Succubus & Hitman Vol. 1
Author: Makoto Fukami
Illustrator: Seigo Tokiya
Publishers: Seven Seas
Age Group: 18+, Mature
Genre: shonen, action adventure, horror, fantasy
Type: Manga
Content Warnings: Violence, sexual assault, trauma, death
Spoilers ahead
Plot
Gamou Shouya…well, that’s his name now. Originally, he died watching his sister get kidnapped and his mother SA’d then shot through the head. Once dead, he made a deal with Armelina, a succubus demon—his soul for revenge on the ones that took everything away from him.
In between killing his own prey, he kills wrong doers before the police can nab them.
What I really like about this plot is he’s pin-point focused on getting revenge, so much so he doesn’t even try to make moves on his succubus (much to her dismay). It’s a really fun dynamic. Most of the story follows Shouya’s day-to-day life. So there’s a lot of set-up in what’s normal and versus the abnormal.
Character Development
Gamou Shouya is a serious person who’s somewhat of a vigilante at night and an average person during the day. He learns enough about the original Shouya’s life so that isn’t too conspicuous, yet he doesn’t go out of his way to try to mimic the original just choking it up to his ‘amnesia’.
Ooitachi Kururi is a cosplayer and hacker who Shouya saves. She’s a bit of a scaredy cat but she’s good. She’s got a good head on her shoulders (most of the time) and thinks of all the angles such as when she hands over her findings for research and hides it amongst her cosplay photos.
World-building
The main world setting is contemporary. We learn that Shouya is a proxy hitman. Demons cannot interfere with the human world directly, but they need the soul dust to survive. Thus, demons make contracts with humans to take their souls and contract with some to become proxy hitman.
These proxy hitman have a quota of souls they need to meet. When they do, they get skill tree perks to help them become better proxy hitmen. Examples of this include short teleportation, bullet proof, cell regeneration, and mentally changing a bullet’s hardness for better effect.
We also learn that there are people called violators (which is a horrible joke considering how we learn it). These violators are humans that aren’t contracted with demons but have access to magic. They’re dangerous and harder to kill than normal humans.
Themes
Even if you live in the dark, there can always be light.
Think this theme would fit this series well. Shouya may be a proxy hitman who doesn’t care about killing, but he doesn’t do it indiscriminately. He goes after bad guys after a lot of research. He decides if they deserve it and if they do, he’ll kill them. He saves his sister from a murder and Kururi, whom he convinced to be his hacker.
Observations & Predictions
I predict that because Shouya is so focused on revenge that we won’t see anything develop between him and any of the female characters for a long time (if it ever happens). It most likely won’t and the story will retain its revenge plot with a gaggle of girls that help him along the way. No harems here.
We are going to see a lot more violators in the future. With the development of meeting another proxy hitman, it’ll be interesting to see if he’ll be able to kill his target (this one SA’d and killed his mom). Will he get to torture him? I hope so because this guy definitely makes your skin crawl.
With the introduction of other poxy hitman, I’d love to see them team up for different missions. We may also get so see more into the underbelly connected to hell.
I’d like to see Shouya learning more about his deadbeat father (it was his father’s fault his family was brutally attacked) and learn more about his father’s debt.
Watch for a special edition on the second volume on Saturday!
Recommendations
Berserk
By: Kouji Mori
Goblin Slayer
By: Kumno Kagyu
Lady Snowblood
By: Kazuo Koike
Wounded Man
By: Kazuo Koike
Dendrobates
By: Youji Ishiwata
