Title: 結婚しない Kekkon Shinai
English Title:
- Not Married
- Unmarried
- Wonderful Single Life
Episode 01: Of course it's only natural to get married!? Is it an obligation!? Women who can't vs won't get married!! Love and marriage of the unmarried women!?
Tanigawa Shuji: Women who had not gotten married by the age of 24 were compared to Christmas cakes, and were said to plummet in worth afterwards.
Tanigawa Shuji: The majority of people who are currently unmarried feel they do want to get married.
Tanaka Chiharu: If I keep at it, will I get there someday? Marriage.
Suzumura Mariko: You should get over your habit of eating comfort food whenever you have a shock.
Morita Jun: That's right. It's only up until your 20s that you can size down easily through dieting.
Suzumura Mariko: That's a yellow card.
Morita Jun: Once a man turns 30, he suddenly starts worrying that he isn't married.
Tanaka Chiharu: Eh...
Morita Jun: When in their 20s, they look at the world like it was a youth's genre book. Once over 30, they suddenly feel for the first time like being a full-fledged man who's married and has a family.
Suzumura Mariko: That's true for women too. They have to take their final spurt. "Ah, it's about time I looked for my final job," they say.
Morita Jun: How nice, marriage being their 'final' job. For men, marriage is just the start of one.
Tanaka Chiharu: That's true for women, too. There's childbirth and childcare.
Morita Jun: Ah, that's true. That's why they should be as young as possible...
Suzumura Mariko: That's a red card.
Tanaka Noriko: Have you really given some thought to getting married?
Tanaka Chiharu: Even I want to get married.
Tanaka Noriko: In that case, you need to do something to get it moving along. You also need to consider your age. And about having children.
Tanaka Chiharu: I know that.
Tanaka Chiharu: Marriage... If I could have, I would have done that long ago!
Tanaka Chiharu: I wonder if I can't get married anymore?
Kirishima Haruko: Wouldn't it be okay if you didn't?
Tanaka Chiharu: Eh?
Kirishima Haruko: I don't think it's necessary to force yourself into marriage... What is it?
Tanaka Chiharu: Well... I think you're the first person I've ever heard say such a thing.
Tanaka Chiharu: People don't change just because they've added on some years.
Kubo Yuji: Somehow by being single at this age, it's painful when I look at those around me.
Tanaka Chiharu: Ah, I understand. Somehow, like, "Ah? Why at this age am I...?"
Kubo Yuji: Right? I think there must be some peculiar reason for it. But we're pretty normal, right?
Tanaka Chiharu: Yeah, we're normal. Very much so.
Kubo Yuji: Still, well... When I was in my 20s, I figured I'd be married by the time I was 35 years old.
Tanaka Chiharu: Yeah. Me, too.
Kirishima Haruko: It's sad but I think it's best to just let go of promises made in the past.
Kudo Junpei: In the language of flowers, gerbera means 'one step'.
Tanaka Chiharu: Saying "I can't get married" is just as surely saying "I'm alone", isn't it? If it's not possible for me to get married at 35 years old, then it will be even more impossible for me going forward as I grow older.
Tanaka Chiharu: Don't say that getting married is what's normal!
Kirishima Haruko: That's right. I'm not useless just because I'm not married!
Tanaka Chiharu: What's so wrong about not getting married?!
Kirishima Haruko: What's so wrong about it?!
Episode 02: I want to get married! But, what qualifications are a must!?
Tanigawa Shuji: Sanko or literally 'three highs'. Does anyone here know this term?
Yamada Hiroki: It means 'high income, high education, and high height'. Those were the conditions for getting married, right?
Tanigawa Shuji: But now, it's sanpei or literally 'three averages'. In other words, it's 'average annual income, average looks, and average personality'. These have become the conditions for the modern woman's ideal marriage partner.
Ishikawa Yukari: Still, look. I don't know what it is that makes a marriage. Even if you marry according to your conditions, things may not work out.
Mikako: What are you saying? The best way of moving towards marriage is to have conditions set.
Tanaka Chiharu: Until what age do you think people can fall in love?
Kirishima Haruko: I wonder... Isn't it as long as they believe in it, they can?
Tanaka Chiharu: Eh?
Kirishima Haruko: In the language of flowers, aster means 'love is believing'.
Episode 03: We're way too unskilled at being honest with ourselves!? Getting more and more popular!! What will happen between those two!!
Tanigawa Shuji: As with job hunting, marriage is a deed we actively do for ourselves and is something we try to acquire for ourselves. Or so we'd like to think. What does job hunting and marriage have in common?
...
Yamada Hiroki: It's essential for both that you have a connection. These days, if you've got a connection or relationship, you won't be turned down.
Tanigawa Shuji: I see. A connection, huh? That's one way of putting it. There was once a system for getting married in Japan. In 1935, about 70 percent of marriages were through omiai or arrangement. For those passive people, relatives and the boss of the company would tie the red string of connection for them.
Suzumura Mariko: It is said that your fated encounter comes by fishing at sea.
Tanaka Chiharu: Fishing at sea?
Suzumura Mariko: That red string of fate? If you just wait around, you won't catch anyone with it. So you have to attach some bait to it, and then cast it out into the ocean.
Kudo Junpei: If there is someone you feel is important to you, I'm sure that person thinks you're important to them.
Kudo Junpei: In the language of flowers, Lenten rose means 'the one you cherish or are firm friends with'.
Tanaka Chiharu: If married couples and lovers demand 100 percent compatibility, they absolutely can't have a relationship. It seems that the best relationships are those where both parties just need one another.
