Tokyo Demon Bride Story Chapter 1 Review – “The Demon Bride Appears”

A new manga has joined Shonen Jump and VIZ Media’s release schedule. The new manga is called Tokyo Demon Bride Story by mangaka Tadaichi Nakama. The new series is getting a big push by Shonen Jump the series main characters being the placed front and center on the Weekly Shonen Jump Issue 40. Nakama Tadaichi has been working as a mangaka for a long time, having won the 98th Jump Treasure Newcomer Award in 2015 for their one-shot titled Alien Sage. With Tokyo Demon Bride Story it will be Nakama Tadaichi’s first ongoing series. How will the debut chapter of Tokyo Demon Bride Story work out? Let’s find out

CREATIVE TEAM

Writer & Artist: Tadaichi Nakama

SYNOPSIS

During the summer, before going back home to Tokyo, a boy named Jinta Hanafuda makes a promise with Manaka Doji when they grow up. After Jinta leaves Manaka is revealed to be a demon.

Ten years later Jinta is scraping by life by working multiple jobs to maintain his family house. One day Manaka, who he doesn’t remember, shows up with two demon servants announcing she is there so they can keep their promise of getting married. Manaka reveals that she is the Demon Princess of the Hidashin’Oh Realm and after turning sixteen she rushed to see Jinta.

Later Manaka meets Jinta’s older sister, Matsuri Hanafuda, who she doesn’t like at first thinking she is after Jinta romantically. After everyone understands who the other is Matsuri is excited to find out demons are real.

Later Jinta’s younger sister, Tsumugi, also meets Manaka and her demon followers.

Manaka then reveals that Jinta is actually a Sacredblood, someone who has special blood that attracts spirits, and that the special charm that’s been in his house was protecting him until it started to fall apart. Manaka tells Jinta he needs to sign a contract of cohabitation with his blood. Before getting any further a drunk Matsuri convinces everyone to go get so food together.

While walking through the city Jinta admits that a lot’s happened in his life so he doesn’t actually remember the promise he made to Manaka. Manaka says she is fine with it since she remembers their promise.

Suddenly something drags Manaka into a river. Jinta rushes to save her. While giving Manaka CPR Jinta starts remembering when he first met Manaka 10 years ago.

A Kawanpa, a humanoid frog demon, suddenly appears. Manaka immediately starts fighting the Kawanpa in order to defend Jinta. After a back-and-forth fight Manaka uses her Changing Spirit Phantom Sword to defeat the Kawanpa. Jinta stops Manaka from killing the Kawanpa, who promises to never eat a human again.

Later, Jinta says that while he can’t think of her as his girlfriend or wife he is willing to let Manaka live with him for the winter. Without noticing some of Jinta’s blood drips onto the contract Manaka showed him earlier. Hearing the contract announce that the co-habitation can’t be broken for 365 days Manaka happily promises to protect Jinta. End of chapter

REVIEW

Nakama Tadaichi doesn’t waste time with introducing us to the cast and world that makes up Tokyo Demon Bride Story. Not everything is given away as this is simply an introduction that lays out the foundation for the rest of the series. That foundation is already showing to be a strong one with what we get in the first chapter of Tokyo Demon Bride Story.

What makes Tokyo Demon Bride Story Chapter 1 work so well is how it differentiates itself from other mangas we are getting simulpub from Shonen Jump. Right out of the gate Tadaichi establish that this will be more of a love comedy-action series. While we have many series that feature romantic elements with leads who have love interests this is normally serves as one of the many sub-plot for an ongoing series. With Tokyo Demon Bride Story we get the love interest angle of the story as the primary launching point of the story from the very beginning.

Going with this love angle makes Tokyo Demon Bride Story take on a whole different tone to other mangas that we see centered around the demon world. We see this with how quickly Manaka Doji is established to have yandere personality type, a character archetype whose love and devotion is so strong that it can be viewed as a character who is excessive obsession and possessiveness. This personality that Manaka shows compliments the Jinta, who is the complete opposite with his more serious personality. The artwork for both Manaka and Jinta also helps to enhance their respective personalities and how they do balance each other out.

That said, Tadaichi does need to be careful with how Manaka’s portrayal is handled moving forward. Manaka being a yandere can’t be the only comedic angle that Tadaichi goes back to every chapter. It could damage the storytelling and long-term potential this series has if that’s all the comedy is centered around. Now, I do want to give Tadaichi the benefit of the doubt as when Manaka interact with Jinta’s sisters, Matsuri and Tsumugi, we see more of the natural comedy that comes from the characters bantering back and forth.

Jinta not being an only child as he actually has an older and younger sister he is living with is a bit refreshing. While we don’t know what happened to Jinta, Matsuri, and Tsumugi’s parents establishing a family unit is a good decision to quickly create a chemistry between our core cast of characters that already existed. Both Matsuri and Tsumugi having clearly grown up watching anime and reading manga, with a Demon Slayer shoutout thrown in, made them quickly accepting Manaka into their home another fun way to have a comedic beat with how Jinta reacts to everything.

There is also a great deal of world building as Tadaichi teases us with how the demon world works in Tokyo Demon Bride Story. Based on Jinta meeting Manaka as a kid and him being revealed to be special human called the Sacredblood we get hints at a lot more going on in this world. Adding in how Jinta was being protected by a charm was protecting him from spirits creates a lot of questions about his family. Especially since his parents aren’t around and they are likely who left the charm behind to protect their kids we got a good mystery that can have a long-term build as we learn more about demons existing in this world.

Tadaichi’s artwork was solid as with fun character designs and action that shows potential to be even better the longer the series goes. Jinta and Manaka’s character designs compliment their personalities well. The same goes for Matsuri and Tsumugi as you can understand their personalities by their character designs alone. The end of this first chapter also works well to highlight how we can expect a lot of fun action sequences in this comedy-action series.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Tokyo Demon Bride Story debut’s with a fun first chapter. Tadaichi Nakama established a good foundation with a fun main cast that has a lot of potential. As long as Nakama doesn’t let some of the more trope elements overshadow the character and world building Tokyo Demon Bride Story can be a standout series in Shonen Jump’s line-up.

Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10