Socially anxious witch & bonafide bookworm Rheine struggles with a problem no spell can fix—he's never had a single friend!

Desperate, Rheine performs a summoning ritual to create a cute, loyal demon companion! Instead, he summons Luchatra, a powerful and domineering demon who immediately begins invading Rheine's personal space... Turns out demons don't know how to make friends, either!

Though Rheine insists that such behavior isn't what "friends" do, he finds himself increasingly flustered by Luchatra's behavior. As their chaotic daily life continues, Rheine's desire for Luchatra to stay by his side grows stronger, blurring the line between friendship and something far more dangerous...!

How to Befriend a Demon has a story and art by Jiro Ōnishi. Translated by Carissa Tenorio and lettered by Vibrant Publishing Studio. Published by Tokyopop (November 3, 2026). Rated M.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Poor Rheine just wants a friend. He's also terminally awkward and has been his entire life, so he figures that the only way he'll ever make friends is if he summons a demon. It's rather a tortured form of logic to base a book on, but paranormal romance, manga or otherwise, has never shied away from twisting logic to suit its purposes. It's also zero surprise that the demon he summons, Luchatra, is huge, hot, and very, very keen on the taste of Rheine's blood.

The cleverest bit in this book, which I have to admit I fell asleep reading, is the way the initial contract Luchatra and Rheine form is used. Rheine wants a friend, so that's the condition of Luchatra's stay in the human realm: he must remain until he and Rheine become friends. But Rheine specifies very early on that friends don't kiss or have sex, so if that becomes a regular part of their relationship, it doesn't count as “friendship.” Since that does, in fact, become a major piece of their puzzle, Luchatra is forced to remain with Rheine, since their contract has not technically been fulfilled.

Unfortunately, the rest of the plot is just okay. I was stunned to find out that Rheine is meant to be an adult, because everything about him reads “high school boy,” from looks to personality, to understanding of the world. Not that adults can't desperately want friends, but the way he portrays it feels very young. Luchatra, on the other hand, doesn't have much in the way of personality at all, and the other two demons who pop up don't serve any purpose other than to put Rheine in danger and annoy Luchatra. We're not given any real reason why the two of them should have fallen in love, and the whole thing feels very slapdash. The most personality in the entire book is Luchatra's tail, which at times has a mind of its own.

The art is fine, though, and uncensored and explicit. Each demon has a distinct character design, which I very much like, and the translation reads well. There sadly just isn't much more to this single-volume story. It's nice enough, but there are better human/demon BL romances out there.

Bolts
Rating:

What does it mean to be a friend? I can understand some people being so lonely that they will go so far as to summon Satan just so they have somebody to talk to. There is a sad tragedy to that very premise of this story. It follows Rheine, who summons a hot demon boy just for the sake of not being alone, and there is an interesting dynamic here as the demon in question doesn't really understand what friendship is, but he definitely understands what sexual desire is. This leads to a lot of very interesting yet awkward moments between the two. I like the push and pull that gradually happens throughout the book as Rheine starts to feel more physically drawn to the demon in question while said demon also starts discovering more human emotions like loneliness and jealousy. The idea is that these two are operating from very different extremes and eventually meet in the middle.

The pacing is a little all over the place though as scenes don't always naturally flow into each other. There's a lot of inferred lore and backstory to this world that isn't always properly set up as some characters will just appear for the sake of moving certain things along. The more simple character moments between Rheine and this demon are where the book truly shines. The drama is at its best when it's firmly rooted in the characters looking inward to recontextualize or come to terms with these new feelings that they hadn't once considered before. There's even a little bit of sadness in the fact that both of the leads don't think they deserve a lot of what they're discovering through each other. While I understand the desire to up the stakes by introducing other characters who seek to rip that happiness apart, the plotting isn't as strong as the more personal character writing, so it really comes off as the former or taking away from the latter. I think this is a story that would've benefited from being shorter by cutting out a lot of that excess fat. Thankfully, the heart doesn't get buried under too much of it. Another solid addition to the demon boys love romance genre a lot, even if there are some points where it might overstay its welcome.