Kuro no Maou

Description

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Kurono Maou is a high school student who is sensitive of his sharp eyes and bad expression. No girlfriend but gifted with friends in his own way, he had been living a peaceful life.

But one day, without any reason, Kurono was attacked by a mysterious headache while in the literature clubroom and fainted. When he finally awoke…Swords & magic, filled with monsters, an orthodox different world summoning.

Associated Names
One entry per line
KNM
The Black Demon King
黒の魔王
Related Series
Jujutsushi Wa Yuusha Ni Narenai (Shared Universe)
Recommendations
Pivot of the Sky (4)
Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (WN) (4)
Mushoku Tensei (WN) (3)
Sevens (2)
Jujutsushi Wa Yuusha Ni Narenai (2)
Nigoru Hitomi de Nani wo Negau (2)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Not masterpieces, but enjoyable enough.
  2. Yandere female leads
  3. The best novel that I've ever read
  4. sad life
  5. Yandere Harems/ Yanderes/ Harems that have a Yande...

Latest Release

Date Group Release
05/08/23 Asian Hobbyist c530
04/19/23 Asian Hobbyist c529
04/14/23 Asian Hobbyist c528
03/10/23 Asian Hobbyist c527
03/10/23 Asian Hobbyist c526
03/09/23 Asian Hobbyist c525
03/06/23 Asian Hobbyist c524
03/02/23 Asian Hobbyist c523
03/02/23 Asian Hobbyist c522
03/02/23 Asian Hobbyist c521
03/01/23 Asian Hobbyist c520
02/06/23 Asian Hobbyist c519
02/03/23 Asian Hobbyist c518
02/03/23 Asian Hobbyist c517
02/03/23 Asian Hobbyist c516
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91 Reviews sorted by


Ultramarine
Ultramarine rated it
April 15, 2018
Status: c381
What I like in this novel is that the author always finds a way to surprise us, that cursed sadist, taking the fact that the heroines are yanderes and are incredibly cruel, hahaha, there are enough bloody parts in this novel and despair, Kurono is a nice guy and I like him in the course of time we can perceive the growth of the MC and there is a good construction of the world, if it were not the part of the POV's of third people that neither imply so... more>> much in the work and sometimes it becomes tiring I would like to give 5 stars to tell the truth I have even skipped some of these POV'S mainly from the Apostles. Anyway give a chance to this Novel and draw your own conclusions for me I found it very pleasant to read. <<less
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gahara31
gahara31 rated it
January 5, 2018
Status: c380
story is pretty slow paced at first 200 chapter, telling some side stories that actually have not much contribution into main story. I pretty much skimmed it. After 250 chapter, however, the story become a bit better and interesting. The main things that kept me reading the series is the character development of the heroines. They started weak like background character but slowly making their spotlight as the story progress, an element that I think the most charming things about this series.

as for other part of story is pretty much... more>> your generic isekai harem plot, if it were to summarize into one sentence then the story going into route the MC got special unique power that make him different from the rest and worked up his way to develop his power while collecting harem member. <<less
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Tirp
Tirp rated it
October 21, 2017
Status: c376
The story starts with a tragedy befalling the MC. It started really really good and dark.

Then as the story progresses it became a bit shounen with the MC becoming naive.

The MC's harem is unique and I loved it.

... more>> The members of his harem are awesome but it doesn't overshadow the MC because MC develops his own awesomeness.

Also the author is a sadist. He will give you a heart attack if you read this novel!

That's just how intense some scene inside this novel.

Overall I would have rated it 5 if the MC became totally dark cuz he has the right/reason for it.

That is how I think will make the story a lot more interesting. Final rating 4/5. <<less
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findwrite
findwrite rated it
September 12, 2016
Status: c260
This is a brutal tale. A savage, twisted tale. But I love it. I love it so much that I have difficulty seeing why I enjoy it.

Let me try to translate my feelings into text.

