Kanan, a female demon, infiltrates a high school with the goal of devouring some delicious human souls. She sets her sights on the perfect target, a teen boy named Kyougi Youji, and goes for the kill--only to somehow end up in a relationship with him instead?! Kanan's never been in love before, and this oddly innocent demon creates absolute chaos as the two venture into romance with a first date and beyond!

Mistress Kanan is Devilishly Easy has a story and art by NONCO. English translation is done by Michelle Tymon, and lettering by Rai Enril. Published by Seven Seas Entertainment (July 14, 2026). Rated OT.

Lucas Deruyter
Rating:

While this experience isn't wholly unique to the anime and manga artistic media and the interplay between them, discovering a series through an adaptation and then exploring the work further by examining its source material happens more often in this space than just about anywhere else. That is to say that Mistress Kanan is Devilishly Easy (which, per my TWIA co-columnist Chris Farris really should be titled Mistress Kanan is Easy as Hell), is my trashy surprise favorite of the Spring anime season, and I'm delighted to share that I'm enjoying the original manga just as much as the anime! Even as the anime polishes the manga's rougher edges, there's still plenty of flirtatious fun to be had in either version of this work, and experiencing both in tandem has only increased my appreciation for them.

Covering roughly the first six episodes of the anime, volumes one and two of Mistress Kanan is Devilishly Easy feature the titular Kanan, demonic daughter of Beelzebub, traveling to the human world to turn a school into her own personal buffet of human souls. Troubles arise, though, when her first would-be meal, the ever-excitable and generally well-meaning Kyogi, interprets her literal “I'm going to devour you” as sexual innuendo and enthusiastically consents! This immediately throws Kanan off her rhythm as, despite her outward confidence, she is painfully ignorant of romantic or sexual matters and ends up dating her would-be appetizer.

Following this introduction, the series transitions into a series of cute and adorkable misadventures between Kanan and Kyogi, like Kanan misinterpreting Kyogi's desire for tame relationship markers like holding hands as him asking for sex acts, or the two navigating Kanan forgetting to wear a bra on their first proper date. Adding further hijinks is a growing cast of supporting characters, including the gyaru maid Ami, who loves teasing her mistress and making her uncomfortable; Kyogi's childhood friend and budding masochist Nadeko; and the painfully innocent angel Jeanne. A lot of these antics and archetypal characters are going to feel immediately familiar to anyone who's read other raunchy RomComs, and yet Kanan manages to rise above its competition thanks to its fairly informed and honestly based sociopolitics.

While a lot of harem and Pseudo-Harem manga can immediately feel misogynistic and scummy, Mistress Kanan largely avoids these alienating pitfalls. It helps tremendously that the titular Kanan is fully the lead and POV character of this work, making her participation in these sexual hijinks feel more grounded in her agency rather than as a means of wish fulfillment for a presumably young male audience. Kyogi's enthusiasm and eagerness to be in a relationship with Kanan, coupled with his genuine surprise that any woman, let alone multiple, would be into him, also adds an earnestness to this work that makes it far more endearing. There's also an explicitly anti-slut shaming chapter focusing on Ami that I did not expect to see in this kind of work, which makes its presence in this omnibus all the more appreciated.

Don't get me wrong, Mistress Kanan is Devilishly Easy is still a manga principally about various women breasting boobily and falling into comedic sexual hijinks, but author NONCO clearly knows and respects women well enough to tell this kind of story without degrading the characters featured in it.

Unfortunately, my opening to this review wasn't just me being glib, and I also need to share that the localization of Mistress Kanan is Devilishly Easy is somewhat disappointing, especially when compared to the anime. I'm not sure if the anime was just more liberal with the original text, but the manga tries to make Kanan sound more “regal” than “proper,” and this ends up undercutting some of the best gags in the series. For instance, in the anime, when Kyogi asks to hold Kanan's hand, she exclaims internally, “But I might get pregnant!” whereas in the manga, she announces, “We might as well be welcoming our heir into this world,” which is way less funny and punchy. That being said, Mistress Kanan is Devilishly Easy is about as good as one of these kinds of stories can be, and I encourage folks to check it out in all of its forms!

