MARRIAGETOXIN ‒ Episode 4

© Joumyaku・Mizuki Yoda/SHUEISHA, MARRIAGETOXIN Project

Now that Gero's realized he'll have to circle through a lot more women before he finds his potential bride-to-be, it's time to watch him slip into his next assignment so he can meet Candidate #2. This one requires him to work as a bodyguard, and while playing the role of a rescuer on his last job made it a little easier for him to hide his general awkwardness, this one requires spending a lot more time around our newest heroine if he wants any chance of winning her over. The good news for him is that she so far seems to be even more of an anxious mess than he is, but while that certainly helps with building up their rapport, it also seems like we're going to be in for a bit of a wait before we see this relationship take off.

This week's marriage candidate is Shiori Ureshino, a first year college student who's set to inherit her late father's company, save for two problems: her aunt wants her dead so can steal the company for herself, and Shiori has some pretty severe social anxiety. Even just the act of trying to introduce herself at a college mixer leaves her brain going around in circles over ways to start a conversation, and that makes it pretty easy to sympathize with how much pressure she's under to take on a position she's not currently equipped for. That ends up putting Gero in the position of being the more outwardly put together of the two, but since this is Gero we're talking about, his idea of demonstrating how to be social includes such wonders as showing off a party trick he learned by chugging a bunch of beers, only to freak everyone out by somehow making his puke look like a balloon animal. It's pretty funny (if also a little gross), but this has the added benefit of feeding into Gero and Shiori's potential romance, as while there isn't a ton of direct progress on that end, we do at least get to see how Gero's bizarre attempts to demonstrate how outgoing he is aide Shiori in her efforts to get out of her shell, and watching her dress up as magical girl to do parlor tricks was pretty adorable, even if it was clearly destined to end in disaster. In turn, we also see how Shiori's puppy dog levels of cuteness can melt through the exterior of someone as self-serious as Gero, and while it's not exactly prime romantic chemistry, it works as another example just how well this series can establish dynamics between Gero and each of his potential love interests that actually feel sincere.

On the action front, this episode also sees Gero being pitted against another high-level assassin in the form of the Sound Master, Naruko, who, in contrast to our protagonist, seems to be a lot more of a ladies' man. Although when a lot of that involves him using his control over sound to hypnotize women into fawning over him, it really just paints him as a guy obsessed with hyping himself up, and is likely to make it all the more satisfying whenever Gero inevitably caves his face in. While we don't get much direct interaction between them, watching him level an entire building just to get to Shiori does give us a good indication of the kind of scale we can expect these master assassins to operate on, and it's bound to make for some great bits of spectacle once they start going at it next week. Ultimately, a lot of this episode really is just the show laying the groundwork for the rest of Shiori's arc and not much else, but it's done a decent enough job of laying out all the pieces that I'm sure it'll all manage to come together.

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MARRIAGETOXIN is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.