Fly me to the moon…
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Episodes: TBA
Source: Manga
Summary: When Nasa Yuzaki was born, his parents named him something that reflected their aspirations and ideals for him, and since then it’s followed him like a curse. Other people chuckle because it reminds them of the space agency “NASA.” In order to live with this burden, Nasa throws his heart into studying and training his body, his goal being to distinguish himself and overshadow his own name. Things are looking good for him until he sees a beautiful girl walking down the street one snowy evening. As he crosses the street to meet her, he gets hit by a truck. His body is a wreck, but he absolutely must know they mysterious girl. Delirious with pain, he asks her to date him. She agrees – but only on the condition that they get married. This is the last thing Nasa remembers before falling unconscious.
After his recovery, his school aspirations don’t seem quite as important. Nasa decides to go to work instead, and lives modestly on his own. One day he hears a knock on the door – it’s the girl he was so smitten with, and she’s come to collect on their promise. She introduces herself as Tsukasa, provides a marriage registration certificate, and leads Nasa to the prefectural office in order to legally formalize their union. While this is all moving incredibly quickly, Nasa seems powerless to resist (nor does he seem interested in doing much resisting). Tsukasa entered his life like the mysterious Princess Kaguya, and unlike the Emperor and Woodcutter, he’s not going to let this woman go.
Impressions: Screen captures are taken using the official legal stream of the series, when available.
Anime romance stories are so often bogged down by episode-after-episode of romantic waffling by their main characters. The tension supposedly arises from small-scale moments like the characters holding hands for the first time, or calling one-another by their first names (scandalous!). At least, those are the sorts of things that happen in the types of chaste romance stories I tend to gravitate toward. This romantic comedy throws the formula on its head by leading off with the characters’ marriage and then (I assume) spending the rest of the time filling in the gaps in their brand new relationship. It’s an unorthodox approach that I can appreciate from the standpoint of someone who’s seen a lot of anime and can usually predict many of the story beats (not that that’s a bad thing).
A friend tipped me off that the source material was written by the manga-ka also responsible for the literally (and hilariously titled) Hayate the Combat Butler, which despite being ridiculous I actually enjoyed quite a bit. The anime version (which is what I’m familiar with), is chock full of parody humor which is a style of humor that I can appreciate, though I could have done without the goofy harem antics (personal preference). The opening scenes of this episode actually remind me of Hayate, although it’s difficult for me to articulate why; perhaps it was the fateful encounter with the presumed love interest, or the main character’s grit and unwillingness to give in to circumstances. Heck, it could even be the absent parents (though Nasa’s parents are out of the picture for much more benign reasons it appears). In any case, something about this episode felt familiar.
As brisk as this first episode is, though, I’m definitely faced with the feeling that I don’t know this couple well enough yet to care what happens to them. One benefit of more traditionally-paced romance stories is that the viewer gets to know the characters and see how they’re compatible with one-another. If the story and characterization are good, then it becomes easy to root for their relationship (and get frustrated by how much time it takes to reach the typical milestones). In this case, they’ve reached the finish line without doing the legwork; Nasa only has vague impressions of who Tsukasa is, and as for her point-of-view, well, we have even less information to go on. So there’s really little to do other than be vaguely “wow-ed” by the pace of the story.
Unfortunately, because we don’t know her, Tsukasa reads a little bit like a fantasy woman or a “manic pixie dream girl” – someone whose existence is more for the benefit of the male protagonist than as a full-fledged character. She appears in Nasa’s life at a pivotal moment and changes its trajectory in a fundamental way (assumedly for the better – I don’t think his obsession with being the best was very healthy), then shows up years later to fulfill a pact that most would assume was a joke. She takes charge and handles all the busywork and seems to ask very little of Nasa, whose biggest contribution to the relationship thus far was walk on broken legs to ask for it. None of this is a surprise to me and it’s by no means doom and gloom for the series, either, but it does seem to call out the particular fantasies it’s meant to fulfill, whether it becomes more nuanced later on or not.
The rest of the episode hits pretty mildly. The humor is light but inconsequential, though I did get a good laugh out of Nasa’s ridiculous injuries and how he continually defied them. Most of the rest of the gags focus on how Nasa can’t believe he’s getting married, or can’t believe a girl will be sleeping at his house from now on. The angle is definitely “this inexperienced virgin is now being thrust into the world of adulthood,” although to the show’s credit things haven’t gotten pervy yet. Frankly, Nasa’s thrilled reaction to getting to hold Tsukasa’s hand is pretty cute, in an innocent way.
I do want to comment on the fact that Tsukasa is underage, which is something that weirds me out a little bit. She acts mature and worldly, but at the time they file their marriage certificate, she’s 16 and Nasa is 18. I won’t get into an argument about “age of consent laws in Japan” because the technicalities aren’t the point. There’s are reasons while children getting married is frowned upon in most places, and despite the show framing this as kind of a cute, unexpected quirk (the clerk at the prefectural office comments on how it’s so wonderful to see young folks getting married), it’s definitely something that I keyed in on and it made me a little uncomfortable.
There are implications that this may have more than surface-level similarities with the Tale of Princess Kaguya; Tsukasa is framed by or visually related to the moon in some scenes, and the fairy tale serves as a reference multiple times. I’m not sure that this story really needs a supernatural angle in addition to the hijinks that are sure to come, but I’m interested to see if this motif carries through.
Beyond that, this was a solid premiere with a few challenges to work through. The style of the romance may not be to everyone’s taste (I’m still not sure that it is to mine), but it was entertaining enough.
Pros: Some humor reminiscent of the author’s other work. The romance story really cuts to the chase.
Cons: The female lead is underage and reads a bit like a fantasy girlfriend.
Content Warnings: Comedic blood/gore. Child marriage.
Grade: C
