I will attempt to make this review as spoiler-free as possible.

Plot/Story
Every few centuries, when the moon eclipses the sun, the demon lord Exoda Cero Crown, or Satan as many call him, is resurrected. As he plunges the world into darkness, seven legendary heroes will rise up and seal him away temporarily. Now the demon lord has awakened yet again, sending the entire world into a panic. To appease him, every nation sends a woman to be his consort on his island of Shina Dark. Among them are Galett Fey Sowauge, a fiery redhead trained as a knight, and Christina Rey Holden, a timid blonde with a love for books and a lack of confidence. They gather in Satan's castle, resigned to their fates...

Only to find that Satan is a lazy bum.

Yeah, all the stories about how Satan would bed countless women and raze the world for his amusement are completely false. In fact, he doesn't want to bed any of the women sent to him; he just wants them to head home and leave him be. But leaving isn't an option, since their homelands would treat them as outcasts out of fear for what Satan may have done to them.

The characters push the story forward and not a lot happens, save for the flashbacks involving Galett and Christina and a couple events near the end of the story. We're also shown what their respective kingdoms are like, and how their ways of life are more threatening than Satan himself.

The story's premise is strong; there's a lot of potential here dealing with life on Shina Dark, the kind of light the women see Satan in, and the politics behind each kingdom. But the execution leaves much to be desired. The narrative jumps back and forth from being a comedy about a reluctant demon lord to a serious political drama. The transitions between the two can be fairly jarring. The comedy isn't very funny; I only laughed at one or two jokes. The dramatic parts only scratch the surface. The first chapter made it seem like the story was going to be romantic comedy of sorts, with sparse bits of drama here and there. Instead, it turned into a garbled mess with no clear direction.

Characters
The characters are either really good or really dull. Galett and Christina are the best of the entire cast, with entire chapters dedicated to their pasts and they develop the most out of everyone. I was invested in seeing how these characters would change, and they didn't disappoint.

The same goes for Noel, Satan's maid. She doesn't get the same level of development, she's still a enjoyable character. Her perky personality made her stand out, and many dull scenes became slightly better with her in them.

Or maybe it's because everyone else has all the presence of damp cardboard. I never thought an interpretation of Satan could be so uninteresting. He's a nice guy, but that's his only defining trait. After chapter one, he doesn't get any development, despite being an integral part of the main plot, and eventually he gets demoted to a side role. The same goes for his servant Vincent the butler, who we know nothing about besides him being the butler. And don't even get me started on Hajime and Marple, the former being a non-entity and the latter being the token cute character who does jack all.

Drawing Style
The designs of the characters are unique from each other, which is important for a mostly female cast, although I do wish Satan, the king of darkness, looked a little less plain. The environments look good too, though nothing really stands out. I can't in good faith criticize Shina Dark for looking "too generic"; that's just the artist's style. What matters is if it fits the setting.

But I'll tell you what I can criticize it for: panel layout. This has to be some of the worst layout work I've ever seen in a manga. When it's good, I don't mind, but when it's bad, boy howdy is it awful. One example is a scenic shot of a portrait in the castle, accompanied by some panels offering surrounding shots. These kinds of layouts are pretty common; they're good for establishing a setting. But here, it just doesn't work. For one, the surrounding shots don't add anything, since one panel would have been enough to indicate that the scene has moved inside the castle, which we already know from the previous page. Even worse is that one panel shows the floor, which is either brick or cobble stone, but it's designed in such a way that blends into the brick wall where the painting is. I had to spend a good few minutes trying to decipher what the heck I was looking at.

Another problem is that the layout ruins the already flat comedy in some instances. 95% of the time the outcome of a joke is on the same page, thus removing some of the punch the joke would have had. The other 5% was one joke where the punchline was on the next page, when it would have been much more effective, and dare I say more funny, had it been on the same page where the joke started.

The artist has the tendency to cram as much onto a page as possible, which leads to some panels getting smaller and smaller as they get pushed into a corner. In fact, this is the layout for most of the comedic scenes. It's almost like the artist knows the jokes aren't funny and is trying to make you pass over them by putting them in tiny panels in the corner of a page.

Enjoyment
For what's it's worth, I did enjoy some of the series. Like I said before, the first chapter was pretty good, as were the flashback chapters. Near the end of the story is where it seems to have clear idea of where it wants to go.

And then it ends. Apparently this was only the first third of the story, with the other two being separate series that haven't been made yet. Almost a decade later. Of all the other things I talked about, this was the final nail in the coffin.

Overall
I wanted to like Shina Dark. I wasn't expecting a masterpiece, that's for sure, but I was at least expecting to feel satisfied that I read this. But instead I just feel empty, not like after finishing a depressing story, but like I just wasted my time reading this on a wonderful day. Which is exactly what happened.

What's good about Shina Dark doesn't quite make up for what's bad about it. The juggling back and forth between flat comedy and serious drama is jarring, with neither complementing the other. The good characters don't compensate for the ones that are underdeveloped and underutilized. The art is by no means bad, but it's marred by the terribly page layout. The story has such potential, but it doesn't use anything to its advantage. And for it to have such a spectacularly frustrating conclusion on top of all that?

Shina Dark is average at best and annoying at worst. If the other two series were made, maybe it would have been better, but I'm reviewing what's been given, not what could have been. I do hope the author continues the story, just for some closure; plus I'm curious to see how the entire story ends. But as for this, read only if you're very curious; otherwise, your time is better spent elsewhere.