Can a seductive succubus empress bring down a fearsome onmyouji boy surrounded by a harem?!

In Kyoto, where humans and yokai coexist, Saki the succubus reigns as the queen of her academy. But there's one boy she can't charm...Yuu Ashiya, the intimidating onmyouji who's somehow surrounded by a harem of demi-human girls. Determined to make him fall for her first, Saki launches an all-out seduction campaign...!?

The Succubus Meets Her Match has a story by Kazuaki Kurihara and art by Akane Terai. English translation is done by Christine Dashiell and lettering by Vitor Batista. Published by Kadokawa (June 29, 2026). Rated T+.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

Saki is a star. Well, she would be, of course, as she is a succubus. All the men who see her are incapable of controlling their desire for her. She is the be-lusted star of her world. But for some reason, she does not affect one male… who happens to sit next to her at school. Asahiya doesn't seem to be fighting off lust for her, or anyone. He's more focused on purifying the school of increasingly dark curses that appear to be increasing around the school.

Yeah, this is another fantasy in which a man has sexy demihuman girls throwing themselves at him, and he simply has no interest. Obviously, we are meant to be aroused by how Saki attempts seduction. Saki can't help being a sexpot; she's a succubus after all. Traditionally, “succubi” are the embodiment of religious men's illicit sexual desires given form so they can blame a woman for their physical reactions. Here, it's a little sad, as Saki throws herself against Asahiya, who is simply more interested in his work as an onmyouji than in relationships of any kind.

The story is liberal with demihuman/yokai stereotypes. An adorable dog girl also throws herself at Asahiya. The source of the curses is a classically Japanese spirit. It's all so odd that as Saki is throwing her T&A at Asahiya (and us) in her attempts to seduce him, we're also having our attention distracted by the exorcism stuff. On the one hand, it's a little ridiculous, as we have no real buy-in to whether Asahiya has a sexual interest in Saki or not. On the other hand, it's a reasonable glimpse of life as Asahiya, who is trying to do a job, while demihuman girls throw themselves at him. Both sides of the story distract from one another. Whether it works for you or not is entirely personal.

Bolts
Rating:

The succubus is known to be one of the most seductive and sexually charged creatures in fiction. I don't know who was the first person to come up with the novel idea of making a story revolve around a succubus character that fails at seducing somebody, but I'm sure they're very happy about the plethora of similar shows that have copied that same formula for the past couple of years. The Succubus Meets Her Match is another one of those shows with that premise, and with it comes a lot of typical expectations of this subgenre. This is a comedy about a very prideful succubus who is used to attracting the attention of dozens of men, but there is just one boy who sits next to her in class and doesn't return her advances. So she hyperfixates on him, and a romance is born?

To be fair, there is a bit more going on, but that is the main narrative thread connecting a lot of these chapters. Credit where credit is due: this isn't just a compilation of one-off chapters with the same setup and slightly different punchlines. Ashiya, the object of Succubus Saki's attention, seems to be some kind of spirit hunter who is exercising monsters, which is interesting because this story takes place in a world where monsters are fairly common. Every chapter, he seems to take down a new supernatural anomaly that is in some way tied to Saki trying to seduce him. Ashiya's straightman attitude conflicts with Saki's overly indulgent attitude, and that is more or less the formula. Other girls get involved, especially when Ashiya helps them with these supernatural issues, so I guess that also makes this more like a harem story.

It's hard to say because, on the one hand, I commend this book for pulling from more than one common narrative trope, but, on the other hand, it doesn't stop the story from feeling very bland and repetitive. I have seen all of these elements in other stories before, but done better. Unlike some that are able to take this mashup work into something unique or entertaining, this just feels like something that can't fully make up its mind. This is a story that feels like it is diminishing returns about all of the different elements that it's pulling from. It's not quite a harem story, and it's not quite as funny or as raunchy as a lot of other stories revolving around succubi. Even the angle of there being other monster girls doesn't really add anything to the main joke of the story. Overall, this is a story that isn't any better than just OK because it never feels like it's striving to be more than the sum of its parts.