Sore wa Totsuzen, Unmei no Aite ga

So, let’s just get this out of the way, the core components of this series are great. The idea of a county where romantic partners are decided by genetic tests done by the government is interesting and inherently provides a lot of conflict. Something that at least initially the series seems more than aware of, even including this line in the first chapter, “40 years ago this influential theory was put forward. It’s sad but true.” Unfortunately, this manga throws any idea of this system being flawed down the drain, because nothing's ever done with it. In fact, most the series’ issues can be drawn back to how the system is implemented.

Of the 4 couples we meet throughout the manga, there 2 categories: 1) They initially don’t like each other, but they learn to get along for one reason or another 2) They just get along from the get-go, and there are very few issues. So intentionally or not, the series effectively says that the system works just fine, thus making it nothing more than a plot device to force characters together. In other words, the system just exists to start up the plot of each pair and has barely any relevance beyond that. They don’t even bring up any possible social implications of choosing to veto their match, so even if things didn’t work out, the characters would have had an easy out.

Now, you might be asking, “What about the relationships themselves, couldn’t they make up for the settings inadequacies?” And you’d be right, except for in this case where you’re wrong because these pairings are far too basic to save anything. Don’t get me wrong, these characters have fine enough dynamics going, but nothing that can carry the manga on its own. One major hold back on this front, being that every male lead is the same slightly perverted nice guy, with the only real difference being a hobby or absence thereof. Otherwise, here’s a quickish synopsis of each relationship (with varying degrees of spoilers):

Yuuichi x Manami: Brother and sister get an S rank match, but they can’t get along until they decide they want to. This is only 1 chapter long and lacks the development necessary to sell them wanting to stay together by the end. Also, there’s another issue I’ll touch upon later.

Jun x Mai: In this one, we have an already matched pair that’s having issues opening all the way up with each other. The girls incredibly popular, and as result, they are dating(?) in secret (even though this shouldn’t be possible unless she’s kept her age and birthday a secret, but whatever). Otherwise, she’s cold on the outside and warm on the inside. They grow a little closer due to the events of the arc and become more comfortable with their feelings with each other, really not much to write home about.

Nobuyuki x Miyuki: This is the gamer couple, as such, everything in this arc must revolve around games. They meet in person at the beginning of this arc, but actually know each other from the MMO they play. Wherein they start off with a very confrontational relationship, though this doesn’t translate to their real-life relationship at all. The only way to really get into this arc issues is to talk about spoilers, so that’s all in the tag below. For anyone who does not want to be spoiled, then will just say that the drama comes off flat due to giving the reader too much information far to early.

Takuya x Shiori: These two are cousins from a broken family, where their parents have some form of vendetta going. This one had the most going for it from the base, but it very clearly got cut off before it was really supposed to end. The conflict of attempting to mend their family’s relations just never comes to fruition, and one of the families accepts the relationship just far too easily. Oh, also that issue from the first relationship has reared its head again, so I’m going to talk about it now.

Incest, regardless of how I may feel on the subject, should not be happening in this setting. Anyone with basic knowledge of genetics knows about inbreeding, you know, that thing where birth defects become more likely when the parents are closely related. So, if the matching is done through genetic testing, then close relatives shouldn’t be getting high matching scores, like ever. Maybe just once in a blue moon’s blue moon, but it’s literally half of the pairings we see implying that it’s not exactly that uncommon. So, the setting becomes even more demeaned as nothing more than a plot convenience, because its implications only seem to be considered when it helps the characters.

Now that I am done complaining about everything, I will talk about the one saving grace that we have here. The art is very nice, the soft roundness helps convey a pleasant laid-back tone pretty well, even if it did clash with the ecchi scenes early on. If the setting and the story were better suited to it, I think the art could be a massive strength for the manga. As is though, it’s just is a sugar atop a big bland cake comprised of under-utilized ingredients.

So, bringing this all this thing to a conclusion, this manga has an excellent premise and good art for its purposes. Neither of those, however, are at all utilized to their fullest potential, and frankly almost completely squandered on this manga. As harsh as I have sounded thus far, I do want to be clear this manga is not really bad, it’s just a bland okay that has every reason to be better than it is. I’m not going to say you shouldn’t read it, but there are simply so many better things out there that are far more worth your time.