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悪魔とラブソング [Akuma to Love Song] #1

A Devil and Her Love Song, Vol. 1

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Meet Maria Kawai—she’s gorgeous and whip-smart, a girl who seems to have it all. But when she unleashes her sharp tongue, it’s no wonder some consider her to be the very devil! Maria’s difficult ways even get her kicked out of an elite school, but this particular fall may actually turn out to be her saving grace...

Maria’s frank nature gains her more enemies at her new school, but her angelic singing voice inadvertently catches the attention of Yusuke Kanda and Shin Meguro. Can these boys mend her hardened heart, or will they just end up getting scorched?

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 25, 2007

36 people are currently reading
2075 people want to read

About the author

Miyoshi Tōmori

63 books81 followers
Associated Names:
桃森三好
桃森美由
TOMORI Miyoshi

She works a lot with Tekkotsu Saro (鉄骨サロ), who develops the story of several manga, while she handles the drawing.

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Displaying 1 - 29 of 179 reviews
Profile Image for Selena Pigoni.
1,941 reviews263 followers
July 21, 2013
I'm really not sure what to make of this one. I like it, but I can't say why. XD

The story centers around Maria Kawai, who is extremely blunt. But I like her in spite of--or maybe because of--this. She's more genuine than the other characters, and her inability to put a positive spin on her blunt observations to others makes her even more so without her being tooth-achingly sweet. Something about Maria speaks to me. It's kind of nice to have a main character who isn't obnoxiously positive.
Profile Image for ⋆☆☽ Kriss ☾☆⋆.
625 reviews210 followers
November 25, 2025
Ah, yet again, a manga has such potential and decides to set itself aflame for no good reason...

As with all my manga reviews, this will cover the entire series (all 13 volumes) and may contain spoilers as a result, since I wish to speak about some specific things in detail.

Like with many manga I'm familiar with, I first discovered this series through fan translations. The appeal laid in its aesthetic--a sort of gothic-lolita vibe, frills and crosses and what not--and in the fact that its heroine has a very distinct and uncommon sort of personality.

A lot of manga have pretty universal heroines--they're shy, sweet, simple, cute, clumsy, etc.--but Maria steps off the page as a straightforward, unflinching girl who is beautiful, smart, and unafraid to say her mind and tell the truth, much to the chagrin of her peers, who dislike that she is both unable and unwilling to participate in the game of socializing they expect: which is, namely, to use subtleties and subterfuge to always speak and act in ways that others respond to positively, even if deceitful or disingenuous.

This quality of Maria is treated as her ultimate flaw and is the major driving factor behind the whole plot. She is too blunt, honest, and makes people hate her because she makes them face the truth, so she's encouraged to undergo a "lovely transformation" by charismatic classmate Yuusuke in order to be less threatening to her peers and therefore able to receive their approval and friendship--though her attempts to be "lovely" usually result in her seeming more menacing than usual.

My first complaint is that a lot of the messages this manga wants to convey are vague to the point of being unclear.

The author didn't really convey the more deep theming that they're clearly going for, which leads me to believe that they wanted to sound philosophical, but didn't actually have a concrete grasp on understanding these vague ideas about human nature, so they couldn't accurately depict them or discuss them in depth.

Like, we don't explore exactly why Maria's forwardness and directness bothers people so much. We never go into detail why Hana was so bent on forcing toxic positivity. We never examine the fact that Anna had problems she reflected unfairly onto Maria, to the point that Maria develops a complex and believes she corrupts people. For a manga that wants to approach some really intense issues, the author never wanted to do more than touch the surface and move on.

To be honest, Maria is blamed for causing problems in every situation where she's direct and truthful, even when fully validated. The story constantly villainizes and condemns her for not coddling everyone who is resistant to facing a reality they don't like, but almost no one else in the series is very treated like that despite them lying, bullying, abusing, manipulating, or otherwise doing horribly unkind, deceptive things with a fake smile on their faces.

Her blunt honestly is always treated like a quality she needs to change if she wants friends and it hits home for me because I was told I needed to get better at playing these awful social games if I wanted friends and I hated that so, so much.

She tries so hard to make friends and be a good person and the whole theme of the manga is "do a lovely transformation so people accept you, because you're too intimating and hard to like as you are" and that's absolutely heartbreaking. That's a bad message. I don't like it.

