The Spring 2025 Manga Guide

Gene Bride

What's It About? 

Isahaya Ichi is fed up with men, a woman navigating a world where she's underestimated at work because of her gender and sexually harassed. But when her former classmate, Masaki, unexpectedly shows up, everything changes. He claims to be the other half of her "destined pair" from a junior high school event called “Gene Bride,” where genetic information matched students into couples for a day. While Ichi barely remembers the event, Masaki's sudden reappearance sparks a journey of rediscovery and buried secrets.

Gene Bride has a story and art by Hitomi Takano, with English translation by Kristjan Rohde. This volume is lettered by Neal Formy. Published by Seven Seas (April 15, 2025). Rated 15+.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Dee
Rating:

I like to give myself at least a day between reading a manga and reviewing it to gather my thoughts. Sometimes a series fizzles, and sometimes it digs its claws straight into my brain. Gene Bride is solidly in the latter category, largely because the end-of-volume twist turns a workplace drama into a sci-fi mystery in 10 pages flat. I have questions. So many questions.

That final hook guarantees I'll check out the next volume, though I wasn't so sure before then. This is an ambitious manga, maybe even a subversive one, but it's not the most graceful of narratives. The story and art are a bit disorganized, with cluttered panels and occasionally jarring scene changes. The sci-fi worldbuilding is so subtle it's almost unnoticeable, while the depictions of misogyny are so straightforward as to feel more like a lecture than a story at times.

Still, what Gene Bride sometimes lacks in grace, it makes up for with imagination, candor, and memorable characters. Workplace sexism forms a major thematic throughline, but the focus is more on microaggressions than cackling villainy. Ichi's constantly dealing with comments about her appearance or relationship status; men ignore her insights only to fawn over a man who says the same thing; and concerns about her safety linger ever-present when she's meeting men alone. It's mundane but relentless, and Ichi's frustration and exhaustion ring all the truer because of it.

Her relationship with Masaki is so refreshing because he doesn't focus on her looks or treat her as a potential romantic partner. The two click in part because neither fits societal norms: Ichi as a single, somewhat masculine working woman, and Masaki as a heavily autistic-coded man. He's a stickler for routines and schedules, certain stimuli (like headphones over his ears) “make him sick,” and he speaks bluntly to others, often oversharing or missing social cues. Thankfully, Gene Bride doesn't conflate autism with being cold or unfeeling. Masaki cares about others and makes an effort to learn about things he doesn't understand. Misogyny is a new concept to him, but once he researches it, he's unquestioningly sympathetic towards Ichi. They squabble and get irritated with each other due to their different communication styles, but they still accept and support one another. Their chemistry is purely platonic at this point, but if the story does turn into a romance, this isn't a bad foundation for it.

Of course, then The Big Twist happened, and now I have no clue where the series is going, so this entire review might be moot. Gene Bride is juggling a lot of sharp objects and could very easily drop a few right on its head, but I have to give it bonus points for moxie.