A Rom-Com Similar to a Broken Firework

I admit, I'm a bit late to the review party for this series. But I like doing my due-diligence, and so, I read the light-novel and manga in it's entirety for what is currently finished-as the manga is still releasing.

I am no "Saint-Reviewer" or anything, but here is my fully honest review in a nutshell ;

TL;DR — I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class is a dumpster fire wrapped in a rom-com bow. While it starts with a mildly intriguing premise, it quickly devolves into a harem-infested slog with characters as shallow as a kiddie pool. If you’re here for a coherent enemies-to-lovers story, grab a helmet—this anime will whiplash you between forced “progress” and regression so hard, you’ll forget which trope you’re even watching.

And now that you have the TL;DR, for those of you who want to know why I said what I said, here is the full explanation for you to cover yourselves in:

I'll start off on a good note for this series on what it has done good: the setup. It's really difficult to mess up the "rivals-to-lovers" theme, so this series got it pretty on the head. Saito and Akane, two top-grade students at their high school. Both with super creepy forceful grandparents that want to resolve their unfulfilled youth with their own grandchildren for some god forsaken reason. But the difference of personalities from Saito's average cup-noodle basement-camping teenage boy mindsets and mannerisms, fighting against Akane's average pinterest perfectionist mannerisms, gives some bits and moments of comedy. Had me giggling in my chair a little bit I cannot lie. But, here's the catch! The show's premise is still just as stable as a Jenga tower in an earthquake.

In anime, it's been normalized to have those few un-explainable creepy characters. In this case, it'd be the grandparents with their magical surveillance magic and forced cohabitation. It's not like this premise is new, but it's still like if Big Brother met Nisekoi, had a baby, and the child ended up having less charm and the same levels of ethical violations. Now, again, the premise isn't new. It get's sold a lot in multiple anime series as this "teehee look at how quirky this is!", but it's still essentially watching two minors get falcon-punched into a sandbox while their elders cackle from lawn chairs.

As for character development, at first glance, it does seem like there is development, but if you look into it further and rewatch or re-read it a couple of times, it's just a repeating train loop of "I hate you" and "I tolerate you". Like a metronome set to it's highest speed before the stick gets sent to space. One episode, they bond over this or that, the next? That bonding session never even existed. This type of bickering gives that sort of old niche romance that every other romance has because it's just a safe niche. It's as if the writers forgot they are writing a romance and just keep hitting the "restart" button every 20-ish minutes.

I have no problem with a good written tsundere, but Akane's tsundere is like that single-ply toilet paper you find in those really bad public toilets. It just rips apart instantly no matter what you do. Her VA absolutely deserves an award for absolutely nailing the shrillness, and the motivation behind the character isn't all that bad—a dream of being able to look after her sisters medical issues—but they are buried under layers and layers of cliched bickering. While Saito is just a cardboard cutout of a protagonist. His backstory? Abandoned by parents, traumatized by inheritance threats, the whole U-Haul inventory. It's tossed in like confetti, but never really explored.

Side characters? Classic harem scenario where any female within a 100 kilometer radius just wants to literally jump into Saito's arms. Including Akane's younger sister, his OWN COUSIN, and Akane's "best-friend", Himari. Who, mind you, is a complete walking red flag. The show's insistence on cramming in harem troped turns what could've been a normal "quirky" rom-com into a cringe fest of consent violations and emotional whiplash.

Now, in my first review for In/Spectre, I talked a lot about pacing and storyline. And honestly, it's the same argument here. Saying it's the Chef Ramsay of inconsistency is too generous, because In/Spectre deserves that title, but whoever is the second best known chef, that's who takes this one. Early episodes juggle the forced cohabitation and mild tension pretty decently, but about halfway, the plot derails into a harem hellscape. The "ring arc", yes, there is a ring arc, briefly, and I mean BRIEFLY teases any form of mutual emotional depth before just nosediving into more filler episodes and repeated jokes.

The voice actors were stellar though. Props to them. Amazing effort. Pretty much absolutely zero complaints here. Same with visuals/art styling. Clean for the most part. Average levels for the average performing rom-com. Avoiding complex animations, doing whatever possible to keep that budget in-check.

Overall, I'd compare this anime to a fast-food burger. It's greasy, unsatisfying, vaguely regrettable, but you enjoy it in the very moment you eat it because you haven't had anything else yet. If you're a die-hard rom-com fan with a high tolerance for nonsense, give it a go, you'll most likely enjoy it. But for anyone that doesn't really mess with this typa stuff too often, here's my advice: Save your time. Rewatch Toradora or Horimiya or watch any other romcom that is even a tiny bit better. Those animes respect their characters and their audiences.