すだちの魔王城 1

A perfectly average fantasy with interesting concepts but a dull plot

For Volume 1, I can say the following:

• The three core characters actually are quite interesting, and the dynamic's evolution is the main reason to continue reading, especially since Ash joins near the end and he has a lot of baggage.
• The rest of the plot is kinda... average, and some parts feel quite contrived.
• A villager named Villager (Murabito), a demon lord named Demon Lord (Mao), and a starting town named Starting Town (Saisho-mura). I realize it's intentional, but it makes it hard to suspend one's disbelief

Language-wise, as this is a fantasy, expect a lot of rarely used terms. Mao speaks in a more archaic style, and her mole friend is even less useful for learning Japanese. The language is definitely fairly advanced in terms of the way words are used and there is a LOT of text, so this is not a beginner-friendly read. I collected over 100 different words and phrases that I did not recognize and needed a dictionary for in order to understand the text due to not recognizing kanji (many of which are either alternate forms of more commonly used kanji or are simply not part of the Joyo Kanji), and that was ignoring the bio pages and some other parts.