But, I could've probably let that slide more... had the manga not then turned to redeeming and forgiving a rapist.

I don't know about anyone else, but, for me, rape isn't something a person bounces back from, because it's such a deliberate, intentional action. It's not a split second mistake, it's not a I had no idea kind of mistake, you have to continually decide to keep proceeding even when the other person is resisting, crying, freezing up, screaming, giving clear signs that what you are doing is causing them harm. Rapists have something deeply wrong with them to be able to feel okay violating another person like that.

In the case of A Devil and Her Love Song, the rape that's part of the plot is very clearly a deliberate and evil action without much room for anyone to argue it wasn't anything but a horrendous, traumatic assault.

Maria's mother, at the age of 14, was pulled off the streets while walking home from school into a car by a 20 year old American solider, who proceeded to rape her. So, right off the bat we have an adult raping a child and we have that same adult deliberating scoping out and abducting his child victim off the street for the express purpose of rape.

Left pregnant and deeply traumatized, Maria's mother gives birth and goes to live on her own, raising her daughter alone. The American solider is never prosecuted and faces no legal ramifications for his actions. In fact, Maria's grandparents even accept hush money in exchange for talking their daughter out of trying to seek justice. As a single mother and rape victim in Japan in what was probably the late 90s, Maria's mother faces constant social stigma and mistreatment from people, as her name was leaked to the public (Japanese law protects the names of minors involved in crimes; so underage victims names are kept private) and she has no support network. The parents that accepted the hush money disown her and want nothing to do with her or her child.

Eventually, Maria's mother is so battered by the world and so burdened by her trauma and lack of support that she commits suicide, intending to take Maria with her, as she feels cornered after realizing that everyone looks upon her innocent child with hate and anger and disgust.

In the end, she can't bring herself to kill Maria, too, but it's incredibly telling that this very young woman (if she got pregnant at 14, she gave birth around 15, and died when her daughter was about five or so, making her about 20, give or take) probably was pushed into such a deep place by her rapist and by everyone around her that she was saw a murder-suicide as her only respite from lives filled with suffering.

I don't know how a man who did that to an actual child, causing her to endure six years of suffering as she desperately tries to be a good mother to the child she was forced to conceive, only to be so broken down in the end that she sees no way out but taking her own life, can ever be forgiven.

The book tries hard to show that John (the American solider and Maria's mother's rapist) has repented. We're told that he eventually fell in love with Maria's mom through the letter she sent (she wrote to him to tell him about her daughter, likely feeling a sort of obligation to do so, as he is Maria's biological parent) and he's shown to be a priest who runs an orphanage. We're even told later that it was his money funding Maria's life, as she's been living all on her own since her mother's death when she was very little.

But, really, I don't see how any of that constitutes "I'm worthy of forgiveness and can be let into my daughter's life as a father now, despite me being the exact reason her mother was so distraught she killed herself, thus robbing my daughter of her mom and a present parent for most of her life. It's fine, I take care of orphans, I've repented a lot."

I don't know if, at 16, I could find out my biological dad raped my mother, driving her into such a dark place of suffering for years that she eventually felt like she had no other option for relief from her suffering but death, and then forgive him for it, being willing to have him in my life to any capacity or regard him as a father figure, let alone drag him to be in the life of the parents of the girl he drove to suicide.

Yeah, Maria meets with her grandparents--who confuse me, like, y'all hung your daughter out to dry during her absolute darkest hour because she made the personal choice to not abort her baby and yet hate your granddaughter and never tried to see her or have a relationship yet also want a relationship with your granddaughter because you feel guilty about how fucking poorly you treated your child who was going through trauma and literally needed your love and support more than anything? I don't get it, I don't fucking get it.--and after meeting her biological father decides to draw them together and they're like... okay with it, they forgive him and act all chummy.

If I had a daughter and the man who raped her and drove her to suicide appeared before me, I wouldn't be friendly with him. I would murder him. There's nothing my daughter's rapist could ever do or so to get me to forgive them for ruining my child's life and making them suffer so immensely they kill themselves.

This fact just really soured the manga for me.

We spent so many chapters calling Maria an actual devil for being blunt and honest, but her rapist of a father is just... forgiven for the lives he's destroyed, the things no amount of apologizing or repenting can fix.

