After heading the ferocious battle against humans for a long period, the king of the demons, Anoth is fed up and want to rest for a while but he can’t have that peace as long as he live. At the time he asks the hero of the humans, Kanon, to kill him, Anoth plans to distance demons from humans for many decades and scattered his offsprings while wishing that he would reincarnate in a world more peaceful.
His plans works and after being killed by the human hero he is reincarnated after 2000 years as the son of humans Isabella and Gusta and his wish to have a peaceful life is fulfilled as there is no horror of war and humans and demons live together in peace and harmony. Although there are things that are not as peaceful as it seems as in demon race, class discrimination is one of the ugly truth. The pureblood demons are those are not the descendant of human and demon. It’s the era when the legends of Anoths along with his name is long forgotten by his own race.
Anoth ends up in the middle of this weak and insignificant demon civilization during which he gets an invitation to enter Demon King Academy. It is the school which teaches the ambitious young demons who wants to be demon lords, to discover the reincarnated demon king. Although he has strong magical abilities and is the actual demon king, who comes the last in his class of those demon students who are competing to get his title. Now Anoth has to make his way up to the highest rank inorder to get his title back and prove them who he is.
Volume 1 of The Misfit of Demon King Academy builds up the story of power fantasy by introducing the world and the characters, filled with a lot of drama and humor derived from the difference of powers between Anoth and the rest of the demons in his class.
The power gap was soon showed in a battle with the Indu brothers, Leorg and Zepes while the entrance exam in which they had to defeat five more demons in a proper tournament to pass the exam and get in the class. The demonstration to show the difference of power felt a little dragged and the whole tournament in the beginning seems heavy-handedness and although there were just two brief battle scenes, one demonstration of power would have been better. There is no match for Anoth’s power and as no one has that level of power and the arc in the beginning was just to demonstrate that difference.
Th entrance exam also exposes his dark side, which doesn’t seem to be a good thing to show in the beginning of the story as it can make him look an anti-protagonist. He’s evil and egotistical with a cruel mind and while the other demons competing against him look like imbecile infront of him which makes the readers feel sorry for them for how Anoth deals with them.
It can be a hard to dive into the story where the protagonist starts off as evil, it doesn’t remain the same as the story continues and he starts to change with time especially because of a demon girl ,Misha who is adorable and reserve and runs into him before the exam and befriends him and his parents. Misha seems a potential love interest and Anoth’s parents can see this through. Isabella and Gusto are very likeable characters as they do not just have charming personalities but their interest in Anoth and Misha’s friendship and the efforts they make in bringing them closer is hilarious. Misha is a nice and sweet girl and the way she is introduced in the manga is also quite appealing. But she also seems deceivingly powerful and also have a dark past that has something to do with her sister Sasha which involves the class discrimination as something significant in the story.
This class discrimination is probably going to be the most significant thing in the story as the introduction of the world is the great asset in the beginning. It would be interesting to see how things led to this from where it began and Anoth’s displeasure about the world he has reincarnated proves that he is not that bad of a character.
The manga is the adaptation of light novel by Shu and story is well written except for some drawbacks like the battle arc in the beginning and the outcome of some magic spells being a little vague. The first volume also contain an extra bonus story which is an interesting and funny read that includes Anoth’s adorably stupid parents.
The manga is illustrated by Kayaharuka and the art is clear and attractive. Howeer some characters look odd due to the fact their feet look bigger than they should compared with the size of their body. The characters have been designed by Yoshinori Shizuma who has done a great job in making them look attractive.
The first volume of The Misfit of Demon King Academy is merely an introduction of the characters and the world and nothing significant occurs to point out the direction of the story. Although the class discrimination among the demons seems the most important thing that can become a big part of the story in the long-run. The first volume seems like any other power fantasy but we will have to wait for more volumes to see how this story unfolds.
