Yuuutsu-kun to Succubus-san (original) (raw)

A boy-meets-girl story except the boy suffers from crippling depression (the non-comedic kind) and the girl is a succubus.

This manga is subtle. Most titles with a succubus involve high doses of ecchi, and while the titular demoness parades around in panties and pasties, between the rough art style and her bony physique the sexuality is more a matter of perception than presentation. Another subtle point is the way the story touches on mental heath and a work culture that prioritizes productivity to the detriment of employees.
The romance is also subtle. We start to get hints that the succubus is beginning to care... about the man as more than a "food" source and she becomes fiercely protective when others imply that the solution to his depression is to "try harder" or "cheer up".

As of chapter 9, the characters still don't have names. The man says and does little, but there is some small movement of his character, and we are given small hints about changes to his mental state. The succubus grows significantly, even in just 9 chapters, and we are given evidence that she is also undergoing changes in how she relates to the man and his depression.

The art is stylized and rough, but it manages to communicate what's necessary for the story, though it may put off people looking for a more polished product.

Overall, the chapters consist of several single-page episodes, each with its own title, and occasionally a direct continuation onto a second page. The art-style is rough, but servicable. The story is cute. The biggest draw for me was the way depression is dealt with not as a punchline, but as a real struggle for one of the characters. The other characters deal with the man's depression in a variety of ways, and the one that cares the most learns that it isn't something that can be easily fixed if you just "cheer up" and "try harder".