Photo by Nicole. Joumyaku and Mizuki, Volumes 1 and 2 Cover Art, Marriagetoxin, Shueisha.
Marriagetoxin – Information
Author of Story: Joumyaku and Mizuki Yoda
Chapter Count: 173 digital chapters + lots of bonus chapters (14 physical volumes in English)
Status: Ongoing
Content Warnings
These content warnings do not reflect the contents of the review below; only the literary work itself.
- SH, SI
- Food, ED
- Blood
- Violence, torture, death
- Use of poison and needles
- Disturbing or morbid imagery
- Animal cruelty
- Fanservice, partial nudity
Spoiler Disclaimer
This recommendation post may contain small plot spoilers for review purposes. Any major spoilers are hidden by default and are able to be revealed via click or tap.
Plot Summary
Marriagetoxin begins with its protagonist Hikaru Gero, who comes from a family known as the Poison Clan. He is an assassin that specializes in the use of poison to take down his targets. His grandmother wishes to continue their long lineage of poison specialists, meaning either Gero or his sister must marry and pass along their heritage.
However, his sister has already fallen in love and has a girlfriend! So in order to protect his sister’s love life, Gero decides to make it his goal to get married.
To do this, Gero takes on the help of an experienced marriage swindler named Kinosaki. While Gero doesn’t plan on tricking anyone, he does need assistance with his goal of marriage—because he is surprisingly terrible at talking with women! Because of this, normal approaches simply don’t work.
After failing at matchmaking parties and other normal dating tactics, Gero and Kinosaki decide to meet people by offering super cheap bodyguard services—something Gero can actually provide well! With this strategy, Gero sets off on some crazy adventures and meets lots of ladies with very unique personalities.
The ridiculousness of this story sort of reminded me of One Punch Man or Mob Psycho 100, but Marriagetoxin has a fun addition of romance!
If you’ve heard anything about this series already, you might think it’s a harem. Technically Gero does meet a lot of different romantic prospects, but the story really doesn’t go the harem route; so if that isn’t your thing, you can read this romance without worry.
With all that being said, let’s continue this Marriagetoxin manga review by looking at some of the positive aspects of the plot, characters, and art!
Joumyaku and Mizuki, Volume 6 Cover, Marijjitokishin, Shueisha.
Why I Enjoyed Marriagetoxin
Plot:
As you can probably tell, this manga is a very wild ride. It has hilarious concepts, crazy characters, and a pretty bizarre plot overall. It is a great pick for readers wanting something unique, fun, and humorous.
The story is a bit unserious but tons of fun, and the little bits of romance in it just make it even more exciting. The premise and worldbuilding are absolutely ridiculous—they bring a whirlwind of events to each and every chapter.
The entirety of the plot is just incredibly engaging, with lots of action and adventure at every corner; all while the main character looks for potential romantic partners. Gero’s method for finding these partners is quite unique!
His methods lead to some very strange clientele, but also proves rather successful with time. With this silly and sort of unserious plot, this manga makes for a very unique romance with a classic shounen style.
If you love the commonly used shounen elements including ridiculously strong characters, extremely unique and fantastical powers, dramatic battles, and protagonist character growth, then Marriagetoxin is a great fit for you.
For example, Gero often finds himself in wild scenarios while trying to find a partner—fighting strange villains, making allies with other interesting characters, and even becoming the target of many foes. Strange foes at that, as it seems in this fantastical world many people have come to have unique, unexplained powers. Almost like My Hero Academia, but way more weird and humorous, haha.
That’s one of the best parts of Marriagetoxin… it’s super funny. It has such silly and random humor. Not just between the main characters, but also the supporting characters. So many characters have bizarre designs, personalities, or powers that will make you just lose it.
Sometimes the story or situation itself is just outrageously funny on its own. There are so many unexpected turns, twists, and small details to this manga that had me entertained throughout the entire plot.
Joumyaku and Mizuki, Volume 1 Cover, Marijjitokishin, Shueisha.
Characters:
The main character of Marriagetoxin is so incredibly interesting.
Gero is an extremely talented assassin, but also hopeless when it comes to romance. He’s surprisingly lame despite his strength, but still somehow brings out a more “cool side” that is fitting of a main character. He’s also great at cleaning, and loves DIY candy… some unexpected characterizations that just add to the humor of this manga.
He only targets people who meet specific conditions; in other words, he doesn’t hurt people needlessly. He also clearly cares for his sister, so we get a pretty good impression of him from the start. His usually tame personality is also hilariously contrasted to the clever and determined Kinosaki.
Gero’s character sort of gives The Way of the Househusband vibes, having a character who’s supposed to be super dangerous, but is often totally normal and very caring. However, Gero can bring out his impressive abilities when necessary, which keeps this manga very exciting.
One of the most important elements of Marriagetoxin I want to mention is how fun and unique all of Gero’s potential romantic partners are. They all have a variety of designs both appearance-wise and personality-wise. I love that we meet ladies with a variety of interests, strengths, and characteristics.
All of these romantic interests are so unique, interesting, attractive, and likable. It was so exciting to see who will be the next target of Gero’s romancing!