It's fucking unbelievable that a teen girl is more vilified and criticized and has a harder time finding forgiveness and acceptance than an actual child-snatching rapist whose victim killed herself when her trauma was too much to bear.

Maria is told to change, to be better to people. Her past mistakes follow her. She's bullied, she's mistreated, she cries, she berates herself, she's rejected by people, she's made to take the blame for the flaws and mistakes and weaknesses of others. She's even made out to be dirty and tainted because her mother committed suicide and she's the result of rape; how is any of that Maria's fault??? Who the fuck blames children for this??? What the actual fuck, I am SO angry.

But John? John the rapist? John the child rapist? He's nice to some orphans and financially supports the daughter he created when he chose to snatch and rape a 14 year old girl, and all is well in the world for him. His daughter comes into his life. The parents of his victim forgive him. He has at least one orphan who adores him like a father. Sure, maybe you can infer he's been repeating for the last decade or so, but we aren't shown that. The manga doesn't explore that. Maria coming to terms with him takes up no fucking space at all, so it doesn't FEEL earned, it's not shown to BE earned. Therefore, it isn't earned!!!!!

And that's my piece. I hate rape apologies and people not taking it seriously and this manga, for no fucking reason, decided to make Maria's backstory be fraught with something so serious and intense without any desire to examine it in the way it ought to have been. It just wanted a little extra scandal and rape should never be treated as cheap tension and thrill.

Fuck this manga. Gross.
Profile Image for Laura A. Grace.
1,981 reviews314 followers
April 4, 2024
I LOVE Maria, but the bullying was so triggering 😭😭😭 Either bullying in newer shoujo is toned down or I'm just lucky in that the books I'm picking up don't have it THAT extreme, but either away I'm unsure if I'll continue this series. I did overall enjoyed what I read in this first volume at least!
Profile Image for Cait.
207 reviews131 followers
March 3, 2012
I won this book through the GR first reads program -- very exciting, the first time I've won one of these! And it arrived pretty quickly, too, which was nice because I needed to read it, review it, and pack it up to move to a new address next week....

This book is the story of Maria, the new girl in a crappy school who was expelled from a fancy Catholic school and is taking that expulsion -- or, more to the point, the horrible things people said to her when she was expelled -- as evidence that she's worthless and unlovable. We don't actually find out why she hit her teacher; Maria doesn't seem to be a very physical person and she never looks like she's restraining any violent urges in this book, even when . She has a paranoid outside's perspective on people that lets her spot the worst in everyone and a cynicism which she expresses by pointing out what she sees, at least until she strikes up a friendship with Yusuke, who manages to be peppy and cheerful and simultaneously more cynical and more hopeful that Maria ever thought to be:
Maria: I've been told that I taint people. So I shouldn't hide how tainted I am. It wouldn't be fair.
Yusuke: But no one cares about that. Even if you're really horrible inside, who wants to see it? Everything in the world is better if you frame it right -- your clothes, your makeup, your room, even your lunch. The same goes for getting along with people.

And so, in the face of some vicious bullying by her new classmates, Maria decides to give herself one last chance to be "saved" by trying out Yusuke's approach of putting a lovely spin on everything. She even strikes up a budding romance with Yusuke's best friend Shin. This is book 1 of 13, so I imagine things are not going to go smoothly from now on, though.

The most interesting thing about Maria, to me, was how focused on herself she is -- in a good, healthy way, I think. She's not trying to be friends with the popular girls or date the popular boys for their own sake; what she wants is to be able to love herself, and she knows that she needs help from other people to learn how to do it. For a lot of teen stories, triumph is either becoming popular or rejecting popularity in favor of something better, and that doesn't seem like it's going to be Maria's story (although, interestingly, it may be Yusuke's).
Profile Image for Sassy Sarah Reads.
2,350 reviews304 followers
October 24, 2014
A Devil and Her Love Song by Miyoshi Tomori

First Volume

3 stars

Maria has just transferred from a Catholic school and she seems to have a knack for reading people. This doesn’t win over her classmates, but Yusuke and Shin seem to want to be her friend. This is a pretty disappointing manga. It’s nothing great and it lacks in comparison to other realistic shoujo manga I’ve read. I went in thinking that this would be a paranormal manga. I was wrong! This is very much contemporary and while that isn’t a bad thing, I feel like A Devil and Her Love Song was poorly executed. There were times when the tone was very dark and then would randomly throw in light undertones and completely stop focusing on the original plot point of the chapter. It was very annoying and I found myself becoming less invested in the characters as I continued to read, but I may continue with the manga series all because there was a cliffhanger.



