The Devil Does Exist, Volume 1

悪魔で候 [Akuma de Sorō] #1

by Mitsuba Takanashi

Shy Kayano finally works up enough courage to confess her feelings to the handsome Kamijo in a love letter. When the letter is intercepted by the notorious Edogawa Takeru--the devilishly handsome son of the school's principal--she is appalled, but even worse is her mother's engagement—to principal Edogawa! Now Kayano will have to live with this devil Takeru 24/7! How will she cope with this "living hell"? Age 13 and up.

Genres: Manga, Romance, Shojo, Graphic Novels, Comics, Comics Manga, Young Adult

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 23, 1999

About the author

Name in native language: 高梨 みつば

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gahhh!! I LOVED THIS! I might be a bit biased though in my opinion. I watched the taiwanese drama of this 'Devil Beside You' a couple of years ago and I fell in love instantly. I suggest anyone who likes this manga should watch the drama. This manga is good, but the drama is like five billion times better! I remember watching fan translations of it online and ended up buying it online for like $50. So worth it! All I have to say is MIKE AND RAINIE <3. I swear I will never fangirl any other pairing but those two. They are soo adorable! Cutest couple ever— just saying. Ok...I'll stop gushing about the drama now haha.

As for the plot I love the random unrealisticness of it. But I'm sure it happens in real life. Falling in love with your brother is kinda icky, but it's step-brother, so it's not like their blood related. The drama really followed the manga plot, scene by scene, so I knew what was going to happen all the time, but it was still highly entertaining.
Kamijo or whatever his name is freaked me out. He seemed like a nice guy, but then he kinda turned potential rapist or something and weirded me out. I'm excited for the future volumes if it stays on track with the drama.

I must say though that the art is kinda funky in this. Kayano was cute, but she always had these criss-cross lines on her face. I'm assuming she was blushing or something, but it came off like she'd been bear-mauled or had some type of face scars. When it comes to Takeru, wow. No offense, but he was fugly and pretty depending on the scene. Most of the time, he looked too feminine for me. With the really high spiked hair he looked kinda blehh. BUT when he had his hair down, Takeru was actually pretty cute! Thank god I could just think Mike He whenever his hair was looking mangy haha...

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series just gets better as it goes along! The two main characters are well portrayed and become more lovable and developed as it moves along. Shoujo/Shojo series. If you are looking for a drama/romance series that is a good length, then I recommend this 11 book series to you.

2022- I remembered very little about this but kept them since i enjoyed them so I am giving it another go. Still quite enjoyable. Although 3.5 is a more honest rating. A few character flaws that I didn't care for came up. The angry side of the boy Kayano likes. Her sudden interest swap. Well, I get no longer liking the first guy but still.... Kayano's mother seems a bit self absorbed. Or is it a Japanese thing to not introduce your daughter to the guy you've been dating until you are suddenly engaged? Yet she knew her fiance's son... And then her disappearing act. Tsk tsk. Other than a few small things I still really enjoyed it and look forward to revisiting the rest of the series.

[Anita Gomgal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este manga es genial!!!Una historia original de amor y desamor, de odio y amistad....
te engancha desde el primer momento por las aventuras y desventuras de Kayono!!
Si alguien lo ha leído le recomiendo que vea el dorama taiwanes basado en el manga: DEVIL BESIDE YOU!!

[Christina (A Reader of Fictions) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I debated between 2 and 3 stars for this one, but rounded up for the sake of nostalgia. I used to LOVE this manga, so much so that I've actually read the thing four times now. It was never my favorite, but I had all these feels from it and I would turn to it to deal with my frustration that Takanashi's other series wasn't finished yet.

I mean, I still think it's okay, but it's got a lot of the typical problems. The protective guy who always gets his way and the girl who cries a lot. Plus, the premise, from my point of view, is stupid. Much of the drama of the series centers around the taboo of sibling love, only they're step-siblings and they met before they knew their parents were dating. They're not related by blood and they weren't raised as siblings, so, honestly, who gives a fuck? The heroine goes on and on about how they're doing something wrong and it's all so dramatic but give me a fucking break.

The other issue is that Takeru and Kayano basically have a perfect relationship unto themselves. They fall for each other really fast, and never have any relationship problems due to personality clashes. All of their problems are external, various people falling for one or the other and trying to pull them apart. Or family drama that attempts to separate them. *rolls eyes*

Still, for all that, Mitsuba Takanashi does a good job of making the hackneyed plot really readable, so that you can't resist flipping those pages even though you know it's not really that good.

