One night Satou Haruto was trying to catch a rhinoceros beetle in the woods when a pillar of golden light appeared, and with it a beautiful girl and an old man. She asks for his name, and gives her own: Nokana Hime (voiced by Kitou Akari). If he’ll keep her secret, she’ll be his friend. She wears two rings around her neck at all times; one is for her, and one is for her future husband.
Ten years later, Hime has been as good as her word. She and her gramps have been Satou’s neighbors for that time, making her and Satou childhood friends. Now in high school, his feelings for her are starting to run deeper. His jealous friend envy his situation, and warn him that if he loves Hime, he needs to make it known or she’ll slip away.
Satou thinks he has the perfect opportunity to confess when Hime invites him to the summer festival. They have a grand time together, but that’s nothing new; they’re old friends after all. When they end up somewhere private, he starts to tell her he loves her, but is interrupted by fireworks and a bombshell from Hime: she’s moving “far away”.
Satou doesn’t want to accept this; it’s too sudden. Then he sees that golden pillar of light out in the woods and rushes to Hime, who is about to step through. She tells him she’s going back to her world to get married. As she turns to enter the pillar, Satou sees her shed a tear. From the moment he met her a decade ago, he felt like he needed to protect her. He can’t do that by staying put, so he throws caution to the wind and jumps in after her.
He finds himself in a church in the middle of a hasty wedding ceremony between Hime—who is a real Princess whose real name is Krystal Novaty Nokanakita—and a Prince named Marmarugias Gisaras. When the ceremony is interrupted by a monster of the Abyss (no, not that one) crashing through the hall, Hime’s gramps urges her to give the ring of light to her prince.
Of course, the no-name Prince may be a prince, but he isn’t her prince. That’s Satou, whom she rushes to and kisses. The Prince, apparently cool with this (which I like), tosses Satou his sword, which suddenly becomes imbued with bright golden light. With a single determined slash, Satou manages to eliminate the monster, only to pass out.
He wakes up in bed with Hime beside him, telling him they’re in their wedding chamber. Just as he kinda just went with it when the choice to follow her, she chose him over the prince she didn’t know. We learn this will have political consequences, but whatever!
I loved Hime’s mischievous smile when she says “Sorry! I chose you to be our hero!” She dons a wedding gown while he oddly just wears his school uniform as they officially unveil themselves to a largely welcoming populace that is excited their hero and Ring King is from another world.
In this way, the honorable and positive attitude Souta exhibits as he willingly chooses to go to another world (out of love for Hime) is rewarded by a world that welcomes rather than shuns him. Yes, he’ll have to defeat monsters, but he seems to have an innate affinity for that.
After a whirlwind of a day, Satou relaxes in the royal baths, and is joined by Hime, who tells him she doesn’t have a choice as they’re technically newlyweds. Hime worries about the burden she’s placed on Satou, but he believes it will all work out, noting they’re technically still on summer break.
Hime remembers that when she first came to Satou’s world she was bullied for her unusual-for-Japan appearance, but Satou always had her back. While Hime goes on to say she picked him on impulse and they’re both too bashful to admit they’re more than Just Friends, Satou at least makes some measure of his feelings known by saying Hime choosing him made him happy. He never forgot her childhood promise to marry when they grew up, after all.
Their bath is interrupted by another attack by monsters from the Abyss; this time way more than just one. The two dress as they run to the front gates, leaving others to wonder just what they were up to.
Satou has no fighting training (we don’t even know if he knows any martial arts), but a second kiss from Hime is enough to steel his courage for the fight ahead, while the axe he’s given is imbued with light. Now that he’s been given the opportunity to protect Hime and the world she loves, he’s going to give it his all!
Tales of Wedding Rings has a lot in common with Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic, only instead of a platonic trio we have childhood friends. Their situation also reminded me of Tonikawa, both due to the hastily marriage angle and the fact Kitou Akari (who is always great) voices Tsukasa.
I wish it had a slightly larger budget, but Satou and Hime are established well enough such that by the time the plot pivots to isekai heroics I was thoroughly invested in their fortunes, and able to overlook the animation shortcomings (for now). Also, it doesn’t look terrible by any stretch.
That brings us to the elephant in the room: the OP ends with a shot of Satou in bed with a skimpy nightie … and four other women in skimpy nighties, all wearing rings. Then the ED visuals consist entirely of the camera lovingly gliding across these four scantily-clad women bearing come-hither looks. The title is Tales of Wedding Rings, so it looks like Satou won’t just be marrying Hime. So far this was a simple tale, told well, but it’s about to get a lot more complicated!