January 07, 2024

Winter 2024 - Part Two

Kekkon Yubiwa Monogatari - (lit. Wedding Ring Story, but romanized as "Tales of Wedding Rings" Note the plural.)

It starts off like a bog-standard Isekai, the kind nobody actually makes any more. Young Satou is chasing stag beetles in the woods when an unearthly beam of light appears, and out steps a pretty blonde girl and her wizardly grandfather. She asks his name, and introduces herself as Nokana Hime (and according to the localizers, says "You can call me Hime", which he does.) Then she advises him to never speak of this event and says he'd be better off forgetting it ever happened.

Ten years later they're inseparable, all his classmates think she's his girlfriend, and she happens to live alone in the apartment next to his (While his parental supervision is also conveniently absent, but they haven't done anything.) She's also developed into quite the Gyaru, and I do mean developed.... It's the last day before summer break, and she asks him to meet up to go to the festival. They play games, eat food, and find a nice secluded spot to watch the fireworks, and he thinks that she's taking this time to confess to him, and she turns to him, and says...

"I've decided to move. Tomorrow."

As he drops her off at her door, he still can't quite manage to blurt out his confession as she keeps rambling, trying to let him off easy, then she dashes inside.

Alone in his room, he finally recalls when they first met. Looking out his window, he can see the beam of light off in the distance in the woods, and runs to intercept her. She is surprised he actually remembers where she came from, and admits "Moving away" was a lie, that she's from a different world, and that as a princess, she's going to get married. It's the third time she's tried to let him off easy, and he's just too thick.... After she goes though the beam, he thinks for a moment about how he doesn't have to think about it, and dashes through the beam as well, and appears in the middle of the wedding.

Although apparently he isn't the only wedding crasher. A huge demonic beast smashes through the window, clearly intent on killing Hime. Only hovering in place long enough for some important exposition to take place. The two rings Hime has been wearing on a chain around her neck the entire time are The Ring of Light, and the guy whom she marries bears the power. And at the last second, rather than completing her vows with the prince she was scheduled to marry, she runs up to Satou, plants a big kiss on him, and they are enveloped in light, and are now wearing the rings. The prince accepts this well enough to toss his sword to Satou, since he's the one who has to fight the demon now. Satou, who doesn't know which end of the sword to grab luckily catches it by the hilt, and it suddenly transforms into a bright, flaming sword, which slices the demon in half with one swing. Satou passes out then.

This is followed by awkward scenes in the royal bedchamber when he wakes up, and the bath, during which he manages to say the wrong thing several times. Fortunately he is saved by the Alarm Bell as more monsters attack.

If it weren't for the opening credits, you'd never know this wasn't a straightforward story where the guy goes to another world, saves the kingdom and gets the girl. But this shot right here tells you exactly what's going to happen.


Dark-skinned, white-haired, catgirl warrior. Yeah, you sussed it out. That's why I'm planning to watch this sucker. Hey, at least he makes honest women of them all... see the rings?

Posted by: Mauser at 04:08 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
Post contains 646 words, total size 4 kb.

1 Speaking of your favorite flavor, I recently spotted The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects, notable for Best Waifu having dark skin, white hair, and a blue horn. The light novels and manga are both out for Kindle, but the tagging is a mess, so they're jumbled together.

The Wedding Waifus look to be premium eye candy, so hopefully the animators have enough budget to show them off properly. With appropriate upgrades for the Bluray release, of course.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at January 07, 2024 07:32 PM (oJgNG)

2 I'm not exactly impressed with the animation so far, and especially not with Satou's character design (They were definitely shooting to make him look more like an adult, but the look doesn't suit his personality too well, and his head ends up looking too small). But since the girls are the point, hopefully they'll get more budget. There wasn't any obvious censorship in the bath scene, they basically avoided showing anything they'd have to cover up.

Posted by: Mauser at January 07, 2024 09:38 PM (nk1Z+)

3 The bath scene was in the trailer, covered with steam, so they were definitely promising bountiful fan-service. And the ED animation is basically scratch-and-sniff.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at January 08, 2024 11:32 AM (oJgNG)

4 Well, they just laid it out on the table at the beginning of the second episode that he's gotta get all five rings to have enough power to defeat the demon king.
And the prince he cucked at the wedding, Marse, has been remarkably fine with everything so far. I'm suspicious. I wonder if he's going to pull a double-cross at the critical moment....

