Aghhhh >.< tbh i really love this omg im reread this so many time already, back then when the first time i read this, at first i thought 'Hmm where i hear this title again' then i this is from games with the same title Makai Ouji, thats why the name is Familiar to me, I love this manga (^～^)💕 ahahah i love how William is Hardcore Realist lololol he is still dont believe about Everything even after all of that happen to him.. and the art is freakingly amazing and adorable.. the scene when Dantalion lick his hand is really really- i cant-.. and I ship William with Dentalion so so hardd aghh 😝💕💕

(Am at chapter 81)
I love love love the art. Seriously, the plot could be nothing and it'd still get a 5 as a minimum for the art. Although one thing should be mentioned, there is a serious lack of female representation later in the manga (with over 50 characters and only a handful of them are female...). And with those 40+ male characters, if you take the hair away, some are extremely hard to tell apart, but for the most part they are all different enough for it to work. Although again, more female representation would be nice.

I have a few issues with the manga:
1: the cliffhangers. They are annoying and they are at the end of almost every chapter.
2: plot is confusing at times and the author doesn't really seem to care
3: some major plot points are taken very lightly and some are ignored completely until they need to be brought up for a cliffhanger. For example

when William gets all his past memories back, it isn't even brought up again until Dantalion brings it up like 10 chapters later, at the end of the chapter no less (cliffhanger!)

4: coincidences.. this is mostly in regards to Issac (the occult friend) who happens to either be the best ninja in the world or is one extremely stealthy stalker.
5: not the mangas fault, but the scanlaters: Fonts (in the later chapters) and the name シトリー (Sytry/Sitri or an alternative could have been the romaji "Shitori"). Consistency is key and the scanlators seem not to care.

Things I like about this manga:
*Obviously the art.
*The plot is interesting, but there is a LOT going on and if I didn't know anything about angels/demons I feel like I'd be extremely lost. But since I do know quite a bit, it's not too hard to follow.
*Another thing is the way the demons (should be mentioned not many angels have a good character arc until much later in the story), the demons have interesting personalities (when given them... there are alot of flat characters in the beginning of the manga, but they get more fleshed out later, so YAY!). Almost all of the main characters have a fleshed out personality and back story that we've seen, so again YAY!

Firstly, I would recommend this manga to anyone who is fan of Dan Brown's Angel and Devil, Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol. This manga is a great combination of religious knowledge from the Bible and Demonology, very informative and pretty accurate (considering some improvises which are not too annoying, for example the utilization of the term "nephilim"). The source and stand point of knowledge was also consistent, which pleases me deeply, considering that the theme that the manga treated has a considerable variation depending on the religion and belief (for example, the seven archangels are not the same in Christianity and Judaism, the manga probably exploit the Bible from the Judaism stand point).

Furthermore, I also ire the philosophy emphasized in the manga. There is neither good or bad, things are just different from each others. Devils are not necessary bad and Angels are not all good either. I find it interesting the way the author describe Lucifer, king of the demon, as a well loved lord, calm, silent and gentle (up until now, that is the feeling I get), while Michael the archangel is described as an ambitious and violent brat. In the Old Testament, Lucifer actually fell out of grace due to his greed for power and arrogance, while Michael is the image of Light and Justice (which is still the same in the manga, but interpreted differently).

The manga reached a good point when it stated Angels/Heaven tried to control people by punishment, and Demons/ Hell by Desire. However, I am not really satisfied with the way the author swing this point. Certainly, Desire is the source of sinful actions, and fear of punishment is just a factor that influence the decision making of humans, so you can say that rather than try to give punishment to things that are already done, isn't it more efficient to eradicate the source of sin, which is desires.

The author tried to make the point that Heaven cannot control humans for centuries because the fear of punishment cannot stop humans from reaching out to their desires, because it makes them feel joys in their short lives, so punishments are not necessary. I believe that the resolve depends on what the person really want in his/her life. If what s/he wants is joys then of course, following what your heart truly desires is the way. But if s/he wants the peace in mind then following the conscience is the way. I hope that the author can turn this point around later, so I would not have to feel bad for Uriel, that might be the most well developed character in this lineup.

Or, the solution can be "how about stop pushing humans around for a change?". People are humans because they have the right to choose how to lead their lives. Angels and Demons, as they despite and look down on humans race so much, are still desperately trying to control that small world. Why don't they just mind their business and leave humans alone? I think the author would like to make that point when she made William a super/ to the bone realist.

I would like to give compliments to the scanlation, also, for always, diligently, taking note and explaining the characters and their origins, their story.

On the other hand, apart from being a super informative manga, the plot and characters developing is not satisfying. The main character, despite his strong entrance and interesting image at the start, is fading away in this spiral of events. His resolve is weak, he found it, but too late, too slow and barely no improvement. I do not care about whether he denies or accepts the existence of supernatural beings or not, I just care about how he is going to back up that choice. And seriously, every of his choices, if he ever had one, has no solid ground at all. Meanwhile, he is letting himself being turned around in this turbulent, and even though he is stated to be very composed, in his situation, he showed to be powerless, useless and has no control over his actions. In the end, he would just wait for someone to rescue him. I think it is just me expecting too much from him and got disappointed.

