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This review is based on the 17 main volumes + 5 gaidens and various other side-stories relating to the series written by Takabayashi Tomo including Comiket doujinshis published by her. *Contains spoilers!*

maru-MA is an older isekai premise with some typical harem and BL elements included. Shibuya Yuuri gets flushed down a toilet and ends up in an isekai where he is crowned as the Demon King, like every other isekai MC he gets super powers and his own harem with an obligatory (abusive) tsundere, but there's a slight twist here: instead of hot girls, it's the hot (gay) guys that are after him! And to ... rub some salt on wounds, Yuuri happens to be straight.

Art:
It's an LN so art doesn't make much of a difference. For the first few volumes it was honestly terrible, typical yaoi anatomy but the story at the beginning is quite well written so I can easily look past it. The art really improved in the later volumes and the characters look much more proportionate and decent till the last published volume at least.

Story:
What would you do if a hot bishounen insults you left and right on your first meeting and then proceeds on to insulting your mother?
Since he's so hot, you'll hold back your urge to punch and slap him instead, right? Beauty totally matters, ugly people are the only ones you should punch obviously!

Now what if slapping turns out to be the way they propose in the other world?
Well, congratulations, you are now engaged to another man, a hot 82-year bishounen, not to mention the guy who welcomed you with hostility and contempt! AND same sex marriages are perfectly normal in our gay-sekai so you are trapped for all eternity

BUT you hate him, he hates you, you didn't know about the custom and you are straight so let's just forget that such a thing ever happened, right?
Wrong! You have no choice but to keep the engagement going because your fiance turns out to be gay and falls completely head-over-heals for you after you kick his butt in battle. Moreover, he shows absolutely no signs of wanting to break the engagement and starts behaving like a complete tsundere jerk. And you obviously don't want to hurt his pride by letting the whole nation know that the former prince was dumped by the new king, he never did anything wrong after all and it was completely your fault for slapping him in the first place. Besides, beautiful people are born with extra privileges and deserve to be treated with more respect irrespective of how badly they treat you.

By rule of thumb, if the person interested in you is gay and bishie your sexuality or opinion doesn't count! You have two choices:
1. Go selectively gay now!
2. Go selectively gay by the end of the series after being harassed and abused.
Shibuya Yuuri seems to have chosen option 2.

Leaving aside the bad parts, the other world is on the verge of a war breaking out between the humans and demons and as the new peace loving Demon King, Yuuri tries to do everything in his power to prevent it. The premise of the other world itself is quite well made unlike your typical game-like modern day isekai. In the other world there exist 4 forbidden boxes which could potentially destroy the world, each of them has a "key" which is a body part of a person. The whereabouts of the boxes as well as the keys for most part are unknown and various countries are seeking them in order to rule over the world. This plot is exactly what carried the entire series through.

The setting indeed is interesting has a lot of potential and to some extent it really was explored but the fujo-pandering with Yuuri and Wolfram really brings down the entire series.

Unfortunately, the much recent content heavily relies on fujo-service and is very much inconsistent with the contents of the main story as well with the characters, the editor and author are simply trying to push on the BL tropes and the "Royal Couple" on to the readers at all costs which is what I hate the most about this series. Much of the writing is bad to the point it comes as a surprise that it was the same person who wrote the 17 main volumes.

Characters:
I won't go into detail of each character but the personalities of the the characters are very inconsistent and hardly receive any development. Initially the author developed a certain image of the characters which was eventually blown out of the window to end up being mere whims of the author and editor. "I think this guy is so cool so to hell with his personality up till now let's just write him to be the complete opposite", "I think I hate this character so let's make him look like a fool and then bitch about it on our official twitter". In the main volumes they are simply victims of circumstances and behave accordingly but are back to square one soon after.

Conrad and Gwendal were about the most decent and level-headed characters among others. Conrad, in particular, was complex enough that the author admitted that he was the most difficult to write and even wanted to kill him off. I guess you can't expect much from BL authors, they are far too used to their tropes to actually write decent characters and interactions. I'll certainly have to give her credit for at least trying.

Wolfram, the fujo-magnet, is the most shallow character, he has no reason to fall in love with Yuuri but simply does. He also comes off as one-dimensional and fits in the category of BL and tsundere tropes. Fans might argue that he is the most "developed" but he still can't even seem to understand that Yuuri is straight and he needs to let go of him. His behavior is simply right down horrible and can be seen constantly bickering about and shouting or even hitting and throwing things at Yuuri. He is of the opinion that being Yuuri's fiance, he has every right to sleep with him or even have sex and is constantly trying to make sexual advances on Yuuri, even tries to rape him in one such attempt. Yuuri's consent on the matter of course doesn't matter! It's no wonder that fujoshis completely latch on to him.

