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King of Hell / Demon King #1

King of Hell Volume 01

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In Life, Majeh was a gifted swordsman. In Death he acts as a whimsical reaper for the King of Hell, collecting the souls of the dead to bring them to the netherworld.
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All this changes when a mysterious rift opens up between Hell and Earth and evil spirits begin escaping into the mortal realm. Now Majeh must hunt down and destroy these mischievous demons before the rift is permanently opened.

200 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2004

6 people are currently reading
130 people want to read

About the author

In-Soo Ra

29 books

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5 stars
82 (27%)
4 stars
73 (24%)
3 stars
99 (33%)
2 stars
35 (11%)
1 star
9 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for Graham.
84 reviews
August 3, 2021
The stories jump between comedy and seriousness was jarring to me and only occasionally made me even laugh as it ultimately felt out of place in a story where it seems key to the protagonist story that he uses it to cover up his problems.The art style is gorgeous when the artist focuses on detailed line work. The overall narrative and character development only starts to pick up towards the end, as at the beginning the characters are introduced in a frenzy of fighting.
Profile Image for Sky.
39 reviews
January 4, 2022
The art has a habit of quickly switching to comedic scenes which means there's no tension or build-up, even in big fights. I find the art of the comedic sections a little awkward but the normal art if beautiful and very well done.
I feel like not a lot of the plot or backstory has been revealed in this first manga but they have started setting up the world this story will be taking place in. I'm quite excited to see where it will go from here.
Profile Image for Megan Wintrip.
603 reviews12 followers
February 5, 2026
I really enjoyed this one, It's quite funny in places too. I can't wait to see some more character development from Majeh.
Profile Image for intrepideddie.
124 reviews2 followers
August 31, 2014
This book is very much for teen-aged boys. Lots of (surprisingly gore-free) battles, and even more sophomoric humor. The artwork is good, but a bit heavy on the chibi.

Steer clear if you’re looking for a story with meat to it. The story is decent and interesting, but it was hard to read around all the butt jokes.
Profile Image for Patrick.
511 reviews10 followers
April 30, 2013
Volume one seems a little too... generic DBZ knockoff. We'll see if it improves.
Profile Image for Bradley.
1,203 reviews11 followers
March 5, 2024
I wonder what's tipping the scales for my reviews lately. Could popularity really affect how I feel about a series? I'm sure it has some sort of pull. No doubt that because I've never heard of King of Hell I'm giving it an unfair chance by 'speed reading' it. Still, I feel if the series really has that fire inside it something should catch my eye. The coalescence of art and story, the amount and structure of dialogue, the aesthetic appeal of environmental of character design. These things and more were absent or glanced over. I'm not the audience here, but I'm sure someone will enjoy it.

The most interesting bit I can say about this is it reads from left to right. My guess is the writer or artist are Korean. And there are bits and pieces where I'm reminded of Priest. Makes sense and it is interesting but that does not save King of Hell from its own fire and brimstone.
Profile Image for Myra.
10 reviews
February 28, 2023
I read this many years ago and regularly look back on it as the reason I started liking anime and manga. Everytime I see someone mentioning it I get excited and get a rush of nostalgia. I adore the characters and the plot of this story and I only wish I could find the other books in the series without buying them second hand or paying an insane prince for them.
Profile Image for Petros.
Author 1 book171 followers
November 21, 2011
King of Hell is yet another manhwa around strong dudes fighting for ideals and world domination. Anyone interested in reading it must be warned beforehand that its story is nothing new, following the formula of all similar Korean works (which are in my eyes 45% cheesy shounen-like stories and 45% cheesy romances). I kept faithful in it for 15 whole volumes, but then I simply lost interest in it as it was dragging things for no real reason.

The art is great. There is a lot of simplistic lining going around in peacetime and funny moments, but there is also plenty of cool detailing during dramatic moments or major fights. Characters, clothes, decorations on palaces, and weapons are pretty cool and do attract your eye. Most scenery panels are in fact good enough to hang of your wall as paintings. Fighting scenes are done in epic scale awesomeness and usually mix things around to never fell completely repetitive.