[Amanda [Novel Addiction] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhere between a 2.5 and a 3. Maybe a 2.75? I didn't hate this, I just wasn't too impressed. It's really hard for me to judge a manga on just one volume, so I will be hunting down the second volume soon. Then we will decide whether or not I actually like this.

[Solace Winter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I forgot how much I love this novel. I read it a loooong time ago, but I never finished the series, and it had been so long since I read the first few I decided to start over, and actually finish it this time.

[Anna Aurora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sick in bed this past week(stupid fever) and the only thing my brain can understand are mangas.So I decided to reread one of my all time favorite and of course I loved it !I have reread it like 4 or 5 times already and it never gets boring or old.Beautiful story!
5/5 stars

[Laura (ローラ) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mitsuba Takanashi is one of my favourite character fashion artists. Every day the characters have a new look, a new hairdo, a new style... even the boys. This just proves to me what a great artist she is. That she can actually vary a characters appearance but still not confuse the reader. There are some artists who just do not have the skill to pull this off.

The other thing that's great about Takanashi is that she seems to have a great handle on human-nature. Her angsty series seem to actually come from somewhere, rather than just being angsty because that's what teenagers do. Her teens are thoughtful and actually change and accept new situations. Her series are always satisfying, if not a little frustrating while we wait for characters to resolve their issues.

This is a series about Kayano -- a typical teenage girl in her second year of high school. In her group of friends she's the dopey meddlesome friend which they eventually label as the "heroic" type -- and Takeru, a first year student, the bad boy of the school and also the principle's son. As it happens, Takeru's father and Kayano's mother have decided to get married, which means Takeru and Kayano will soon be brother and sister. The story begins when Takeru finds out one of Kayano's secrets and starts to blackmail her. But eventually she realizes he's not as bad as he seems. And, as Takeru and Kayano become closer, they must try to resolve what that means for their future happiness as a family.

Love love love, this series! I don't care who you are, this series is worth the read.

[Sarai]

Kayano has a crush on Yuichi, the cute basketball team captain, but when she tries to give him a note telling him how she feels, it ends up in the hands of Takeru. Kayano learns Takeru is the son of the school's principal, and gets everything he wants, and it seems he has decided he wants Kayano. Then Kayano's mother marries Takeru's father and Kayano discovers it is not as easy to stay away from Takeru as she believed it would be.

This initially reminded me of Honey Mustard, in that the girl had a crush on someone and when she tried to tell him, the knowledge fell into the hands of the wrong person. However, I liked Honey Mustard better. For one thing, the artwork appealed to me more. The drawings of the males in Devil were very feminine-featured. Then, too, I could not figure out what Takeru's motivations and true feelings were. Did he really like Kayano, or was he just toying with her?

I will check out the second one, just to see if it helps clarify me feelings about the characters.

[Cheyenne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this one multiple times and my love for it never wavers. One of the things that I definitely liked was that all the chracters grow and mature throughout the whole series.

Kayano is a shy girl who has a crush on Kamijo the basketball team captain. When she's waiting to give Kamijo her confession letter she messes up and it's Takeru she confronts. Mortified she drops her letter without thinking and runs away. She soon realises that Takeru has her letter. Takeru is the Principle's all-but delinquent son, with devilish good looks, who blackmails Kayono into being his slave. When that's all said and done (I won't tell you how that goes) Kayano has a small breath of relief before realising that her Mother is marrying his Father, which means they'll be step-siblings. At this point they start to love each other and drama ensues.

*I have read the whole series but I will not be posting a review for the other volumes.
*I may also add about the whole manga here, at which time it will be hidden.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this series with my daughter. Then watched the hilarious Taiwanese drama (Mike He & Rainie) based on the story with her, as well. Should mother and daughter be bonding over this, really? Reeeally? ^__^;; Too funny.

[Laura Noi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inizio frizzante e divertente. Takeru è un personaggio ricco di fascino e mistero che sicuramente ci riserverà delle sorprese nei prossimi volumi. Il triangolo che si viene a creare è un po' banale ma fortunatamente sembra essersi già risolto. Nel complesso una lettura piacevole.

[Sarah Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was fine (a pretty normal shojo plot), but the illustration style irritated me for some reason.

[⋆☆☽ Kriss ☾☆⋆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Devil Does Exist is one of the rarer examples of a "forbidden step sibling romance" being executed just about as perfectly as it can be.