Bolts
Rating:

I love reading stories where a character tries too hard to be sexy and dominant only to completely fall on her face…for a dozen chapters. I had so many high hopes for this series because it starts so strongly. The idea of a young succubus named Kanan trying to feast on the soul of a horny teenage boy, only for that very horny teenage boy to misinterpret her advances as wanting to engage sexually with him, was already immediately funny. But the fact that becomes the basis for these two to start an actual relationship in these early chapters left me hopeful about so much amazing comedic potential. Well, while there are some occasional strong laughs because the story introduces a lot of exaggerated demonic personalities that are very obsessed with Kanon's love life, there really isn't that much here outside of the story just repeating the same joke over and over and over again.

While the settings and setups are generally different, each chapter has a specific execution and payoff of each joke that feels largely the same. It ultimately turns out that Kanon is putting up some front; her new boyfriend, Yoki, either completely misunderstands it or meets her bluff head-on because he's just that simple-minded of a guy, which leaves Kanon flustered, and the two end up getting a bit closer. The problem is that it doesn't really feel like the two are actually developing a romance throughout the course of these chapters as much as they kind of just come off as a crazy duo. There are some chapters later in the volume where the two actually do share some genuine romantic situations devoid of humor, but I feel exhausted by the time I get to that point. It also doesn't help that their relationship is built on such a strong misunderstanding. It feels like the setup is here for the sake of generating jokes rather than to facilitate genuine drama, but since the jokes themselves feel so bland, I'm struggling to get invested.

Sometimes I get the sense that the story wants to do more or be more over-the-top, especially when it comes to the raunchier side of the humor. There are some fan service shots here, but they still feel relatively tame compared to many lesser stories, even in this guide. I think if the story wanted to leave an impact with the setup, it needed to go bigger or make the reactions even stronger. But instead, it just keeps everything at a certain level from beginning to end. I don't think you'd be missing a lot by skipping this one, or at the very least, maybe read the first two chapters and then move on because there isn't really much that will hit you as hard as those early chapters, in my opinion.

Jean-Karlo Lemus
Rating:

A colleague of mine proposed this, and I echo this sentiment: they missed an opportunity by not titling it “Mistress Kanan is Easy as Hell.”

Anyway, Mistress Kanan is the old chestnut of a haughty demon-hottie who gets stuck in a relationship with a very passionate golden retreiver BF, and not knowing what to do now that she's dating. There have been a lot of slow, trite iterations on this concept, but nonco's high-energy delivery and wacky characters keep the energy up. Constant new scenarios like Kanan getting overwhelmed during an ear-cleaning or Kanan playing chicken with Kougi to try and get him to touch her while she fakes being asleep really do underline how much these two goofballs deserve each other.

It says a lot that the series introduces a handful of secondary interlopers (Kougi's childhood friend, Kanan's succubus servant, a saintess who's there to "preserve Kougi's purity") and they're not annoying.

Their antics fit the series. It's such that by the time this omnibus ended, I didn't even mind that they had basically strung me on a line and left the summer vacation at Kanan's home in hell for the next volume. A comedy series like this lives or dies off of its cast, and Mistress Kanan all but thrives with its zany characters and set-ups. And title notwithstanding, the dialogue and script is filled with plenty of knee-slappers. Also, kudos to nonco for succeeding at making such an altogether cute cast—it's not easy to pull off a manga where everyone is this charming.

Mistress Kanan gets a strong recommendation from me. I imagine it'll get loads more fans if it ever gets an animated adaptation. It's light, it's breezy, the script is fun and the art is cute. And the manga is even in an omnibus format. It's not often you find a comedy series that makes it all look this easy. Strongly recommended.