Book Review: “The Demon Girl Next Door, Vol. 5” by Izumo Ito

I’m back with another book review, and this time I’m reviewing “The Demon Girl Next Door, Vol. 5” by Izumo Ito! I enjoyed reading the past volumes in this series, so I look forward to reviewing this one. Here’s a quick summary so we know what it’s about:

“Shamiko has accepted the request of a former Magical Girl to become boss of the neighborhood, and is beginning to manifest more of her demon powers. But between the appearance of another demon and a giant snake god sealed in a nearby mountain, there’s a lot more going on in Shamiko’s domain than meets the eye!”

Character Development: 5 out of 5 stars

It was so fun to read Shamiko, Momo, and all the rest of the characters. I loved the new demon introduced in this book and the giant snake god, though his appearance was brief, was also hilarious to read. Both also added much more worldbuilding development which I’ll address in their respective section.

I also really appreciated reading Shamiko and Momo’s bond in this volume. Shamiko is slowly coming to terms with powers that have more devastating consequences than ever (to the point of literally altering mindsets), to her horror. But at least she has Momo and the others to support her in helping her navigate her newer powers and making sure things don’t entirely fall off the rails as they work together to find Momo’s sister Sakura and free Shamiko’s father from his cardboard box.

Worldbuilding Development: 5 out of 5 stars

I enjoyed the lore involving the snake god, especially with it forcing Beelzebub to pick up trash from the river in exchange for helping Shamiko at one point in the story. I thought it was fun to see those lasting consequences, however small (or huge) they may be for the characters’ actions (good, bad, and in between). I also wonder if Beelzebub will be forced to pick trash for the entire rest of the story, or if that consequence will eventually be removed (maybe the river becomes too clean to pick up trash from by a future volume).

I wish I could write more about worldbuilding development, but I can’t say much else out of fear of giving too many spoilers, other than Shamiko acquiring a few new abilities. It was fun to see how they impacted the story and a few of the characters as well.

Plot Development: 4 out of 5 stars

There was more worldbuilding development in this book. But, it thankfully didn’t slow down the plot too much. I thought it helped add more complications to the main quest of the story (finding Momo’s sister and eventually releasing Shamiko’s dad from the box he’s sealed in) and also added a lot of humor in the process.

Another thing I really appreciated was the recaps given at the beginning of each book. Each volume starts with a quick recap/general gist of what happened in previous volumes, which is appreciated. But, this book’s introduction took the cake with faking a zombie apocalypse before cutting to the real story ideas and recaps.

Overall, I’m rating this book out 4.75 of 5 stars!

I really enjoyed reading “The Demon Girl Next Door” and it continues to be a wonderful series to read. I look forward to reading and reviewing the next volume!

If you like this post, please share it with your fellow writers and readers! Also, feel free to follow my site and/or like my Facebook Page, Twitter, and Tumblr for more reader/writer posts, fanfics, book reviews, and other updates!