Friday, December 8, 2023

Book Review: Marriage Toxin vol. 1


As a deadly assassin from the poison clan, Hikaru Gero swears he’ll never settle down—that is, until the family orders his sister to produce the poison clan’s next heir. Refusing to let his sister abandon her chance at true love with her girlfriend, clueless Gero desperately turns to marriage swindler Mei Kinosaki for relationship advice and to learn everything she knows about love. Can Kinosaki turn this trained killer into a charming husband-to-be? Together, this unlikely pair will do whatever it takes to get Gero hitched—even if they have to take on the entire criminal underworld in the process!

Marriage Toxin vol. 1, with story by Joumyaku and art by Mizuki Yoda, will be released on January 2, 2004. VIZ Media provided an early galley for review.

The cover of this manga really caught my eye. With the colors and characters, it just looked like something different and interesting. It made me want to check it out.

Marriage Toxin appeared weekly in Shonen Jump starting in April of 2022 with over 70 chapters to date. The first 51 chapters have been collected in seven volumes; this is the first volume translated into English.

As the story starts, we meet Gero in an opening that could come straight out of any spy movie (right down to very bizarre behavior of a wealthy crime lord). Gero comes across as resourceful as he is handsome. We also are presented with the motivation as to why this lone killer needs to look into marriage. It is a quirky enough of a premise to pull the reader into this character-driven action tale, and the worldbuilding is top notch.

The artwork equally handles both the quieter character situations as Kinsaki walks Gero through modern dating as well as the intense action scenes of the darker corners of the world which these characters inhabit. I very much like the style of the series overall.

I will definitely be on the look out for more in this series.

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