YMMV / MARRIAGETOXIN

• Adorkable: For as skilled as Gero is when it comes to assassinations, he's so awkward at romance that it loops right back around to being incredibly endearing.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Kinosaki plays the role of a Romantic Wingman, matchmaker, and mentor in romance to Gero, but quite a few fans wonder whether that is his only role in the story, or if they are meant to read Kinosaki as genuine competition for being Gero's endgame partner since so much of their interactions can be read as Ship Tease (Gero's extreme protectiveness towards Kinosaki, often rescuing him through Bridal Carry; Kinosaki fitting perfectly into the First Girl Wins role, bar the fact he's male; Kinosaki taking Gero to practice dates and promising him and his close friends that he will do his best to make Gero happy; etc). It doesn't help that Kinosaki is indicated to be bisexual and confirms he has been with men in the past.
  • In chapter 77, Gero and Kinosaki have an interaction in which their Ho Yay seems to turn into straight up Ship Tease: Gero ends up falling on top a barely awake Kinosaki on the floor and they stay like that looking into each other's eyes for moment. The scene plays this interaction completely straight. Kinosaki stops this situation by teasingly putting a finger over Gero's lips and saying that anything further than that would need to happen with his actual partner. Was the scene a hint of actual attraction between them or just a tease for the audience? If it is the former, was Kinosaki stopping himself from making a move on Gero, or was he stopping Gero from starting feeling any attraction towards him that might trouble their search for his wife?
• Arc Fatigue: For some, the Arashiyama arc, particularly the fight with Toshiro at the end, went on too long for its own good.
• Ho Yay:
  • Oh yeah. A very large percentage of the fanbase ships Gero and Kinosaki, which is lent credence by A) Them being the only two characters who can be expected to appear in every arc, as the entire plot is dependent on their mentor/mentee relationship, which needs to be said is in romance and B) The manga already having gone straight for queer subject matter, with Akari being an explicit lesbian and Kinosaki being bisexual, with many, even non-shippers, thinking a potential relationship between Gero and Kinosaki would be a completely on-point direction for the manga to go in. Interactions which could be construed as Ship Tease between the two include:
    • Gero getting so distracted by Kinosaki at first sight that he walks into a vending machine and busts his face.
    • Gero proposing marriage to him only to be rejected. Under the assumption that Kinosaki is a woman though, mind you.
    • Gero rescuing Kinosaki from kidnappers, with the latter in a Bridal Carry to boot, and being complimented on how stunning he looks.
    • Everything about their practice dates.
    • Gero saying "I need you" to Kinosaki multiple times in various contexts.
    • Kinosaki attending Bug User's wedding with Gero, where he assures both Gero and his friends that he'll guarantee his happiness to the best of his ability.
    • After getting defeated by Piichi in a fight, Gero resting his head on Kinosaki's lap as he recovers. Even more, it seems like it was entirely his decision to rest like that and Kimie is in the background being jealous.
    Kimie: I wish Hikaru-sama would put his head in my lap. [...] How long is he gonna lie on his helper's lap?
    • Gero rescues Kinosaki by doing a Princess Carry on him again in Chapter 40.
    • Gero gets a Next Tier Power-Up by protecting Kinosaki from Toshiro after Kinosaki, without any powers himself, stood between them to protect Gero.
    • Chapter 50's color cover is a spread with Gero and the 4 girls that are possible romantic outcomes for him... and Kinosaki.
    • Chapter 77 has Kinosaki trying out a date-at-home with Gero and he puts on his entire charm on him, including wearing Gero's own hoodie after a shower, sitting between his legs while he watches movies, and grabbing on him when they get scared by a noise. The chapter even ends looking like they're about to kiss when Gero lays on top of Kinosaki, but Kinosaki stops gero with a finger on his lips.
    Kinosaki: Anything further than this you will have to do with your future partner, okay?
  • At least one shot makes it seems like Teruaki has a crush on Gero.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Inevitable considering that it's a Romantic Comedy with several potential love interests. Going off of Mangaplus comments, the fan-favorite pairings seem to be split between Gero/Arashiyama and Gero/Akakura, although Gero/Kinosaki of course has a very strong following as well.
• Ugly Cute: Toshiki, the Bug User Assassin. He has a very blatant Face of a Thug (To wit, he is a large, hulkling, bald man with a bug face tattoo, scars, crooked teeth, a split tongue, and stitches on the corner of his mouth), but he is also by far the sweetest and kindest man in the story, always bearing a friendly smile on his face when he appears, which makes even his unusual appearance come off as charming.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: A few fans were surprised to learn that Ushio is a woman when she returns in Chapter 34. This easily comes from a multitude of elements, like her Boyish Short Hair, her masculine side-hustle as a plumber (a typically male profession), and spending most of her introductory arc completely covered in something resembling an astronaut suit that leaves no clue about her figure.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Conservative values are a subject the manga is very interested in; perhaps more accurately, how conservatism forces people into roles they don't want. Gero is expected to inherit the clan but has absolutely no desire to do so, and at first plans on pulling a 'the family ends with me' gambit. However, when Akari, who is a lesbian in Japan, is forced into marrying a man in order for the family to continue, Gero acquiesces to expectations in order to save her but still manages to rebel by engineering a situation where whoever he ends up marrying will be his choice and no one else's. Representing this conservative/liberal power struggle on the former's side is the siblings' grandmother, the Gero Family matriarch, who while not having appeared yet is responsible for the entirety of the plot through her authoritarian insistence that either one of her grandchildren submit to what is expected of them as a man and woman of their clan. All in all, the manga takes a lot of cues from contemporary debates around family, gender, purpose, and one's place in society, particularly in a specifically Japanese context, where there is no legal recognition of same-sex partnerships at any level of government. (Many individual municipalities and prefectures offer partnership declaration certificates for same-sex couples, providing them with some of the benefits of opposite-sex married couples, which are mutually recognized between numerous locales, but they're not legally binding and there's no legal obligation for landlords, hospitals, or companies to honor them.)

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