Manga Details
Yoshihiko Hayashi
Other works
This is their debut serialization. However, Hayashi had four one-shots prior to Mamayuyu:
- Cool David has some notes on these series
Lovely Runners High (2021, Jump GIGA)
Octokill (2021, Tezuka Award honourable mention)
Henohenomoheji & Stick Figure & Panty (2022, Shonen Jump+)
E ni Kaita Mochi wo Kaita Mochi (2022, Weekly Shonen Jump, Golden Future Cup entrant)
Publishing
Run Dates:
September 11th, 2023 to April 8th, 2024
Series it replaced
Fabricant 100 by Daisuke Enoshima (5 vols, flop, Shonen Flop episode 87)
Series that replaced it
Astro Royale by Ken Wakui (ongoing)
Series that started at the same time as it
Kagurabachi by Takeru Hokazono (2+ vols, meme, potential hit)
Two on Ice by Elck Itsumo (4 vols, flop)
Chapters/Volumes:
29 chapters/4 volumes (volumes 3&4 not out until August in Japan)
About the Manga
Plot
A long time ago, by which I mean about 20 years ago, there was a big war between demons and humans which ended when the hero Halohalo gave his life to unite the factions. In this world there is one hero and one demon king which are identified by a Sigil on their hands. The demon king, which is a gender neutral term, Mamama raised the hero Corleo like he was her own son. Corleo struggles to figure out what it means to be a hero in peacetime when a hero from another world, Evan All Green arrives. His war did not end peacefully but rather with his demon king, End, a giant lovecraftian monster, destroying everything. End is on their way here and Evan must destroy it, although his existence in this world is tearing rifts in the space time continuum. Evan shows Corleo Sigil sorcery, a power that heroes and demon kings can do, when he teleports them somewhere so they can spar. Then End shows up and Evan packs it into a little box before deciding to kill Corleo so he can be the only hero. However when End breaks out and goes to kill Evan Corleo jumps in the way and gets cut into various pieces. When Corleo comes to, he sees Evan healing him, giving his life force to bring him back. By giving him his life force, Evan gives Corleo his Sigil , which is special because it’s a mother Sigil which is a Sigil that activates at birth, and his has a bunch of powers like levitation, fire, and slicing things up like a dang samurai chop chop. Corleo meets Elysia who’s a cute hero with strong punches and falls in love with Corleo. They also meet Escaba, a one-eyed demon king who turns out to be an asshole working for the big bad. Thankfully though when he reveals himself, the best character Minerva shows up.
Minerva is a Demon King idol from a world where Idols are MMA fighters with the ability to make stars appear that throw off Sigil sorcerers’ focus. Just when they have Escaba on the ropes his boss Grisha appears and whisks everyone to a pocket dimension. He takes off his hat to reveal a tiny version of End, the demon lord from chapter one. Grisha wants to let Corleo’s Sigil grow stronger so he can feed it to End, who will in turn give him the power to rule the world. Another hero character: Ralfred shows up. Dining and dashing all over the place because in his world heroes eat for free. Ralfred agrees with Corleo and Elysia that Grisha must be defeated but he wants to kill demon lords at any cost because his princess was murdered by her demon lord brother who happens to be Escaba. He fights Minerva with his fire powers but after realizing she isn’t evil he eventually calms down and joins the good guys. However Grisha siccs various demon lords on the hero HQ to bring them down, including Kuptula who terrorized Elysia’s world. Kuptula has ice powers but thankfully Corleo just awakened fire powers that let them defeat her. Grisha says he can revive the dead and Kuptula wants him to bring her son back to life which is why she’s doing this. They defeat her and tie her up but Grisha manages to use End to eat her Sigil. Minerva lets herself be captured in order to end the conflict and kisses Corleo on the mouth and probably with tongue cuz she nasty like that before being taken.
They befriend Monika, a little 8-year old demon king with animal morphing powers who gets a crush on Corleo. Corleo, Elysia, and Monika then go to an amusement park where they meet Sadico, Monika’s hero from a world where the demon kings are all sacrificed when they reach 10 years old. Sadico is a girl in her 60’s who looks 20 because manga, and she can control ghosts. She summons the spirits of two dead heroes to fight Corleo so he can train. Not long after they get a call that Grisha’s base has been discovered.
The team goes in to attack, breaking off to fight various bad guys, as Corleo corners Grisha and saves Minerva who has thankfully returned to the series. Corleo goes into his mind palace and meets Halohalo who reveals that he deleted the memory of Sigil sorcery from everyone in this world so they couldn’t use it anymore. He tells Corleo to make up a cool name for his Sigil so he calls it Loyal Lionheart because he’s fucking lame. He goes inside End’s massive form to meet End’s true body. It turns out End is a little girl who was tortured to make her Sigil stronger, and wanted to see Evan again because he was the first person who was nice to her. Corleo realizes that he’s been dead since chapter one and has been brought back due to End’s own resurrection powers, meaning that when she dies he dies. He gives End what’s left of Evan’s power and falls as she disappears. Corleo wakes up in the hospital. Realizing that something is wrong because he should be dead he goes and finds Grisha who has fused with the remains of End’s powers. Everyone gathers together to defeat Grisha for good even though doing so will kill Corleo.
