I’ve been trying to work out the best way to describe this show in a single sentence since I first watched the show a little while back and I think I finally found it.

“Jingai-San no Yome is a light-hearted surreal comedy that really doesn’t go anywhere but in circles.”

The Jingai-San no Yome is based on a four-panel manga written by Yu Aikawa, starting back in 2016 and got itself an anime adaption in October 2018, wrapping itself up in December 2018 before Christmas. Sadly, not giving us a Christmas based episode to my disappointment.

The show itself lasts for 12 episodes, each lasting about 3 minutes in total and can all be easily watch in a quick 30-40 minutes. Personally, I feel that the show could have done with longer episodes just to give the watcher a little more to understand what the show is about. Because, boy… I had no clue what was going on.

Not that it’s a hard watch or anything, it just doesn’t explain anything.

The show follows the life of Tomari Hinowa, a high school teenager living his normal day-to-day life until he is one day summoned by his homeroom to be married off to a strange creature known as Kanenogi (which looks adorable by the way). And that’s the first episode.

The plot itself doesn’t really diverge from following his school and homelife as a married wife (technically correct) with Kanenogi in tow. What the show fails to explain or go into any detail at all is how normal this is to everyone. With multiple characters being married off to other weird monsters.

While I don’t think what little story there is, is bad. I just think that it might need a little more to make it better. Although, credit where credit is due. The lack of explanation of certain things does lead to some funny moments in the series. Leaning towards the confused funny than comedic.

I think the problem the show has is that it doesn’t go anywhere. Rather than focus on its two main characters, it keeps introducing new characters and their creature husbands which they, themselves get no development or add to the world building. This does the show a disservice as it has the chance to create something adorable but it rushes through everything so quickly that by the end of the show a year has passed and I don't know anyone's names bar the first two characters.

The animation and art style from studio Saetta is fantastic in short 3 minute bursts as the show really goes all out for environmental detail and the creature details. While not too impressive as the show progresses as some moments are left as stills rather than actual animation, which disappointed me as I would have actually liked to see some of those scenes play out. But for its first anime, it’s not too shabby.

Having not read the anime’s source material, with it currently being Japanese only; I can’t compare as to how much the show stays true to the source material. But based on how short the episodes actually are if you don’t include the opening or ending credits, each episode is probably based on four-panels.

Jingai-San no Yome needed a little more time per episode for it to be truly enjoyable, even if it didn’t follow the original story, it just needed some extra time to develop the characters and the world they reside in. Nine times out of ten I finished an episode with more questions than were answered. It just needed a filler episode or moment here or there just to give the viewer some explanation as to what was going on and so we can connect to the characters better without feeling rushed.

I ended up developing my own headcannon that the reason why the marriages exist is to keep the peace between the creatures and humans. It’s probably not the case in anyway whatsoever, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make. I just didn’t know what was going on.

In conclusion JIngai-San no Yome isn’t the type of show you’d actively go out of the way to watch, it’d be more out of curiosity of how random the show feels. Which I feel is true to the show’s nature as I came across it by chance and ended up watching all the episodes in a single sitting.

TL; DR: It’s nothing special but can be a good way to pass 30 minutes if you’re bored.

Rating 2.5/5

If you’re interested in watching the show it’s available on Crunchyroll for free. But I’d give it a pass.