Posted by: Mauser at January 13, 2024 10:57 PM (nk1Z+)

5 Perhaps he's hoping the Ring King burns himself out saving the world, leaving behind five hot young widows.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at January 14, 2024 02:34 AM (oJgNG)

6 Well, that was different. Finished the second episode, The Elf princess was next, and apparently she's grossed out by the whole idea of kissing anyone (Which is needed to transfer the power.) And Satou's otherworldly origin isn't that well received either.
Satou and Hime deciding to postpone their nuptuals until it feels right wasn't something I expected either.
Satou also shares an annoying trait with Naoya from Kanojo mo Kanojo, in that he blurts shit out, as if yelling proves his sincerity.

Posted by: Mauser at January 14, 2024 07:11 AM (nk1Z+)

7 Third episode is done and he still hasn't scored the Elf Princess, but we get a much deeper dive into why things are so fucked-up in the Elf Kingdom, which has retreated from the world and used the ring's wind power to erect a barrier around the valley they live in.

The Princess is actually not the current ring bearer, her mother and father, who are petrified statues, but by some weird technicality still "alive" in elf terms, are. It's a side effect from erecting the barrier.
Her older brother is nominally in charge, except for one Elder. And he's been running some serious gaslighting. It seems the whole elf nation is terrified over the prospect of losing control of the ring, and he has filled her head with paranoia about how terrible the world outside is (Which the elder has tried to counter with her books).
This mission is not going to be easy. It's also chewing up episodes. This had better be able to get through the story before it ends.

Posted by: Mauser at January 21, 2024 03:56 AM (nk1Z+)

8 So the 4th episode has a very fancy hot spring scene, with both princesses so far and the elf elder (Good thing the elves look eternally young) and the apparent censoring technique preferred is the soft blur instead of pixellations or anything. They seem to be trying VERY hard to short circuit anything serious happening to any of the couples yet.

Posted by: Mauser at January 28, 2024 07:02 PM (nk1Z+)

9 Given the subject matter, I felt compelled to watch this episode, and now I'm convinced that instead of aging, hot elf chicks just keep getting bustier over the centuries.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at January 31, 2024 12:15 AM (oJgNG)

10 Maybe for Elves, Bra size IS like Tree Rings....

Posted by: Mauser at January 31, 2024 06:24 PM (nk1Z+)

11 It looks like they found your perfect woman this week...

-j

Posted by: J Greely at February 03, 2024 10:15 PM (oJgNG)

12 Just starting the episode. I've seen evidence there are two different levels of censorship out there at least on this show. Now I need to find the uncensored version.

Stylisticly, I dislike the extremely fine "ink" line they use on the characters.

Posted by: Mauser at February 04, 2024 07:41 PM (nk1Z+)

13 So if you look for Ember, they seem to have the uncensored version. And put in a bit more effort in their subtitles.

Posted by: Mauser at February 05, 2024 03:30 PM (nk1Z+)

14 "Granart Needakitta" now that's a name with a huge lampshade hung on it.

Posted by: Mauser at February 07, 2024 08:05 PM (nk1Z+)

15 White Sonja is the catgirl of the year.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at February 10, 2024 09:57 PM (oJgNG)

16 And practically an old maid at 18!

Struck me how the rest of the female population was "Catty" in a bad way....

Posted by: Mauser at February 11, 2024 05:00 PM (nk1Z+)

17 Water Princess. Well, THAT was fast, before the opening credits!

Posted by: Mauser at February 18, 2024 03:04 PM (nk1Z+)

18 I thought it was interesting that DFC InstaWife's multiple motives dovetailed neatly into plot advancement, which suggests there's actually a plot. Also, I want this show to loan some jiggle to Pon No Michi; they've got plenty to spare.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at February 18, 2024 07:48 PM (oJgNG)

19 I was a little disappointed that our possibly treacherous suitor hadn't been promised to the princess, rather than her twin sister. That would have complicated things nicely.

Also that he was not smart enough to explain why he didn't become the ring king (Wasn't his idea anyway) and point out that their love would be interfered with by four other women if he had.

Posted by: Mauser at February 20, 2024 08:42 PM (nk1Z+)

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