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…!

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Content Warnings: Explicit sexual content, dubious consent, blood

I had a lot of fun with this one! I really liked Rheine as a character–awkward, kind of a crybaby, perpetually alone–he is definitely someone I felt a lot of sympathy for.

Poor Rheine has no friends. He’s actually never had one before, ever. He is avoided by everyone and also learned to isolate himself further from the people around him. But loneliness is quite a powerful emotion, so Rheine sets out to use his magic to evoke a demon into becoming his friend. Of course, Rheine thinks he’s going to get a cutesy sort of Pokémon character…

…But instead gets the powerful demon Luchatra. This is because up until then, Rheine had been using tomato juice instead of blood for the “sacrifice”…and then Rheine stumbles and falls and gets a bloody nose. The blood activates the magic circle and Luchatra appears, claiming to have an affinity with Rheine’s blood.

Luchatra also appears to be incredibly horny and pushes Rheine into sexual situations he’s not ready for. When Rheine asks what Luchatra is doing, he replies to the effect of, “What humans taught me to do.”

Luckily that scene ends quickly, and Rheine draws strict boundaries with Luchatra: “Friends don’t do that with each other!”

Thus begins the cute and awkward beginning of Rheine’s friendship with Luchatra. Luchatra has his own thoughts about it, though…

And that’s all of the story I’m going to share. There are some dubious scenes between Rheine and Luchatra before it turns into something else, so please be forewarned if that’s not your cup of tea. It’s also visually explicit.

I don’t have all that much feelings for Luchatra–he’s like a big bully to me–but I have all the emotions for Rheine. He’s the reason I kept reading this manga, basically. Not that I didn’t have a good time, but Rheine really seals the deal for me. I feel for desperate, sad characters and I really wanted him to find a good, decent relationship to overwrite years of loneliness. I think Luchatra needs to get a little bit better in order for me to be happy with the way things went. But still, I’m giving this a 4/5 for a fun read.

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How to Befriend a Demon is currently available digitally with a physical release date of November 17. You can find the manga everywhere books are sold, or available directly from the publisher.