Rarely do you see these kind of series laying around. When the author tamper with the typical rpg by adding an economy to the story you get this. A hilarious, and well structure storyline, where the two opposing forces must join for the greater... uh...

On a very weak level this manga show that behind some decision, if they concerns a lot of people, are complicated reasons. That you have to think over a lot of factors and which are not every time really obvious. It's nice that somebody could take more interest in economics and/or the dynamics in human societies after reading this manga. This is handled on a very low level, so that the reader is not possibly overwhelmed. Besides this education edge and some political maneuvering this manga have not very much story for the characters themselves. The political maneuvering is told in a way like a edutainment documentary, very often whit some background information in the form of charts and pictures. And if you like to make Clausewitz famous quote ("War is merely the continuation of policy by other means.") your own than even the war stories are also only political maneuvering. The characters are only shown if they are needed to transport something for the political story or for educational purposes (to educate, indirect, the reader). So this manga is not about people (and their personal stories and sorrows, etc.) but about politics.
The characters are shallow and almost pure archetypes. Even the two main characters, the Hero and Demon Queen, are quite shallow. The characters are mostly reduced to their function/profession as a character trait. Which is represented also in their names: they have no names. They are called whit their function/profession (i.e. "young merchant" or "head maid"), which is something strange. What also strange is, is the use of some 21-st centuries knowledge in this manga by the characters in this fantasy world (late middle ages like technology/education setting). There is no explanation for this wisdom, only that the Demon Queen is few hundreds years old and coming from a scholar family (which is IMHO a very cheap explanation).

Somebody has written as a comment this manga use Deus ex Machina as plot device. This is untrue. Except for that, that the (human) Hero which wanted to kill the Demon Queen is persuaded in 5 min. by her to help her. But this is the setting of the whole story so it's OK.
Also somebody has written that this is drama and comedy. Per definition it can't be both (drama is when a play is neither comedy or tragedy). Because it's not about humans (or demons=humans) but about politics this hardly a drama but is more edutainment documentary. You could say there is a comedy part, because the Hero is asexual, he has no testosterone at all. He can't understand what his harem (till chapter 16 three women want to marry him) want from him to do or what women basically like to hear from a man. So this had to be funny when the Hero is more dense than lead, when a women try to seduce him.

Last thing the art: the main characters are drawn quite good, better than in an average manga. Side characters are still OK but had no details. All background (whit some few exceptions) and all supernumeraries are drawn bad. Some few(!) panels are so bad drawn that even me, and I can't draw, could easy made it much better. This few panels reminds of drawings of 2-years-old children or worse, really. This few panels give the impression of cheapness.

In conclusion this manga has some good points but I don't really like the whole thing. But it's only me, the education part is nothing new for me and manga looks to me somewhat like pieced together from different puzzles. If you like to learn, in a easy way, some few basics of economy and dynamics in human societies (especially in wartime) than this manga is a good teaser for the real thing. Read it, if you have some time and have never had thoughts about economics and politics. If you have no time than it's no loss if haven't reed it either.

First of all when I read the summary of this manga, (the release is still around ch 1-2), I interested in it. And try to read it, and... got confuse with the text, and all of economic thingy. Dropped it.
Then after some time, in a coincidence, I click this series again, and got surprised, why this kind of series (around ch 6-7) can get so many people read it (and with a good rating too). Got curious again.
So, I try to read it again (with a bit forcing it for ch 1). Well, it was paid off, I really was too fast to judge the manga, the series is really addicting, the economy thing that I thought is hard is explained here really easy and it's pretty common knowledge for us.
And the more I read it the series doesn't stuck in the relationship between the hero and demon queen like some other manga I know (but I still like it).

Reminded me of one of my most favorite series Spice and Wolf as most of you would notice. It's a type of plot you don't see that often in manga. I love medieval theme a lot and I somehow ended loving the economic aspect of it as well. Interaction between characters is executed well and is pretty cute sometimes(Isn't Maou just adorable? Even the Demon Girl ticks off my radar a little). But the economic plot isn't really for everyone to enjoy and you will ended up reading a wall of text at times.
I personally would like to give this manga a 10 just because it really falls into my personal preference and I don't mind a wall of text since I read it about 3 times from start to current translated chapter(Chapter 7). But the only reason I give it a 9 is because it isn't for everyone to enjoy. Wall of text, complicated plot that might bothers some readers.

But overall, a very good series if you're not scared away by the warning. xD

A very biased look into keynsian economics, thry often do not offer the counter argument and historically backed free market economics. However it does offer a easy to understand version of keynsian theories. A good manga with great plot but it has become evident that japanese culture has become used to keynsian economic views as the united states has.

The drawings are really good I liked them from the beginning. The Characters are fine too ....
But in this manga there's just too much text - even with a relatively complex topic like economics etc. you should at least try to keep it short and simple. I had the same problem with Spice and Wolf, Death Note and Hunter X Hunter.

My Gosh ... the heroine is just too cute and adorable

... Last updated on November 2nd, 2011, 7:21pm

Im not fascinated by the teaching (a good amount of pages is used for teaching essential political, agricultural & economic lessons apparently), merely interested in how the relationship between characters develops and enjoying the RPG elements thrown in here and there so the manga is not that exciting.

The biggest flaw of this series, as some pointed out, is its free use of advanced modern knowledge (vs the ancient/medieveal theme) as a mean to progress the story. Basing the whole plot structure on it seems rather ... flimsy.

Btw, the art is gorgeous, +1 point.

... Last updated on January 14th, 2014, 8:25pm

It supposedly gives a twist to the "archetype" but it actually uses boxed reasoning on the very specific setting of a (Japanese rpg) game-like world with a hero and demon-king. Instead of choosing some elements of these fantasy worlds, it gives lazy reasoning for the settings to be like that and then uses a realistic approach on solving stuff using very dull and idealistic politics / economy .

A good and easy example of this loathsome reasoning would be the "Fantastic Racism" trope it overuses.

... Last updated on August 28th, 2021, 4:07am

Read few chapters, hmm, quite interesting, past 5 chapters, realizing something is weird, continuing and found more silly things, the score went from 10 to 1.

1. There are no names in this manga, no i don't mean they hide their names, THERE IS NO NAME. Characters are being called by their job or status, which is idiotic, i can take it if the scale is limited like in a classroom or something like that. But not for this manga, the scale is HUGE, it's the entire world for god sake, no, make that 2 WORLDS. Despite that there's only 1 young merchant? 1 female knight? in the entire 2 worlds? ridiculous

2. There is no business management in this manga, the maou is cheating, thus the tag is wrong


3. No background story of whatever or whoever, the Hero is invincible because he is the Hero, magic never explained but it's there when it's convenient

4. The entire manga is a Deux ex machina, that's why the plot is unpredictable, for me it's just dumb

it's a wonder why this thing spawned so many manga adaption. for me it's just dumb (it's important so it should be said twice)