The female characters are certainly problematic. The author has said that she likes writing "strong" women but her works contain a complete slut who changes lovers like clothes, a feminist who constantly keeps on saying how useless men are, some plot armor to hold Yuuri and Wolfram's engagement together and the remaining are just useless background fujoshis who ship Yuuri with the other male characters so they can bait fans with many countless pairings. The plot armor called "Greta" in particular was really annoying. She is often mentioned as being small and cute and everyone is supposed to like small children so she simply behaves as a vector to keep Yuuri and Wolfram together, her role as plot armor was really amplified in "Love Letter" and is often used as an excuse to not to break the engagement in the latter half of the series. Gisela and Flynn were among the better written ones.

Enjoyment:
For most part it was a good read and I liked much of the subtle comedy silently slipping in at the right moments, the characters were sometimes enjoyable other times got quite annoying. The pacing of the story isn't all that good and due to having many characters and the story taking place at multiple locations there is a lot of switching back and forth between scenes and sometimes it just spoils the mood. That was particularly the case while reading the Seisakoku arc with things getting tensed up in the other world the story would switch back to Earth at crucial moments. It was my favorite characters that motivated me to finish reading chapters that didn't particularly interest me. For the side stories, I really enjoyed Conrad and Yuuri's interactions, they were really relaxing to read. As I mentioned earlier, all the unnecessary BL took out a lot of the enjoyment and left me really annoyed sometimes.

Overall:
If I based my review only on the main volumes then I would have easily given it an 8 or even 9. It had a great plot and interesting premise if the author would have chosen to leave aside the fujo-service then the series certainly would have appealed to a wider audience and received more popularity. The whole problem with this series is that it often emphasizes on an unhealthy and one-sided relationship and gives off the vibes that as long as you are pretty, you can do any shit you want to those around you and everything will be acceptable. Seeing how the series keeps on heading in a bad direction I wouldn't really recommend others to read it. And if you do plan on reading this then please read the original Japanese version, fan-translations aren't worth it.

Kyo Kara Maoh has been my favorite since childhood and I've been a huge fan of the series as a whole for more than 11 years now and that most probably is the reason why I hated this manga adaptation so much. This is exactly the case where I'd say: "They had one job (to follow the LNs) and they couldn't do that right". The manga can be pretty much summed up in three words: clichés, fujo-pandering, tsundere and that is what destroyed this series. What I regret even more is that I hit my head really hard somewhere and ended up ordering the manga ... from Japan with shipping fees more than the manga itself.

Story: 1/10
Kyo Kara Maoh is an isekai premise from the early 2000's. The fantasy isekai setting and concepts were pretty attractive and interesting however after all the world building in the initial volumes somewhere down the line they started to step on their own concepts in an attempt to increase "fujo-pandering". The story initially unfolds slowly, you'll be halfway through the manga before the introductory arcs end and the plot steps into its first major arc from where it starts to pick up pace. Despite the slow pace, it was these parts that I truly enjoyed. The premise of the series has some elements, such as homosexuality being just as normal as heterosexuality in the other world, the MC getting "engaged" to another guy by mistake and our 15 (later 16) year old MC adopting a 10 year old girl, I can understand the some would be immediately put off by these things but I didn't mind it or so I thought at least when I watched the anime and read the LN but ultimately, despite the original LN author saying that the series is not intended to be BL, those were the tools which they used to take the series down a generic BL plot, albeit, toning them down a bit since, well, it's not supposed to be an actual BL. By the end they even went as far as completely leaving out the female characters with no explanation what-so-ever as if they just disappeared into thin air, I suppose it's because they would only serve as an hindrance to their fujo-service. The story in the manga ended before it could even begin, in the end the issues and questions that were bought up were never resolved or rather they just attempted to cover up those things in a very rushed and pathetic manner which made no sense and just ended up bringing forth even more questions. Be it Conrad's betrayal or the matter with the forbidden boxes, nothing was ever satisfactorily cleared up, oh, but don't forget the fujo-pandering now they always had all the extra time in the world for that! To complicate matters even further, they introduced even more characters who were supposed to appear in later arcs and even more issues; all at the same time, which were never completely solved of course. As the saying goes - too many cooks spoil the broth! Towards the end it completely messed up every darn thing while only trying to include in the maximal amount of fujo-baiting and fujo-pandering where ever and where ever possible. The only "plot" that was remaining by the end was standing around and talking a whole lot of senseless garbage, well, at least they tried hard to make it look like a pretentious battle of wits. I don't know what went on inside with the creators but it somehow seemed like a desperate attempt to try and attract more fujo fans. The extremely rushed ending also seemed like the manga was cancelled and they were desperately tying to wind up all the mess they had created so far. I must say, the ending was one of the most pathetic and stupidest of endings that I've seen so far.