Episode 04: Single = not dutiful to your parents? But is a major struggle for those who aren't married!!
Tanigawa Shuji: Well, then, just who on earth is this marriage thing for?
Suzumura Mariko: "A wedding isn't just for you, it's for your parents too," they say.
Tanaka Chiharu: That's true.
Morita Jun: I guess marriage is a public thing.
Tanaka Chiharu: Public?
Morita Jun: Yes. I think marriage is intended towards the outside world. You could say it's a procedure in which you gain the trust of society. Particularly for men, their bosses tell them they have to support their families as adults.
Tanaka Chiharu: That's true.
Morita Jun: In the event that you get married, you have to properly report it to both the government and the company where you work, right?
Tanaka Chiharu: Maybe Chinatsu wanted to meet everyone's expectations of her... You know, there's that terrible saying, "first get married, then have children"... She just wanted to follow that order.
Tanaka Suguru: That's a mother's dream, after all. That their children have a wedding ceremony. She feels she wants to see her daughter's proudest moment.
Tanaka Suguru: I'm the same, too... Parents will leave someday. That's why they want to make certain of their children's happiness.
Tanaka Chiharu: I wonder if parents think far more about their children than the children think about themselves. Worry more, expect more.
Tanaka Chiharu: I think a couple getting married is doing so for the sake of being married. I think it is for the sake of the couple becoming happy. But marriage is not only just for the couple's happiness. It's also for everyone around them who prays for the couple's happiness.
Kudo Junpei: In the language of flowers, delphinium means 'I will make you happy'.
Episode 05: What will be of their growing feelings for each other!? The shocking truth at the end of their love!!
Tanigawa Shuji: This is an age chart for when people meet their spouses. From the most recent data, the peak encounter time for meeting a future spouse is 22 to 23 years old for women, and 28 years old for men. So for people like you who aren't yet 20 years old, there will always be a next encounter.
...
Tanigawa Shuji: It's certainly true that women in their 30s will have far fewer encounters. That's why from the heartbreaks you have while you are young, it's best for you to learn the subtleties of men and women. That way, once you reach marriageable age, you'll have learned from your past relationships that won't let you make mistakes in love like adultery and being with useless men, and that should bring you to a love that leads to marriage.
Suzumura Mariko: Listen, neither of us has the time left to spend on a love that won't lead to marriage. Therefore, what you should avoid are: (1) men with zero desire for marriage, (2) men who have wives or girlfriends, and (3) men who can't afford supporting a wife and family.
Tanaka Chiharu: I shouldn't get into a love that won't lead to marriage, right?
Kirishima Haruko: That shouldn't be the case, right? Whether you're in your 30s or 40s, isn't it fine if you simply fall in love with someone you like?
Tanaka Chiharu: But if you did, it might not lead to marriage.
Kirishima Haruko: It's okay not to worry about that. Because you won't know until afterwards just what the destination of that love will be.
Tanaka Noriko: Women nowadays have all sorts of choices facing them. That's why it becomes difficult for them and they have doubts. But that they must do things this way by their 30s, and that way in their 40s and their 50s... the truth is, such things couldn't be decided like that either now or in the past.
Kudo Junpei: In the language of flowers, agapanthus means 'love's arrival'.
Episode 06: What will be of the love that has begun to move forward!? The answer they found at the end
Tanigawa Shuji: Not having a child is an individual's choice. But some people who think they do want children have a tendency to marry later in life and by waiting, they can lose their chance to have children.
Kudo Junpei: In the language of flowers, carnation means 'mother's love'.
Kōno Mizuki: As I recall, in the language of flowers, carnation means 'pure love or devotion' and 'you long for the person you love'.
Episode 07: Saying goodbye even though you like them, the cost of not being able to be more straightforward in love!?
Tanaka Chiharu: For tomorrow's sake, we first have to live being deeply moved by today.
...
Kirishima Haruko: For tomorrow, you have to fully live today?
Tanaka Chiharu: I think whatever you do, it can't make your anxieties about the future disappear.. However, even if everyone carries such anxieties around with them, I think we should live desperately for today.
Kudo Junpei: In the language of flowers, stock flower means 'gazing into the future'.
Episode 08: The night of the kiss...A sudden turn of events in love and life!!
Tanaka Chiharu: Which would I choose... Marriage? Work?
Kirishima Haruko: There are times in life where you have to make a choice... Whichever choice you make, you may find yourself troubled by it, but even if you don't get the results you wanted, you can't regret it.
Suzumura Mariko: That was when you would know (if you like another person). When a man and a woman meet, that's the moment it's decided.
Tanaka Chiharu: In the language of flowers, novara flower means 'rising from the pain'.
Episode 09: Trouble arises between the two women's friendship!! Tears from being slapped!?
Sakura Mai: Manager, who is the most important person to you?
Kirishima Haruko: Eh?
Sakura Mai: I wonder what sort of person a most important person could be?
Tanigawa Shuji: In the language of flowers, poinsettia means 'praying for your happiness'...
Tanigawa Shuji: It may be that what is called marriage is just that sort of thing. The two people who had been strangers until that day promise to live together, and then after half a century has gone by, if either of them passes away first, the one left behind leaves this world before long... Until the time of their deaths, they pray for the happiness of the person most important to them.
Kirishima Haruko: They pray for the happiness of the person most important to them until the end.
Episode 10: The final decision in a woman's life
Kudo Junpei: In the language of flowers, cymbidium means 'with an honest heart'.
Episode 11: The final choice and decision!! Our answer!!
Kudo Junpei: In the language of flowers, diamond lilies mean 'looking forward to the day we meet next'.
