Hana to Akuma

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So you look at the synopsis and the character design of the MC. And you say "is ML a fucking lolicon?" It makes you think "well, stuff like that is obviously not exactly for my demographic," except this is pretty clearly shoujo with the old-school cover and all and with no hints of showing the child in that light. And if you're anything like me you give this a read solely to see how a shoujo manga will develop a romance between a 14 year old loli and.... this entity.

The first thing that really helps make this relationship make sense is the very straightforward setting. ... The typical Japanese understanding of what a "demon" is exists in this universe, and they come from Demon world and have bat wings, but they don't really do anything like murder humans or cause them to sin or whatever. They just do magic and fuck around in their high-class societies. And because of this, shenanigans ensue, like the ML being bored and deciding to live in the human world, and other characters bothering him and trying to bring him back. In the midst of all this is Hana-chan, found as a baby by ML and raised in his mansion, and she often gets caught up in these "conflicts," which is lucky for her because they cause ML's feelings about her to change from being paternalistic to more romantic. You see, there's this "potion that makes you grow up" gag, and MC often takes this or has a spell cast on her like that, which causes the ML's heart to get all fuzzy when young-adult her gets close to him. But do not be alarmed, even after realizing he in in love with her he continues to only feel attracted to her physically whenever she is in that form. Even so, he still has romantic feelings regardless because he gets annoyed at being referred as her brother and gets jealous when she is with other guys even as a loli. That's why I think their relationship was possible because of the setting, as the idea that ML was able to develop romantic feelings for MC in part due to seeing her adult form made the way the romance developed to my taste. Although be warned, something that might raise an eyebrow is that ML kisses Hana-chan on the lips a few times in her loli form in dramatic moments, but as mentioned before, he clearly is only attracted to her adult form. And speaking of MC, she is rather obviously in love with ML the entire time as she gets jealous specifically when he is around other women, which was cute as many chapters were devoted to her realizing the difference between platonic and romantic love, although this manga is not free of the "the person you marry is the most important person to you" spiel.

Then towards the end there's a 3 year timeskip where MC is no longer a child, and they live happily ever after. But it's not your traditional "happily ever after." The ending addresses a key aspect of their relationship, which really hits you hard in the end when you get there.

Although the main couple is great, the side characters... not so much. I mean, the human side characters are good, but the demon side characters are so cartoonish, and one of them falls in love for an obviously retconned reason which goes against their entire character.

Overall, if you can enjoy (or at least tolerate) the rampant shoujo-isms that permeate this manga and aren't turned off by the premise, then give this a read.

I usually like stories that have a strong focus on supernatural elements, but this manga felt very hollow and contrived to me. The female lead, Hana, was very annoying to me, and the love that developed between her and Vivi felt unnatural (and, to be honest, very creepy given that Hana is only 14, and acts in a very immature fashion). Many of the aspects of the plot that move their relationship along clearly happened for that sole purpose - it doesn't feel very fleshed out or natural. The manga also goes out of its way to repeat certain elements over and over (like Vivi ... causing flowers to wilt by touching them), and after a while, I was just like....OKAY, I get it.

The artwork was also very mediocre to me, and I would have liked Vivi to look a little more impressive or bad-ass (or at least have decently sized wings in his demon form).

Most people who review or read reviews tend to be fans of whichever given piece of work, so I don't expect a lot of people to appreciate this. But regardless, these are my thoughts after fully reading Hana to Akuma.

The premise itself is simple. Demon comes to earth. Demon finds child. Demon raises child. Demon and child proceed to get together.

If one part of this doesn't seem fitting, then congratulations, you're a human being with a healthy outlook on what sort of relationship is moral or not, and have a decent idea of the age and conditions needed for a person to have a knowledgeable ... opinion on love and responsibility of making such a decision.

Unfortunately, the author of this work (as well as many fans) does not share these qualities.

Let me get something out of the way first, for whoever hasn't already stopped reading. I'm a hopeless sap. I'm a romantic at heart. I go out of my way to find and read romantic manga, feel-good stories, happy endings, etc. They're what I mostly like to read, because they represent the sort of ideal happy-ending that I know is impossible for real life to achieve.

