Engaged to the Unidentified

Mikakunin de Skinkoukei is a 12 episode slice of life/super natural comedic romance based on the manga of the same name by Cherry Arai.  The series broadcast in Japan during the winter off-season in 2014.

    Kobeni Yonomori is a first year high school student who wakes up one day to find two new house guests.  Hakuya and Mashiro Mitsumine are siblings from a family that Kobeni's late grandfather was close to.  As a child on a trip to the remote Mitsumine home, Hakuya saved Kobeni after she had a serious accident.  To show his gratitude her grandfather promised that Kobeni would marry Hakuya when they grow up.  Now, years later, Hakuya has arrived to live with Kobeni and get to know her.  Kobeni on the other hand has no recollection of the incident or her betrothal.  But her older sister, Benio, and their mother know all about the incident and greatly encourage the two to become closer.  Kobeni is gracious and kind, but taken back by the idea of the arranged marriage.  Hakuya's quiet demeanor doesn't put her off, but she wants to understand more of the situation before agreeing to her grandfathers wishes. 

    At first the series annoyed me a little bit, especially Mashiro's childish way of speaking and Benio's loli-con tendencies.  I also feared a great deal of fan-service, which seems to mostly have been contained in the opening credits.  But as the story progressed I started to enjoy it.  The main characters of Kobeni and Hakuya are easy going and likeable.  There is none of the typical perversion and idiocy found in a high school arranged marriage story, which was a relief.  There are mild supernatural tones to the story, but explaining that would ruin part of it, so I won't get into that.  Overall this was a decent anime, something nice to fill the time.  It did seem to list about through most of it though and may not have needed to even be 12 episodes.  Thankfully it wasn't longer...that would have just gotten boring fast.  One thing I liked is that Kobeni was presented as thick (by anime standards), women with curves are where its at!  She was drawn realistically curvy which was a nice change of pace from the unrealistic girls in anime...skinny or otherwise.

    You can enjoy this series if you have liked Tona-Gura, Honey & Clover or even Inukami.

    The series was released in English on Crunchyroll.  It has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks with no word on DVD release dates.  I believe only 1 DVD has even come out in Japan as of the time of this review.