Most stories that try for this angle usually end up just trying to romanticize incest because they make them have too much of a family relationship and write it off as "there's no blood so they're good!" when in reality, viewing someone as a sibling and having that type of relationship, regardless of blood, is a major reason why incest is so socially unacceptable.

When I look at stories that feature a step-sibling romance, a big determining factor for me after them definitively not sharing blood is looking at the nature of their "sibling" relationship. If the two people have been raised to treat and regard each other as siblings from a young age or if at least one of them believes the other is their blood sibling and regards them as a sibling, then romance and sex have no place within their relationship.

Here are some examples where the not-blood-related-sibling romance does not work: Secret Sweetheart, Tome 1; Hot Gimmick, Vol. 1.

In this story, Kayano and Takeru are both older teens (17 and 16 respectively, therefore old enough to have some agency) who haven't been raised together, who know one another independent of their parents (since they go to the same school), and who aren't blood related in the least. All the boxes are checked in that regard.

In fact, Takeru develops a crush on Kayano before they become step siblings, before he even learns that his dad and Kayano's mom are dating and intend to marry. His perception of Kayano and his feelings are wholly in the realm of normal and acceptable. Kayano, meanwhile, does fall in love with Takeru while knowing that their parents are marrying, but the only obstacle for her feelings is fears over the unusual circumstances of their relationship affecting her mother (worrying that it could ruin her mom's marriage); she never saw Takeru as a sibling and is therefore free of all the "I want to date him... but he's my brother!" kind of conflicts that are common in step-sibling romance.

In this regard, Takeru and Kayano aren't violating a taboo of blood or of an established sibling relationship.

Rather, their parents marrying (hence registering them in the same family) is essentially the crux of the conflict, because from the outside, Takeru and Kayano being family and dating looks really bad and would be socially unacceptable, even though their status as "siblings" is really just a technicality of their parents marrying.

In most cases, the taboo exists for good reason, but here, it's applied in a unique enough circumstance to be understandable, and the author did a pretty good job at tackling it in a way that allows for some of that forbidden allure to exist and be an interesting conflict without it trying to justify or romanticize something really unacceptable.

Overall, this is quite an exceptional read and is the reason why people can gravitate towards "taboo" topics without trying to make something that's clearly wrong/bad be sexy and desirable and okay. There's a level of grayness to the subject as we see Kayano especially work through dealing with the stigma and possible ramifications, but ultimately one can reconcile that Takeru and Kayano aren't truly doing anything wrong, just that they found themselves in a unique predicament because of their parents deciding to marry as their own relationship is budding separately.

Outside of this major part of the story and why it works where so many have failed, I found the story engaging with a good balance in its length, I liked the characters, and I found the art to have a really nice style that has some realistic elements and has especially dynamic, well-done eyes that really work despite how feminine they can be (like Takeru has shading and eyelashes and still looks good; the artist is very talented to be able to do that on a guy and it still register as being a guy).

I only have two really like, not praise things to say.

In a few of the early chapters, Takeru is drawn with an armband that has a swastika on it.

This manga was drawn in the early 2000s, so it is somewhat weird that the author would draw that; was she aware of its meaning and just didn't care, or was she oblivious and merely saw it as a rebellious symbol a delinquent might wear? I can't say, especially since the swastika isn't purely a symbol of nazism in Asia (it was originally a Sanskrit symbol). Hinduism and Buddism both have used it without the implications of nazism, so it's hard for me to say what the author was thinking, especially since Japan has kind of adopted an attitude of "let's not talk too much about all the bad stuff our countrymen did in the early 20th century." I want to believe it was probably just a thoughtlessly used detail on his clothes, but since Takeru is something of a delinquent rebel with like pierced ears and spiked hair that gets into fights, I can't help but think the symbol is more in line with like neo-nazis being gangsters than like... Buddhism, you know? So, take that as you will. I also am not sure if the English release of this censored the symbol.

The second thing is that there's a little end of chapter drawing of Takeru and one of his friends in different clothes with Takeru going "these clothes are kind of gay, right?" which is just some general low-brow homophobia about gayness being a bad thing. It doesn't happen in the context of the story and, with this being an older title, might simply be the way it was translated, but I wanted to make note of it.

Since I spent so much of this review talking about why this is one of the few "step sibling romances" I'll allow, I didn't even get to mention that I first found this story through its Taiwanese drama adaptation "Devil Beside You" which aired in 2005.

