for the millionth time.

Watch at your own risk, there are a few good moments, but the payoff is slim.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by griddyweeb (56)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Dec 20, 2024

Seansy

Not Recommended

Funny

This was a painfully boring and stupid anime to slog through. ChatGPT might have unironically been used for this story.

The two leads were boring, behaved stupidly, and had little to no chemistry together. Working adults behaving like shy middle schoolers is both boring and stupid, not endearing. It also is in fact possible to create romantic chemistry between two shy/introverted characters.

The plot was terrible too, which was a surprise given how simple the set up is for the intriguing premise. Rika loves maps and exploring new places but doesn't want to go to Alaska... why? After finishing the series I still have no idea outside ... of maybe some general inertia against change. Same thing with Takuya. He love his cat and is worried he cannot bring him with for some reason? It's all just so incredibly stupid.

The scenarios used to propel the story were mostly fine... but they were dragged down by the awful main characters. Same thing with the side characters. In and of themselves they were fine, but it just made the main characters look worse in comparison. I unironically cared more about the how Gonda's relationship turned out despite being only 1 episode long than I did for the main couple after 12 episodes. That's how bad it was. The first 3 episodes were underwhelming, but not terrible, so I stuck around hoping for it to turn around and get better, but instead it mostly just stayed the same or got worse. Even the ending was disappointing. It didn't feel earned in the slightest.

The music/sound was very forgettable and the art/animation was subpar at best.

Your average sitcom slop is easily way more entertaining than this series.

Hopefully this review will help you avoid wasting your time on this anime as I did.

Story/Plot 1
Characters 2
Art/Animation 2
Music 1
Enjoyment 1

Thank you for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Seansy (15)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

new gen manga adaptations

by azadoderso

44 Entries · 18 Restacks

Love After 20

by Maya0223

14 Entries · 10 Restacks

Nonschool/Adult Romances

by Majoux

50 Entries · 1.0K Restacks

Fall 2024 Simulcast List [Update 10/7]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of television anime acquired for simulcast release during the Fall 2024 season. Anime series licensed for home ...read more

Oct 1, 2024 11:20 AM by Snow | Discuss (10 comments)

Fall 2024 Preview

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of Fall 2024 titles with an accompanying promotional video, commercial, teaser, or trailer. This post will be u...read more

Sep 21, 2024 10:01 AM by Snow | Discuss (12 comments)

	Poll: Kekkon suru tte, Hontou desu ka Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Nov 21, 2024	86 replies	by SoulReaper85 »» Jan 20, 9:48 AM
	Poll: Kekkon suru tte, Hontou desu ka Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 19, 2024	97 replies	by Skylistical »» Jan 19, 9:35 PM
	Poll: Kekkon suru tte, Hontou desu ka Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Nov 7, 2024	56 replies	by kakeyokakeyo »» Jan 15, 7:25 AM
	Poll: Kekkon suru tte, Hontou desu ka Episode 5 Discussion Stark700 - Oct 31, 2024	48 replies	by imsooveru »» Jan 14, 2:41 PM
	Poll: Kekkon suru tte, Hontou desu ka Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Oct 3, 2024	132 replies	by DANNY110 »» Jan 7, 3:17 AM