Satoko is the eldest daughter of the noble house of Kirigaya, and she has poured her every waking effort into living up to that role—and specifically, into preparing herself to be as marriageable as possible, so as to make a match pleasing to her father. For his part, her father is a kindly fellow, despite his Stalin-like appearance, and he hopes she will find love, albeit within a traditionally arranged pairing. In short, they’re on the same page. All is well. Except for one little hitch: Satoko has a weak heart and poor constitution, which lend her a sickly look that was all the rage in (consumptive) Victorian England, and apparently in this era of Japanese history as well. She’s been raking in the proposals—much to the annoyance of her far less popular younger half-sister, the vicious Miwako—but the men all flee once they learn of her diagnosis. Trusting in her father to find her a husband, Satoko takes a short trip to town to get him a birthday present. But she never makes it back home. Instead, she is kidnapped by a gang of terrifying-looking men who are bent on executing her at precisely nine o’clock. Satoko wracks her brain to devise a way of escape, but the only thing she has to offer in exchange for her life is…her hand in marriage.
Holy plot twist, Batman! This was not what I was expecting. First off, there are a lot of trigger warnings to flag up for this one, from gore to strong SA threat and related trigger words in the subs (repeatedly). In short, this ain’t My Happy Marriage, folks. (I know! I was hoping for that, too…) But also, the first half is a parade of twists in terms of characterization (you’ll see what I mean!) and, of course, the sudden kidnapping out of the absolute blue. (Though it’s spoiled in the teaser trailer.) This premiere is certainly attention-grabbing! But I’ll admit, I’m on the fence as to whether or not it’s attention-grabbing in a good way. In short, I’m a bit worried about where this one is going. Let me explain, by way of historical anecdote:
In 1973, a bank robber took four people hostage in Stockholm, Sweden for six days; one of the women eventually served as a kind of hostage negotiator, speaking on behalf of the robber to the police, and criticizing their handling of the ongoing situation (they were bungling things dangerously). A psychologist later “diagnosed” her with what came to be known as Stockholm Syndrome, claiming that she’d fallen in love with her captor during that high risk situation. The truth is, she was a very wily, intelligent individual who could see clearly that they were all going to die if the police continued on in the confrontational, rather inept way they were going. So she sweet-talked and she strategized and she arguably saved their lives. But she will forever be remembered in pop culture as a gullible, weak-minded woman who fell in love with her bad boy kidnapper. Sigh.
Satoko is a lot like that woman. And frankly, if the series continues on the vein of “debunking” Stockholm Syndrome and foregrounding the innovative cleverness of a woman whose options in life are essentially nonexistent, I’m all for it. But I suspect that this is not the direction we are headed, since the opening monologue from Satoko describes how she chose to love someone inappropriate. Double sigh. Nevertheless, I’m intrigued. It’s already surprised me like, four times in twenty minutes, so perhaps the series can redeem what seems to be a rather more frightening than usual Beauty and the Beast setup. (The Beast in this episode, the lead assassin, Goto, is psychotic. I mean it. Swipe a hard left, girl!) The animation from studio david production is initially light and pleasant, recalling their style in Sakurada Reset; but with the violent turn of events, the studio’s adeptness with saturated, bold color palettes, dynamic action, and crazed character expressions—honed across their well-known seinen series, including JoJo, Fire Force, and Undead Unluck—suddenly kicks in. The contrast works, too. Meanwhile, Satoko is a compellingly complex character (talk about fierce!), and so too are her family dynamics, so there’s a lot of potential here—enough to keep me on the hook for the traditional three episodes, at least. But that Goto…yikes! This could be the surprise of the season, or an absolute dumpster fire amid a train wreck; I really can’t tell! But I’d like to find out.
Episode 1 of Firefly Wedding will be available to stream on Crunchyroll on October 9th.
©Oreco Tachibana/Shogakukan/”Firefly Wedding” Project
