Akari is a young girl about to attend university who moved back to her hometown to be with her grandpa, as her grandma Aki passed away. She’s assigned to work at the family’s convenience store with new part-timer Tamaki, but rather than work the usual daytime shift in the 24-hour store, they’re both to work at midnight. Of course Akari wonders why they have to work such a dead shift, which is when at exactly 12:00, the lights go out briefly and then pop back on. Three adorable looking penguins kappa walk into the store and buy some stuff. At the height of Akari’s confusion, the three kappa reveal who they are, and also reveal that the store’s not just a place for humans — it’s also for demons, who roam the night looking for beers, beds, and oil to steal!
…Appears Akari’s in for a crazy time! But first she’s got to get along with Tamaki, who’s not too pleased to be working with her. And she can transform into a cat!
Demon Convenience Store is the usual supernatural mixing mundane type of manga where creatures of the night, from the ox to a demon that loves forcing humans to stub their toe, do somewhat ordinary things. For this first volume, it’s more humor focused than anything dramatic. The most dramatic is the first chapter since it establishes Akari moving back home, working at the store, and then discovering her shift involves encounters with all sorts of weird demons.
She then finds out her co-worker Tamaki is a cat demon, but as it turns out, Tamaki has an emotional past with Akari’s grandmother that makes her believe only she needs to run the store, so Akari’s presence is unnecessary. You’d think she’d be a bit smarter than to attack the granddaughter of the store’s owner, but the connection with Aki was too hard to let go, which is why a heart-to-heart (and a pair of charms) turns out to be the cure to let these two get along.
The rest of the volume ends up involving the two in demon shenanigans, ranging from an abura-bo oil thief to one ox in love with a cow. While Akari continues learning about the demons that stop by the store, Tamaki only becomes weirdly obsessed with aliens. It doesn’t turn out to be a one-time thing either. There is something pleasant about the pace and framing of the pages as the two encounter the supernatural, but in terms of character growth, there’s not much change so far.
But as mentioned earlier, it’s going for a more humorous tale than anything serious, which does work in its favor since the stories can be quite chill. The art, particularly the faces, seemed a little off early on but as more demons are introduced we see more expression and more refinement from characters to some of the action. It certainly doesn’t detract from the work, and as there is a variety of stories so far, the art being consistent is very helpful.
Demon Convenience Store could stand to be a bit more wacky, but for now it’s certainly intriguing. While there’s work to be done, there’s still enough to like about Akari and Tamaki, and the idea of a convenience store for demons is certainly nice to read about. It’s all going to be a case of what type of stories are made that’s worth coming back for, and I’m interested in checking out what else could be in store. Worth a look if you’re in need of two characters providing goods for the supernatural.