Meiou-sama ga Tooru no desu yo! @comic
King of the Underworld Passing Through! @comic

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8.6/10


Here’s some backstory before you read this review: I had previously reviewed this, and gave it a score of a 7.3, however, after rereading this manga, instead of catching up on the hundreds of chapters that I’m behind on, it made me want to punch my former self for doing this manga such a disservice. Blame it on me reading this manga at 2 a.m. but this manga excels at every single department for an “evil” main character fantasy manga, which is so rare to come across. Time for the actual review:

To start off with, I had previous issues with the pacing of the manga, ... as it was relatively unexpected and out of ordinary for isekais/demon-lord mangas of its type; however, with further introspection, it’s managed perfectly well by being subtly balanced by the art style of the manga, marking a gradual or sudden progression in character identity, personality, and physical traits. Though there are still the lingering issues of a power creep manga, it’s supplemented by the characters and their emotional conveyance due to the art.

I find world-building to be the least important component of a story, so this manga isn’t docked too much. To be clear, the information provided and lore of the world isn’t bad or insufficient, as it is rather unique and interestingly well-explained, however, it’s done in a direct info-dump manner despite most of it coming through character exposition. However, like I noted before, this doesn’t really matter, since it doesn’t take anything away from the story, but it definitely adds to it if you’re that invested into the story.

Rarely do I ever comment on art when reviewing a manga, but if it’s for any manga, then it would be a manga that made me delete a review for the first time. To steal a comment from my previous self: The art seems rather rustic and “poorly drawn” at times by leaving out some background details, however, at its peak it’s gruesome and dark, conveying so much emotion in each of its panels; it brings the manga to life.

So far in my review, there have been mentions of critiques and praises that doesn’t amount to an 8.r, so how in the world is it one? Well, it’s quite simple: The characters in this are to die for. Like noted before, the main character undertakes the antihero role of the world, and he does it extraordinary well; his motives are clear: “I just want to live,” but he finds more purpose and meaning from his previous memories and interactions with other life forms — he is the perfect “bad guy” main character.

As for the side characters, there aren’t many considering most of them art disposables for the power creep, however, when there is one (Without spoilers I’ll try describing this), they are developed and established significantly despite the small amount of panels and rather sudden progression of the story; they too convey so much emotion and a sense of identity/realness.

For a manga that I decided to reread on the whim of the moment, this was one of the most surprising and best decisions of my reading career, as it exceeded all of my expectations. Though the pacing seems out of wank in first impressions, it’s subtle due to the art style, and there wouldn’t have been much more to extract from each stage/arc, so the time skips seem somewhat justified. Though the characters are also extraordinarily well-written, there are some issues with the world-building, as it is the clear definition of an info-dump, but it’s still enjoyable nonetheless. For an antihero, fantasy, isekai manga, it would be hard to find anything that matches this and no less exceed it; give this a shot to justify my actions of deleting a review for the first time (I usually edit or add to the text slightly if my opinions change, but the previous review was an absolute disgrace, and I ended up writing three times as much. Whoops.)


Reading Rankings (Portnoy inspired + A Huang-Teizan Original)
10 - God’s penmanship
9 - Must-read. Drop everything else.
8 - Instant bookmark
7 - Entertaining
6 - Good to pass time
5 - Why are you reading this?
4 - Bad.
3 - Typical garbage.
2 - My head hurts.
1 - Retirement is a thought.
0 - “Did they even give you a

This is an enjoyable take on Isekai where a sick, dying kid goes to another world not as himself or even a human, but as a spirit/demon entity or "Yokai". He uses his academic knowledge to amplify magic skills and teaches himself to become a mage. As a Yokai he "haunts" a forest, where the monsters come to consider him a king.

The MC is an anti-hero of sorts because from the start, Mage students enter the forest and the MC actually murders a few to steal their life essence. Our protagonist is cold-hearted at first and has no qualms killing. Eventually we meet the ... female lead, Iris, who the MC tutors so she can graduate from Mage school and become a Holy Knight. However her career requires her to slay demons and monsters, thus an inevitable collision course with the MC. We see the MC come to care about her and have a character arc, slowly losing his nihilism.

It's simple, fun but short.