Yes 🙌

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I read this in one sitting. Easy, fast, and fun. I cannot wait to learn more about the side characters. The art is fantastic. Making the emotions stand out clear and strong. I WILL be getting the second volume. 💜

Recommended for fans of:
My Happy Marriage
Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits

Thank you NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

—Brief Summary-
Nanao, strong dark spiritual energy bride to be, had a bright future. That is, until she breaks one of her Clans laws. Now labeled as “tainted”, her life has become a nightmare.

Catching the eye of a guest, her life is altered once more. Taken from everything and everyone she has ever known, she will have to face a world outside of her Clans strict rules.

A girl ostracized by her clan and abused finds herself rescued and made into the wife of the mysterious demon hunter who happens to be the scion of another noble family... so begins their romance. Nanao was attacked whe she was younger by a vengeful yokai spirit, an ayakashi, and was left with a mark of a demonic curse on her. Ever since then her betrothed, Reito, was stolen by her cousin Akemi and she has been outcasted and abused by her clan. Everyday Nanao suffers until a mysterious scion of another family walks in and saves her... his name is Yako. From the moment Yako see's her face and is drawn to her beauty and taste her blood, he can sense her strong spiritual power and takes her for his own new wife. Yako saves her from her family and takes her to his own home where he has demon spirits as servants and is a demon hunter... as Nanao gets used to her new life she finds herself opening up to her new husband and her new friends as she grows. This is the first book in the series, and I absolutely adore it. I loved reading this manga before it was officially in print and am so excited to see it getting a US release!!! If you love romance, mystery, and a great cast of characters, absolutely pick this one up!!

Release Date: March 25, 2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Loved this and can’t wait for the next volume. Had me hooked from the start. I also appreciated its length; it might be me but it felt longer than your average manga.
I will say it is very much a MMC saves FMC from horrible life and bullying, but I do enjoy that trope so I loved it.

I loved this book. It was a great story and it kept me intrigued. I'm excited to continue the series.

I requested this arc because of the beautiful cover art, but more importantly, because I love Mamenosuke Fujimari's no kuni no Alice manga. So I was excited.

The art is, as expected, absolutely beautiful. The world is incredibly interesting, with ayakashi/demon's and demon hunters and sorta vampire vibes too. The tiny kappa's were adworabwel (they talk like that, it's a joke, I'm sorry)

Our main character is treated awfully by her family because she was attacked by an Ayakashi/demon. (because of her jealous AF cousin). She was super powerful though. A man from a different family comes to visit, seeking a wife, and despite her staying mostly out of sight and wearing a literal monkey mask, he takes her (because she's powerful and he hates how she's treated and some extra reasons). Oh, and her ex-fiance who dumped her and treated her awfully after the attack sees her face at one point before she leaves, and because she's super pretty he wants to keep her as his concubine... his wife (the jealous cousin) hates her even more after that, I'm sure.

If I wanna be poetical, this can also be seen as a rape analogy. Young girl is attacked and is now impure. Her fiance no longer wants her because she's "tainted" now. There are some undeniable parallels there. I don't know how intentional that was, but it's great.

I like how our main girl keeps her trauma even once she moves into her new husband's house. Often in manga, abuse/trauma are used as plotpoints, without actual consequences. At least in this first volume, there's still flaskbacks, reactions formed by her abuse/ trauma. She realizes this herself too, that she needs to learn/get used to not being seen as worthless/useless.

She is absolutely adorable though and not just because of her looks. The way she tries her hardest for her new husband (partly because of trauma, and because she is terrified of being send back) shows it's not JUST trauma. She watches him carefully, realizes she likes seeing people eat food she cooked, trying to figure out what kind of food her husband likes and dislikes, by watching how he reacts. It's cute.

I'm SO excited to see how this will continue. On the whole Fujimaru-sensei's manga generally portray really healthy relationships and they both have some trauma/self-worth issues, that could lead to an incredible healing relationship, if done well. The world is incredibly fun and interesting and I can't wait to learn more. Interestingly enough, there were a few novel pages near the end of this manga too. I really enjoyed that, I haven't really seen that in manga before. Best book I've read so far this year, one I'm genuinely really excited about.

The first volume of The Ayakashi Hunter;s Tainted Bride really sets the scene for a wonderful manga mixing both shojo and fantasy elements. The art style is beautiful, and the plot is easy to follow. Fans of My Happy Marriage will enjoy this one, as there were a lot of similarities between the two series. I loved the main characters and can't want to read more about their journey in the follow up volumes.

I am very ECSTATIC to find this manga as it is right up my alley!

Once betrothed to the successor of Byakurenji family, Nanao is now considered an outcast because of her ayakashi marking, obtained when she crossed the border due to Akemi's urge - her cousin, who has been eyeing her position. But her life is about to change when the head of Benitsubaki Clan, Master Yako, decided to marry her - her status is suddenly elevated as the wife of the strongest clan's head.

This manga mixes shojo romance with fantasy and is set on historical era which is my favorite era! Lots of beautiful kimonos and western army uniforms. The drawing style is very lovely and detailed, mind that I read this on my 12 inch tab. The initial premise is quite similar to Happy Marriage (that I happened to read first) : a powerful yet disgraced lady got her status elevated by marriage to a high-ranking noble. However, seeing so many potentials to explore from this premise, I do hope this manga can offer a distinct plot that can keep its readers intrigued. As far as the first book goes, I am quite grateful that they don't put any explicit content usually slipped in mangas these days (bring back the good old innocent mangas!). After the last chapter, there is a short story depicted in light novel in one page and comic in the next page. I find this combination quite comfortable for it can help me visualize the words I'm reading. Can't wait to read the next volumes :)

I will recommend this book to readers who love the combination of shojo and fantasy manga.
Special thanks to Kodansha Comics for providing digital copy of this book for me via NetGalley to review. All opinions are honestly my own! :)

- ancient spirits
- a woman scorned
- a second chance at life
- "breakfast is the most important meal of the day"

I don't know what I expected in this Manga, but I suppose this is kinda what I imagined? The review were so positive that I think I assumed there would be more of a plot, but all together this book wasn't bad. It was just brief and a little silly. It took me maybe 20 min to get through it, so I think I will look into more mangas in the future.

