My Happy Marriage

Episodes 1-3

Plenty of fairy tale princesses get decried as passive and weak, but few with the fervor of Cinderella. That's odd to me, because that tale type (ATU510a to folklorists) is one of the most widespread globally, and its heroine is trapped in a truly untenable position. Although it's not a direct retelling, My Happy Marriage still carries many of the markers of a Cinderella story, from the wicked stepmother to the father who sits back and watches his wife and second daughter abuse the child of his first marriage without lifting a finger. And in a situation like this, doesn't it make sense that Miyo (the Cinderella character) would have serious emotional issues?

That's one of the strengths of these first three episodes – Miyo Saimori is quiet and gives the impression of having been beaten down, and we can completely understand why she is that way. She had a good childhood when her mother, Sumi, was still alive, but the moment she passed away, her father brought in Kanoko, his second wife, who resented his daughter. Episode three lets us know why: Kanoko was his first choice of wife, but he was forced by his family to marry Sumi instead, probably because of her family line's unique psychic gifts. When she died, he immediately married the woman he wanted, who couldn't see Sumi's daughter as anything but a reminder of her disappointment and possible humiliation. It may take a special kind of evil to take that out on a helpless, grieving child, but I guess that makes Kanoko a special person in the most derogatory sense of the word. In any event, by the time the story starts, Miyo is living like a servant in her own home, her mother's inheritance cruelly taken from her, and the firm belief in her mind that she deserves everything bad she's getting.

It's rough to see, and while the first episode lays it on the thickest, every little flashback to some childhood or adolescent scene where Kanoko, Kayo, or someone else smacks her down is painful. Miyo's visible shock when she's welcomed warmly into the Kudo house by housekeeper Yurie is heartbreaking. We get the sense that this is the first time in years that anyone's been happy to see her and in a position to do anything about it. (That qualifier is there for her childhood friend/crush, who ends up marrying her evil sister. Whether he's powerless or just a weak person remains to be seen.) It takes Miyo's betrothed, Kiyoka, a bit longer to figure out what's going on with his new fiancée, and that's the drive of episodes two and three.

At first, it looks very much like rather than Prince Charming, Miyo ended up with his cousin Prince Surly. Kiyoka, we're told, has gone through potential brides like tissues, and most people seem to attribute that to his personality. He comes across as cold and harsh, but that's no real barrier to Miyo, who is used to dealing with much worse. She's not prepared for him to accuse her of trying to poison him when she makes him a meal, but he isn't prepared for a woman with zero self-esteem and no genuine regard for his elevated social position. Yurie is the only member of the household who seems to have a grasp of human nature, and that makes her a total treasure; she's the one who helps to make Kiyoka understand where Miyo's coming from and she's the one who gently guides Miyo into acting like a person rather than a dishrag. If we go back to the Cinderella theme, she's Miyo's fairy godmother from the French version of the tale.

That's another very nice touch because we can track the French fairy godmother and the German magic tree across these episodes. In the German variant, Cinderella plants a tree on her mother's grave, and that's where she gets her gowns for the ball. Miyo doesn't quite do that, but her mother had a sakura tree that she loved, which was cut down after her death. Little Miyo mourned by the stump, and when Miyo moves into the Kudo home, we see a sakura petal gently drift in and land next to her. It's not a stretch to imagine that this is her mother, still watching over her, like the magic tree in the story.

There's more to unpack here than there's room for in a single review of these three episodes, although that could just be my overwhelming enthusiasm for this series. From the gorgeous art that beautifully mimics the covers of the novels (which have no interior illustrations) to the neither Meiji nor Taisho feel of the setting – mentioned by the original author in volume one's afterword – and the already visible growth of Miyo and Kiyoka, this is just a joy to watch. The supernatural elements are beginning to show up, but they're much more about setting the scene for the world than the main plot, as you can see. Miyo and Kiyoka's relationship and personal growth are the heart of this tale, and that's something that I think any Cinderella could get behind.

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My Happy Marriage is currently streaming on Netflix.