The Demon Ororon, Vol. 1 [Paperback]

Mizuki Hakase (Author, Artist)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 2004

Chiaki is the orphaned daughter of the Archangel Michael and a human woman. Ororon is a devil with a bounty on his head. Together, they struggle to stay alive as the battle between devils and the angelic order rage around them.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Appeals to the Goth culture fan base.

English adaptation by Josh D.M. Dysart - Creator and writer of Image Comics' hit Violent Messiahs - Image comic adaptor of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - Currently head writer on DC's Demon series.

Appeals to fans of Wish.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Tokyopop (April 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591827256
• ISBN-13: 978-1591827252
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,302,380 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fiendishly Good!, June 16, 2004

By 

"reedekullervo" (Edina, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Demon Ororon, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed The Demon Ororon. First, although the art may not be to everyone's taste, I found the exaggeration of perspective and elongation of the character's bodies to be visually interesting and well-used to help tell the story. My biggest complaint is that the guys all look the same. In my mind at least the lead - Ororon - should stand out from the pack. Still, you get used to style and can usually manage to distinguish between them all eventually. For the most part the drawings are clean and uncluttered although towards the end the fighting scenes required a few minutes to sort out whose body parts are whose. Did I mention the body parts? Certainly not the most horrifying things I've ever seen but there are bitten off fingers, dangling intestines and plenty of blood so consider this fair warning. My only other complaint was with the editing. Really sloppy, with plenty of typos plus some of the fonts used are hard to read. But how's the story you ask?

If you're Chiaki, you're a rather strange, lonely girl who attracts all the wrong sorts of people consisting of spirits and ghouls, while your friends and family abandon you. Imagine you come across a beautiful, bleeding young man and simply out of the goodness of your character, you offer to help. What might you get in return? This is the set up to the very engaging story of The Demon Ororon. For Chiaki, she acquires a demon, but not just any demon. He's the good-looking, cynical, sharp-dressing, chain-smoking Demon King of Hell. And he's having a rather rough time. Being a king sucks especially when you have a bounty on your head, you family hates you, and your friends try to murder you. What do you do?

For saving his life, Ororon grants Chiaki one wish and she decides she wants him to stay with her forever. With this one simple act, these two alienated souls are about to form an unlikely and forbidden relationship that will be complicated by many factors, the least of which is that Chiaki is a terrible cook. While their origins seem the most likely to rip them apart - after all, he's demon royalty and she's the forbidden result of a human/archangel coupling, it is their personal philosophies that will be the true test of their devotion. But before their idyllic life can really get started, the bounty-hunters, angels and ghouls converge, chasing after both Chiaki and Ororon, wanting nothing less than their deaths. Chiaki considers herself to be a good person who never would kill and certainly doesn't believe that Ororon should, yet he freely acknowledges his killer ways, but defends it as a necessary act. If they are going to kill you, can't you fight back to save yourself?

This question, whether it's right or wrong to kill and what exactly does it mean to be `good' or `evil' drive the plot of the story. Can two such diametrically opposed people stay together, or will their world-views rip them apart? This first book sets up the characters and a little of their back story before flying forward into confrontation and conflict. I really liked that this will be a fast moving story since it's only a 4 book series. On the other hand, I am enjoying the characters so much, and the questions they represent are so complicated, that I am a little concerned that they can be successfully concluded in such a short work. Nevertheless, The Demon Ororon is proving to be a promising series with unique art and a meaty story filled with complicated, engaging characters.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Style, wit... and good art!, June 2, 2004

By 

A. Trotter (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Demon Ororon, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

The art is very nice in this one. Stylish, clean, not crowded. Very little of the cutesy silly cartoon stuff you see in other Manga.

The story is about growth and change... or maybe it's redemption and damnation... or maybe it's about being in love... or about values and survival... Or all that and more. It's very well done. I like when emotion is conveyed through action instead of long description; this does that. Definitely getting more when they come out.

Oh, what it's about? A demon King meets a half-angel. She's living by herself when she finds him bleeding on the sidewalk, and she asks him to stay. He's not a nice person. She is. It gets complicated really fast - Aparently angel meat is tasty, and angel spawn are hunted and killed by full angels, and the demon's family may not approve of him being king, and then there's his maid (the half-angel can't cook very well.) And the cat-boy who argues with the half-angel's best friend. Did I mention the Bogey Monsters? Or the ghosts, and the bounty hunter? No? Oh. Sorry. There you go.

Anyways, in the begining it's very spare and clean and surreal; the images are haunting. Then, towards the end, it gets a titch cluttered and confusing, but it's still good.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't let the beginning discourage you...or mislead you, May 9, 2005

By 

Alyssa Nolan (New Hampshire, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Demon Ororon, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

This manga is wonderful, but you wouldn't be able to tell by reading the first volume. It starts off really shaky as Mizuki Hakase tries to introduce too much, too fast, and it's hard to even figure out what direction the story is heading in. Characters like the cat demons Shiro and Kuro seem to be just a failed attempt to add humor, and the developing romance between Chiaki and Ororon is as forced and unbelievable as the events that brought them together (a teenage girl practically begging a complete stranger to come and live with her...a demon king agreeing to live with some random little girl? Ooookay...)

However, once you've struggled through the unorganized chaos of the first volume, you will find yourself swept away into the lives of these unforgettable characters. Even though The Demon Ororon is full of battles, fighting, ruthless killing, and lots of blood and gore (it took me a few seconds before I realized those things that one of the characters is holding are actually his intestines hanging out of the hole in his stomach), the main focus of the story is still the characters and their complex relationships with each other. The heart-wrenching sadness that Chiaki feels when she is torn about her feelings for Ororon, the frustration Ororon feels when he realizes that he is unable to make Chiaki happy...as mismatched as the two characters were at first, by the end of the story I was really rooting for them.

But it's dangerous to become too attached to any of the characters in a story like this. The plot is incredibly dark and tragic, so if you're looking for a lighthearted, feel-good manga, this is not for you. Hopelessness and depression surround all the events in this story, sometimes lurking quietly in the background during a more uplifting scene, giving you the uneasy feeling that disaster and blood-shed aren't far away, other times staring you directly in the face as innocent children are molested and slaughtered. But the violence and blood are never used just for shock value, rather they are there to show you the extent of the horrible world that Chiaki and her friends have been unwillingly sucked into.

The story is also incredibly thought provoking, both religiously and philosophically, and it raises a lot of questions about good and evil and whether the line between them is really as defined as some people believe it to be.

The drawing style that Mizuki Hakase uses is very...different. The characters have unnaturally long limbs and strangely drawn faces that definitely take some getting used to. Some of the characters look similar and it gets really confusing trying to discern who's who, but I still loved most of the artwork and thought it fit well with the mood of the story.

Overall, The Demon Ororon is an excellent story filled with realistic and likable characters that will make you laugh, cry, and...mostly cry. But if you enjoy reading darker manga with engaging and suspenseful storylines, you will not be disappointed with this one.