plot summary

Things could be better for Keita Kusakabe; he’s the slowest runner on the track team, he doesn’t have a girlfriend and he lives alone with his dad. Which is why when a classmate offers to sell him a magical box which grants the owner three wishes, Keita doesn’t hesitate to buy the trinket.

But these three wishes come with a price; Keita’s soul! After Keita opens the box, he realizes the price he must pay for his wishes is too high. The devil, Maki, who was released from the box and will grant the three wishes, won’t be so easily dissuaded.

Maki uses all manner of persuasion to con Keita into entering a contract with her but she really has no real experience being a devil and is too naive and sweet. After repeatedly refering to her textbook for notes on how to steal Keita’s soul, Maki decides to give up. However, in an ironic twist, Keita’s good intentions seals the deal and his first wish is accidentally granted.

Two wishes remain for Keita to make before Maki drags him down to Hell. Since Keita can’t decide what to wish for just yet, Maki decides she must live with him until he does.

review

The entire concept for My Dearest Devil Princess is too gratuitous to actually be anything but a fanservice device: Naive, inexperienced (but super nice and gentle) devil-girl must live with boy to collect his soul. Boy’s father is happy dumb-girl-who-randomly-gets-naked lives in his house and doesn’t ask questions as to why she now lives there. Other characters are also attracted to and involved with boy. Chaos, fanservice and hilarity ensues- but mostly fanservice.

There is no plot. I couldn’t help but think that every time there was a panty or boob shot in this manga, which was about every five pages or so. If there is one, it’s more of a veneer of a plot than an actual, planned and well-developed one. So the thought that there is no plot- in the traditional definition of the term- was not off base. Also, the excessive use of fanservice led me to the conclusion that perhaps I wasn’t the targeted audience of the manga…

So who would be the targeted audience for My Dearest Devil Princess, MDDP for short? Would it be those who appreciate the female form? Those who like the excess use of moe? Or maybe those who like a lil’ shonen-ai and touch of tsundere-ness? Well, MDDP has all that and more, yet it doesn’t have what it takes to attract fans of “plot” and “story”.

It’s as if the manga randomly collected a few stereotypes of the medium, rolled them together and then used ‘em in a scattershot manner with the hope it would hit some target. The moe aspect, however, is way too strong to be random. There was indeed a certain, male, audience in mind when Maki was “developed”.

Fanservice aside, there is some interest in the manga in the way of a psychotic, avenging angel of mercy. The battle between angels and demons has always been a good source of new theories and concepts on the subject of Heaven and Hell, Good and Evil and the perceived definition of both. Even MDDP doesn’t completely drop the ball- mainly due to the fact that Heaven and Hell are both such rich subjects which draw out such strong emotions. It’s damn hard to make a completely inane story when using the two.

All the characters in My Dearest Devil Princess, Volume One are all very shallow creatures. No one has yet been given any background or personality beyond what their actions showcase. A character who does a violent act in the manga, can thus assumed to be a violent person until further development proves the assumption wrong. But the fact is, there isn’t any development. I have zero connection with any of the characters on any level; be it humorous, sexual, or emotional. I should at least feel something, but all I feel is the need to thumb through the book as quickly as possible and be done with it.

The art, thankfully, is the one thing about the manga that is well-developed. Maika Netsu was the artist cum mangaka who inked MDDP’s pages and the style is simply fantastic. The work has a light, open feel, yet is filled with detailing and shading. The panels are laid out in a thoughtful manner and makes the manga easy to read if not enjoy (the art is enjoyable, however). Lines are crisp and clean and the shading follows suit and is free from the muddy feel some artists succumb to when they fill in their work.

Character designs are important in a manga and they should have the feel that some effort was put into them. MDDP doesn’t have that feel about it; things are too generic and too stereotypical. The nutso angel, Sheeta however, is the exception. Her character design looked like someone took more than three seconds to decide her appearance and she stands out the most in the manga.

There weren’t any extras in the manga, unlike previous Broccoli manga I’ve reviewed. The paper and production quality were high like previous publications which does count for something since it means the art will look better because of it.

My Dearest Devil Princess, Volume One was too much an overt vehicle for fanservice that it sacrificed the one thing a manga can’t exist without; plot. Minus a plot, MDDP devolved from a manga to a book filled with pretty pictures…

Rating

My Dearest Devil Princess, Volume One gets 1.5 outta 4 gummies!