The thing I dislike most about this series is the English name, which is rather clunky and awkward. With that out of the way, I hope to be bit more positive.
The story for this series is rather simple: girl meets boy, they become friends, they treat each other well, he falls for her first ,they meet and overcome a few obstacles, and over a bit of time their friendship becomes a romance. This story has a bit of action and fighting, but most of it happens and is over quickly, it's not prolonged. There's a good bit of humor and a bit of drama. It's a fairly lite series, not a lot of angst or peril.
Yet, this series has given me a lot to think about.
I guess I'm not alone in seeing that romantic relationships and marriages are overall in bad shape, and that's true even in thechurch. People in such relationships seem to not treat each other very well.
When I first saw SWRH several years ago, the thing that struck me the most was how the two main characters, Shirayuki (the Snow White in the title) and Zen, treat each other with a lot of respect and honor.
Let me see if I can explain what I mean.
I think there is a trope that tends to come up in romance stories--one person in the couple is busy with his or her work, and the other person starts feeling like her or she is being ignored, that the busy person is putting work before relationship, and may even be more in love with their job than with the other person.
In SWRH, both main characters have work they must do, responsibilities they must perform, and they simply cannot be with each other all day every day. And they not only accept that reality, but they try to support each other in their work. They do not try to make the other feel guilty for their work seriously, forwanting to do their work as best they can.
This respect for work and for workers is, I think, a good thing. If a man or woman puts in 8+ hours at a job, then gets home and is made to feel guilty about all the time he has to work, if the job is treated like an unwelcomed interruption to things considered more important, then it's little wonder that the one doing the work feels disheartened and discouraged. But treating the worker with honor and respect may at least offer a bit of a balm to the difficulties that come from work.
There is another way the respect between Zen and Shirayuki is shown.
In one episode, Shirayuki is taking a test to gain a certain position. The person running the test tells Zen that, because of his position, he can ensure that Shirayuki gets accepted into the position she wants. But Zen refused to throw his weight around, because he knows that Shirayuki would not want the position if she has not earned it.
I'm not any kind of marriage counselor, but if I were, one thing I'd be tempted to do would be to give the married or soon-to-be-married couple a copy of this series, tell them to watch it and preferably together, and after that discuss with them how the characters treat each other and how that could relate to how this real-life couple should treat each other.
So, I recommend SWRH, and hope you'll give it a watch.
The story for this series is rather simple: girl meets boy, they become friends, they treat each other well, he falls for her first ,they meet and overcome a few obstacles, and over a bit of time their friendship becomes a romance. This story has a bit of action and fighting, but most of it happens and is over quickly, it's not prolonged. There's a good bit of humor and a bit of drama. It's a fairly lite series, not a lot of angst or peril.
Yet, this series has given me a lot to think about.
I guess I'm not alone in seeing that romantic relationships and marriages are overall in bad shape, and that's true even in thechurch. People in such relationships seem to not treat each other very well.
When I first saw SWRH several years ago, the thing that struck me the most was how the two main characters, Shirayuki (the Snow White in the title) and Zen, treat each other with a lot of respect and honor.
Let me see if I can explain what I mean.
I think there is a trope that tends to come up in romance stories--one person in the couple is busy with his or her work, and the other person starts feeling like her or she is being ignored, that the busy person is putting work before relationship, and may even be more in love with their job than with the other person.
In SWRH, both main characters have work they must do, responsibilities they must perform, and they simply cannot be with each other all day every day. And they not only accept that reality, but they try to support each other in their work. They do not try to make the other feel guilty for their work seriously, forwanting to do their work as best they can.
This respect for work and for workers is, I think, a good thing. If a man or woman puts in 8+ hours at a job, then gets home and is made to feel guilty about all the time he has to work, if the job is treated like an unwelcomed interruption to things considered more important, then it's little wonder that the one doing the work feels disheartened and discouraged. But treating the worker with honor and respect may at least offer a bit of a balm to the difficulties that come from work.
There is another way the respect between Zen and Shirayuki is shown.
In one episode, Shirayuki is taking a test to gain a certain position. The person running the test tells Zen that, because of his position, he can ensure that Shirayuki gets accepted into the position she wants. But Zen refused to throw his weight around, because he knows that Shirayuki would not want the position if she has not earned it.
I'm not any kind of marriage counselor, but if I were, one thing I'd be tempted to do would be to give the married or soon-to-be-married couple a copy of this series, tell them to watch it and preferably together, and after that discuss with them how the characters treat each other and how that could relate to how this real-life couple should treat each other.
So, I recommend SWRH, and hope you'll give it a watch.