The art is quite beautiful. While the light and dark plot changes bugged me, art wise it was beautiful to look at. The art is simple and not very different from most popular shoujo mangas, but it was still aesthetically pleasing.



Cover Thoughts: I love the cover. It was why I bought the volume in the first place. It just has this badass vibe to it. Sadly the book is not as badass.
Profile Image for Mark.
2,812 reviews272 followers
September 5, 2020
[With apologies, as always, to Blondie]

New school, why’s she there?
Her truthful words could curl the air
Ooh she’ll make her classmates cry
She knows all of their names
She stands up to their petty games
I think they might want her to die

Ooh does Shin want to date her? (harmonica)
Does Yusuke want her for his own? (Ibid)

Maria, cannot believe the...
Acid tongue wielded by that mind
But see the... girl named Maria
Can’t stop herself from making slights

You’ve seen their type before
The friendly guy and the classroom bore
Who’s the lover? Who’s the rival?
They’ll play this to the hilt
She cannot work the lovely tilt
Wing-ed shoes... her desire

Then they try to shake her
Ooh they just can’t leave her alone

Maria, oh man that teacher
He might be a bit out of line
Maria, we’ll have to see her
Trying to change her ways over time

Ooh the girls wanna break her
Ooh should leave well enough alone

She gets shoved down some stairs
She ends up on her derrière
Rhyming’s tough not gonna lie

Maria, that was Maria
Her story’s worth your precious time
You see-a, this song says Maria
A lot but I’m running out of lines

(brief instrumental)

Maria, was glad to read her
Another volume will sure be mine
Maria, once more Maria
I tried not to break copyrights

Setting this to Blondie’s ‘Maria’
I’m insane and out of my mind
So see-ya, enjoy Maria
Profile Image for Holly Letson.
3,847 reviews527 followers
February 6, 2015
First off, I want to again thank VIZ Media for giving me review copy eMangas of V5, V6, and V10-13 of this series (via Edelweiss), way back in 2013, since that is what made me really want to read the others from the start as I am doing now. That having been said, I want everyone to know that this is a great series, and that everyone should read it.
------------------------------
Maria is the type of girl that holds nothing back, and speaks whatever is on her mind. This, sometimes, makes her come across as a smartass. So, not everyone can handle her and her honesty. Enter Yusuke Kanda, the king of living a "beautiful" life, to teach her the "Lovely Spin".

But, even with the "Lovely Spin" on her side, all the girls still seem to hate Maria.
Profile Image for Sylwia.
1,322 reviews26 followers
December 9, 2019
I love the protagonist and the two other main? characters, but I'm mostly skimming this for now. It's a bit too ~dramatic~ for my taste, but the friendships between her and the two fellas are enjoyable. I'm shipping her with the blond one but it seems like she's going to end up with the black-haired one.
Profile Image for D.T..
Author 5 books81 followers
April 28, 2025
Is it worth being nice if no one gives you the benefit of the doubt?

“And they can’t choose you … until they know who you are.”

I enjoy seeing a different female lead from the spineless ones often in shoujo. SO REFRESHING! Maria is super blunt and perceptive, which tends to rub people the wrong way. Except for the male leads in the love triangle we got brewing.

“When you fall from grace once, you’re a screw-up forever.”


It’s refreshing that Maria already exhibits growth. You can tell the truth and have tact at the same time. A message many people could learn!

The artwork works well, and there are some shots of Maria that look especially pretty. The fish lips and deadpan looks are also comical when things go cartoony.

I know this series spanned multiple volumes, so I’m interested in seeing where it goes. I’m not sure if there’s enough hook here to keep me reading, but I’m here for volume two, at least. I think this was a very strong opening, and, as much as I make fun of them, I see the appeal of both the leads with Maria. But usually the black-haired ones always win (this only gets negated if the black-haired one is a childhood best friend lol).

3.5
Profile Image for Emylia.
390 reviews
July 18, 2024
Re-reading it again since I stumbled upon this manga at MPH TRX Bookstore.

