Firefly Wedding: Anime Review

Firefly Wedding has so much to say about a woman’s lack of rights in the past. One of the most popular romance manga has gotten a highly anticipated anime adaptation. Why? Because the story focuses on an assassin and a woman, who has barely experienced life. She becomes practically stuck with him after getting kidnapped. Mind you, you get all of this in the first episode. While it is A LOT to take in for a series introduction, it works! 

Firefly Wedding focuses on Satoko and Shinpei.

Satoko is sick and never leaves the house because of her condition. She doesn’t talk to many people. She doesn’t have a good relationship with her stepmother and half-sister, and the only person she feels like she can trust is her father. Satoko wants to get married someday, but her health often keeps men from making her their wife. One day when Satoko goes out to town, she’s kidnapped and is close to dying until Shinpei decides to run off with her instead of killing her like he was assigned to do. 

Shinpei is very unwell; it makes sense, given that he is literally an assassin. It was not a surprise that when Satoko offered to marry him, he ran off with her, despite not even knowing her first name. Turns out, marriage is something he cares deeply about too. And, like Satoko, he does want to be loved. He is what people consider a yandere-type character: very loving to the point of obsession, leading him to harm others for the person he has fallen for. 

You have to take the time period into consideration if you want to enjoy this series.

There is so much talk about traditional marriage values and standards in the first episode alone. Even Satoko herself states that she was doing all she could to make sure she’s a good wife to her future husband. The first episode, “An Unwanted Repayment,” has so much to say about the way women are viewed during this period. It sets the audience up for more commentary going forward.

Satoko is kidnapped and is sexually assaulted, close to being raped, until he intervenes. The main reason he intervenes is that he was told that if anyone touched her, he would cut them. He didn’t truly escape with her until Satoko offered marriage to him. 

To make matters more irrational, he gives her two options. To kiss him, or he will kill her at the time he was told to do so. 

Firefly Wedding will likely make you angry, as this comes from someone who has been reading the manga.

The anime has already effectively captured how irritating the side characters are. Many of the men are creeps, and a stepmother has a strong dislike for her stepdaughter rooted in jealousy. Marriage feels like the only thing Satoko has to offer to Shinpei. Sadly, from my knowledge of women’s history, women all over the world, regardless of race and ethnicity, during the 1800s, when Firefly Wedding takes place, barely had any rights. Women were being taught certain skills, simply as a way for them to cater to the men they will marry in the future. 

Shinpei is slightly skeptical of Satoko wanting to marry him so fast. His skepticism is gone quickly after she wipes his blood-covered mouth, the result of him murdering, to kiss him. Given how dark the series is, we can’t deny that Shinpei’s behavior is one of its highlights. He is such an interesting character and pretty funny! There is a reason fans of the series say he’s like a traffic light: he goes from red to green in a matter of minutes. The main appeal is that Shinpei has already fallen for Satoko within a day. Think Disney movie romance timeline, but with an assassin. 

If you’re not a fan of yandere stories regardless of gender, Firefly Wedding may be a skip.

But if you like stories about unconventional romance, it’s an entertaining one. It has so much to say about misogyny and internalized misogyny by challenging these notions. Firefly Wedding is worth giving a chance if you are looking for a historical fiction series to check out. 

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