Finished Series: My Thoughts on Happy Marriage?!, Vol. 10

Happy Marriage?!, Vol. 10 by Maki Enjoji
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This series was between a 3.5 and a 4 the entire way through for me.

While I did find this story entertaining, there were definitely things that bothered me about not only Hokuto and Chiwa's relationship, but both of them as characters individually. While I do think that they loved each other, their relationship played out with a lot of teenage drama which bothered me especially due to their respective ages.

One of the things I did enjoy about this series was the art work. This is the first of the mangaka's work that I've read and I do really enjoy her art style. There were definitely sweet moments with the couple, but I wish there were more of them. As I mentioned, I did find this story entertaining and binged through it in about a week. She definitely kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next or how things were going to play out. The extra short comics that were included at the end of a few of the volumes were a nice bonus as well.

Now for some of the things that bothered me about this story. I understand that Chiwa was inexperienced in relationships, but Hokuto was no better. This story is full of communication issues between our two main characters and that is something that I dislike a lot as a theme. So much happened that could've been avoided if they would've just talked to each other. The extremes these characters went through instead of discussing things with their partner really put a damper on this story for me.

I was also uncomfortable in the instances where Hokuto slaps Chiwa because she is being hysterical with him. This happens on more than one occasion and instead of calling him out on it, she lets it go like it's nothing. Not the greatest message there. Also, it seems like everything was ok between them with a kiss. A literal kiss and make up situation. No matter how angry Chiwa was at Hokuto, if he kissed her, everything was right in the world - which didn't sit right with me. There was one volume in particular in which Chiwa was crying almost the entire volume and it just put me on edge. She actually cries a lot in this series - maybe in every volume now that I think about it, but I can only take so much even if I know she's so angry that she can't express it any other way. There is also one particular scene in this last volume where the line of consent was drawn and ignored which put a damper on this ending for me as well.

I do wish there was a little more to this series as I do still have questions about Hokuto's parents and the situation surrounding them. I kind of felt like the entire series was leading up to the moment where Hokuto finds out exactly what happened to his mother, but the situation was explained away in a few pages and the explanation left me with questions. I can't help but notice how similar some of the things that occur in this series are to a Korean Drama I watched called Goong. I know that show is based on a manhwa of the same name, and this read has rekindled my interest in reading that series, even though the drama is one that I have re-watched a few times. I have to be honest and say that if this story was written about teens, without the marriage story line and sexual content, the communication issues between our main couple probably wouldn't have bothered me as much as it did.

All in all, I did enjoy this series enough that I would re-read it again even with all the problems I had on my first read through. Will I be looking to add it to my collection? Probably not, especially since I know my library carries it, but I am definitely interested in checking out more work by this mangaka.

View all my reviews