The Winter 2025 Anime Preview Guide

I'm Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class

Third-year high school student Saito Hōjō, who, due to strange circumstances, marries his classmate and his "natural enemy" Akane Sakuramori. The heart-pounding romantic comedy follows the married life of two people who hated each other from the start.

I'm Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class is based on the Class no Dai Kirai na Joshi to Kekkon suru Koto ni Natta. YouTube manga by writer Seiju Amano and artist Mosskonbu. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Fridays.

Of all the obnoxious setups I've seen, this one may be the worst. I cannot muster a single good feeling about grandparents who, because they've reconnected and are sleeping together, decide to force their grandkids to get married so that “they don't make the same mistake.” I mean, kudos that the show acknowledges octogenarian sex lives, but the callous way these two manipulate their grandchildren into getting married before they're even out of high school. Saito should have just let his grandfather leave the family company to the random dog he found on the street and noped out of this mess.

That would mean that there wouldn't be a story, but it's a risk I'd be willing to take because it would also mean that I didn't need to listen to Akane shrieking at Saito for half an hour. The joke is, of course, supposed to be that she has a crush on him that she can't bring herself to acknowledge, so she berates him constantly and at top volume – precisely what her grandmother did to Saito's grandfather back in the day. This could indicate that the grandparents have a leg to stand on. However, it still doesn't justify ignoring Saito and Akane's repeated statements of disinterest and discomfort, to the point where they not only turn in the marriage papers (presumably before the three-day decision-making deadline), buy the kids a house and move in their stuff, but also mandate that they share a bed, with the implication that they're demanding that Akane and Saito have sex as well.

Am I making too much of this? There's a good chance of that; this absolutely pushes my buttons in terms of plot. But the bigger issue is how unremittingly annoying the whole thing is on top of that. Sure, it looks good, with attractive character designs, good details in the art, and animation that has everyone moving smoothly. But it's also roughly three-quarters of Akane yelling at Saito about whatever's running through her head while he tries to get a word in edgewise. Akane's got a gal pal who is remarkably calm, which is nice, but Saito's got a clingy younger sister/cousin who falls into the “girl with no affect and also silver hair” trope and does pretty much nothing for the plot of the episode. Everything is dialed up to an eleven at all times as if it's breathlessly hoping that you'll find it funny. And I'm sure it will be some people's sense of humor. But if I never hear Hinaki Yano screaming for minutes without retaking a breath, I daresay it will be too soon.

You can count me as the kind of guy who can actually really get behind the whole “Enemies to Lovers” trope that romcoms can squeeze so much juice out of under the right conditions. I'm currently rewatching LOST with my wife, for example, and I forgot how much I used to prefer the Sawyer and Kate pairing over sticking her with Jack. It's great stuff when done right, taking advantage of the fiery rapport that those negative emotions can produce before transforming it into romantic gold through the alchemical power of classic story tropes and the love interests' raw chemistry.

It's the “raw chemistry” part where we run into trouble with I'm Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class. Saito isn't some emotionally volatile bad-boy or a misunderstood loner who doesn't know how to communicate his feelings; he's just a drip. Outside of being vaguely neurotic, the only other defining character trait I could point out to you about the guy is that he's the sort of dude who lets his younger sister sit on his lap and sing his praises while he pats her hair, which…yeah. For her part, Akane isn't quirky and loveable, or passionately fierce, or even the fun kind of Boss Bitch in a Bad Sitch™ who makes an entertaining show out of the chaos she leaves in her wake; she's just…a girl. A perfectly nice girl, I guess, who is stuck in a weird arranged marriage scenario, but that alone doesn't automatically make her prime protagonist material.

I don't want to give the impression that I'm Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class is a terrible anime or anything, because it really isn't. The premiere looks perfectly respectable so far as its production values are concerned. It cracks a couple of funny jokes, and the last scene where Saito and Akane have their first very chaste one-bed sleepover makes it clear that the show is sensible enough to know that these kids have to start liking each other a little bit sooner rather than later. Who knows, in a few more episodes, these protagonists might get more of an opportunity to showcase what makes them worth following for a whole season, and the show might even develop into a genuinely cute and heart-melting romantic comedy! Much like real-life chemistry, though, a viewer's relationship with their romance stories is often dependent just as much on that indefinable spark of connection as it is on anything you can quantify or communicate. I'm Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class didn't spark any strong feelings in me one way or the other, so I'm not going to hold my breath on being won over so easily.

