Sekai Maou (セカイ魔王) is a Yonkoma by Sui Hutami serialized under Manga Time Kirara Carat and ran from 2010 to 2014 and spanned 4 volumes (50 chapters).
Long ago, the Demon Lord tried to take over the world before falling by the hands of the Hero. 300 years have passed since then and the two have since reincarnated.
The latest of the demon lords is a little girl who has no recollection of who she is upon awakening. Upon being brought up to speed on who she is the girl realizes that her existence means there's a Hero somewhere out there in the world she creates a fairy familiar to locate him and sort things out personally.
Bearing the mark to signify his status as the current Hero is Alsha, who isn't the spitting image of legend either. Instead of being a strong and capable warrior, he is a timid boy whose lack of swordsmanship and little stamina leads to him having trouble defeating even the weakest of monsters.
The story follows the two trying to make sense of their destinies.
Sekai Maou contains the following tropes:
- Actually, I Am Him: Mao, frequently. Most people aren't expecting the Demon Lord to be a cute young girl.
- Amnesiac Hero: Mao woke with absolutely no recollection of who she is and had to be informed by the Record Keeper of her existence as the current Demon Lord. It's one of the three requests the previous Demon Lord made to God upon meeting her.
- And the Adventure Continues: The story ends with Alsha and Mao's parties joined together on a journey to make peace between humans and monsters.
- Back from the Dead: The ending reveals the previous Demon Lord is resurrected by the Star God as a reward for winning their bet.
- Badass Normal: Alsha's teacher is a bog-standard human who's easily way above him in terms of power.
- Big Eater: Nikka, big time.
Nikka: My dream is to eat and eat until the chef comes out and says "I'm sorry, we're all out of food!"
- Cannibalism Superpower: Monsters can eat one another to gain power, though it's pretty inefficient.
- Casanova Wannabe: Nikka is hit on by a noble named Andres in Chapter 33. When they walk out on him doing introductions he immediately dashes and flips over to continue. Revealing that he fell for Nikka because of her flat chest rewards him with an ass-kicking by her and Mao.
- Casual Kink:
- The Record Keeper. He doesn't bother to hide his love for cute girls.
- Fibenette’s remarkably open about her masochism. Her immediate reaction to finding out the demon lord is revived is to ask the lord in question to step on her.
- Hawk is a bird monster who’s on a quest to find and wear the world’s most comfortable pair of panties and wears one on his face at all times.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The story starts out comedic but takes a more melancholic turn as more and more details are revealed about the dynamic between the Heroes and the Demon Lords.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: As...weird as they are, both Gentle and Fibenette directly serve the Demon Lord for a reason: they're incredibly powerful monsters.
- Deity of Human Origin: The God of Stars, or Star God, who is responsible for creating the world, the stars, and the cycle of the eternal conflict between the Hero and the Demon Lord turns out to be a little girl like Mao. The Star God admits that because of this she actually can die. The very last page in Chapter 50 reveals she was once an assistant to a scientist whose experiments turned her into one.
- A Dog Named "Cat": A large, fearsome dragon who has been alive since the previous Demon Lord was around calls himself Mole. It’s because moles dig holes while dragons don’t, and Mole has been digging a massive cavern in the meantime.
- Dream Reality Check: Mao attempts this by pinching her cheeks upon waking up and being told she's the Demon Lord. It doesn't work, though she assumes she may still be dreaming before giving in and accepting reality.
- Eternal Recurrence: Every 100 years, a Demon Lord is born and the rise of ambient magic empowers the monsters of the world. In exchange, a legendary hero of great power is reborn to defeat the Demon Lord and restore peace to the world. Except now it's been 300 years since the last rebirth and the hero is a complete wimp, leaving both parties to wonder why...
- Fairy Companion: Mao’s double takes the form of one and followed Alsha on his journey for a while before going separate ways to fulfill their objectives.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Mao's powerful enough to destroy just about anything with her bare fists so she doesn't bother with a weapon. This gets her dubbed "the Hero of the Fist" by humans.
- Greater-Scope Paragon: As flippant as he seemed, the previous Demon Lord turns out to be one. His last act was to get the Star Lord to arrange Mao's strange rebirth trusting that his next incarnation will finally break the cycle.
- Green Thumb: Fibenette has the magical power to grow and manipulate plants.
- Harsh Word Impact: Seeto gets inflicted with this when Nikka comments how her caricature is more handsome than the real deal.
- Hesitant Sacrifice: Both Mao and Alsha are shown to be terrified at their inevitable deaths when they finally fight, but they still decide to press forward for the sake of their friends. Fortunately, they both survive.
- Hidden Elf Village: The fairies are said to be reclusive and their village is located in a forest whose spell prevents humans and monsters from entering their abode.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- When Mao is about to step outside and meet the reincarnated Hero personally the Record Keeper advised against it since she might meet a pervert out there. Upon creating a familiar to act in her stead he asks for the familiar to stay behind while she goes out instead because it's cuter.
- Fibenette says she cannot join Maou downstairs in the castle because she cannot stand the Record Keeper for being such a pervert. This is coming from an openly masochistic demon while adding she’ll tolerate it if it means getting abused by her. Likewise, the Record Keeper himself calls Fibenette a pervert despite his degenerate tics.
- Incredibly Obvious Tail: Nikka follows Mao and Alsha due to her interest in the former due to her fairy form, though she doesn't put much effort into being subtle about it. That being said, Alsha doesn't notice her. After finishing her business in a bakery, Nikka drops any pretense of being subtle when she sees Mao fly up from an alley and Wall Jumps her way after her.
