Alternative title(s): Kekkon Surutte, Hontō desu ka?
Manga Adaptation by Ashi Productions
Streaming on Crunchyroll

Premise

A travel agency in Japan is looking to open a branch in Alaska but can’t find any volunteers to move there. They announce mandatory transfers with priority on single employees, leaving two co-workers with no choice but to pretend they are getting married if they want to stay in Japan.

Jel’s verdict: I’m Not Engaged (Yet)

This was about as straightforward as a romantic comedy can get and it was… fine. I was a little concerned I would hate the main couple, but they did just enough to stay in my good graces. Main Guy gets dangerously close to the quiet, sad sack loser archetype, but ultimately seems to be an OK guy that just wants to go home and be with his cat. I can sympathize with that. Main Girl comes off as the cold and emotionless type, but we eventually see she just has trouble expressing herself. I also thought it was cool she is the mastermind of all of this and takes it upon herself to make the grift work. Both characters get equal screen time and we can hear both of their inner thoughts. They are true dual protagonists, and I like that approach.

The approach to the main hook is also well executed. Our heroes think since they have always been quiet and no one pays them any attention, they can just announce the engagement and everyone will forget about it after a few weeks. Of course the opposite happens: now they have something that makes them stand out and the rest of the office latches on to it. It’s a good setup and the ensuing jokes are OK, but that’s the problem, they’re just OK. The best joke in the episode is Main Girl getting intentionally drunk and singing karaoke so badly that everyone stops hounding them with questions. It’s fun, but it’s also predictable and I wasn’t exactly rolling around on the floor laughing.

Then we get to romance angle, which is the cringiest part of all of this. There’s nothing pervy or weird going on here, but again very predictable moments that attempt to bring the couple together. The worst of it is the final stretch of the episode where they decide to basically go on an date while creating their backstory. This culminates in a re-enactment of their fake proposal on top of a ferris wheel, but oh no, they might actually be catchin’ real feelings! Yes, there is something cute about two dorks trying to figure out how love works, but it also kind of feels like it was written by a dork that doesn’t know how love works.

That brings me to my final point: I find it interesting that this was written by Tamiki Wakaki, best know for The World God Only Knows and more recently, 16-bit Sensation. Those previous works are extremely focused on otaku culture, specifically visual novels, and feel pretty self indulgent. So to see something like this that is so inoffensive and built for mass appeal, it almost feels like.. selling out? Is this an attempt by Tamiki Wakaki to get the bag so they can keep making hardcore nerd manga? To be clear, I don’t think there’s any shame in that and there’s no judgement here, I just find it interesting.

In conclusion, I enjoyed the first episode of 365 Days to the Wedding, but I’m not sure it was enough to motivate me to keep watching. The main characters meet baseline likability, and there is still potential for good comedy despite not realizing it yet. So I may be inclined to watch another episode, we’ll see how it goes.