Kuro no Maou's protagonist is the foundation. He keeps me reading. I was surprised to see there are some changes in his personality as the series progresses (character development, my old friend, it's been too long!). The novel presents him in his times of joy and his times of despair. Some readers might be irritated by... more>> him, but I'm sympathetic toward him. Perhaps it's because I've read too many xianhuans. Those novels rarely have protagonists with more depth than a pond, and they're like characters frozen in time - their personalities are never affected by the events that occur around them.

I enjoy that there's a clear antagonist. The threat it presents the protagonist is frequently reminded, and enemies are often shown as more than just a bunch of nameless peasants served on a silver platter for the protagonist to dominate. Some are shown to be just as human as the main characters.

The romance adds a lot to the series. I'll leave it at that and leave you to discover the insanity. In any case, I enjoyed it.

I have three reasons for not rating this 5/5. The first is that the series has some really gruesome scenes. Despite having read so many other novels with descriptions of cruelty, I can't help but feel disgusted while reading them. This novel is absolutely not for the faint-hearted.

The second reason is that the novel slows down greatly at some points, not just in terms of action, but plot. Some people think the politics and scheming is boring, but even worse is when barely anything is happening. Most of such speed-bumps contain a lot of comedy, but most of the series' jokes missed their mark for me.

The third reason is one that bothered me for a while. The author (not translators) frequently changes the point of view and tense like they're nothing. I've seen the tense change from past to present in a single paragraph. The first person point-of-view can be confusing if you aren't aware that it sometimes changes later in the story to be in the perspective of the heroines. It bothered me even a hundred chapters into the series, though now (at 260) it's just an inconvenience.

I like the novel, but its torture and gore (the scenes aren't frequent, but they do exist) might be too much for many. Even I thought the beginning is slow, but now I greatly enjoy the series.

Note: The quality of the translation is decent (grammar and spelling errors are frequent but the meaning is easy to catch), but infrequently the sentences require a bit of artistic work on the side of the reader to decipher. <<less
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constant15211
constant15211 rated it
May 4, 2016
Status: --
The pacing of the story is quite good. The developments are neither forced or try hard. It just flows smoothly. I like how the author conveys the despair and hopelessness of the MC but yet giving hope. A good read! They are no round characters in the story which are important to the story. They all have their personalities. So in short, I like it very much. Just read it before saying anything. It kinda gets addicting and you just can't stop.
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Cennepal
Cennepal rated it
February 1, 2024
Status: c545
Completely agree with Ren Chao. This novel is s*upidly long. It takes, for Kurono, on average, 30 chapters to finally defeat something. The drawn out sequences in non-combat situations also gets tiring. First it's cool to have a detailed explanation or long thought-chain, because there is a lot to explain in the beginning, however it doesn't stop. For example, Kurono and another Character exchange 4 sentences, yep that's 2 literal chapters of thoughts, overanalyzation and too much internal dialogue for you. It's like the author is Sisyphus, trolling the viewer.... more>> He rolls the boulder up the hill, at the halfway point looks down, smiles at you and lets the boulder roll back down. I love the story, I really do, but when I can already tell by the first 5 sentences of a chapter that I can skip it, then skip five chapters ahead to find nothing really happened, it feels underwhelming. Not to mention that we're on c545tl and kurono still can't beat a rank 5 monster without literal divine intervention and his companions. I want his training to finally mean something, like actually for him to start to rival apostles. Every battle feels earned, but also feels underwhelming, because at the end of the day he always gets either saved or carried by some other party. I want him to finally do something, for those trials to finally pay off. I'm not saying that he should become Isekai protag #628940 and just go *bing bong monster dead*, but it's so frustrating not seeing any improvement on his part. His weapons keep evolving, but he just doesn't, every fight is still the same drawn out struggle where in the end he gets his saved by some divine intervention amount of luck or some other party, as if he was still stuck in c120. The only fight that made me say 'finally' was with Ludra. Still though, after that, we were back to the same formula. The only major event in the entirety of the novel since the escape is the fight with the 7th and it's aftermath. We are literally done with 1/12th of Kurono's mission. After 545 chapters. Either this gets canned (I hope not, I really do love this novel) or it'll be finished after another 10 or so years. Overall though, I really like this novel. I want more of this story, I just wish it would move faster than it does currently. <<less
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R-gel
R-gel rated it
August 2, 2023
Status: c437
Personally, I would rate this 3.5

But I give it a 5, because some who hate this work give it an unjustified 1 star.