The storyline is rather messy and slows down in pacing more and more as it goes on. In the first chapters, it was just stand alone shorts with the lead gathering souls of dead people and occasionally fighting evil spirits. Then an objective mission is given, to capture evil spirits that escaped from hell. It’s then when he is sent to the moral realm and starts making a team of other warriors, each one with a simple reason to follow him. It was going fine for awhile, capturing one after another, with really well made battles and rather good plot twists here and there. But when he got to the last few, the mangaka decided to slow down things by introducing a lot of side quests that exist purely to prevent the lead from finishing his mission. So, for not much of a reason, he get to leave aside his main objective and participates in a fighting tournament, a war between fighting art schools, an evil necromancer’s scheme, the exploration of a deadly maze, and so on, and so on…

The thing about those side quests is that they are not really about him but about his companions. They all get fleshed a lot thanks to them but the main story is almost forgotten for several volumes, as if it wasn’t important, despite the warnings that the world is in peril if the spirits are not captured soon. That kinda made things less interesting. Plus, the lead is probably the strongest thing alive (of sorts) yet hundreds of pages are tributed to his rather small fry companions and their semi-interesting goals of becoming strong, win the trust of their relatives and other not-so-cool-as-chasing-world-destroying-monsters. The story is actually very well done, with interesting battles and lots of good plot twists here and there. But you keep having the feeling that the lead is simply wasting his time with those, as he is so powerful he can beat all secondary villains in a flash. And if he doesn’t, it’s just bad storytelling on the part of the mangaka.

But to be honest, very few manhwa have done a better job at fleshing out most of their characters in a better way. As the volumes keep going, nobody feels generic or uninteresting, villains and comic relief characters included. So the story may feel slow and aimless at several points but at the same time at least it manages to make its characters a lot more likable. Thus, nothing is really a complete waste of ink.

Despite the occasional plot conveniences and the really slow pace, it’s one of the best fighting adventures around, both long in duration and exciting in battles, without forgetting to be humorous and a bit naughty during intervals. It is recommended to all action lovers who don’t demand a uniform story.
Profile Image for Allison.
24 reviews53 followers
August 22, 2011
I started this manhwa because the title reminds me of King of the Hill (love that show!) and because it was featured on mangafox.com as Manga of the Week. Since I went into this with no expectations, I'm not disappointed in what I got.

What is this supposed to be about? It's just scene after scene that don't have much of a connection to one another. One thing for sure is Majeh's missions are chronicled with the occasional backstory from old men with beards. He fights some pretty cool monsters but nothing adds up. You get a little bit of info here and there, not enough to get a clear picture of the situation. It took me a while to read this because the story was disjointed. Sure it's the first volume but that doesn't mean it can be mushy, slightly interesting fluff to get the reader begging for the next volume. I will read the next volume because the artwork is adorable when the characters get angry.
21 reviews1 follower
September 19, 2016
The King of Hell Manga Series, this intense graphic novel is about the fierce battles of the underworld. Mejeh, a ferocious warrior sent by the King of Hell, is destined to protect the gates and the land of the mortals. Demons broke loose and now the protector is set on a rampage to set the table right, can he do make it happen?

This graphic novel breaches of the elements of a comic book. Idealizing boarders and picture sequence, between the novels text and pictures. This leaves the reader with a lot of mystery ad imagination between what we think has happened, then grabs the reader again through the chapters. The visual representation of the actions are phenomenal, vivid, detailed and full of intense artwork. The pictures create an amazing view of what the setting embodies, in addition to the sensory words within the text and outside text.
8 reviews2 followers
June 16, 2009
well, since noone else has said anything about it, i'll say what i think.It's a pretty good manga, beautifully drawn, it has an interesting story, and i just loved it.
Profile Image for Melanie.
193 reviews16 followers
June 16, 2011
The characters were really good, and I was particularly drawn by the main character. There was a thorough balance between the comedic relief and the action, which I liked.
Profile Image for Fugo Feedback.
5,210 reviews175 followers
Want to Read
July 24, 2011
"Es el DragonBall coreano" escuché alguna vez. No sé si será para tanto pero estaba barato y el dibujo parece bastante bonito. Ya veremos.
Profile Image for Ebony.
29 reviews1 follower
August 28, 2014
I give it a 4.5 it good for the first volume and it not just for boys it's for girls to.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews