365 Days to the Wedding episode 1: Takuya and Rika "fake" a marriage to dodge a transfer to Alaska

365 Days to the Wedding episode 1, titled Would you like to marry me?, premiered on Thursday, October 3, 2024, at 11:30 pm JST in Japan. The episode kicked off one of the most anticipated romantic comedy series of the ongoing Fall 2024 season.

The episode introduced two introverted coworkers, Takuya Ohara and Rika Honjoji, who, despite not standing out in their workplace, lived fulfilling lives at home.

However, their daily lifestyle is threatened when they are chosen to be transferred to a newly-opened Anchorage branch of their company, where unmarried workers are prioritized for the transfer. Therefore, to preserve their current lifestyle, both Takuya and Rika came up with a plan - they would "pretend" to be married to avoid being transferred.

365 Days to the Wedding episode 1 marks beginning of "pretend" marriage between two introverted coworkers

365 Days to the Wedding episode 1 opening events

Rika Honjoji as seen in the anime (Image via Ashi Productions)

365 Days to the Wedding episode 1 began with a glimpse into the hectic workplace of the Tokyo branch of a travel agency named JTC. The opening moments of the episode introduced one of the main characters of the anime, Takuya Ohara, a socially awkward and introverted man who often lagged behind others in a conversation due to his habit of overthinking his choice of words.

This was made evident after Takuya got yelled at by his branch manager for taking too long to respond to her questions. The episode then introduced the other main character, Rika Honjoji, who could be seen glaring at Takuya after he failed to respond properly to a fellow employee.

While Takuya thought that Rika was angry at him for slacking off, the reality was later revealed to be simply an unusual habit of Rika, who often unconsciously stared at other people. As such, many often misinterpreted this as Rika being angry at them.

365 Days to the Wedding episode 1: Takuya and Rika's daily lives

Takuya and his pet cat, Kama as seen in the anime (Image via Ashi Productions)

The focus of 365 Days to the Wedding episode 1 then shifted to the personal lives of Takuya Ohara and Rika Honjoji. Both characters were unmarried, had little to no interactions with other people, and led relatively lonely lives.

Takuya lived alone with his pet cat, Kama, and spent his free time watching television with him. Rika, on the other hand, had an unusual fondness for maps and spent most of her idle time studying them. Apparently, she initially had the notion that she could spend all day looking at maps while joining the Planning Department of her company.

365 Days to the Wedding episode 1: A sudden announcement of potential transfer causes tension at workplace

A coworker presents the solution to avoid being transferred (Image via Ashi Productions)

One morning, Asako Kurokawa, the branch manager of the Tokyo branch of JTC, announced with a high-ranking employee from the head office that an employee from her branch would be transferred to Alaska to manage the newly opened Anchorage branch of the company.

However, the most concerning part of the announcement was that the unmarried employees would be prioritized for the transfer. As expected, this announcement caused quite a stir among the unmarried employees of the Tokyo branch, with some even contemplating marriage as a way to avoid the transfer.

That said, out of everyone, this announcement affected Takuya and Rika the most. Apart from the fact that neither of them would be able to fit in well in Alaska, Takuya had his cat to care for, while Rika viewed her current situation as a matter of life and death.

365 Days to the Wedding episode 1: Rika springs marriage proposal on Takuya to avoid being transferred

Rika and Takuya as seen in 365 Days to the Wedding episode 1 (Image via Ashi Productions)

One day, while returning from the vet's office, Takuya encountered Rika in a park. After a brief conversation, the former shared his decision to leave the company. For Takuya, his cat's well-being was his priority, which is why he was willing to quit his company to avoid being transferred to Alaska.

It was at this moment that Rika proposed the idea of a "fake" marriage. She suggested that if they pretended to be married, they could avoid the transfer. Although Takuya was caught off-guard by her suggestion at first, he eventually decided to agree to it after some careful consideration.

Rika and Takuya are given a surprise party (Image via Ashi Productions)

The next day at their office, Rika and Takuya informed Asako of their "marriage," which surprised her. Regardless, Asako was thrilled upon hearing this news and excitedly congratulated them, admitting that she never thought Takuya was capable of ever being in a relationship.

Moreover, Asako and the rest of Rika and Takuya's coworkers ended up throwing them a surprise party at an Italian restaurant. Both of them were caught off-guard by the surprise celebration, as neither of them had anticipated this kind of response from their coworkers. Nevertheless, Rika tried to take accountability for the situation by overdrinking and made a failed attempt at turning the situation in their favor by singing.

365 Days to the Wedding episode 1 closing moments

Rika and Takuya in the Ferris Wheel (Image via Ashi Productions)

Given that getting into a fake marriage was her idea to begin with, Rika decided to take responsibility for her arrangement with Takuya. However, to ensure that her plan goes smoothly, Rika made elaborate preparations for formulating a perfectly believable love story for them, including their first date and their marriage proposal. However, this task proved to be more challenging than Rika had anticipated since she couldn't even recollect Takuya's face properly.

Fortunately for Rika, in the closing moments of 365 Days to the Wedding episode 1, Takuya ended up joining her in her mission to create the perfect "fake" love story for them. Although Rika told him that she would take care of most things, she gave him the responsibility of coming up with the words for their marriage proposal.

This proved to be an extremely challenging task for Takuya, who couldn't get the right words out of his mouth, even for the sake of pretending. Rika assured him that he could take his time and that she was willing to wait for as long as necessary for the proposal. With this, 365 Days to the Wedding episode 1 came to an end.