Manga Review: Demon Love Spell, Volume 1, by Mayu Shinjo

Rating (Out of 5): ~3-3.5

Publisher: VIZ Media (Shojo Beat)

Volumes: 5+

Spoilers?: Some/Minor-ish

Buy it here: Amazon.

Goodreads Synopsis:

By the creator of Ai Ore! and Sensual PhraseMiko is a shrine maiden who has never had much success at seeing or banishing spirits. Then she meets Kagura, a sexy demon who feeds off women’s feelings of passion and love. Kagura’s insatiable appetite has left many girls at school brokenhearted, so Miko casts a spell to seal his powers. Surprisingly the spell works—sort of—but now Kagura is after her!

Reads R to L (Japanese style) for teen plus audiences.

Review:

I was hesitant to start this series when I have barely even started Ai Ore!, by the same author, but decided to get it anyway (I still plan on reading more of Ai Ore!, though, so don't worry). (Also, I now have the second volume, so I must review this one.)

This volume was just kind of average. The main character, Miko, is part of a family of demon exorcists, and she works at a shrine, but she’s the only one in her family who can’t see demons. She ends up trying to exorcise this playboy at her school, trying to protect her friend from him, and the playboy actually ends up being a very powerful incubus. She turns him into this tiny little boy, about the size of a hamster, and he clings onto her because he’s now defenseless and has nowhere to go. Although, he has taken to visiting her in her dreams, where he's a fully grown, and seduces her rather easily every time. At least, he does this until her awake self finds out and puts up a barrier (using some kind of spell) so that he can't.

Miko was alright. She gets embarrassed easily, she yells a lot, resists to all sexual/romantic advances; right now, she’s a pretty average, typical heroine, and while I don’t think that will change much, I do hope she gets better. Or that I get to know her more/get used to her.

The playboy demon, Kagura, isn’t too bad. He’s generally domineering and the type of bad boy who makes girls blush, but the fact that he’s now stuck in a tiny hamster size body has definitely made him more vulnerable and adorable. I’m not very sure how I feel about him, though. Or the romance between him and Miko. He’s falling for her, which he’s made rather obvious, even though they don’t really know each other. I just don’t feel like I know him very well yet.

So far, this seems rather typical Mayu Shinjo: with a naïve, blushing heroine and a bad boy, dominant love interest. It was funny, and there wasn’t really any graphic sex, although there was a bit of kissing. I think Kagura is starting to take the role of the dominant male who comes in and saves his woman because she’s incapable of doing it herself (even if she has the reason that she doesn’t know how to get rid of demons by herself and can only see them when he's touching her), which is worthy of some eye-rolling and annoyance, although I don’t think there was anything particularly overtly offensive (I could be wrong, however, so go ahead and let me know if there was something in particular in this volume), although it’s very possible there will be something in future books.

Right now, this was just average. Nothing really stuck out to me, nothing really offended me too much. I will be sticking around for a couple more volumes, hoping that it gets better. (I might end up sticking around for a lot of it, actually, because of the sex that I’m sure is to come. I’m such a sucker for that stuff. Although, to be fair, that's kind of the best part of all of Shinjo's books.)