The Misfit of Demon King Academy (2019)
[魔王学院の不適合者]
Volume 3
Author: Shu
Artist: Kayaharuka
Other: Yoshinori Shizuma (Character Design)
Publisher: Gangan Comics Up!
Synopsis:
Anos learns that he has mere hours to save Misha from ceasing to exist.
Story/Characters:
Anos is able to put together that Misha is not in fact Sasha's twin sister but rather a part of herself, split off at birth as part of Ivis Necron's experiments with fusion magic. This state is unstable and reaching its limit. While Misha is prepared to accept the situation, Anos is not, and neither is Sasha. Once confronted again, Misha challenges Anos. The conditions are that if he can activate the magic circle she's about to write, he wins and if he loses, she'll have him perform some unspecified magic instead. Anos accepts the challenge and while the clock is ticking, Sasha labors away at the elaborate magic circle. What Anos gets for winning is a straight answer about how Sasha feels about Misha, but even when he does win, she continues to lie (though Anos has it set so that he can hear the truth behind her words). For Sasha, it would've been easy for her if she could simply discount Misha as an unwanted extra doomed to disappear, but it didn't work out like that, so instead she tried to make herself hated by Misha so that it would make it easy on her when Sasha activated her plan to trade places. But did you honestly think Anos was in the business of making sacrifices? He launches a plan to go back in time and fix the problem at the source. However, before this can get started, he's attacked by Ivis. Turns out that Sasha wasn't just any old experiment but rather the cornerstone of his plan to reincarnate the Founder. Only the Founder has already been reincarnated and puts Ivis in his place so he can get back to what he was doing. However, fudging with time incurs the wrath of the God of Time, who empowers Ivis in order to destroy Anos. A long fight ensues, but it's less about Anos defeating the powered-up Ivis as it is about getting the Necron Sisters to truly believe in Anos' power. Transcending life and death and time itself has a way of remedying the doubting heart, though. Once they fully put their faith in him, he finishes off Ivis, only to promptly revive. In his new purified state, Ivis has been restored to being Anos' faithful servant, but what happened to him 2000 years ago remains a mystery. Anos puts him to work behind the scenes and then returns to the task of saving Misha and Sasha. With that done, he brings the girls home with him to celebrate their birthday. Misunderstandings from the folks ensue and everything gets tied up nice and happy. As this marks the end of the current arc, there's no cliffhanger this time, just closing on a sweet note.
Art:
Most of the volume is Anos and Ivis fighting and this brawl twisting the laws of the universe is as elaborate as you would expect. The fake-out shots pack a punch, even if you know better than to think Anos would die from being killed. (Take that, Shirou.) I also really liked Misha comforting Anos when she was under the impression the situation was hopeless and Anos embracing her in return.
Conclusion:
While some readers may feel the big fight goes on a little too long, there's enough going on with how the rules of the world are being twisted and bent to raise it above mindless action. It all comes together in a satisfying conclusion to the first arc of the story. For my part, I'm going to say this one is worth having.
Rating:
Own It