The God-Slaying Demon King Volume 1 Review

While publisher Square Enix has quite a number of fantasy action series to their name, it has been a while since they’ve debuted anything new in this field. But now the time has come with the release of the light novel adaptation, The God-Slaying Demon King. Does it prove an interesting read? Let’s find out!

Our story follows Hiram, the demon king, who once united the demon world, thanks to his unbeatable strength. However, when he got into a fight with the demon god after refusing to sacrifice hundreds of his subjects, Hiram ended up being killed by divine punishment (although he did take the god down with him!).

Of course, Hiram didn’t go into this fight without a backup plan. Just before his death, he casts a spell that ensures he’ll be reincarnated in the future, but this time as a human rather than a demon. It’s 500 years later when Hiram wakes in his new human form, having had the seal on his tomb broken by an elf princess called Lumiere. She’s come to the area to defeat a mighty dragon that’s taken up residency on the mountain, which Hiram decides seems like the perfect opportunity to test his strength.

In the end, Hiram fights and defeats the dragon (known as Jorm) before Lumiere arrives. And he’s surprised to discover that Jorm is the descendant of an ancient dragon that used to work as Hiram’s advisor in his former life as the demon king. While Jorm is prepared to have his life taken by Hiram, having lost in their fight, our protagonist instead requests that Jorm serve him just like his father did.

With Jorm by his side, Hiram sets out on a journey to defeat what’s left of the demon god from their fight 500 years ago and reconquer the world. With little knowledge about the current state of the demons (or the other races), he turns to Lumiere to learn more about the current era. What Lumiere hasn’t yet realised is that she seems to have the blessing of a hero, which makes her a natural enemy of Hiram’s, but he’s willing to put that aside for now until he has the bigger picture.

The God-Slaying Demon King Volume 1 contains only 4 chapters, and those are quite focused on the initial set-up and then action scenes. So, it’s difficult to get a sense of where the story is going to go from here. Especially since Hiram doesn’t get involved with Lumiere until Chapter 4 (and that’s after having had to rescue her from an orc). That does mean the story feels quite generic in some ways, unfortunately.

While reading this, I couldn’t help thinking about The Misfit of Demon King Academy or The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody, which are also reincarnation stories involving a demon king. It’s just such a very common setup at this point that this series needs something to help set it apart, which we just aren’t seeing here in Volume 1.

Admittedly, it probably doesn’t help that this is based on a light novel since one volume of manga is unlikely to have adapted a significant amount of the source material. I think if you’re uncertain about the premise, it would be better to wait for more volumes of the manga to be available before committing.

That said, of course, it’s not all bad. Artwork has been handled by the mangaka PIG3rd, and although it appears to be their only work here and in Japan, it’s quite polished with plenty of detail for both the characters and the backgrounds. There are quite a few double-page spreads, which are really nice. The fight scenes can get a bit abstract at times, which sometimes makes them difficult to follow, but in some ways, that also adds character. Either way, I found the quality of the art to be a positive in comparison to the story, and it helped keep me engaged through to the end. Jorm’s mini-dragon form is also quite cute!

As mentioned, The God-Slaying Demon King Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to Square Enix and has been translated by Kevin Yuan with lettering by Ivo Marques. The release reads well and comes with a colour page at the beginning, although there are no other extras present.

The series is ongoing in Japan with four volumes currently available. Here in English, Square Enix has #2 scheduled in for July, with #3 following in October and #4 in January. The light novel this is based on only ran for two volumes, so in theory, this shouldn’t end up being an incredibly long-running series, which may make it more appealing to certain readers.

Overall, The God-Slaying Demon King Volume 1 presents a fairly generic first volume. The artwork is the biggest-selling point, but otherwise, there’s not a great deal to set it apart from other similar titles. Hopefully, in future volumes, we’ll get a better idea of where the story is going, and that will set it apart from the crowd.

A free preview can be read on the Square Enix website.

Our review copy from Square Enix Manga was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).

© Ezogingitune / PIG3rd / Teddy / Square Enix Co. Ltd