People are not accustomed to people who are blunt and or honest because they'll feel crutinized everytime. People tend to react defensively when facing honest people, worst case scenario,they'll do everything to bring that person down.

Maria is definitely a cool character. She’s the type of person I aspire to be back then because I don’t want to care for what people have to say about me for who I am, inside and out. People see her and think of her as rude and disrespectful but she’s just brutally honest and that’s what I like about her. It’s like she turns her cheek to get slapped and shrugs because it doesn’t bother her, she knows that she did nothing wrong. People like Maria, who simply want to be more honest to our own selves, were easily misunderstood, and because she’s been misunderstood a lot, she teach herself to be cold and apathetic so that she can continue being honest to herself . This type of people are not doing anything wrong, if society doesn’t like it then oh well 🤷🏻‍♀️
Profile Image for Phong Nhược.
169 reviews16 followers
April 26, 2018
Ác quỷ và bản tình ca
Tác giả: Miyoshi Toumori
Tình trạng: Complete
Số vol: 13 | Số chap: 92(?)
Thể loại: shoujo, romance, school life, drama, drama, cực kỳ drama, không nằm trong quy luật màu tóc (=))).
Rate: 3.5/5

Lúc đầu gây ấn tượng bởi cốt truyện độc đáo, thật sự rất độc đáo với một nữ chính trông tăm tối và mở miệng ra là khai toàn góc tối trong tam hồn người khác, nhưng về sau vì nó quá là drama nên tôi phải lật bật kêu gào với trừ điểm gấp. May mà đoạn cuối cũng không đến mức nào. Truyện tương đối dễ thương ở một số đoạn, ở một vài đoạn khác thì chỉ muốn băm nhân vật ra cho hả giận.
Thực ra mà nói cốt truyện có lẽ là ngay từ đầu đã không tác khỏi ý định của tác giả, càng về sau cũng vậy, có rất nhiều hint từ những chap đầu được sử dụng để làm dấu hiệu cho những sự kiện sau đó, cho dù một vài cái nguyên nhân của sự việc kiểu hơi khiên cưỡng hay thậm chí là vô lí đi nữa. Điều này khiến tôi thấy tác giả rất kiên định và tôi khá là thích điều đó, dù vẫn phải nói thêm là éo le quá, nhiều khi cũng làm tôi bực. Trong cái quá trình phát triển truyện cách vẽ nữ chính làm tôi có chút thất vọng, càng về sau cô ấy càng được vẽ nữ tính hơn, biểu cảm hơn chứ không u ám như ban đầu nữa. Đồng ý là cô ấy cũng có thay đổi nhưng mà như vậy thì giống mấy cô nữ chính shoujo khác quá, mà tôi thì lại luôn muốn cô ấy giữ được cái vẻ đẹp đặc biệt của mình.
Ban đầu tôi đọc trên site truyentranhtuan mà trên này up đến chap 39 làm tôi tưởng bở truyện ngắn chap sau đọc hết mới tá hỏa sợ mình lọt vào cái hố chưa lấp, lục lọi mãi cả Việt lẫn Anh các thứ chỉ thấy cao nhất là đến chap 85 tôi đã hơi sợ rồi vì cái truyện end rồi cơ mà sao không có chap cuối vậy. Mãi sau mới kiếm được cái bản scan từ truyện xb, lạy chúa may mà chỉ thiếu có mấy chap.

T04/2017
Profile Image for Barbara.
552 reviews43 followers
February 21, 2023
Very nice story, about a girl that transfers to a new school,and because of her caustic tongue,makes enemies left and right.

There are two boys that are circling her,so let’s see if it will become a love triangle.
Profile Image for maë.
7 reviews
July 8, 2022
j’aime trop pour l’instant c’est prometteur !!!
Profile Image for #ReadAllTheBooks.
1,219 reviews93 followers
April 15, 2012
I ended up discovering this the other day and I have to say, I'm completely in love with this manga. It has several things going for it.

First off, the artwork is really cute. For a character that doesn't show much emotion (at this stage, anyway), Maria is an incredibly fun character to look at. Her interactions with others really drive this manga, which is how it should be. The other characters are great, but let's be honest: it's Maria that is given the most loving attention at this point.

