Maddies Manga

The quiet and meek Riku would have a tough time if not for her friend Koumori. As he’s as kind as an angel, she finds herself able to relax around him despite her social anxiety. When his family unexpectedly moves away one day, Riku promises to get better at making new friends. Koumori, in turn, promises to return to her side as soon as possible.

While both of them are able to keep their promises just 6 years later, the once angelic Koumori now resembles a demon more than anything.

Links to sample at the bottom!

Author

This series is written by Hatta Akari. X

Genre & Tropes

High school romance, childhood friends, “touch her and die”, “all you need is me”.

Info about this series (ongoing)

This is a new series, with 4 chapters currently available to read. The first volume will be released March 13th.

TL;DR rating

I’ll always be a fan of obsessively toxic male leads. I loved the stark difference in child Koumori vs teenager Koumori!

I have this volume on pre-order, I can’t wait to continue reading.

What’s this series about? (Chapter 1 spoilers)

When they were children, Riku and Koumori were as close as friends could be. As Riku found it very difficult to interact with new people, Koumori was basically her whole world. Sadly his family decided to move away to America for work one day, leaving Riku all alone. Before he left, they both made a promise: Riku would work on her social skills so she can make new friends, and Koumori would do his best to return to Riku’s side as soon as possible.

Both of them kept their promises: while Riku is busy chatting with one of her new friends in her new high school, Koumori steps in as an exchange student. Only, looking a little different from how Riku remembered him.

When he was young, Koumori was a literal angel—personality and looks-wise. Now though, with longer dark hair and more piercings than Riku can count, he’s looking more like a fallen angel.

To Riku, Koumori is still her dearest friend. It doesn’t matter what’s on the outside, as his personality is still the same, she thinks to herself. For the most part this is true…Until someone tries to cut into his and Riku’s time together. She quickly learns that while Koumori is still pretty much the same when the two of them are alone together, he can get pretty nasty when a third party tries to interfere.

When Riku call him out on this, he explains to her: he doesn’t mind becoming a demon if it means he can have her all to himself.

My thoughts on this volume (Spoilers!)

When I first heard of this series, I thought it was going to be a fantasy. So when Koumori ended up not actually being a literal fallen angel, I was slightly disappointed for a moment.

After getting adjusted to the genre, I ended up really enjoying this chapter! Koumori has everything that I want in a toxic male lead, without going overboard: he’s obsessed with Riku, is handsome with dark hair, has piercings, and is willing to go a little overboard when sticking up for Riku. While one of his piercings is rather strange—a literal locket, ouch!—I can forgive it.

I think he and Riku are perfect together. While he is a little overbearing, it’s clear that he always respects her boundaries. He can also become a little scary depending on the situation, but I believe he’s still that kind childhood friend at heart. I think Riku understands this as well, as she’s never anything less than kind to him.

We get to hear Riku defend Koumori when their classmates are rightfully afraid of him, so we get some insight into how she sees the new him. While she thought she would be the one suffering all those years they were seperated, it’s clear it really did a number on him. To some extent I do understand this—she had to deal with her social anxiety, while he had to move to a country where he know no one and probably didn’t speak the language. While both are difficult situations, it’s not hard to see why he changed a lot more than she did.

I particularly enjoyed the very end of the chapter, with both of them falling into the pile of raked leaves after Koumori defended her honour. He clearly laid out his intentions with an appropriately demonic smile on his face, and we never did hear Riku’s answer…

You can check out this series for yourself below! (JP)