The Demon Girl Next Door is a manga series written and illustrated by Izumo Ito. It focuses on Yuko Yoshida, who wakes up one day to find she has grown horns and a tail. With her newly awakened demon powers, it is her mission to defeat a magical girl to restore her family’s former glory.
Seven Seas Entertainment licensed the manga for an English release. This first volume contains chapters one through to thirteen.
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One morning, fifteen-year old Yoshida Yuko wakes up to discover she has sprouted demon horns and a tail! Not only that, she learns from her mum that she has supernatural powers and an important mission – to restore her family’s glory by defeating the local magical girl. The magical girl in question is Chiyoda Momo, a student at Yoko’s school. With strength that is only mediocre at best, Yuko’s task to vanquish Momo will prove more challenging than she realises in this topsy-turvy magical girl comedy.
Well, first thing I want to mention is that keeping Japanese name order when translating manga into English always feels a bit awkward to me. I have no other issues with the translation, though, and am happy to see that they kept it so the family talk about yen when mentioning that one specific curse – unlike the English subtitles for the anime when it was streaming back when it aired.
Although it seems that there are some people out there that take issue with the translation, because it is not exactly the same as the anime subtitles. That has left me wondering which is closer to the original Japanese.
Anyways, here is our introduction to Yuko Yoshida and Momo Chiyoda. Yuko suddenly discovers she is a demon one day, and is given the mission of defeating a magical girl. There’s no way around it: Yuko is totally outclassed by magical girl Momo.
Actually, it seems to be that Momo somewhat dotes on Yuko. Their first meeting sees Momo saving Yuko from getting hit by a truck, and then the magical girl looks out for the demon girl. It’s a kind of cute actually, how Momo tends to be kind of protective of Yuko.
As for Yuko… she tries her best.
This first volume does actually offer some role reversal towards the end, with Yuko being the one looking after Momo for a change. That event also sparks something else, unbeknownst to Yuko. Her mission gets changed up a little bit as a result, and definitely leaves things open for interesting developments.
Also definitely have to mention Yuko’s tail. It’s a great indicator of how she is feeling, even if she doesn’t realise it herself. That does get called out in this volume, but we also get moments where she has her tail surround Momo – seemingly subconsciously. All Yuko knows is that she gets all mixed up when it comes to Momo.
A pretty fun first volume to kick off this series of manga.
Rory Muses 