I, like most people, am willing to forgive a lot of contrivance in the name of comedy. That's the foundation of many sitcoms, after all: find an excuse to throw some big personalities together and watch the punchlines fly. Take Seinfeld, for example. Do you really believe that a man like George Costanza can attract a string of beautiful women, or do you just suspend your disbelief because that's the best way to draw out the comical neuroses of the character? In a similar way, the comedic situation of I'm Getting Married to the Girl I Hate asks you to suspend your disbelief about the idea of two high school students being forced to get married by their grandparents in the name of comedy. It's goofy and unrealistic, but what does that matter if it's funny?

And indeed, it is capable of being funny. I laughed out loud at least once every scene when the grandparents showed up. Voiced by the absolute legend Fumi Hirano and Hōchū Ōtsuka, who is less known but still has a resume longer than a giraffe's neck, they light up the show every time they're there with their off-the-wall antics. Whether they're giving way too much information about their sex life or threatening to leave their sizable company to a random street dog, their antics lit up the episode.

Too bad they were secondary characters because the protagonists were in! Tolerable! Imagine Ranma and Akane, Risa and Ohtani, and Yukino and Arima, and toss them in a rock tumbler. Only imagine if, instead of smoothing off rough edges, that rock tumbler left nothing but rough edges. That's Saito and Akane. I guess I have to give some props to their voice actors because every time they're on-screen, it's a constant stream of high-velocity vituperative sniping about absolutely nothing with hardly any time to take a breath. Still, it was deeply unpleasant to sit through, to the point that it actively made me feel stressed. It's well-animated, with plenty of physical gags, but so much of it is in service of two people screaming at each other that I just wanted them to stop.

I can take romances with contentious relationships. All those couples I listed up there? I love them! Antagonistic flirtation is my favorite! But Akane and Saito were so nonstop with their sniping that it made my blood pressure go up. I have to stop here. Doctor's orders.

When it comes down to it, this first episode is trying to do two things: 1) Introduce us to the cast of characters and 2) set up the premise promised by the title. To its credit, it manages to do both rather well.

We get shown right away what kinds of people our leads are. Saito is level-headed and ambitious but also a slacker. If he doesn't see a benefit to “doing things the right way,” he'll cut corners. Meanwhile, Akane is a hardcore rule-follower. Not only does she follow them, she demands that all those around her do the same. Thus, it's no surprise that the two don't mesh well with one another.

Honestly, while I understand her character, I find Akane just as annoying as Saito does. She is universally the one to pick fights at school and home. Worse still, she has zero romance experience and therefore believes all the toxic stereotypes about men—that they are sex-obsessed monsters who will assault a woman when given even the slightest chance. I'm impressed that Saito can brush off her more insane accusations with just an annoyed comment or two. And with Akane so unlikable, it's hard for me to want to root for the forced-together couple. They have so little chemistry that the series seems at odds with itself.

As for the setup, well, it's basically just blackmail. If Saito wants to inherit his grandfather's multi-billion dollar company, he has to do what the old man wants—no matter how unreasonable. Meanwhile, Akane is similarly forced into the marriage for the sake of her yet-undisclosed dream.

Yet, with them so opposed to each other, you'd think that their first act upon marriage would be to set up their own rules to game the system immediately. They could promise to divorce once Saito got the company or agree to an open relationship as long as things were kept strictly on the down low. I mean, despite having to share the same bed at night, they could still basically live as roommates and keep their lives almost completely separate if that's what they wanted.

Of course, this isn't likely to happen. Akane's personality means she will follow the rules set down—both the direct and the implied. This is where the comedy and the romance will likely stem from, and, honestly… I'm not even slightly interested. Akane is just too unlikeable for her own good—though, if you don't feel the same, I freely admit you might enjoy this one.