He doesn’t officially date these ladies immediately, but instead becomes friends with them with the intention of getting to know them better, as people often do when trying to date.
However, this manga doesn’t just introduce these characters and then let us forget about them—instead, it occasionally pulls them back into the story, often in the form of cute bonus chapters! I really liked this aspect of the manga, as the character designs are so fun and creative, they really make you want to see all these unique ladies again. And of course, they do reappear for the plot, too.
Art:
While reading this action-packed series, you can enjoy the impressively detailed art style. Even if some scenes are very gruesome or even sort of disturbing at times, you can’t deny how talented the illustrator is. The art looks great, all throughout this absolutely strange and bizarre plot.
The hair, clothing, environments or backgrounds—all of it looks fantastic. It draws you into the story, and even all the side character designs are incredibly interesting (and weird), too. I love seeing a manga full of unique design and a polished style.
Outside of the super weird characters, creepy expressions, and bizarre environmental details, the love interests in this series are all wonderfully designed and often look very gorgeous in their own unique ways; so no worries there!
Any Cons?
It’s a bit difficult to find cons for Marriagetoxin. It’s hilarious, creative, well-illustrated, and incredibly engaging. The themes and characters can be sort of strange or disturbing at times, but I do list content warnings for that reason.
Plus, I’ve made it clear that this is a shounen manga with a huge focus on action and humor. So in terms of actual cons for this manga, there’s only a few.
Firstly, I think that for some readers, the amount of story found in this series may be a lot to take on. If you aren’t a fan of text-heavy mangas with lots of characters to remember and backstories to learn about, this story might not be enjoyable for you.
Joumyaku and Mizuki, Volume 5 Cover, Marijjitokishin, Shueisha.
Also, from the perspective of someone who prefers romance stories, I think Marriagetoxin could’ve given us a tiny bit more romance—considering that’s one of the main plot points of the story. Don’t misunderstand, I do really like the idea that Gero is a considerate bachelor who wants to learn more about his potential partners first, as well as become a more worthy marriage partner for them as well.
Plus, starting off as friends is normal, and we do get to see bonus chapters of their interactions a bit (as I mentioned previously). I just wish that those bonus chapters were included a bit more in-depth as full chapters, so we can learn more about each partner and properly decide which could be a more compatible match for the hero. And maybe enjoy some cute romance scenes in the meantime!
However, it’s pretty obvious that this story is more adventure-focused and a bit unserious, so the real romance doesn’t show up until much, much later in the series. If you’d like an adventurous manga that has a bit more obvious romance in it, check out Tokyo Crazy Paradise! These two mangas have very different vibes, but are both action-packed stories with a touch of romance.
Lastly, as a romance manga with a plot about finding a woman to marry, there is some fanservice. To be honest though, the fanservice in this manga didn’t really bother me as much as some other series I’ve read. The characters are all adults and the fanservice isn’t done in an annoying way.
It isn’t thrown in obnoxiously or unnecessarily—instead, the author often just portrays the ladies with certain angles or more tight-fitting outfits. Gero is an extremely likable and respectful guy, and while he does get nervous around women, he isn’t a gross pervert or anything. So the fanservice in this series is very tolerable.
Regardless of these cons, Marriagetoxin is still very fun and enjoyable!
More In-Depth Review (Warning: Spoilers!)
There isn’t much to the actual plot that I want to dive into, but I did want to talk about the humor in Marriagetoxin more. I can’t believe how funny this series is.
The humor mainly originates from the bizarre plot and insanely strange characters. The main character is an extremely skilled and clever assassin, well-known by other clans for his talent. Additionally, Gero seems rather unfazed by the weird people he constantly meets:
First we meet the crossdressing marriage swindler (Kinosaki is the best wingman), and then we also meet tons of potential partners who are all very fun and different. If you would have told me the love interests would be something like “a girl who rides a shark” or “a girl who wields hamsters as weapons” I would have been very confused; yet it all works out so well.
We also meet other supporting characters who are so strange and hilarious, like bug user. He looks terrifying but is actually very nice. Then there’s Piichi. Piichi is supposedly a normal guy with unreal knife skills. He literally slices off a corner of a full building with just a little knife. Amazing.
In another scene, he looks up online how to filet a squid when their boat is attacked by a giant squid creature. His character cracks me up—definitely one of my favorites from Marriagetoxin.
Even characters who only show up for a short time are super funny, like the bird user man who wants to invent “birdball,” a.k.a baseball with birds. I laughed about that for way too long while reading this series. The music user who carries a massive backpack made me laugh a lot, too.
Clearly, the writer of this series is very creative and has an imaginative mind. Although I am enjoying meeting all the different characters and looking forward to seeing who is end-game for Gero, it is truly the comedy that kept me hooked on this manga.
Final Thoughts
Marriagetoxin is tons of fun and absolutely hilarious. Readers looking for a good laugh will find it easily in this unique, action-packed romance manga. We get to meet tons of awesome characters and potential marriage partners, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this wild story will end!
Disclaimer: Any images used for this blog are for illustrative purposes only, are not owned by me, and are under ownership of the artist or publisher.
Images Credit: Joumyaku and Mizuki, Marriagetoxin, Shueisha, 2022.
