Holiday Review #7: A HERO IN THE DEMON'S CASTLE

 This year was a good one for Denpa Books and the same is true for their BL imprint Kuma.  It was sincerely hard for me to choose whether to talk about this one or Harada's Happy Crappy Life, but I feel like I made the choice that gave me the most interesting stuff to talk about.

A HERO IN THE DEMON'S CASTLE (Yusha In Maonchi), written by Inutoki and art by Syohei.  First published in 2014 and first published in North America in 2023.

PLOT:

Wisped is a powerful demon king who spends his days exhausted at all of these human heroes who keep barging into his castle.  He's tired of having his sleep and hours of lonely brooding interrupted (along with all the holes they leave in the castle after he boots them back to the human realm).  Then a hapless young hero named True shows up, a young man whose strength is equaled only by his innocence and his refusal to leave the premises.  At first, Wisped takes it upon himself to watch over True in order to educate him a little and keep him from destroying the castle by accident, but as time passes he finds himself caring more and more for this strange, wide-eyed, blond annoyance of a boy.

STORY:

I know that some of y'all might have seen the words "demon king" and "hero" in that summary and felt your eyes glaze over.  I can't entirely blame you, as over 10 years of crappy isekai fantasy titles have robbed those words of any novelty or impact.  I would still urge you to give A Hero in the Demon's Castle a chance, particularly if you like your BL on the silly side.

That said, its focus on comedy is both a blessing and a curse.  The focus on slapstick and poking gentle fun at the whole hero's quest thing does make this a breezy read, but it comes at the expense of the relationship between Wisped and True.  What they have is a romance only if you turn your head and squint at it, since True's too naive to know what romance is and whatever affection Wisped feels for him is tempered by his very real annoyance with True's antics.  It's more like the love that a grumpy owner of a particularly stupid yet affectionate dog might feel than anything else.

I do feel like that Inutoki gets a bit lost towards the end, just as things start to get a little serious.  By that point they've introduced so many side characters that Wisped and True get a little lost in the shuffle.  This kind of takes away from the impact of the ending and the somewhat serious turn things take before it.  Still, it was a fun read.

ART:

This is the real reason I wanted to talk about this particular book because this does not look like any other BL manga on the market.  Syohei's art is heavily stylized and rubbery with thick, heavy, loose linework that looks more like brushwork.  It breaths life into the comedic moments but also works well against the more finely drawn and detailed backgrounds.  It's definitely going to be divisive, as BL fans generally favor more serious and traditionally pretty artwork.  I wouldn't have it any other way though - that style gives this manga so much of its charm and uniqueness.

PRESENTATION:

The book itself is handsomely made, with French flaps, a slip cover with omake sketches on the inside cover, and surprisingly good-quality paper that really brings out the rich blacks in the inking.  I also have to praise Andrea Donohue's lettering here, as she clearly had a lot of fun coming up with fun fonts and translations for all the wild and wacky sound effects.

RATING:

A Hero In the Demon's Castle is a bit messy and has a unique art style that won't appeal to everyone, but if you like your BL heavy on the comedy and light on the smut you might have a good time with this one.

This book is published by Denpa Books via their Kuma imprint.  It is currently in print.

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