I'll just give a heads-up for future readers.
The pacing in this story is really2 slow, which is a big2 minus for most readers (me included).
The often changes in POV does not help with the pacing, which understandably, makes some of the reader rage.
MC being dense also make it worst given how slow the progress is.
Avoid if you dislike slow progress, and slow power-up MC.

Otherwise,... more>> it's an enjoyable read and I encourage you to give it a try.
For the slow progress, the author does really put some careful consideration when writing what the story would be.
And giving this novel 1 star is injustice. <<less
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MyRAMEN
MyRAMEN rated it
October 20, 2021
Status: v1c11
I rated this a 2 star after reading prologue and first chap, but after reading a 5 star review complaining about other revs... I decided to give it another shot. Read to chapter 11, and although I can guarantee the story did get better, it still doesn't deserve a 5. The prologue and first chap were frankly horrible, but after that it got interesting. Still, it wasn't an amazing novel to me. Rather than average quality, it had good points and bad points that balanced it to a 3 star... more>> review for me. However, after reading even more reviews, I decided to go back and retain my original 2 star rating. As frankly according to other people the start was interesting, but quickly goes downhill once he escaped <<less
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TubeAlloys
TubeAlloys rated it
February 21, 2020
Status: c431
This is one of those stories about the dark hero of blackness, who uses the ultimate darkness magic and wields the cursed midnight sword of twilight, and he's so deep and dark and his pain is like the deepest abyss... etc. etc.

If you can get past the epically cringey MC premises then it's not a completely terrible story. There's character development, plot progression, etc.

I do agree with other reviews on here that the MC is a massive crybag loser beta male though. But then harems are always cliche as all... more>> hell so what can you do. <<less
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iCataclysm
iCataclysm rated it
October 6, 2016
Status: c200
Currently giving it a 3.0/5.0

*minor spoilers ahead*
... more>>
Spoiler

The story starts off with the typical high school Japanese student who still has trouble getting up. He gets transported and is subjected to torture and what not. Then he vows for revenge, gets saved by a yandere loli and starts a slice of life novel after that. I mean cmon I was reading this because it was supposed to be dark and the MC not having OP skills were supposed to be a plus. Then they pacing got all weird when they introduced the school arc. School. Arc. Why would you go to school if you want revenge? He vowed to get stronger but he isn't pursuing powers relentlessly. I don't see the fire and honestly when the school arc began I totally just dropped the novel. Might pick it up again at some point but definitely not now.

TLDR; It turns from a dark story into a slice of life. You end up skipping chapters like they're endless because POV of the harem members... why not? Honestly the author should've just set those as side stories.

[collapse]
<<less
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Sorata
Sorata rated it
August 30, 2016
Status: c293
Damn I really love this novel. I think the author loves me. It's completely my taste. Dark story tragic MC with yandere heroines.

MC becomes an experiment subject. everyday he was tortured badly during experiment. finally he found peoples he could trust but when he knows it the whole village has turned into hell. Remaining only a mountain of corpses inside a river of blood. Yeah... It was hell.