Characters: 5/10
The characters are what initially attracted me to the series. They all (with the exception of Wolfram) have unique personalities. They certainly had a lasting impression on me and it was such a strong impression that on seeing the creators try their hardest to degrade each and every character so that they could make their abusive tsundere shine in the end, I just couldn't hate any of them even if there were many instances where I was annoyed by their actions. Shibuya Yuuri is your typical goody-two-shoes MC but he still made things interesting, he gets more development in the LNs but that is not the case in the manga due to the story being cut short, I might also have a bit of bias for him since he used to be my favorite character when I had watched the anime when I was small. The only aspect that annoyed me about Yuuri would be his wimpy and very tolerant nature when it comes to Wolfram's constant physical and verbal abuses. The series gave me three of my most favorite characters of all times: Conrad, Gunter and Gwendal. It's very unfortunate to know that they were nothing more than tools to use and toss aside in order to make the tsundere shine in the end, specially felt bad for Conrad since he was the only character to get a bad ending despite having done the most for Yuuri. I also hated how Gunter was reduced to a mere fanboy who would swoon over almost any "royalty" and how the gaiden degraded Gwendal and showed him to be impatient and foolish. I loved Sara as a villain but again even he was reduced into a mere Yuuri fanboy in the end, his motives were questionable at best and didn't play much of a role in the manga, felt like such a waste of potential. Coming to our rotten apple, Wolfram is the counterpart of a typical abusive female tsundere combined with a typical abusive seme, his looks would be his only positive point. He's supposed to be 82 years old however displays the mental capacity as well as behaves worse than an 8 year old. He's always overflowing with pride and arrogance, his selfish reputation has earned him the nickname "wagamamapu" (lit. selfish prince, "Little lord brat" in the official English translations). Because of his blind pride, he kept on hurling insults after insults, trying to humiliate Yuuri simply for being a "filthy" half-human and refusing to accept him as the new King in the beginning but for some unknown reason, after losing to Yuuri in a duel we see him completely head-over-heels for Yuuri. When Yuuri wanted to break their mistaken engagement, Wolfram didn't allow him to saying that "it would hurt his pride". He's highly delusional and believes that Yuuri loves and wants to marry him, he sneaks into Yuuri's bed at night, follows him everywhere so that he doesn't "cheat" on him and yes, even talking to a random stranger counts as "cheating". There's a point in the manga where he attempted to RAPE Yuuri, luckily the series not officially being BL, Yuuri escaped giving a lame excuse. Wolfram does get the usual "tsundere development" but even after that his tsun tsun side always overpowers his dere side and his delusional conceited attitude is something that never leaves him. What puts him on a level lower than generic tsunderes is that fact that with him around Yuuri never even had the freedom to "choose" anyone else despite him constantly insisting that he's STRAIGHT and has no interest in other men. As a soldier, as a bodyguards, he's completely useless however he certainly is very much capable when it comes to getting their King in dangerous situations due to his thoughtless actions powered by his extreme jealousy, his actions more or less threw the entire world in chaos with a zombie apocalypse in the manga after all! And yet the creators highly favor him. In the end every character around him was degraded to a level lower than him just so that he could be the star of the show who settles things and saves the world, ah, and let's not forget the fujo-pandering! His character is one dimensional but he's the perfect fit to attract fujos.

Art: 4/10
When the manga runs for over 11 years some changes in the art style are to be expected and in most cases it's for the better. This was the first time I saw that the art kept on getting from bad to worse despite being really good and attractive in the beginning. The characters started getting thinner and looking even younger than what they initially looked like. The edges started to get sharper and their positions, actions and angles more and more awkward. Another thing that bothered me was Greta, they were trying too hard to appeal to the audience with her "cuteness", she is supposed to be around 10 but the art makes her look like 5 at best - she's nothing more than plot armor for Yuuri and Wolfram at the end of the day - and since she is supposed to be "tiny" and "cute" you are supposed to love her, you must be the devil to hate such an innocent assassin, after all. How about making people like characters based on good writing instead of resorting to such cheap tricks! Overall, the art seemed pretty half-hearted towards the end. I really wish that Temari Matsumoto would have kept up with her initial art style from the beginning of the manga.

Enjoyment: 1/10
This manga was a complete train wreck! While the first half was enjoyable and I do read it time and again even now the latter half was beyond redemption, it was cringy at best, every passing chapter made me feel like punching each and every character right in the face, the more than obvious plot holes, fujo-pandering and clichés were really getting annoying. It would be better if the creators leave this series alone for good, move on and just stick to writing their fetishes as doujinshis or actual BL works rather than destroying whatever good they have created over the years. You won't believe how happy I was when I heard that they were finally putting an end to this wretched thing! I would never recommend this series to anyone.