Demon Love Spell (Japanese: あやかし恋絵巻, Ayakashi Koi Emaki) is a manga series by Mayu Shinjo about a shrine maiden that finds herself falling for a demon that feeds on passion and love. Shinjo initially wrote Spell in 2008 as a two part installment manga for Margaret magazine, but chose to serialize the series in 2009 due to the story's popularity; the manga concluded in 2014. In 2012 Viz Media licensed the manga with the intention to publish it in English through their Shojo Beat imprint and released the first volume in December of that same year.
The series follows Miko Tsubaki, a young shrine maiden living with her family. She's frustrated that she's unable to contribute much to the family business, as she has little apparent supernatural abilities and cannot easily see or banish spirits. She eventually runs into Kagura, an incubus that has been feeding on the female students at Miko's school: she manages to seal him, but in the process turns him into a chibi, lower powered version of himself. Whoops?
Miko initially tries to keep him secret from her family, but they inevitably discover Kagura but allow him to remain with Miko due to his small size. Meanwhile, Kagura has shown the ability to enter Miko's mind while she's sleeping, where he is able to assume his full size; he uses this as an opportunity to attempt to seduce Miko and recover some of his powers, with some success... In the meantime, however, they must learn to team work and banish all the other youkai that are showing up in their surroundings!
Demon Love Spell has some tropes...
- All Men Are Perverts: Dammit, Kagura.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: When Miko finally gains enough power to see youkai, she's not sure she likes it.
- Big Damn Heroes: When Miko is brainwashed by the demon Katori, her Action Dad comes to the rescue.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Kagura develops into this after he falls in love with Miko.
- Cuteness Proximity: Kagura's Sleep-Mode Size is THAT adorable.
- Demonic Possession:
- Played for laughs when Miko gets possessed by a succubus. Neither she nor Kagura notice because the succubus was too weak to do anything but attract a few really desperate guys.
- Not so funny when the student council president gets possessed by a demon that proceeds to eat Miko's soul.
- Dream Weaver: Kagura can only assume his full size when he enters Miko's dreams. Hm...
- Fetishized Abuser: Kagura is a horndog that invades and seduces Miko in her dreams (which she doesn't remember). Also, he has never shown any remorse about feeding on other girls' sexual desires and erasing their memories afterward. If you compare Demon Love Spell to Mayu Shinjo's other works, it's a downplayed example.
- Handsome Lech: Kagura. To be expected since, as an incubus, he gains strength and power by feeding off the lust of females.
- I Owe You My Life: Miko manages to keep her dad from exorcising Kagura by telling him how he had saved and protected her.
- Inter Species Romance: Miko (human) and Kagura (youkai).
- Intimate Healing: Sooooort of. Kagura can get some of his powers back by getting PDA and probably some more, so when he enters Miko's dreams AKA the only spot where he regains his adult form, he transforms them in erotic dreams.
- Kid with the Leash: Miko is this to Kagura.
- Large Ham: Miko gets... VERY loud when she meets Kagura and tries to exorcise him.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: One of Kagura's powers, which he uses on the girls who were his victims before Miko exorcised him.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared with Shinjo's other series, this one has some fewer Rape Tropes in its plot. Also, Kagura is nowhere in the league of the physically, emotionally, and sexually abusive Sakuya and Hakuron.
- Miko: And one named... Miko.
- Muggle Born of Mages: Miko sees herself as such, and she's not happy about it. It turns out she does have some genuine power, but it can only be drawn out by touching Kagura and team-working with him.
- Papa Wolf: Miko's father debuts by showing up at her school and banishing a demon that had been attacking her.
- Plucky Girl: Miko, who is more self-aware and outspoken than the usual Shinjo heroines.
- Really Gets Around: Due to being an Incubus, Kagura was this by nature, but he becomes solely focused on Miko after they meet.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Kagura's tiny form, to the point that Miko's parents don't mind that an incubus is sleeping in their daughter's room.
- Sleep-Mode Size: Miko seals Kagura's powers away and as a result he becomes a smaller version of himself.
- Tsundere: Miko. Kagura flat out states that she is, and that he prefers her that way.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: When Chibi!Kagura and Miko are attacked by another youkai in the first episode, Miko puts Kagura inside her cleavage to fight better. Logically, she doesn't really like the idea.
- Youkai: Kagura is one of them, and supposed to be among the most powerful. Naturally, many others show up.
