Demons’ Crest Volume 1 Review
Reki Kawahara is known as the mind behind Sword Art Online as well as Accel World and The Isolator. With so many popular franchises under his belt, of course all eyes are going to be on Kawahara’s latest work: Demons’ Crest. But does it live up to the high expectations? Let’s find out!
The story takes place in 2031 and follows sixth-grader Yuuma Ashihara and his twin sister Sawa whose elementary school class has been chosen to try out Actual Magic, a new full-dive virtual reality MMORPG, ahead of its official release at the Althea amusement centre. Inside the game is exactly as you’d expect, a high fantasy world where each player chooses a class for their character and fights monsters while completing quests and eventually exploring dungeons to defeat the powerful bosses that wait within.
It’s when this 3-hour playtest is over that problems begin. Yuuma awakens in the VR capsule that allows players to experience the feeling of actually being inside the game (besides taste and smell, which they haven’t been able to replicate yet) to find something isn’t right. Not long after coming to, he hears a scream and uses the emergency lever to free himself of the capsule only to find that the Althea building has been plunged into darkness. Worse still, the class idol Sumika Watamaki seems to have transformed into a monster and is coming ever closer, wielding a human limb as a weapon…
Yuuma, as you’d expect, is terrified that someone in his class has turned into this deadly creature and killed someone he knows. Luckily, before Watamaki reaches him, Sawa comes to his rescue and demands Yuuma boot up the Actual Magic app on their QREST (devices that everyone wears in 2031 giving them access to many VR apps). This causes the device to fuse with Yuuma’s body, but he does at least get his Tamer class from the playtest which means he has boosted strength and can use his abilities to do something about Watamaki.
He and Sawa then quickly reunite with their friends Nagi and Kenji, whom they’ve been inseparable from since they were young children. Together the group begins to explore Althea in the hopes of being able to find an adult or someone who can help them understand what’s going on, but along the way, they encounter more fearsome monsters and begin to realise they’re trapped within the centre with no escape. Not only have some of their classmates already lost their lives to the monster, but some (like the adults) have seemingly vanished without a trace. Will anyone make it out alive at this rate?
Given the use of full-dive technology and the video game setup, you would be forgiven for thinking Kawahara has simply written a new version of Sword Art Online. Demons’ Crest shares many similarities to his hit franchise on the surface, but I was glad to see that it deviates reasonably quickly. At many points, this feels much closer to a horror series than any of his other stories, given that Althea has been plunged into darkness. When the electricity goes out, there are a lot of creepy scenes with the cast walking around, unsure what they’re going to find. The opening act with Watamaki carrying around a severed arm is certainly horrifying material too which is even treated to an illustration. All of this gives the series a more unique atmosphere compared to some of the author’s other stories.
Another plus point is that the cast is much younger than in say SAO as they fall into the 11 to 12-year-old age range, but in many ways that makes the story more interesting as they’re old enough to think independently but not old enough to have all the answers or want to tough it out in this terrible situation. The pressure of it all weighs on them heavily, except perhaps for Sawa who seems to know more about what’s going on than anyone else. To start with, Yuuma chalks it up to her being the smarter of the two siblings, but as the book goes on, he begins to realise something isn’t right and tries to quiz Sawa, only to be refuted at every instance. This is also the only bit of Demons’ Crest I found mildly frustrating as it felt we readers were being forcibly strung along, particularly as the novel ends with a cliffhanger which raises questions we’d clearly understand had Sawa divulged whatever secrets she knows.
In the afterword, Kawahara admits he’s been thinking about Demons’ Crest since late 2016, but he’s always hesitated to move forward with the project officially, due to already having several ongoing works and other non-writing commitments. It was only after the offer to make it into a webtoon (currently unlicensed) that he finally decided to launch it as a multi-media project. That was back in 2022 and since then he’s only managed to publish a single volume more in light novel form, which may not sound bad by Western publication speeds but is incredibly slow for a light novel series which would on average see 2-3 volumes put out in a year. This may prove a detriment to it, depending on the structure going forward. Volume 1 certainly didn’t feel like a satisfying read on its own, especially due to the cliffhanger and I could see that being a problem in #2 as well since the narrative doesn’t seem to have strong beginning-middle-end points.
Having said all that, if you are a fan of Kawahara’s work and want to see something that’s built upon his existing ideas and been given a firm polish, then this is worth your time. It’s an interesting combination of video games and reality merging, which is something we don’t see as often as your standard ‘transported into a video game’ stories. Instead, if you’re a newcomer, I’d probably advise holding off until Volume 2 is out to read them together and prevent feeling unsatisfied by the Volume 1 ending. This is a work that certainly expects you to be in for the long haul, rather than being able to read #1 and having a dropping-off point.
Demons’ Crest Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to Yen Press under their Yen On imprint where it has been translated by James Balzer. The work reads well with no issues to note, Balzer has done an excellent job of giving all the characters distinct voices (of which there are many when more of the class appear!). Extras include colour pages by illustrator Yukiko Horiguchi (Kokoro Connect), a map of Althea so far and a roll sheet for the class including everyone’s names, character class in Actual Magic and a short note which proves a very useful reference as the book goes on.
The series is ongoing in Japan with two volumes currently available. Here in English Yen Press has Volume 2 scheduled for release in October, which I think befits the unsettling atmosphere of the story.
Overall, Demons’ Crest demonstrates that Kawahara still has plenty of ideas for reinventing the genre he’s made a name for himself within. While as a standalone book, this raises more questions than it answers which is going to prove a problem for newcomers. However, if you’re familiar with the author and willing to commit to the long haul this seems like it will reward your time.
Our review copy from Yen Press was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