What I really liked most of all about this manga was that Maria is not your typical "everyone should love her, she's so misunderstood and always in the right" type of girl. This is present to a degree, as you can't have her as a main character otherwise, but Maria is wonderfully witchy. She's not entirely likable, which the author intentionally plays up. We're given a somewhat good reason as to why Maria was disliked at her old school and why she'd disliked this one. There is still some over the top bullying, but it's not like Maria is some blameless innocent- and I love that Tomori was bold enough to go in this direction. Maria isn't the shy and shrinking violet, nor is she the brash young thing that's looked down upon for no good reason. It's refreshing, especially since there's already a million mangas that use those character types. Don't get me wrong- Maria's type isn't a new thing either, but it's not as common.

This is the first volume of a 13 volume series, so part of me was worried that this might not have enough story to go out this long, but worry not. I've peeked ahead and this is pretty much a solidly done series. Buy this without any worry that you'll get to volume 4 and lose complete interest. (Come on, we've all been in that "I don't really like this, but I want to finish the set" mindset! It's a natural comic/manga collector impulse!)
Profile Image for J.
782 reviews
February 12, 2012
I received this book as a free giveaway from Goodreads.

I realize I am not the target demographic for this type of book, but as part of ongoing research about manga and graphic novels for my students, I am trying to gradually read a variety of comics (manga and otherwise. Even taking into considerations the cultural practices in which this story was structured, this was not a good book.

The main theme of this book revolves around the idea of bullying. Instead of addressing this intelligently or honestly, the victim both incites and accepts the bullying, even literally expressing her acceptance of it several times. This is a serious enough issue in schools today that it is just not okay to portray bullying as okay. When characters confront the issue on both sides, they brush it off and act like it is not abusive, its just how people interact.

The pacing was another big issue, the story went very quickly for such a slow plot. Most of the dialogue didn't seem to fit in anywhere. I constantly wondered why characters were talking about what they were talking about. The story also became self-referential immediately, mentioning the same thing repeatedly every few pages as if the reader had somehow forgotten. In a longer book, this might be fine, but to have so many callbacks to itself in one volume left no room for plot development.

I'm not going to go into the artwork, it is very stylized in its own way, just as every other comic is. Not a style I like, but my rating is based on (lack of) story.
Profile Image for Hanii Aburame.
273 reviews1 follower
January 30, 2023
Oh man, I love this girl!

After being expelled for assaulting a teacher at her Catholic school, Maria Kawai transfers to a public school that is also her last chance. Once there she runs into the same problem as at her old school with people misunderstanding her blunt tone for cruelness, thus leading the majority of the class to tease and taunt her, to the point even her own teacher automatically assumes Maria is always at fault. But the class king and bad boy are drawn to Maria and help her to make friends, be understood, and see the world with a lovely spin.

With this first volume I have to say, I absolutely love Maria! Her bluntness and awkward social skills remind me a bit of myself. What people mistake as cold and uncaring is actually Maria seeing through to their hearts and speaking out the ugly truth that they're hiding, from even themselves sometimes. That may sound rough on the surface, however I believe she does it as a way of protecting people from others harsh feelings, without realizing that is actually hurting the very people she is trying to protect.

The art is very pretty, it's classic shojo with sketchy sleek lines, and while most of the characters match said style, Maria has notably bigger eyes and drawn in more of moe style art.

This is a definite series for any romance fan to try out. I am really looking forward to seeing where the series goes, and I definitely want to see Maria end up with a certain bad boy.

Check out my bookstagram! @Witchy.Otaku
Profile Image for Eden Silverfox.
1,228 reviews102 followers
February 18, 2012
Maria Kawai was kicked St. Katria Academy and at her new school there are many rumors as to why she was kicked out. Maria is blunt and because of this when Maria arrives, it doesn't take too long for her to gain a lot of enemies.

I won this from a first reads giveaway and when I read this, it was much more different than I expected. From the title and the book description, I expected the main character to be a snob and probably very unlikeable. However, I found it to be the exact opposite of what I expected. Maria is very blunt, she speaks her mind, but I don't think it's because she's a snob. It's because she has been lead to believe that she taints everyone.

But Maria seems like she wants to change and although she may act like she doesn't want friends, she really does. Which is why I think that even though she knew the girls in her school were up to no good when they invited her to a party, she decided to go anyway and give them a chance.
Maria can come across as a very strong and uncaring girl, but she's not really. She wants friends and people to like her, but things tend to not always work out for her.

