Alternative title(s): Fuufu Ijou, Koibito Miman
Manga Adaptation by Studio MOTHER
Streaming on Crunchyroll

Premise

Nerdy loser Jiro must participate in the “marriage practical” at school: a test where a male and female student must live together as a married couple and score points for how well they get along. Jiro hopes to be paired with his pure, innocent childhood friend, but gets matched with a brash gyaru who regularly teases him.

Jel’s verdict: Somewhere in Hell, Shinzo Abe’s Ghost is Smiling

I haven’t seen an anime with this much reinforcement of heteronormativity since Darling in the Franxx. The premise sounds like some kind of creepy, dystopian concept that would (hopefully) never fly in real life (we’ll see…), like a twisted result of Japan’s efforts to raise birthrates or something. Yet the show seems to truly be stating the only path to happiness is marital bliss between a man and a woman. No one is questioning the system here, even as these children are forced to wear heart monitors to measure how well they can flirt.

Granted, they at least concede it should be the “right” man or woman, and that is the attempt at a twist here. Despite having crushes on other people, it barely takes a few seconds for Jiro and Akari to go doki doki over each other. That could make for a salvageable romcom, but all of this is delivered in the most predictable, uninspired way. Jiro is a self absorbed nerd who thinks these girls do nothing but think about him and assigns them no value beyond what he can get out of the relationship. Akari is depicted as the loose moraled gyaru, but of course, deep down, she’s actually just as sweet and innocent as Jiro’s childhood friend! I hate them both, and everything else going on here.

Maybe, and this is a BIG maybe, this could be tolerable if they quickly ditch the other love interests and stay focused on the main couple developing a real, mature relationship based on caring and trust. But as this episode delivered an avalanche of underwear shots and creeper cam angles in practically every scene, it became clear that’s not what this is about. Thankfully, there are plenty of better shows to watch this season.