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.