- In the Back: Alsha was on the receiving end of this early on. While at the side of a wounded man, a humanoid demon attacks him from behind.
- Irrational Hatred: As chill as he is, the previous Demon Lord felt a strong hatred for the hero when they finally met. This is an innate aspect of the Demon Lord that he had the Star God remove from Mao.
- It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Neither Alsha nor Mao are happy about their roles in the world even before learning the hero and Demon Lord are both doomed.
- Legend Fades to Myth: The state of the Hero and the Demon Lord. It's only after the fairies exit their village to spread the word do people start believing in it again.
- Legendary Weapon: The Holy Sword. At least, until it breaks after the first swing. Alsha gets it back by the end when it gets repaired.
- Little Bit Beastly: Nikka and Borak are human-looking demons who have dog ears hidden in their hats so that they could blend in with humans, though Mao turned the former's into human ones.
- Louis Cypher: The current one in question goes by Mao like with most incarnations and even uses the name for her fairy form. Mole comments on how apt the name is.
- Maou the Demon King: The newest reincarnation of the demon lord of legend serves as one of the main characters.
- Mutual Kill: The ultimate fates of both the Hero and the Demon Lord. After the former kills the latter, the Hero's power is left exhausted as a result and perishes not long after. Cloeila uses the ring gifted to her by the Fairy Elder to avert this with Alsha. This in turn allows him to follow Mao when she exploits the clash to ride the current of magic and meet face-to-face with the Star God.
- Oblivious Adoption: Averted; when Alsha's parents try to reveal he's adopted he bluntly points out it was really obvious considering they look nothing alike.
- Obsessed with Food: Nikka who has the stomach to match. Early on, she gets distracted from tailing Mao and Alsha to buy some food in a bakery. When Mina shows both her and Mao a miniature recreation of the entire world from far away she simply remarks on how delicious it looked.
- Our Demons Are Different: Demons not only take a variety of forms ranging from human-like entities that could easily blend in with mankind to more fantastical creatures such as giant birds and dragons. And some are just pitch black creatures.
- Past-Life Memories: While Mao is supposed to have the previous Demon Lord's memories, she doesn't. This is just one of many strange things about her rebirth.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Mao is a little girl, but she's said to be the strongest demon lord to date, surpassing even the first incarnation. She can send grown men flying and shoot out black lasers gigantic enough that they can be seen for miles.
- The Poorly Chosen One: Alsha is the current reincarnation of the Hero but is pathetically weak. Mao, Record Keeper, and even his adopted parents all note this. The Elder Fairy explains that they eventually get stronger over time, and by the finale, Alsha is able to back up Mao while confronting the Star God.
- Pure Magic Being: Demons as a whole arose when God infused the world with magic to bring forth life. When beings that didn't require magic arose around the same time, God made it so that magic would regularly converge onto a single being known as the Demon Lord for a Hero to slay.
- Reincarnation-Identifying Trait:
- All heroes bear a mark on the front of their necks. This trait was what allowed Mao to narrow it down to Alsha, though she had some doubts about it given how weak he is.
- The Demon Lord’s magic is said to be unique if one was able to sense it. This is due to all Demon Lords effectively being the world’s magic concentrated onto a single being for the hero to slay.
- Really 700 Years Old: Mina claims to be an old demon who has watched over demonkind since the very beginning. However, she'll have you know she is, and always has been, 18 years old.
- Ship Tease: Alsha tends to have Imagine Spots of Mao when he's feeling down and pictures her when he thinks of "being with the ones we love," though her feelings towards him are unclear.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Nyamu has aspirations of becoming the Demon Lord. He immediately back peddles upon realizing he's in the presence of the actual Demon Lord. The demon is back on his schemes when Mao and Nikka meet him again while attacking humans to raise his standing among them.
- Small Role, Big Impact: A single page at the literal tail end of the manga would introduce possibly the most important character in the entire story: a creepy scientist who created the universe and trapped his assistant in it, turning her into the Star God.
- Sweet Tooth: Mole has a fondness for pies. He once tried to go out to get some leading to the scenario in That's No Moon.
- That's No Moon: In Chapter 23, the town Maou and Nikka arrive at was evacuated thanks to a giant monster, who turned out to be Mole. The first to spot him was a local baker, who assumed it was a mountain, but quickly realized his mistake when the “mountain” opened its eyes.
- Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Both the Fairy Elder and Mina recount the origins of the cycle between the hero and the demon lord along with the world as a whole to Alsha and Mao, respectively, in Chapter 26.
- Villain Takes an Interest: Granted, Mao isn't a villain, but the story begins with the Demon Lord training the very hero destined to slay her.
- Withholding Their Name: The swordswoman that Alsha goes and asks to train him. After some deliberation, she asks him to refer to as "Big Sis". Chapter 42 reveals her name to be Cloeila. Her father states it's to keep their pasts a secret when completing their duty, but the Fairy Elder does so because making it a secret is cooler.
- World's Strongest Woman: The Demon Lord is the strongest monster in the world, and Mao is considered incredibly powerful even by the standard of Demon Lords. The fact that nothing can even come close to hurting her is a common source of gags.
- You Just Told Me:
- Mao confirms Nikka's a monster by calling her one and watching her panic.
- Alsha confirms that the Demon Lord is his old friend Mao by calling her name and seeing her respond.
