Thoughts on the Manga Marriagetoxin

I just finished all the available chapters of a manga series called Marriagetoxin and randomly felt like sharing some thoughts. I’d usually do this on Twitter but we all know how that place is doing. I have 3.3k followers and my engagement is at an all time low. Maybe I’ll post more thoughts about things I read and watch if you guys are interested.

Anyway, Marriagetoxin is a pretty fun action series with a focus on romance. I think most readers would like it but my autism prevents me from fully loving it because I dread what I feel is the most likely ending.

The main character is an assassin from a powerful bloodline. His family uses poison, and he’s never had a relationship before. His grandmother pressures either he or his sister to find a marriage partner, and because his sister is a lesbian the protagonist steps up to sacrifice himself for her and start dating. But he’s a nervous wreck with women despite being very cool and badass all the rest of the time.

One thing leads to another and he rescues a woman who is a con artist specializing in marriage scams. He ends up proposing to her, but it turns out she’s a crossdressing femboy. I didn’t know that going in lol. The femboy still feels indebted to him and decides to become his permanent wingman until he gets married, and each arc has him offering his Hitman services as a low rent bodyguard to meet women with his twink sidekick playing support.

It’s a battle series, one with *very* outlandish powers. Each arc has him getting into it with other hitmen who have it in for his current client, and standard shounen fights play out. I like how over the top it gets and the main character is badass, doping himself with steroid poisons and creating his own mixes to apply in specific situations. His enemies also get pretty out there, such as a clan of beast users specializing in koalas or a clan of ‘wind-wheel’ users who ride around on flying motorcycles with sawblades for wheels. It’s pretty batshit, which I am always 100% into.

The girls that are introduced in each arc are all adorable and sexy in their own right, my favorite being the third girl and the first girl in that order so far. Further examples of how insane the series is, the first girl is a shark-obsessed art thief who has a literal getaway shark named Jawshua and the third girl is a Hitman specializing in hamster training (she has never successfully completed a mission).

My only problem with the series is that I’m deathly afraid that the most obvious ending is the protagonist falling in love with the twink sidekick. I’m not against that, but the other girls are *so* good that I’ll be disappointed if it goes that way. So far there haven’t really been any signs that he’s developing feelings for him but it’s like the Sword of Damocles hanging over the entire story for me lol. Like I’ll think ‘oh my god I love this hamster girl’ but then it’s like why does it matter he’s just probably going to get with the twink…

The twink is cute though, I quite like his character and I’ve read gay romances before if they’re cute enough, so that’s not the problem for me. It’s that if it goes that route in the end after making the whole premise getting close to other girls I’ll feel disappointed, I guess. It’s only 62 chapters in and it’s hard to tell if it will really go in that direction yet. I hope it doesn’t solely because I would’ve preferred it be much clearer that he’ll end up with the twink from the start.

I still definitely feel like it’s worth reading, though. Art is phenomenal, protagonist is entertaining, the girls and twink are very cute, and the battles are all very fun. Time will tell how it shapes up but even if it does go down the twink route I’ll still likely enjoy it. Romance triggers my dopamine so hard and I’m a slave to the cute.

Like I said I’ll write more of my thoughts on media I consume if people want to hear it, so let me know. Hoping to get chapter 20 done later today/after midnight.