Overview (Spoilers Below):
Satou and the others have arrived in the elven homeland of Romca, the Land of Wind, where he plans to marry Nefritis, the princess of the Ring of Wind. Due to her shy nature, Nefritis vehemently refuses her marriage to Satou.
Our Take:
Satou and the others have reached their first destination, Romca, in an attempt to marry Nephrites and gain the power of wind. Unsurprisingly, Satou’s attempt to ask her hand in marriage isn’t as easy as marrying his childhood crush. Nephrites’s shy and anxious personality causes her to freak out whenever she’s near him. However, despite her anxiety, Nephrites is also curious about the world beyond her home, resulting in Satou offering to show it to her instead of forcing her to marry him.
There’s also the fact that the barrier around Romca is caused by the wind ring inside the temple, which draws power from the corpses of Nephrite’s parents. That’s one way to keep the family’s legacy alive. The episode showcases how Romca became a seclusive village as told by Peridot, the elf elder and Nephrites’s caretaker. Nephrites’s aunt was supposed to inherit the wind ring, but that was before she fell in love with a human traveler, causing the people to worry about him inheriting the ring. So, instead of driving the traveler out, they murdered him, forcing the aunt to flee and place a curse upon the kingdom. This “curse” injected fear into the villagers, including Nephrites’s mother, who sacrificed her life to create the barrier before promising Nephrites never to leave the kingdom.
Of course, that’s just one of the problems Satou has to face to earn Nephrites her freedom. The other is her eldest brother, Jade, the kingdom’s prince who’s hellbent on keeping Nephrites and the kingdom safe. This guy does not give a rat’s butt about the Ring King prophecy and the Abyss King, as his only desire is to keep his sister to himself. It’s more like the Rapunzel scenario, except Nephrites doesn’t have long hair and Mother Gothel is her overprotective brother. This, of course, is another element that Tales of Wedding Rings is inspired by, mainly in this episode and possibly the one after, but lacks anything unique to make it stand out. It’s not without an amusing moment involving Satou and Nephrites, but besides that, I’m still on the fence with this series. It’s not terrible, but it hasn’t found that spark for me yet.