The Fall 2024 Manga Guide

The Hungry Succubus Wants to Consume Him (18+)

What's It About? 

Kururi is a super-elite succubus looking for her one-thousandth man, but it can't be just any old shmuck! She wants to harvest the energy of a primo virgin. That should be easy, right? After all, no man's ever been able to refuse her charms…until she meets Jien, an ascetic monk in training. He proves immune to her potent aphrodisiac, causing her to whip out every trick in the book and even invent some new ones. It's a battle of wills as these two worlds collide!

The Hungry Succubus Wants to Consume Him has a story and art by Tabireco, with English translation by Jennifer Ward. This volume was lettered by Ludwig Sacramento. Published by Seven Seas' Ghost Ship imprint (Oct. 8 2024).

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Is It Worth Reading?

Jean-Karlo Lemus
Rating:

I've got a soft spot for sexy demon girls, but I've always been a little iffy on these stories about a caked-up succubus who gets hung up trying to take the v-card of some bookish shlub who doesn't seem interested in sex. There's this line of thinking in these stories that I dislike where obviously the succubus is a libertine because they've never known true love, which they only experience from meeting some salt-of-the-Earth type who feeds them a nice homecooked meal. I don't like the idea that people who sleep around are only doing so because they haven't found their “missing half” yet.

And that's where The Hungry Succubus is coming from; Kururi is bored from all the sex she's been having with dime-a-dozen studs, so she's hung up on deflowering a real gem of a virgin. So she fixates on the ascetic monk Jien, who's so dedicated to his training as a monk that he waves her off at every turn (even if he has wet dreams about Kururi). And whoops, Jien's earnest heart wins Kururi over! It's not even like succubi exclusively have to have sex to survive, there's a system to succubi involving—wait for it—“incum tax”. Also, a bonus chapter shows that elite succubi are allowed to marry Japanese citizens (and we're shown two succubi and how happy they are with their spouses). I've met too many sex workers to buy into this weird binary look at people's sex lives, and seeing Kururi go through it leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

At any rate, Hungry Succubus is fairly witty; many of its translation choices and lines of dialogue (like Kururi referring to Jien as her “girl dinner”) get an earnest chuckle out of me, and some of the sweeter moments like Jien and Kururi bonding over a fun VR headset stick the landing. Occasionally, the art will try to depict Kururi (or her boobs) in a way that's supposed to be sexy but just looks weird, and the later chapters lean into Kururi's Madonna-Whore complex. Hungry Succubus is ultimately harmless, and I'd be lying if I wasn't invested in how things will shake out for Kururi and Jien... but I'd also be lying if I wasn't more interested in the life of the married Cumlector and her husband. Mildly recommended.

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MrAJCosplay
Rating:

Does anyone remember that series called Yamada's First Time? That's all I was thinking while reading this because it is a similar setup. We have a very sexually open and forward female lead trying to get into the pants of a more straight-laced man. Eventually, those feelings of lust turn into feelings of love and now we have a different problem to navigate. This story set itself up on more of a fantasy foundation with our lead being a succubus who is mostly doing this all out of pride. However, I like the slow progression and realization that she now wants to engage in intimacy more so for emotional fulfillment by the end. We get some great facial expressions from our main succubus lead and her trying to figure out ways to get inside a monk's pants channels team rocket vibes of competency.

Overall, it is a simple setup and execution that ends the first volume on a surprisingly melancholy note that promises a shift in the status quo. My biggest problem with the book is that I'm unsure how it plans to resolve any situations it brings up. One of the main sources of conflict is a succubus trying to get into the pants of a practicing monk who took a vow of abstinence. I'm not sure how you resolve that without compromising the setup narratively. It almost feels like the writer set themselves up for failure. There is a weird side plot introduced about how succubi need to pay taxes on the semen that they collect. It's foreshadowed heavily to be a potential future plot point. It's a random thing that gets introduced that might potentially affect our lead's status as an elite succubus moving forward.

I'm a little bit conflicted because, on the one hand, I want to continue reading to see what happens next. On the other hand, I am concerned that these holes and plot points won't get satisfying resolutions. If the series had a more comedic tone throughout, I could get into this story as an episodic hijinks series. The ending left room open for a potentially more serious story to be told. I would say give it a shot for its comedy and artwork. And then, buckle up alongside me as we try to figure out where this crazy ride is going.

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