I was hooked at cursed girl x demon hunter husband. I went into this manga blind besides that, so I was really surprised by the twist! The set-up of the manga pulls on a lot of classic tropes like the soft but secretly powerful shojo protagonist and the evil, scheming families that abuse her due to jealousy like in "My Happy Marriage." But as a vampire lover, I'm more likely to continue reading this series than others with the same premise.

In The Ayakashi Hunter's Tainted Bride Nanao is tainted by an ayakashi, annulling her engagement to her beloved Reito. After years of abuse the heir of another prestigious family, Yako, visits and impressed with her immense spiritual power decides to make Nanao his bride.

"How long can I go on like this? Hopes... Dreams... I don't have anything anymore."

First of all the art style for this manga is stunningly beautiful. This is shoujo at its best with emotive expressions, and gorgeous backgrounds and flowers everywhere. While the story is just getting starting, the mangaka seem to lay a solid basis for what is to come with the worldbuilding in this first volume. There is something very appealing in the premise of this story, of being spirited away from a less than desirable situation, that will speak to a wider audience.

"As of today...you're my wife."
"I'll protect you from now on."

The Ayakashi Hunter's Tainted Bride is a great manga for any lover of shoujo fantasy. I would especially recommend this series to readers who love My Happy Marriage and The Ancient Magus' Bride.

Thank you Midori Yuma, Mamenosuke Fujimaru and Kodansha Comics for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Once I saw this was from the creator of Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, one of my favorite manga I had to read it and I was not disappointed! The story follows Nanao who starts off being excited to marry the lord of an important family however, she is attacked by a yokai spirit and is left with a scar. Her cousin than steals her fiancé and Nanao is not only forced to wear a mask to cover the scar but is also most live life as an outcast until she meets Yako. The first volume really does a good job laying the ground work or the story without feeling like a info dump. I'm excited to see what happens next!

The art style is nice and the world/setting and magic is interesting. So far I’m not too convinced about how the romance will go. I don’t particularly like the male lead. And the female lead has been abused for so long which tends to not be my favorite type of female lead. But if you like that kind of story, you would probably enjoy this one. Not sure I would continue the series myself.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers, and the author/artist for the ARC I received.

This was such a good read. I love stories like these and I’m excited to see where it goes. I love the new husband and that he cares for her and the art style is beautiful

This was such a fun read! I enjoyed the supernatural elements (some were so cute), and the story was very engaging from the start. The ending set up the story well for Volume 2, so I will definitely be checking that out.

The art style was great and really matched the vibe of the story. I liked that the ML had some depth to him without being incredibly toxic. I think this will pave the way for some interesting developments between the main characters in further volumes. I would have liked to have seen some more depth from the FL, but perhaps this will come later.

Overall, this was a fun and engaging fantasy manga.

Overall this Webtoon turned manga is really good. Some things about it reminded me of a few others I'd read before.

Nanao is a young woman with high dark spiritual powers, but because of a jealousy of another woman in her clan she becomes tainted by an ayakashi. Because of that, her promising marriage to the head of the can is cancelled. Several years later, a young man is looking for a bride and Nanao is whisked away to the imperial court.

Lots of information in just three chapters, but I kept me pulled in tight through the whole thing. It only took me a few hours to read, but I enjoyed every minute.

This volume 1 did a great job establishing the setting but I wish we had gotten more of the characters. I am interesting continuing the series

I am a SUCKER for these types of mangas.
Nanao is abused by her current clan, due to the fact she was marked by an orangutan demon. Yako visits her clan one day and decides she will be his bride. We learn more and more how dreadful Nanao was treated and even some interesting information about Yako. I am super excited to read more of this- the tension was just getting started!

Thank you to Kodansha and NetGalley for this ARC.

A somewhat interesting but I think I’ve had too much of the trope where one of the characters is the anti-dote to the other’s affliction. In this one, she’s essentially a blood bank…but it’s fine because he rescued her from an abusive situation!

Eh.

Mamenosuke Fujimaru's dark fantasy book The Ayakashi Hunter's Tainted Bride combines romance, mystery, and supernatural intrigue. In addition to exploring themes of love, treachery, and the conflict between the spirit and human worlds, the novel centers on a strong female protagonist who becomes engaged with ayakashi, or supernatural entities.

All things considered, The Ayakashi Hunter's Tainted Bride is a captivating story for readers who appreciate romantic, evocative fantasy with supernatural overtones. It may not stand out as much for readers looking for a particularly inventive take on the fantasy genre, but it's ideal for those who enjoy delving into rich, imaginative worlds with a sense of mystery.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me with this title.

I really wanted to like this but, I'm afraid it fell into the "it's okay" category. It has some beautiful artwork and I'm a sucker for stories involving demons but, the characters were just not well developed in my opinion. I can't get behind the stereotype commonly seen in the female characters in manga and anime where she comes from a abusive background but, never develops beyond being meek and submissive with no interests of her own.

That being said - the twist at the end which was hinted at throughout was good and has me interested enough to consider reading the next one.