Level 1 demon lord and One room hero Manga review
So I finished catching up to the manga as now all volumes has been published in english. The story basically recreates the basic venture into the demon world but with a twist as the relationship between the demon lord and the hero is all but confirmed with a majority support even among demons save for one fanatical demon general who still believes the essential purpose of the demon lord is to invade humanity and reign over all for demonkind until the end of time and seeing the demon lord happily marry a human is antithetical to that vision to say the least. This is the foundation for the climax as the demon lord is forced to nullify the marriage on the grounds that the hero was defeated by said demon general and is therefore cast out battered and bruised until the few close friends of the demon lord come and urge the hero to get up again and save the demon lord for her own generals who intend to basically use her as a puppet to have their mighty invasion of the human world.
One small thing but the ink work especially in the volume of the sea battles with the giant squid are incredible and stretch the ideas of what can be done with inking and manga techniques as you'll see wide spreads of battle scenes all in black save for a few white lines to denote lightning strikes and sword strikes and vicious hateful eyes between enemies as they fight to the death through a monstrous storm over the sea.
The journey then progresses as the hero's original teammates unite again to help the hero again after they chastise him for not calling on them in the first place and interrogating why he's so desperate to get to the demon world of all places. What amounts to a coup has also laid waste to the demon world as they were still rebuilding the army at the time of the marriage annulment but since the demon general's treachery all resources that would have gone to basic infrastructure has been directed to military expansion at the cost of every citizen who's not a soldier. Upon conquering the demon lord's castle and their generals we see the renewed demon lord taken over by the vicious desire of the generals who overtook her, almost possessed by it until she's broken out of it by a sacrificial final strike by the hero that would set the demon world and human world without their champions and thereby seriously hampered before they can consider any military conquest in the short term future. Fast forward a few years and we see the demons and humans actually living in relative peace, those political leaders who were militant and fervent on conquest of the other side have been ousted and the demon lord and hero have established their happy married home, with a child no less.
All in all, I really enjoyed this read, the writing and the art kept me engaged and waiting for the next volume to see what jokes, action and panel design/inking lay ahead. Highly recommend both the manga and anime if you get the chance to come across them.
One last thing, the creator has an eye for designing some of the most beautiful women characters I've ever seen like look at this woman character named Zenia, you'd ask her to sit on you after she beats you up with brass knuckles.
