My Happy Marriage

Episode 11

Arata has much the same issue as Miyo – he's unable to find validation. In Miyo's case, she was made to feel unworthy as a person, to be someone who didn't deserve happiness or even basic things like food and shelter. Arata never had to worry about those things, but instead, he carried the stigma of the Usuba family within him. Unable to use his real family name in public, denied the chance to use his powers as intended, and even denied the cousin-bride he was primed to expect, Arata began to wrap all of his aspirations and dreams in Miyo-colored cloth. He thought that if he just had Miyo, everything would fall into place. If he just had Miyo, everything would be okay.

It's not healthy to pin all of your hopes on one person, and in Arata's case, he was doing so with someone who didn't even know he existed. We don't know for sure, but we can infer that he was hoping to play Prince Charming to Miyo's Cinderella, but we all know that Kiyoka got there first, and the bitterness that engendered may have been festering in Arata's mind for some time. He can't see that in agreeing to a bargain with the emperor to keep Miyo out of sight at the Usuba home and then steadfastly refusing to let her see Kiyoka, he's playing the part of Bluebeard, not Prince Charming. The saddest thing is that he doesn't even realize how blue his beard is, nor that he's on the verge of offering Miyo the key to her downfall.

Fortunately for everyone, he and Grandpa Usuba come around at the last minute. Grandpa may have been getting there even had Kiyoka not been injured because it doesn't feel like he allowed Miyo to reclaim the entirety of her power simply because he wanted her at full strength. Instead, he recognized that he was perhaps on the verge of making the same mistakes that landed Miyo in bondage to the Saimoris in the first place, the one that alienated him from his sick daughter. (If she coughs, it's got to be consumption, right?) Both Arata and Grandpa are far too invested in the Usuba name. Yes, it's their legacy and their family and all that, but what good is it doing them to value a name above the actual people who bear it? Maybe it wouldn't have stopped Sumi from doing what she believed was right in marrying to save her family from penury, but they could have insisted on maintaining contact with her and supporting her. Grandpa Usuba feels guilt for how Miyo grew up, but that guilt doesn't give him the right to keep her from choosing her happiness even now that he's reclaimed his position as her family.

Miyo seems to be well on her way to realizing that. When she tells Arata that he can't stop her from going to Kiyoka's bedside, it's one of, if not the first time she's explicitly stood up for herself and what she wants. And now that she's done it once, it'll be easier to do it again. She understands herself and her feelings now, and we may have the Usubas to thank for that indirectly, although I believe she still would have gotten there with the Kudos in her own time. Just as importantly, Arata sees that he's not going to change her mind, which means that he can start thinking about ways he can move on, although he can certainly still help keep her safe as a cousin. But him telling her that her Dream-Sight may be able to save Kiyoka is Arata beginning to see another path forward. And now it's time for Miyo to learn how to be Princess Charming herself and wake her Sleeping Beauty.

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My Happy Marriage is currently streaming on Netflix.