How does Tales of Wedding Rings combine the Hero’s Journey, harem isekai, and Sailor Moon to make a very horny isekai? Easy. The protagonist goes on a quest to collect princesses for his harem, and if they don’t join, the world ends. Sound like a crazy combination? Stay put, and I’ll show you how Tales of Wedding Rings teases out its potential, and its viewers, in equal measure.
This article is as NSFW as it gets outside hentai articles, folks. You’ve been warned.
A Tale of Separation
Japanese youth Satou is wandering the woods one day when an old man and a girl his age appear from a golden portal. Step one to getting a princess girlfriend: be there when she enters your world. The girl, who goes by Hime — because of course she does — becomes Satou’s childhood friend, and they enjoy years of boring school life together. Until one day, when Hime says she must return home, never to return. Satou, with unrequited love for Hime that he’s never been able to confess, goes home to sleep.
Only he realizes he’s a fool, sees the golden glow of the return portal, sprints into the woods, confronts Hime, and watches the girl he loves disappear to another world. Goodbye, Hime.
Then Satou takes the step that single-handedly places him near the top of brave isekai protagonists for me: he steps through the portal. He believes if he does, he’ll never go home. He has no idea what Hime’s world looks like, if she’ll want him there, and doesn’t know if they’ll get together. Yet Satou takes the leap every man has to take at some point if they pursue love: a leap of vulnerable faith.
Tales of Wedding Rings as Hero’s Journey
Upon appearing in Hime’s world, Satou witnesses her wedding. Confused but driven, Satou makes his intentions to stay with Hime known, while avoiding a full confession. Hime takes the hint and opportunity, and instead of kissing the man she’s supposed to marry, kisses Satou. Their fates sealed: for her kiss carries her magical marriage bond to Satou, tying it to a ring she’s worn around her neck since he’s known her. With wedding rings in place, Satou steps up to destiny. He is the Ring King, the destined foil of the evil Abyss King. Five wives will eventually empower him with all five elements, and he’ll save the world.
Mentors, Underworlds, and More: Oh My!
Tales of Wedding Rings has two big inspirations that stick out to me, particularly in season one. One is the Hero’s Journey story structure. Satou has a boring life, is called to adventure, and sets off to save the world. He does so with Hime and her fake grandfather, Alabaster, a wise sage and wizard, by his side. His journey involves collecting party members and personal growth. He even rejects the call early on by expressing that he won’t marry anyone but Hime.
The plot twist is that the emotional journey takes center stage. Hime and Satou quickly confess their feelings and express mutual love for each other, once their journey properly starts. Every other princess is recruited not through force of arms, or even a mutual desire to save the world (in fact, only one princess other than Hime cares about the world’s fate), but through emotional connections built with Satou. At the center of the plot and the harem, Satou is empowered through the bonds he builds with the princesses, getting physically and magically more powerful through connection. I enjoyed this aspect a lot. Isekai uses overpowered protagonists, or regular power-ups of magic and prowess, to escalate. Tales of Wedding Rings uses kissing and trust.
Tales Of Wedding Rings Under the Light of the Moon
Seeing the emotional band-building of one man and five women convinced me that Tales of Wedding Rings‘ other main inspiration is Sailor Moon. Whether it’s Sailor Moon for boys, or was trying for a broad audience, I can’t say, but it’s reading from a Sailor Moon script for sure. Five main women, check. Rings (circlets for the Sailor Scouts) as a sign of power. Check. Elements, in this case, light, wind, fire, water, and earth. Check. The light-powered woman is the lead woman. Her boyfriend is the leading man. New women are recruited over time by socially bonding with the others. Oh, and the names. Hime’s real name is Krystal. Nefritis, Granart, Saphir, and Amber — the other princesses — are nephrite (jade), granite, sapphire, and amber, respectively. If you’re unfamiliar, Sailor Moon‘s early villains were named after minerals.
There are too many similarities to be accidents, and there are more I haven’t mentioned. Know what, though? Season one of Tales of Wedding Rings is a quality, horny, fantasy isekai story precisely because it takes good notes. Copying can be good.
Excess of Sexiness
Season two suffers from straying from the series’ inspirations. Currently airing, season two’s buildup may pay off, but right now, it feels like a quality dip from the first season. The biggest reason is that the plot becomes secondary to the fan service, or rather, the fan service becomes the plot. Deciding to power up, Satou and the harem are exploring what the show calls “bridal training” in the dub. In practice, this means the harem stepping up to learn magic so they can directly support Satou in a fight. This is a good premise. Satou’s combat power is shown to take a toll on his body in season one. Easing that burden is a good objective.
The issue is that sex is well established to be as much of a power-up for Satou as the harem members learning magic, and the show runs hard with that. Multiple episodes are excuses for sexual scenarios.
Satou put off sleeping with Hime in season one with the excuse that he wanted a perfect moment. But that excuse barely held up then. The excuses are thinner now. Most of the harem want to fuck, and it would make Satou stronger, but circumstances stop him from sealing the deal. These circumstances are plot-relevant, even serious emotional milestones, but frustrating. Multiple characters want sex, but stumble over themselves to avoid it. The show is teasing them, and it’s teasing us with sexy imagery, and will-they-won’t they energy despite it being obvious they will.
Plot Disappearance
There’s nothing wrong with sexual character development. Not even with cock blocking a protagonist over and over. The issue is that these scenarios aren’t strong enough to drive the plot. The idea that the party is trying to power up remains, but their methods get lost and muddled behind excuses to get all the women into lingerie. I haven’t given up on the last third of the season improving and tying the sexually tense groundwork together, but boy is Satou becoming lamer by the episode. He can’t close the deal, even when women jump him!
The Grand Tease of Tales of Wedding Rings Is. . .?
Tales of Wedding Rings is a cheesy isekai that’s almost better than it deserves to be, considering its premise exists, at first glance, to give Satou an easy harem. The first season isn’t visually beautiful, and its story is formulaic, but powerful twists like Hime’s betrothed becoming Satou’s best bro freshen the plot despite obvious inspirations. Season two looks better and throws plenty more sexiness at the screen, but the plot serves the ecchi rather than the other way around. Either way, prepare to live through will-they-won’t-they scenes teasing sexy times with no payoff in sight. If you like character building and emotionally driven plots, odds are you’ll enjoy Tales of Wedding Rings, but I can’t promise you’ll keep enjoying it. On the other hand, it’s a rare lewd anime, and could be enjoyed for that alone.
Let’s Chat
You made it to the end of this post! Thank you! As a token of our appreciation, enjoy an extra 5% off your next order when you use the code BLOG at checkout. Also, don’t forget to follow J-List on all our platforms!
- Twitter / X, where Peter posts anime booba for you
- Bluesky, where we post several times a day
- Facebook, where we used to share memes and discuss anime
- Discord, if you want to chat with other J-List customers of culture
Great news! J-List is having a $40-off-$200-or-more holiday coupon you can use for all in-stock items shipping from Japan! (Except calendars and Lucky Boxes.) This means you can make a big order of ecchi products for men, manga and doujinshi, JAV DVDs and Blu-rays, or hentai products and save big. Start browsing here!
