365 Days to the Wedding

## Season 1

### Soundtrack

The opening of this anime's pretty good. It's not the catchiest thing in the world, but it's a good song that fits the vibe of the anime. I also liked the animation. It's very bright, which reminded me of older anime openings. The costume change sequence near the end also reminded me of My Dress Up Darling's opening, too.

Wow, the ending song's another banger by GOHOBI. It's such a laid-back song that fits so well with the laid-back vibe of this anime. The full song's also so good. The fact that it's sung by a woman and a man also makes it so good. There's also the excellently cozy-looking animation, which was always nice to see after each episode. What a beautiful ending song.

### Thoughts

365 Days to the Wedding doesn't seem like that much of an interesting anime from the outside. I mean, the premise of a fake marriage is just one of many "sloppy" tropes in the universe of romance. But that's exactly what dropped my guard. I didn't expect an anime with such a simple premise to be so good. It's cozy while romantic, realistic while funny, and most of all endearing. I don't know. This anime is so mid, yet so gem at the same time.

The plot of this anime is definitely one of the most "love story" plots of all time. What I mean by that is that a lot of the things that happen is "convenient", like them getting together in the first place, traveling together, and so on. Most of the side characters' plots also mainly serve as a driving force of change for the main characters' psyches. There's nothing really to complain or boast about for the plot, and it's certainly a strong reason why I won't rate this anime above or belove a 9. It's a great plot, in a standard way.

I think this anime shines the brightest in the moments with the two characters, Takuya and Rika. Let's start with characterization. At first, Takuya feels like a standard office worker self-insert. While that may or may not be true, I think he's still a great character. I enjoyed seeing his backstory and his very believable relationship with his extended family. It's actually really nice to see a character that has a relationship with his family that's right in the middle of perfect and horrible, for once. Other than that, I also liked how well-adjusted he is. He's not hyper-introverted, per se, while also not being the most outgoing person in the world. Other than that, he overthinks things so much in every single situation, which I find to be incredibly relatable. It's probably the main contributor to his lonely situation at the start of the anime. I think at first he liked being alone because he had no one who liked him, and the story builds upon that and really everything about him really well.

Rika's one of the best depictions of a neurodivergent person I've ever seen in any piece of media. First and foremost, her obsession with maps and landscapes in general is incredibly relatable. The way it was depicted was also very gentle and endearing. It didn't feel like a caricature or joke at all, which was amazing to see. Moving on from her interests, the way she thinks and interacts with people, especially Takuya, is so believably neurodivergent. When you look at her with the full context of her backstory, it makes so much sense. The way she hides her emotions so that she won't be disappointed ever again is so relatable. She's such a realistically awkward character! My favorite moment of her is when she and Takuya kissed for the first time. I will say that the build-up to that moment to that moment and the moment itself was amazing; I didn't expect it to come so early in the anime. Besides that, the part after it was so funny. Rika was so embarassed that she switched back to her "emotionless" state-of-mind and practically ran away from Takuya. But, even in those awkward moments throughout the show, it was always clear that she cared so much for Takuya, whether she realized it or not. Other than that, I also noticed how similar Takuya and Rika are in the way they overthink so many things. They really were made for each other, huh? They're both definitely highlights of 365 Days to the Wedding.

Finally, I must say that all of the best moments in this anime, both comedically and romantically, are the moments between Takuya and Rika. Of course, there were your cliche moments between them, like when one of them fell into the other, or when they walked together in the night. Even if those moments weren't really that creative, they still felt just as strong as the more creative moments in the story. That's mostly due to the amazing characterization of the main characters. Speaking of strong moments, one of them was the aftermath of their trip together. It's the first time in any anime I've watched where the two love interests are separated for such a long time, whether by intention or not. Despite that, I felt their love for each other the strongest in this part of the story. They were thinking of each other so much. I enjoyed so many moments between the two of them, like when Rika struggled so hard with calling Takuya, while Takuya was so unlucky when he tried calling her multiple times. This part also gets into a bit of the lives of Nao and Gonda (separately). Even in those more isolated arts of the story, Takuya and Rika yearned so hard for each other. Moving on, the best part of this "arc" is when Rika just abruptly goes to Takuya's apartment to ask him on a date, expecting him to absolutely hate seeing her true self. Of course, he's in love with her, so there's no way he'd ever feel that way. He really tried so hard to see things from her point of view by reading about the places they went to, talking about the things she liked, and listening to her yap all day. That part really made me feel so "me and who". At the end of the date, she reveals she wants to call the fake marriage off and be the one to go to Alaska. There's no way that'd actually happen! The both of them know that's not what they want, so they share a heartwarming kiss. What an incredibly romantic climax to the story.

That's about everything I can say about 36 Days to the Wedding. I'll also say that this is my first adult romance anime (not counting S2 of Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai). This anime's definitely an easy romance anime to review, which is quite rare. I must say that while there are better animes and romance animes than this one, I don't think any of them (at least the ones I've watched to this point) can match the coziness of this one. Maybe other people think it's shallow and/or boring, which may or may not be true. Maybe it's a sign of me growing older, but I'm really into this stuff. I love watching gently realistic fluff romance so much that I spent an entire day watching this anime. This is also one of the only animes I've watched so far that made me feel lonely. So, I won't give it anything more or less than a 9/10 Mid-Gem. It's really good hidden gme! Maybe there'll be a second season? Who knows.