After seeing the whole series twice, the top tier comedy anime Seto no Hanayome ranks as one of the best titles I’ve seen in this genre and paves it’s way into my short list of faved anime titles. Seto no Hanayome encompasses the following genres: Romance, School Life, Comedy, Parody, and Action. Although some people might dub several of the elements of the series as cliche, it has several elements the puts it above the competition..

The series was made in 2007 by renowned Studio Gonzo x AIC, with character design by Morita Kazuaki.

Story:

The story revolves around the proposed marriage between Nagasumi and San. While the idea of may seem a bit too common in the realms anime, you may want to consider it as unique when you get the idea behind it. The series starts off with Nagasumi’s family trip to his father’s hometown in Seto Island. During his time with his father out at sea, Nagasumi finds himself drowning and is rescued by a mermaid, San. His life went downhill (or the opposite, I mean San IS that pretty) when they learn of the old mermaid’s tradition of keeping their identities secret which is to either kill of the person who knows the mermaid’s identity or to allow him to marry into the family. Nagasumi chooses the latter and the chaos begins!

Although some episodes seem like random and sometimes exaggerated events (which is good in their comedy genre) Seto’s story progresses quite smoothly and not like several Harem animes, it actually has a conclusion (I’ll stop here to end the spoilers).

Graphics:

Like studio Gonzo’s other works, Seto no Hanayome is eyecandy. Character designs range from cutesy (Lunar), beautiful (Akeon) and simply silly (Saru). Uniqueness (refers to looks only) in terms of character design is one of the series’ strengths. The animation is smooth and there’s very little variation with the character looks (except the last scene in the final episode XD) throughout the whole series.

Sounds:

Another of the series’ strengths. Both the soundtracks and the lyric songs are catchy and appropriate. I’ll confess that several songs that appeared on the series are currently on my playlist like Lunarian and Your Gravitation. Their simply too cutesy/beautiful to be left sitting on my desktop. Several background music include Yakuza-like themes which range from pretty mellow to exhilarating.

If you want more of the songs, you can wait for the releases of the Character Song CDs. There’s currently 6 out in the market (currently looking for a list of 1-3, 4,6 are as follows: Maki [Kuwatani Natsuko], Iinchou [Rikimaru Noriko, Shiranui Akeno [Kitamura Eri])

Other Stuff:

Seto no Hanayome’s comedy doesn’t draw much from slapstick which adds tons to it’s quality. There are several amusing scenes per episode and you rarely see a joke or gimmick get repeated so you don’t easily out grow it’s comedy.

While it’s easy to judge that many of the characters are weak in terms of development and background, it actually serves a purpose. They help make the show more interesting by being severely flawed and cliched. I’ll have no doubt that you’d love one or two characters for simply being silly.

The series has 26 episodes which are all guaranteed to make you laugh with things ranging from Saru antic’s, Mikawa’s infirmity (really weird!), parodies from several animes to even the slightest of sound effects. There are a few dull moments but you’ll quickly forget those quickly (really I cant recall where they are now) when the scene turns back to comedy.

All in all, Seto no Hanayome is a must watch for people who love anime, watch it casually, or those who enjoy a good laugh.

Rating: 9/10