“More Than a Married Couple, but Not Lovers” (October 2022, Studio Mother) is an anime about two people who don’t like each other being forced to pose as a married couple.

This show follows Jirō Yakuin (voiced by Seiichiro Yamashita) and Akari Watanabe (Saori Ōnishi) being forced to pair together for a mandatory school project in which couples of the opposite gender are forced to simulate a married life. Jirō’s crush Shiori Sakurazaka (Saki Miyashita) is paired with Akari’s crush Minami Tenjin (Toshiki Masuda), causing Jirō and Akari to work together so that they can switch to the partners they actually want. Will the two succeed in fooling the system, or will they really fall in love with each other?

Something a viewer might notice about this show is the unique aesthetic and theme, everything being very mellow, without there being much action, only focusing on the relationships of the characters. 

This anime’s art style is very soft, with parts of the line art being colored instead of the typical black. When things are near the edges of the screen there are slight hatchings that help bring a viewer’s eyes forward towards the attention.

Another art design that helps this show is its use of vibrant pastel colors. The environment surrounding the characters is never dull and always has a splash of vibrant colors within it that extends to the characters.

One of the big appeals of this anime is the love interest conflict and constant floundering of Jirō and Minami. Although it’s another teen love show, its rendition of a romance comedy is rather unique, with the school forcing couples to practice being married and then graded on it at the end of the year.

The music in this show uses a lot of strings, wind instruments, and a piano to help make the viewer feel the unrequited love and loneliness of the characters. For example if one of the characters was contemplating their love for their practical spouse, the music would play with somber tones lending aid to that feeling of confusion and uncertainty.

Unfortunately, although there are plenty of good qualities about the anime there are some issues to be addressed.

One of them is that this is yet another teen romantic comedy, at the end of the day this is another grain of sand on the beach of rom coms.

This shows “conflict” ultimately boils down to either a misunderstanding, Akari joking with Jirō, or sometimes both. This anime has a lot of repetitive aspects that are similar to other productions in the same genre, like the easily avoidable last conflict, or actually talking to the person they like without having to worry about it being too late to make a move.

The whole being married in high school thing is something that some western viewers may find confusing since the whole idea of cozying up to someone in high school doesn’t sit well with western viewers.

Another problem that some viewers might take offense to is the use of adult humor, like Akari teases about soliciting herself towards Jirō. Let alone there are a lot of scenes where she’s just unnecessarily dressed with less.

Overall the show isn’t bad, but it’s a dime a dozen with plenty of other similar media like it. However, this anime, like many others, has a dedicated fan base (which is understandable), the show is good and should be given a shot. However, if a viewer is looking for something less scandalous, then this might not be the anime for them.