But he didn't give up and found new comrades but the same things happened again he experienced hell over again and again...
The... more>> only things I hate is the growth of MC is too slow and MC still has his v**ginity. Many novel I dropped after the MC lost their v**ginity just like deathmarch the story is great but I can't accepted the MC without v**ginity so I recommended this novel Kuro no Maou and Tate no Yuusha <<less
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Grarg
Grarg rated it
April 14, 2016
Status: --
Having read up to chapter 150 (the first two major arcs), I can say Kuro no Maou is decent. We have a protagonist who is strong, but not broken. His powers are well explained and he has acceptable weaknesses. The world is interesting but I didn’t give it a perfect score because I have several gripes:

1. All the villains are monolithically evil. There’s no redeeming qualities. There’s no subletly. They’re all fanatics or just downright crazy. If this continues, the story will suffer severely. 2. I’m seeing a disturbing trend in the way the author lays out plot progression:

Spoiler

So far, the MC has encountered two major groups of people, both of which have been wiped out. The first incidence was well done and really hammered in the nature of the world he’s been summoned to. The second incidence, however, was just downright lazy. It’s like the author though “these characters are no longer necessary to the plot” and mu*ders them en masse via an extremely lazy plot device (literally someone OP drops out of the sky and kills everyone. Are you serious?). If this sort of pattern continues over and over, the story will get stale really quick. The violence and tragedy will cease to have any meaning and become just a joke. I hope that it will be different as I dive into the next 100 or so chapters.

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angmar1233
angmar1233 rated it
April 6, 2016
Status: --
Rating 4.5/5

A highly under-rated but interesting novel that veers off the usual Japanese novel cliches and more towards a light novel except for the harem and yandere characters the MC seems to endlessly attract. The world building is very thorough and the author uses multiple pov’s to do this but this makes the plot move slightly slowly, but if you can stick past the first arc, you’ll definitely see the pace picking up. Give this a try you won’t regret it, if you like plots filled with fairies, witches, wizards,... more>> gods, elves and the general theme of saving the world kind of plot. <<less
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mukkaar
mukkaar rated it
February 25, 2016
Status: --
I like writing style and characters, they are more "real" than usually in novels. Main plot is really good but chapters many times get sidetracked in my mind. There are too many pov's from relatively unimportant events and characters that could be easily dealt with less letters, or just left out.
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Reugros14
Reugros14 rated it
February 24, 2016
Status: --
@Oklaroma Mate, I think GOT is like “You died, game over”, here that representation is done in a different perspective like “Your friends died, game over!”.

The reason people call this novel dark is absolutely not because of MC. He’s just... you know not worthy of fitting that tag. The reason for calling this novel dark is everything else but MC. Yep you got it, he’s a kind, dense, still-no-so-overused type of MC.

This novel is about MC trying to survive in this harsh world, without any problems to his psyche, and... more>> always getting beaten up some too much OP enemies. yeah, those b*tches just surpass out-of-norm powers too.

In my opinion this novel is really good, readers will sometimes hate author for giving uneventful slice of life chapters, but worry not, readers will want to kill him just some chapters after slice of life gets over. I eventually smashed my I-phone.

This novel has finished it’s introductions around 150+ or something (hell yes that is one damn slow pace, but you won’t hate it), after that is somewhat side char intro’s and then from chapter 200 the story finally ensues. I like it really too much, however I don’t have time, and enough knowledge to read the Japanese raws. Neither do I have brain to waste trying to find the meanings of MTL.

In the end, the only thing I hate related to novel and not about novel is the Translator, who seems to be fighting a lot with his b*tchy RL. because of that I have to wait a lot, but the wait does bear it’s fruit.!!!!

I recommend everyone to read it and not hate it after just some chapters just because it got uneventful slice of life. That only runs for some chapters, so try to boggle down your urge to drop the novel and read till now, you will love it.

And guess wat, it has got yandere haraem, in which every girl would kill the other for kurono <<less
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Asf
Asf rated it
January 1, 2016
Status: --
Kuro no maou is one of my favorite japanese web novel out there..

The world have a similar aura to the middle/dark ages with the addition of magic powers.. It has the crusaders, witches, dark magic, demi-humans.. And much more.

There are many feelings that will engulf you along the way of the story..

