Anime Review: More than a Married Couple, but Not Lovers (2022)

This romance anime follows Jirou Yakuin and Akari Watanabe, two classmates who couldn't be more different. Naturally, they don't get along, and both already have eyes for someone else: Jirou is in love with his childhood friend, Shiori, while Akari is head-over-heels for the school's "golden boy," Minami.

In a bizarre school tradition, students are randomly paired up and forced to live together in a "Marriage Practical." Their grades are determined by how convincingly they act like a real couple—the more domestic and affectionate they are, the higher their score. It’s an absurd concept, certainly, but it sets the stage for a high-stakes romantic comedy. School is basically trying to train there social skills for the future by doing this.

As you already guessed it, Jirou and Akari are now forced to live together.

Jealousy and Escape

The drama intensifies when Jirou and Akari realize their respective crushes have been paired with each other. This creates a double-edged sword of motivation:

• The Fear: They are terrified that their true love interests will actually fall in love while living together.

• The Goal: If a pair reaches the Top 10 in the rankings, they earn the right to swap partners.

To fix this situation Jirou and Akari must cooperate and act like a perfect, loving couple to climb the ranks. However, this forced intimacy backfires in the way you’d expect—the more they pretend to be in love, the more their brains begin to blur the line between performance and reality.

Final Thoughts

As the series progresses, the "fake" feelings start to feel genuine. It’s a classic psychological trap: by playing house, they accidentally build a real foundation.

The show has a lot of fan service (erotic content). Keep that in mind.

While the show is an engaging watch with great tension, I personally still prefer “I'm Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class”. Which has a very similar premise (I previously wrote an article about it). That said, if you enjoy the "forced proximity" trope, this one is definitely worth your time.