Because of this, I could not truly hate Hana no Akuma. Despite it's many (and there are many) flaws, I could not stop myself from getting drawn in, at least to a decent degree. That is why my score is even as high as it is. Considering how deeply troubling the rest of my impression of this work is, a 3 is much higher than I want to give it.

Anyway, as I said, the author does not seem to understand how deeply unsettling and even outright creepy his work is.

It's an ode to pedophilia and incest, thinly disguised with terrible excuses and bad explanations. Hana is no older than 14 when Vivi begins making romantic overtures and eventually realizes his feelings for her. Vivi who, as it happens, is also 200 years old. That might sound like a fantastical number so I'll disregard that. For the purposes of understanding this story, Vivi is an adult. His exact age doesn't matter. He's a fully grown adult, already completely established as person before Hana was even born.


There is an argument to be made about relationships with a big age gap. After all, age is just a number after a certain point. That is true, of course, but 14 is NOT that number. Not even close. What the hell. To anyone reading, forget that this is a drama manga for just a second and bring to your mind the last 14 year old kid you happened to see. Does that seem like a person capable of making decisions and life-choices, never mind deciding commitments with 200 year old demons who find themselves attracted to their adopted daughter?

The series tries to fool itself and us with the whole '3 year time skip' thing, but it doesn't succeed. All the feelings already exist, all the characters know what's going on. Hell, by this point they've shared several actual kisses, most of them initiated by the older man between them. No one is fooled.


Which brings me to my second point. Incest. True, they are not related by blood. It's technically safe. That's not the point. Vivi raised Hana. He found her when she was a baby. Hana's earliest memories were of him. He taught her to speak, to walk, to run, to dress. He was there for all phases in her life. He was, for all intents and purposes, her father.


Even the romantic in me could not help but cringe at regular intervals at seeing this play out. When I stopped to consider it it made my stomach churn, if just by its implications.


It's a huge shame, too. The first several chapters, before even the tiniest hint of romantic interest, the manga is at its best. When Hana and Vivi are nothing more than father and daughter, the series hits a level of effortless quality that no amount of cheap drama gags will ever bring it. The entire storyline could have been based on the love a father shares with his daughter, biological or not, but no because this is manga and we need to have romance between the leads, damn it!

The manga could have been something truly inspiring if it didn't fight so hard to stick to conventions and appeal to the very niche crowd that seems to like softcore pedophilia (Oh, sorry. Is 'loli' the right term?) coupled with incest.

There is also the fact that Hana's deep obsession and almost physical dependence on Vivi, would, in real life, be considered actual cause for worry and require the help of professionals to solve. This sort of dependence and obsession (especially as displayed in the first 20 chapters or so) is not healthy in any stretch of the word, even ignoring the incest that will eventually occur.

Beyond the deeply unsettling and creepy backdrop of the entire series, there were several other issues that also helped reduce points. The art was passable, but barely so. It was not good, but not terrible either.

Then, we have the fact that series doesn't even try not to just abuse dramatic cliches to extend itself and create fake drama that everyone knows will be solved without too much trouble. The sort of facepalm-y unrealistic misunderstandings and retarded situations that only occur in fiction because real life doesn't work that way.

Then there was Hana's frankly annoying trend to alternate between referring herself on the third person and the first. Honestly, characters who refer to themselves on the third person are ridiculous and annoying in the first place, but those who aren't even consistent in doing so are even worse. Perhaps that was a translation problem, however, so I won't hold it against the story itself.

There were some decent things about it, however. The Demon King being the prime example. Perhaps the one actually enjoyable character to follow.
Also, there were hints of an interesting setup in the little we learned of the demon world and Vivi's place in it, but that was sadly cast aside for even more ridiculous tearjerker moments.

In the end, for all that the romantic sap in me wants to like this, there are too many things wrong with it. It could have gone for something original - the building blocks were certainly there. It could have done something different, something better than the usual senseless dramatic drivel. There was nothing unpredictable, nothing realistic, nothing that spoke of actual quality storytelling in this manga.

It could have been all those things and more but, unfortunately, it is not.