... more>> The transition from a nice guy to the guy that can kill people are also within reason and it is done nicely. *Unlike some brutal xinxia MC*

I like it so much to the point of reading google translate of its raw. Lol <<less
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RenChao
RenChao rated it
January 18, 2024
Status: c545
This was my 2 week marathon of reading the novel from the part where manga left of.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some may say that there is too much "water", but I didn't find it annoying since I also have decent enough imagination to submerge myself into such details.

But there is one big problem I cannot overlook. This novel started in 2011, but not even a year has passed since Kurono ended up in Pandora. 13 years for less than a year of activity in the world! I don't know how... more>> this uncomfortable for me phenomenon is called, so the closest term I would go is "Blueballing".

I don't deny that there are many novels that become abandoned for various reasons, but this one is still breathing, somehow. That's impressive.

But still. Considering the pace that this story is going at, it becomes one of those novels that make you become afraid that you will die from old age before the novel comes to a proper end.

13 years... <<less
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HentMas
HentMas rated it
December 31, 2023
Status: --
I dropped this.

too slow

too edgy

... more>> too goreish

too self-absorved

and too predictable...

But this is all because of MY taste.

I don't enjoy reading about people suffering without any kind of redemption or a satisfying pay off, and the amount of suffering is way too much for what the payoff ends up being, and the redemption will be basically done till the end of the story which for me doesn't justify a journey of "pain".

I personally get "fatigued" of reading monologue after monologue of an MC that knows nothing, understands nothing, doesn't try to find out anything and is just "existing" (typical JP MC just dragged along by the plot, all reaction).

I simply didn't enjoy reading this, even if it's competent and well written, the pacing is all wonky (like all JP stories that do different monologue POVs)

It's a "drag" to read, and it's mostly "suffering" from the start.

The circumstances, worldbuilding, character progression and plot seem good enough.

But the focus and pacing make it a slog to read through... I grew tired and simply stopped reading reminding me to come back later but ultimately every time I see it in my reading list, I just can't muster the energy to read something so draining.

And I just want to point out something, "EDGY", that is, focusing on the pain and suffering of the characters because of "things happening" outside their control, doesn't equal "REALISTIC".

IT IS IMMERSIVE, I'll give it that, you get immersed in the feelings of the characters and the world and their circumstances, you "get" it, why they "feel" that way or this way or why they do so and such thing.

But the progression is waaaay too slow.

Reminds me quite a lot of Re:Zero and why I didn't enjoy reading it, but if Re:Zero is like... watching someone putting his hand in a blender to stop the blades because evil-world wants to put the hand of someone he "thinks" he likes in said blender, this is reading the mind of someone that is being forced to put his hand in a blender.

Maybe I just don't have the stomach to be reading suffering at every turn, the tone is too heavy for me.

It's very well written, let me say it again, it is incredibly immersive, but I don't want to "immerse" myself in pain, I'm not a masochist.

Maybe you'll enjoy it, give it a go. <<less
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Rancorner
Rancorner rated it
September 10, 2023
Status: c472
The novel has some new things like yandere heroines and some can call it a loser MC but in my opinion is better than an overpowered typical Isekai one, at least in this one every gain has some loss attached to it that makes it a bit more real
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Mikufanboy
Mikufanboy rated it
January 31, 2023
Status: c400
The novel starts off strong and promising, the storyline is mature and the protagonist is likeable. The world building is pretty well established and the characters acted in a way we'd expect without any bullshit. It's only towards the near cliff of the story that I felt worn out from reading.
Spoiler

Particularly in regards to how the yandere's the protag has accumulated over his story have all settled their differences, obtained ridiculous powers pretty quickly and there's hardly much to think about growth anymore for these characters.

[collapse]
Using the main villains as foil for growth or reassert the Yandere's need for protag D is all I can see from this novel at this point. I'd say the novel should end soon, but it's still going. Maybe there will be new conflict, but things tend to drag on so be sure to take breaks every now and then. A good novel.
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