“Past – You Are Enough As You Are”
What They Say:
Despite being the daughter of a viscount, Asako is rejected by high society and treated as a nuisance by her parents. When a marriage proposal suddenly arrives for Asako’s younger sister from none other than Captain Kido, a soldier known for his coldness, she doesn’t hesitate for a moment. To protect her precious younger sister, Asako volunteers as… a substitute bride!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the manga known as Until You Bear My Child ~ The Substitute Bride and the Beast Soldier by Yuzu Kanzai, Taisho Era Contract Marriage is the fall 2024 AnimeFesta series that has Takashi Watanabe as the director working from the series composition by Eeyo Kurosaki. Sasaki has a solid list of episode director credits over the years with a lot of good productions from Aria the Scarlet Ammo to Shakugan no Shana and even Slayers. Mameko Motoki handled the character designs with this being their first credit work. We also get Studio Hōkiboshi handling the animation which is still not up to mainstream show quality but it’s also not something coming out of still-form animation or anything. There’s always mixed when it comes to the quality of these shows, unfortunately.
With a tough encounter with Kido’s family previously, though one where she saw him bond closer with her, Asako gets a different view of things this time around thanks to the arrival of his childhood nanny. She’s brought pictures and stories of him from when he was little and it’s the perfect opportunity to try and get a few details out of her about Kidos’ family life. We get the easy visual and commentary of what a tough and cruel man he was, physically assaulting both wife and daughter and it makes it easy to see why Kido ended up in the military and why nothing would ever please his father. The nanny is happy to see how Kido has done in regards to Asako and that has her feeling even more at ease with him, to the point where she does manage to tease him a little after sharing a picture of him from his childhood. He does, of course, prove that he’s a man now but it helps to soften things more between them.
In Summary:
With things wrapping up in the next episode, this one helps to soften our view of Kido a bit more and get a peek into the expected and obvious upbringing that he had. His father wasn’t hiding anything of himself previously so there are no real surprises to be had here. It’s done well and it’s nice to see how Asako falls for him more and more and that the two are continuing to get closer to each other as it goes on. Everything will blow up to some degree in the finale to be sure but it’ll work out in the end with these two I’m sure.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Coolmic.me
