Happy February, everyone! I hope that all of you had a great January and that this month is just as good or better!
I’m back with another book review, and this time I’m reviewing “The Demon Girl Next Door, Vol. 6” by Izumo Ito! I’ve read all of the other volumes in this manga series, and I look forward to reading and reviewing this one.
Here’s a quick summary so we know what it’s about:
“As she settles into her role as the neighborhood boss, Shamiko wants to know more about magical girls, demons, and the town itself. But while she struggles to bring up the topic to Momo, Ogura-san is suddenly launched into another dimension!”
Plot Development: 4 out of 5 stars
The blurb doesn’t do the best job of really summarizing what happens in the story completely, sadly. However, the story contained in this volume is quite intriguing and densely filled with plot-relevant information. The story introduce a main villain (a magical girl named Suika). More of Momo’s backstory is also revealed. The readers also get their first glimpse of Joshua, Yuko’s father, in person and what he’s like.
I wonder if the plot is trying to head toward the end of the series. This is because of how the pacing is going so far with the main story. The initial volumes were more slice-of-life centric. However, this volume and the past two are involving more of the overarching storyline going on. Suika is now properly introduced as a main antagonist as of this volume, which helps solidify the main story. I have no doubt that the remaining volumes will focus more on the main story than slice of life segments.
Character Development: 4 out of 5 stars
We finally have some sort main antagonist figure introduced in this series, in the form of Suika. She’s a magical girl like Momo and Mikan. Unlike them, she despises demons of all sorts and is willing to get rid of them at any cost, even if they aren’t making any trouble and living their lives peacefully. The extremes she goes to reflects the dark side of magical girls, which I found to be an interesting take. The entire demons vs. magical girls conflict has been a major part of worldbuilding and character relationships. It also forces the worldbuilding of magical girls and demons in this series to be subverted from its usual black-and-white concept. Usually, most magical girl/demon manga has all demons as evil and all magical girls being good. Seeing a grayer area in this series is much more fun to read.
I wonder how Suika’s presence will involve itself in later volumes. How it will affect Shamiko’s quest to get her dad back and keep everyone else safe? I also think it will majorly affect Momo and Mikan if Suika does return, given that both are already on bad terms with her. Given what we know of Suika so far, it will affect Momo more than Mikan in this case. That will probably be further expanded on in future volumes.
Worldbuilding Development: 4 out of 5 stars
Suika’s introduction, as I mentioned in the previous section, introduces the dark side of magical girls. It almost gives off a Madoka Magica-type of mood for the worldbuilding mentioned in this book. I think it was intentional given how high the story’s stakes are now. (For those that don’t know what Madoka Magica is, think of it as your typical magical girl anime gone horribly twisted – and in an intentional way.)
I’m interested to see more of the stakes shown between the demons and magical girls. It’s been discussed mostly in this book, but I want to see more of it in action. Yes, we see some of the consequences through the flashbacks shown in this volume. But, I want to see how our main characters handle it in the present day as well.
Overall, I’m rating this book 4 out of 5 stars!
This was a good continuation of the series’ main story, and I look forward to reading the next volume, whenever it is released!
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