Stray Little Devil Vol. 1 – Manga Review

Out of all of my recent manga acquisitions and backlog, I chose to read Stray Little Devil first. Why? Because the cover is really freaking cute! Any other reasons? Not really. I know you’re not supposed to judge books by their covers, but do manga count?

Story:
When Akumachi Pam was young, her grandmother told her that she had fallen in love with a devil. This particular devil was a really kind person, apparently. Fast forward to the present and Pam is trying to summon a demon of her own. Unfortunately she opens a portal to the spirit world and gets sucked in!

Not only is she stuck in the spirit world, Pam has somehow become a (probationary) devil (apprentice) herself. She’s told by some random know-it-all that she must become a full fledged devil if she wants to return to her world. Along the way, she makes friends and enemies, and even captures a familiar.

Analysis:
Stray Little Devil is your typical fantasy “fish out of water” story. Pam has to figure out all the workings of the new world, including reading “devil script.” Apparently the official spoken language of the spirit world is Japanese, though, so no worries there. Pam is also a total klutz, which makes the story a lot more interesting.

Right now the plot seems to be focusing on Pam becoming an official devil. There’s a lot of foreshadowing as to what will happen later on, however. Like how Pam’s necklace is the key to some legendary thing or how Linfa the rival angel looks exactly like Pam’s friend Rinka.

I also want to add that this manga has pretty obvious yuri overtones to it. Pam is totally in love with her classmate Rinka which transfers to her willingness to be kind to Linfa. I say it’s obvious, but maybe that’s just because I like yuri? Anyway, I completely approve of it.

Character Designs and Art:
Like I stated before, the reason I read this manga first was because I liked the cover art. The manga art itself is also really enjoyable. There are some confusing parts here and there where there’s a lot of explosions and whatnot, but for the most part the manga was really easy to read.

The character designs are really awesome. Pam is totally cute! I love the horns and the tail she gets too. The horns actually make her look a lot like Lucy from Elfen Lied. For some reason, the mysterious character randomly gives Pam new outfits throughout the book. Though it’s kind of a cheap gimmick, I still approve. As far as the other characters go, Raim reminds me of Etna from Disgaea, and Linfa is totally hot! Especially when she wears glasses. It suffices to say I really like the character designs.

The Actual Book:
The cover of Stray Little Devil has a really nice UV coating effect to it. Unfortunately, the inside of the book is kinda blah. After the two color insert pages (which are kind of wasted on a table of contents and credits) you get some yellowish pages and an average print quality.

One thing that bugs me is the translator decided to switch the name order for the characters. So Akumachi Pam becomes Pam Akumachi. This totally ruins a joke where she introduces herself as Pam Akumachi, and then later a demon says “Akuma Chipam?” since he’s referring to her as a devil (akuma). The book doesn’t really try to explain the joke or anything, so I imagine it would just be confusing for readers who aren’t familiar with the Japanese naming system (and the switching of it by the translator).

Conclusion:
I really, really like Stray Little Devil. The character designs are awesome and the story has yuri! For now the plot is going a bit slow but hopefully it’ll pick up in later volumes. I’d say this is a definite buy if you’re into cute demon girls or suggestive yuri.

Many thanks to DrMaster Publications for sending me a review copy of Stray Little Devil Volume 1!