Other characters' development is also disappointing. I think they all started out good, and then suddenly, the author just leave them there, halfway, to jump into another venture. The plot development is also too slow, while there are too much events jumping in fast. But these events, instead of pushing the plot forward, are making it confusing and hard to piece together.

This comment is updated at Chapter 36, so I expect things to change after. I would want the pace to be faster, but I don't mind having a manga with a lot of cliffhangers and finish beautifully, that would even please me more. But the way it is now, the cliffhangers are not thrilling enough to me. I will come back and make an update when things change.

The tone and plot of this manga reminds me of an older manga but no less, the art and plot of this particular manga is still incredible: Defense Devil
Highly recommend it.

About Makai Ouji...
The plot really has you wanting more.
I, for one, am always intrigued by the references to historical figures and to the Bible though I'm not religious... & it has you guessing who's really who, so their identity.
Love it!
It's in my top 10.
Mixture of humour, suspense, plot twists, love (maybe?), & history.
Art is amazing too!

I just started reading the manga, but I couldn't get over some things...

If William's family is high nobility, with a more ancient heritage than the Royal family and a vast estate, why is William's uncle (a LORD, no less!) in business?!?

I know this is fantasy, but as a history fanatic, I found this laughable. It makes no sense, and there are more accurate ways to manage the fall of a noble house.

This may be an artifact of translation, but "I am a modern man who loves science" was repeated several times. It's supposed to be explanation for why William doesn't believe in demons, but I thought it came across as very superficial.

I'm really liking this so far.
William is an interesting character. It's such a nice change to read about a protagonist who is not a goody-two-shoes, but someone who's quite arrogant, calm (most of the time), very intelligent, stubborn, and ambitious. He is not a push-over.
The story started out with William the Realist (believer in all things science and scoff at things like angels, demons, and gods) stumbled upon a magic ring/ritual of sort under his mansion--and got introduced to Hell, the world of demons. He is the descendant of Solomon, and thus one of the electors who can select the next king of hell-- for a supernatural fan, this kind of plot makes my heart skip beat, haha.

The humor is there; it's quite funny seeing William trying to rationalize everything and stubbornly refuses to acknowledge anything supernatural. lol.

Actually, the plot annoys me a bit... William tries so hard to reject all things that have to do with the supernatural. He insists that he's just a regular human and that he doesn't have anything to do with 'all this.' His persistence is getting annoying..

The art is wonderful as well.

Oh yeah. It's "laced with slash" like VampireBanana said in the last comment. I'm hoping it will be shonen-ai. 🙂 But it's too early to decide that for sure yet.

I've always longed for a protagonist who was set on the path of pure evil, whose destined goal is not to save the world but possibly one of self-interest or of another ambition that puts him on the opposing path of good. It doesn't matter whether this path was forced upon him but it's so damn fun to read, as William slowly and grudgingly accepts his future and his ancestor's past. I love how the "evilness" is handled and not overdone 'cos it can be tiring to see scene after scene of wanton slaughter and gore. To me, evilness is far more than just being a homicidal murderer, being ruthless and it's fun to see what the characters are up to.

It also doesn't take itself too seriously either and everything is laced with slash, a nice blend of English background, Christianity and tongue-in-cheek humor which mixes both light and darkness. 😀 Yet it doesn't make any excuses for all the evil deeds being mentioned: nothing is toned down, so the characters appear less guilty of their crimes and as the story progresses, we'll be seeing the darker aspects of everyone. Also, committing an unpardonable sin is how certain characters ended in hell and turned into demons, ya know. There's no "saving the world" crap so the protagonist can redeem himself, thankfully.

Btw, I really like most or all of the cast so far: Isaac is just too damn awesome and he's some friend, indeed. Sitri is one heck of a demon too and so is Dantalion. I even love the female demons too. Also, expect a lot of morally gray characters to show up as the fight between Heaven and Hell develops. It's going to be pure fun watching William and Isaac damning themselves. 😀 No doubt, they'll be condemned from Heaven.

Also, the pacing was a bit funky at the start but it's better now. At the beginning, some of the scenes transited a bit too fast for my taste. Then again, no manga is perfect.

P.S: Motifs of collaborating with Satan and demons might piss off the sensitive, though. Not to mention, mixing scenes of occult summonings and Christian sermons in Greek which might annoy some.

Okay, this is easily one of the most interesting manga titles released from 09~now. Amazing artwork, you cant go wrong with the time either, the clothes from that awesome and everything about it is awesome. And Other than that, Tartufo pretty much summed everything up.

William is absolutely my favorite protagonist in a supernatural manga, EVER, simply because he REFUSES TO BELIEVE anything that's happening to him - and he comes up with as many scientific explanations as he can, with the kind of stubborn, bloody-minded insistence on logic that is anything but logical. Lol!

This is the first time I've encountered a character like this... He's awesome. I love how he manages to keep his cool even in the middle of seriously bizarre or surreal happenings, and even in the midst of inter-dimensional travel to Hell and back... Because he's a "realist" who refuses to believe in the supernatural, and nothing's going to convince him otherwise. 😀

Love ya, William! Keep strong! (And sane!)