I really liked Maria and Shin and Yusuke, too. I thought this was a great manga, one of the best I've read in awhile and I'd like to read the rest of the series.
Profile Image for Rach.
1,838 reviews102 followers
September 10, 2012
Maria is a hard girl to figure out. She wants friends, but is too blunt to get them. She can't seem to figure out how to get people to like her, but I think her core issue is she refuses to lie to anyone, no matter the circumstance. The fact that she can easily read people certainly doesn't help, especially when she is so quick to expose their true selves.

Yusuke and Shin are interesting as well. Yusuke has forced himself to become an extrovert so that everyone will like him, putting on a friendly facade no matter what the situation. Though Maria seems to appreciate his willingness to be her friend, she also can't figure out why he would want to live such a false life. The whole concept of the lovely spin as Yusuke intends it alludes her, but in the end, it still manages to change her attitude, at least a little bit. Shin is almost the exact opposite of Yusuke - a caring guy that pretends not to care. Somehow, though, Maria has gotten to him. He wants to be near her and help her.

It will be interesting to see how the relationships develop between these 3 main characters. Right now, they're really the only characters of much substance. The other students and teachers just seem mean and annoying.
Profile Image for Rachel.
97 reviews40 followers
July 21, 2016
A Devil and Her Love song is a great series. Maria Kawai is a refreshingly blunt character that has no time for games and will tell anyone exactly what she's thinking. She's the new girl in school, and completely turns the entire classroom on its head with her honesty. My first thoughts on her nickname 'Devil Maria' were: "A devil? More like a blessing in disguise."
The main characters are likable (in my opinion) and well-rounded, and I feel like they differ a lot from the usual set of characters in manga set in a high-school setting. But, despite how much I love Maria's straightforward, no-nonsense attitude... my favorite character is Yusuke Kanda. He's a guy with a lot of integrity and loyalty. Shin Meguro and Maria do follow as close favorites, though.
All-in-all, the series is a great read and I COMPLETELY recommend it. I originally gave this book a four-star rating, but after reading all thirteen books, I have decided to put a five-star rating with this review. READ IT and decide for yourself!
Profile Image for Abi.
2,277 reviews
November 25, 2022
I liked this book! Maria is a very interesting MC. She's slightly unnerving. I like how she's drawn. I want to see if she eventually wins people over, and the evolution of her (and the boys') characters. It sounds like it'll be interesting to watch. This was a kind of odd manga, in that it kicks main character tropes to the side and spits on them, but that made it kind of fun to read. The art is nice, and since I have most of the rest of the series checked out from my library, I'm definitely going to continue. I've never read anything quite like this, so it's exciting! 4 stars.

Reread November 25th, 2022
This was a fun reread. I remembered the basic plot, but I forgot how well the characterization and art work together. This manga is funny, insightful, and a bit dark, which is a fun combination. Recommended!
Profile Image for Madeeha (D-ha).
31 reviews14 followers
May 10, 2012
I was looking around in barnes and nobles two days ago for new manga while buying new voluemes of ai ore, bakuman, black butler, and the story of saiunkoku when I came across this series. I thought the cover of this book was interesting and so I bought it along with volume 2. After reading this book I thought it was amazing! I was hooked from the very beggining because of how the main character, Maria Kawai, had the same problems as me of wanting something. I cried while reading this book and would recommend this book to all of my fellow otakus and those who are new and are just starting to find the wonders of manga, anime, and japan.
Profile Image for Courtney K.
1,805 reviews25 followers
January 2, 2020
I thought this was going to be paranormal. It isn't so far. This is my first encounter with Japanese mean girls in manga. It's a little strange. The love triangle is okay and I like the main character. I find the narration confusing as I can't tell who is talking.

Favorite quote: I guess new friendships start when somebody chooses you, not the other way around.
Profile Image for Jennifer.
1,871 reviews9 followers
January 17, 2016
The plot seems to be interesting, but I'm not sure about the way it is written and the constant truth-telling of the main character. She is annoying but I will keep reading to see if things get better in the next installment.
Profile Image for Yesenia.
310 reviews3 followers
December 19, 2023
Wow I was not expecting to like this one as much as I did. Very refreshing.
The style of art is so beautiful and the story is very interesting. I love the main character already she’s funny without really trying.
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