Helck

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Initially Helck comes across as just a wholesome comedy manga set in a fantasy world. Both due to the initial plot, as well as the art style which initially the characters look a bit goofy (The quality improves much more as it progresses!). There are a few "weeb garbage" red flags, like having a loli character, cat girls, and potential for an uninteresting overpowered protagonist. It's a bit of a slow burn as you begin to get to know the characters and the world, but entertaining enough to keep the reader interested.

Around 40 chapters in, the story takes a sudden twist in ... a much more serious and tragic direction as you learn about Helck's backstory. From that point forward, the story seems to teeter back and forth between serious and tragic moments, and more wholesome feel-good ones. The contrast in tone really makes the meaningful moments in the story hit home and have a lasting emotional impact. And despite Helck definitely classifying as an over-powered character, you learn of his internal struggles which make him much more interesting.

On that topic, it is the characters and relationships that really make the story come to life. A central theme of the story is friendship, as you are taken along on Helck and Vamirio/Anne's journey together and watch as their relationship grows from that of distrust to best friends that would gladly give their lives on each other's behalf. It's a bumpy ride at first, but ultimately a joy to see how far they have come by the end of the story.
There is also a compelling cast of side characters present throughout the story, none of them receiving quite as much depth, but with enough flavor that you never feel bored when shown their side of the story. They all end up serving a meaningful role in the plot, and the character developments of the MCs, rather than just being sidepieces to show off then get rid of.

The pacing and execution grants Helck extra points for me as someone who appreciates brevity. It doesn't overstay it's welcome- no dragging out the story with filler and pointlessness that so many anime/manga do.

Ultimately I was pleasantly surprised by Helck, I think it is somewhat of a hidden gem that subverts some common manga and fantasy tropes. It's a feel good story with serious moments and all around an enjoyable read. If it were possible I think I would give Helck an 8.5, but the "underdog" factor is enough for me to round up in this case, I think it is much better than some more popular options out there currently.

I usually don't drop short manga like Helck just because I can just rush through it and finish it in a timely manner.
Helck, however, dragged everything out so far that I just had to drop it. Sorry, I have absolutely zero interest in anything, whether it be the "final battle" between demons and humans, Helck the hero's inner torment, or what happens to Vamiro. The manga manages to have a dramatic story with the most lacking story progression I have seen. As of this chapter, there have been no good fight scenes, and most of the chapters are filled with dramatic dialogue, if anything. There ... isn't a good sense of the situation at hand despite the entire series focusing on the demon and human conflict, and the sense of scale, strategies used, and positions are poorly managed.
Of course I have to talk about the comic relief, the only good thing about this manga. The Piuy is a nice and cute character, and to an extent, Vamiro is too, but these Omake and random interactions don't save the story at all.

Helck has an absolutely great start. When i watched the first 3 episodes of the anime, i was hooked. And unable to bear the weekly episode wait, i switched to the manga.

I loved it. Then, i loved it less. and i thought about dropping it. But i kept reading until i finally finished it. I realized that i should have dropped it early on.

Anyway, here's the setting:
The demon lord is just defeated by humans and a new lord is being chosen via an open tournament. and a human named Helck is also participating in the tournament. At the same time, one of the demon ... spies reports that she can't find any humans in the human kingdom and its just "empty". There are also these mysterious winged angel-like beings attacking the demon realm. Who is Helck? why is he here in this competition? What happened to the demon lord? Where are all the humans? Where did these winged beings come from? What a great setting to start with. full of mysteries and a fun set of characters from demon world.

It goes without saying that i fell in love with Helck from the very beginning. But as we keep moving forward, the manga drops hard in quality.

The author probably wrote himself into a corner, so they had to do some forced plot gimmicks to artificially maintain the mystery. After the first serious battle, Helck and Vermi (red haired girl) are forcibly teleported to some random faraway island. Its understandable why it had to be done. Helck knows a lot and he would have easily solved the mysteries at the very beginning of the series. So, instead, we forcibly keep Helck group separate from the rest of the cast for 90% of the rest of the story. I was hoping for more interactions between helck and the demons (rest of the characters).

It also doesn't help that the flashbacks are long and full of tragedy with generic human characters. The stakes increased too much, and at some point, the villains became too other-worldly(literally). As I was reading the climax, I had this nostalgic feeling, and remembered series like Naruto and Gintama. They are also filled with tragedy flashbacks (milking them) and the almost god like villains by the end. There's also stuff like bringing dead people back and giving happy endings to them. I kinda hate undoing death. It makes the tragedy feel like a joke.

With that said, it seems that i am in the minority and most people were more than satisfied with how the story progressed. So, please do give it a try. Because the start of the series is still great. And if you start to get bored in the middle of the story, then its time to drop it instead of wasting your time hoping it will get better.