20 Anime That Deal With Arranged Marriage

If you're looking for an anime where the arranged marriage turns out to be a really good thing - although the characters were skeptical at first - then My Happy Marriage is perfect for you.

After failing to inherit her family's psychic powers, Miyo Saimori is deemed worthless by her relatives and is married off to a ruthless military leader. Except, the rumors about Kiyoka Kudo are all wrong, and it turns out her new husband is a blessing in disguise. What was supposed to be a punishment turns out to be a gift and Miyo finally gets to experience happiness through her arranged marriage.

After conquering almost the entire world, the Sun King Livius decides that he'd like to get married - specifically, he wants to marry a princess from the Rain Dukedom. He wants this because, in his own kingdom, rain is an impossibility, but all citizens of the Rain Dukedom can create rain with their voices. Nike Remercier is chosen at random and packed off to the Sun Kingdom.

Thanks to local gossip, she goes expecting to marry a cruel tyrant - but ends up finding something entirely different.

When Kobeni Yonomori is 16 years old, she receives an unexpected surprise - she's engaged! Her life changes quickly when her new fiance and his younger sister move in with her. Though Kobeni struggles to adjust, she does manage to forge bonds with her new family members - but when she finds out a completely unexpected secret about her fiance, her resolve is tested even further.

After an accident that took his mother's life and cost him the use of his right hand, Tamahiko Shima isn't exactly feeling great about life. His father makes things worse by declaring him a useless burden and banishing him to the countryside. But he won't be alone - he'll be living with Yuzuki Tachibana, a girl who was sold to the Shima family to be Tamahiko's wife. 

What sounds like a catastrophe ends up being quite sweet. Because of his trauma, it takes a while for Tamahiko to open up to Yuzuki. But Yuzuki is a living ray of sunshine. Slowly, she persuades him to start enjoying life and connecting to people again. Meanwhile, Tamahiko provides Yuzuki with love and stability that she's never had before. 

After ordinary human Michishio Nagasumi nearly drowns, his life is unexpectedly saved by a mermaid named Seto Sun. Seto turns out to be a member of the Mermaid Yakuza, and according to their tradition, any human who sees a mermaid must be put to death - unless the mermaid either takes their place or marries them. To avoid these catastrophic consequences, the two of them are engaged.

Thus begins Nagasumi's strange and magical new life with his new mermaid bride.

As the heir to the wealthy and powerful Phantomhive family, 12-year-old Ciel is already engaged to his cousin Elizabeth. Though they're nowhere near actually getting married, Elizabeth is aggressively affectionate with her betrothed, and in the manga, she's also quite protective of him. Meanwhile, Ciel has little interest in pursuing anything romantic and seems to be more troublesome than anything else.

Eventually, it becomes clear that he does have some kind of feelings for her, even if they aren't quite so powerfully stated.