It was a really good watch and encouraged me to look into the manga. In my opinion, the manga is better because Takeru's bullying of Kayano isn't nearly as bad and he overall comes across as more emotionally mature than his drama counterpart. The drama tried to make things more edgy by having more violence and meanness. On that note, this is also a pretty good story if you like bully romances because Takeru's bullying and teasing never really go so far that you can't see Kayano forgiving him for them. Plus, he stops any true bullying pretty early on and only ever teases after a certain point, usually to make Kayano say she likes him or something to that effect.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really well done. The story, the characters, the artwork, especially the expressions were fun and interesting to look at. This story will make you laugh, smile, and feel your heart swoon. Takeru is known to be a bad guy, he's even thought of as the devil himself. But there's more to Takeru than the rumors say about him, which I find surprising and interesting to learn.


*Spoilers!*
There's one or two scenes that stuck out to me a lot. For example, when Yuichi was scaring Kayano and Kayano said so, in addition saying that Yuichi she knows wouldn't do something like this. Yuichi replies "You don't know me! You don't know me at all! Why're you're tryin' to make me out to be some kinda prince charming?" Kayano truly doesn't know Yuichi at all, she was too scared to talk to him to get to know him. The only reason they're talking at all was when Kayano's love letter was posted up on the blackboard in the classroom.

Another scene that stood out to me was when Kayano told her friends what happened (about the scene mentioned previous) and said how she felt confused. This is the scene where one of Kayano's friends, Kyoko, became really cool and told her something eye-opening.

"That's what you call "being in love with love." You get all over protective so you don't get hurt. But guess what, girl? While you're runnin' around all confused...... Someone else is hurting in your place."

I really like this manga. My favorite character is Takeru. Takeru is really clever, and although he can be manipulative, he's also kind.

The only reason I gave this four stars and not five is because I because I feel the dialogue could be better, but it's still a good read despite that. I recommend anyone to read it.

[Dianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an older manga, so it was a little bit hard to get into the punk gothic art style and the character's hairstyles. I thought about dropping it because of the artwork a couple chapters in, but I thought the story was decent enough so I stuck with it, and by the end it stopped bothering me.

The romance here isn't forbidden per se, but it's definitely not normal for two people to fall in love with each other after their single parents decide to get re-married. I wish there had been more development of the relationship; Kayano and Takeru start dating too quickly for my liking. It's clear from the beginning that Kayano switched her affections from Kamijou to Takeru, but I had no idea that Takeru also returned her feelings until later. Maybe I just missed this scene, but it feels like it happened all too quickly.

I also wish there was a little bit more drama when they finally revealed the truth to their parents. Kayano has spent most of the manga agonizing over the possibility of this relationship ruining her mom's chance to be happy with her new husband, but Takeru's dad accepts their relationship much too easily, and the whole situation is resolved just like that. I would've liked to see how the rest of their school reacts to their relationship as well, after they go public.

All this makes me wonder whether the mangaka had a chapter limit she was working with, since the last two big plot points leading up to the ending feel rushed. It's not just the big reveal of their relationship, but also Takeru's decision to randomly join his mom and younger brother in Italy.

[-moonprismpower- · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this! It’s definitely an older manga series so the style of the characters reflects that. I like the early 2000’s style though! The art is a little messy and the story is typical but that doesn’t make me want to stop reading.

Thank goodness I can read this online because the physical copies are so hard to come by!!!

[Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this manga was first published in 2003 it has major 90s feeling and I'm loving it, the artwork is absolutely beautiful and different.
Usually step siblings romance give me the creeps but I have enjoyed this one.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Between a 2 and 3*. I like all the changing hairstyles but the plot has been done before and it's not super funny.

[Vi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love, love the artwork in this series. Loved re-reading this

[skyblue_31 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rare for me to say but the drama adaptation is better.

[Mr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the oldies are goldies case!
A must read, for those who haven't!

[Nathália · Rating 3 out of 5]

a problematic fave

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5*

[✨Sky✨ ♏ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars

[Maddie &#x1f344; · Rating 4 out of 5]

i am here for the drama

[Antuo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leanlo si buscan algo adictivo entretenido y cliche

[Snitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite mangas ever! Takeru is lovely caracter =)

[CrazyBug456 · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️3,8

[Jaja · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember this was my first manga ever to read and the catalyst to my manga addiction phase back in the day 😂❤️