Characters
Corleo
Mc
Conflicted
Hero
Has the ability to have all the abilities or something
Elyssia wool pool
Hero
24
Ditzy
Doesn't know about tech
Minerva
Demon lord diva
I think her ability to force away attention is really cool
MMA fighter
Monika
Has animal powers
Talks in third person
End
Main villain
Just wants to be loved 😢
Why it Failed - Cool Jordan
The paneling definitely has a density that can make it a little hard to approach
Way too many characters
Making the first villain a demon lord is so lame
It just feels so coy about everything at the start you don’t know what really matters. You can tell this was written week to week
Did the mc forget about his mom she like never comes up
How did the mc fall in love with elyssia so fast? Its not like a crush
This really is just a mess of plot spaghetti where the author was kind of writing in the moment but not in a fun way
Fuck off with the training arcs
It really doesn’t know if it wants to make reincarnation a thing or not
What the fuck is that ending
What it Did Well - Cool David
I like it thee sense of melancholy of the mc and the modern setting
Having the big hero raised by the demon lord is a fun idea
I like it he cover art being snapshots of his childhood
I do like some of the characters , Minerva not giving a fuck about the situation is nice
Some of the powers are creative I just wish the mc used levitation better - see Lucifer and the biscuit hammer
Im a sucker for characters that have regen and abuse the fact in their fighting style
It has s
ome nice touches like how elyssia hates the rain but still went out to find monika or how heroes from the same tech era bond with each other
Gotta love some fun downtime stuff
The fact the MC has a limited number of shots to his ability reminds me of yyh
Chapter 26 has some dope imagery with the blank page and faces
Where it Could Have Gone
It would have benefited at the start with some more world building we really don't understand the world that well
It really needed some sort of thesis, this isn’t a story you can write weekly like the author did
Have corelo more a pacifist it would have made it more character driven
What if the mc was the demon lord and had to be raised by the hero and hes like the one good demon lord and has to worry about what really is his nature
I like the MC gaining new abilities but what if he had no initial abilities but he could call upon the former heroes
Does the art feel kinda fujimoto inspired y/n
What the fuck is with the demon who was anti torture and then said breaking both arms and legs multiple times is kinda going too easy
The author really likes playing with text boxes i was surprised when end says i wish i wasn't born the mc grabbed the speech bubble instead of the blindfold
Misc Thoughts - Cool David
Reminds me of stealth symphony
What’s with bad guys and hats?
Where did the random bonesaw come from?
Maxy Bee thoughts:
The series received a recommendation and gift art from Gege Akutami (Jujutsu Kaisen).
Despite not winning the Golden Future Cup in 2022, Yoshihiko Hayashi beat winner Shirokuma Shirosaki to serialisation. Shirosaki has still yet to start a series.
End is inspired by Yubel from Yu☆Gi☆Oh GX
Tucker’s question for the translator
Why was the decision made to not change the title when publishing the English version, since the "ma-ma" in the title gives a very weird first impression to readers without any knowledge in Japanese? Was this a publisher mandate?
Final Verdict
Community
Tucker: Darkest timeline’s coming for your ass
Maxybee: Waiting for the actual ending still
AuraPaladin: Terminal case of sudden harem syndrome
Balthasaurus: What's in a hero? Not much.
blahmoomoo: Focus on Mamama? No, all Yuyu
Chickenwarlord: Worst version of Into the Spiderverse
dackerson: Plot? Big Minus. Geography? Big Plus.
Diego The Phantom Seer: Endgame of into the flop verse
duderocks the earthchild stan: You dig on multiverses? Not anymore (in reference to this line from wish upon)
GenericMan: Mama yuyu but youyou benched mama
Glornak Ironspawn: Hold up I'm gonna exposition quick.
Isekai Sensei-Sama 🎙: Tone whiplash makes mama's neck hurt
jrpg astrologist: What's the polar opposite of closure?
Kermit The Grog: Yo, Minerva manga prequel when doh?
Kpt.Kluless: Mama, oooh, didn't mean to flop (in the style of bohemian rhapsody
LordAnubis, #1RedHoodFan/Mourner: Battle series? Surprise! It's a harem!
Luffy0321: Multiverse starring the least interesting hero
Meru (Commissions open!): Gloating Unhinged Narration Doesn't Actualice Masterplan
Portal man: Could have made Isekai Justice League
Quack.: Another Victim of fatality sloppy wrap-ups
Redblade: Avoids Depth in favor of Fridging!
Riel: I have every power, because protagonist.
Savia: Mama! Just killed a manga! YuyuooOooO!
Sbubby: Did the author have a plan???
Scott: Just followed the marvel multiverse trend
Spike: Hey, hero, wanna hear my plans?
Spook (Sir Skelington): Bro read Marry Sue and said bet
The Wolf The Wood The Trafalgar: Boring hero fights shonen's worst villian
Xylon: Still better battle-harem than Nue's Exorist.
David: every character everywhere all at once | the definition of a for effort
Jordan: The panels are coming to life
Flop or not
David: i really was rooting for this but its just a slog to read, read Spirit circle