My Happy Marriage Season 2

Episode 22

Sometimes, the mark of a good episode is that you've read the source material, know where the plot is going, and still spend the entire runtime on the edge of your seat, gasping audibly with each development. That's true of this episode of My Happy Marriage: I knew what was coming. I knew the anime couldn't change it without decimating the story. And I still was so tense that I could barely uncurl my fingers from my shirt. In part, that's simply because this is where everything finally comes together – Usui's plots, Arata's issues, the Gifted Communion, and social acceptance of the current hierarchy as pertains to those with abilities. But it would be remiss not to mention that the music is incredibly powerful and that there are some stellar vocal performances from the main cast, particularly Reina Ueda's Miyo at the end. Add in visuals like the invisible fingers tightening around Hazuki's neck and the unsettling tongue in the screencap up there, and this is just all around a spectacular episode.

In no small part, that's because Miyo has been growing more and more tense ever since Naoshi Usui entered the scene. While that's true of everyone, the familial link between them and Miyo's increasing use of her power add to what comes to a head this week. Miyo knows that Usui sees her as either his daughter or a substitute for her mother (or, horribly, possibly both), allowing guilt to pile on top of her feelings of inferiority. If she wasn't an Usuba, maybe Usui would never have set his eyes on Kiyoka and the military. If she'd chosen Arata, maybe he wouldn't have made his shocking choice to defect, thus preventing him from shooting Kiyoka this week. All of it added to what she already felt, that she was the unworthy Saimori daughter, a failure in all the ways that count. Her involvement with Kiyoka and Hazuki has gone a long way to helping that, but those sorts of feelings don't just go away. When she can't even use her dreamsight to prevent the coup Usui and Arata stage at the palace, it would be all too easy to slip back into old thought patterns. And seeing her beloved shot right before her eyes by her own cousin is certainly enough of a shock to do that.

The sad truth is that everything does revolve around Miyo's very existence, if only as a catalyst. She's the crack in Arata's armor that allows Usui to sneak in, and she's the reason why Usui feels he can move ahead with his plans – or at least the justification for it. Her birth is why her mother had to marry her father, and her powers are what make her important to those in power. None of that means that anything is her fault, but it's not hard to see why she might feel like it was. People are using her as an excuse for their own bad behavior.

That said, the most interesting turnaround here is Arata's. We've known for a while that he's felt displaced within society for the “crime” of merely being an Usuba and that he perhaps felt like Miyo was stolen from him – if not as a bride, then as his mission in life. While that made him ripe for Usui's predation, it also speaks to a larger problem that's easy to overlook when we put it strictly in light of Usui's unhinged actions. Arata's life in the shadows of society, forced to hide his real name, set him up to be angry. It primed him to take any out that was offered, because the rewards he was given were hardly commensurate with the risks. Does that justify shooting his cousin's fiancé twice, right in front of her, before arresting him? Absolutely not, and that does make it look like he may be too far gone to be saved.

But if he can be redeemed, and if Kiyoka can be saved, it's going to be up to Miyo to figure out how to do it.

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