Maoten is a visual novel I finished last October and it is easily one of the most memorable ones I have read in recent years. Developed by Candysoft and released in 2018, it left a surprisingly strong impression on me. The company has not released anything since 2022, which makes me a little worried that they may have closed down, but hopefully that is not the case.

The story follows Rakusaki Rentarou, who suddenly finds his quiet life thrown into chaos when the demon lord Carlene arrives on Earth. Without him realizing it, demons have been living in his hometown for the past ten years, and Carlene immediately takes a liking to him. This puts Rentarou in the unfortunate position of being asked by the government and various other factions to “take care of her” and make sure she does not accidentally start a war between Hell, Heaven, and Earth.

Carlene has no understanding of human norms and has a short fuse, which makes Rentarou’s daily life extremely difficult, even with the “help” of his childhood friend Rita Haruna and his classmates. I say “help” because Rita’s mischievous, carefree personality often ends up making the chaos even worse.

Among the other key characters is Jiyuuni Yuuri, a girl living in Rentarou’s house who acts like an older sister. She is actually an angel sent from Heaven to monitor Carlene and intervene if she becomes too dangerous. From the demon side, we have Nagaraya Shirohebi, a descendant of local demon settlers who is in charge of watching over Carlene outside of school and at home.

The governments of the world also keeps a close eye on the island. One of their agents is Brünhild Schwestern, a teacher at Rentarou’s school who speaks with the most hilariously fake English-teacher accent imaginable. She's a very good support character for the protagonist.

To make things even more complicated, Rentarou appears to be carrying something inside him that may eventually turn him into Garuda, one of the most powerful demons that was supposed to be purged years ago. This puts him squarely in the crosshairs of Yuuri and the angels.

This mix of demons, angels, government agents, and Rentarou’s questionable “future demon” status creates a constant chain of comedic and chaotic events. Various crises show up one after another, from assassins to rogue agents to angels mishandling dangerous relics and even absurd enemies like the Slime King.

Spoilers from here on.

The game has three main heroine routes as well as short side scenes for Shirohebi and Brünhild, and finally a true route that ties everything together.

Rita’s route focuses on Rentarou’s transformation into a demon and reveals the truth behind Rita’s identity. It ends on a bittersweet note, with Rita waiting for years for Rentarou to return from his journey after he changes into a demon.

Yuuri’s route dives into her past as a human child who knew Rentarou before ascending to angelhood. It also deals with her mother, who is now trying to eliminate Rentarou because he carries Garuda. This route is one of the most emotionally satisfying and has a genuinely touching happy ending.

Carlene’s route deals with the “demon king” subplot and reveals her connection to the God of Destruction sealed within her. It also provides a lot of hints about Heaven’s rules and their stance toward the existence of that god.

The true route wraps up all remaining mysteries and gives a full, complete happy ending for everyone. It even resolves Rita’s sad ending by having the Rentarou from the true route help the Rita-route Rentarou return to her, which was a really nice touch.

I had to pick one scene to show here as a video and I choose for this small segment between Rita and Yuuri that is sort of a recurring joke in various scenes. Yuuri seems to have strong liking of yuri-like content like manga and such (and changes personality quite a bit when drunk) and Rita is kind of scared she's going to steal her lips or...worse. 

All in all, I strongly recommend giving Maoten a try. It is a very solid visual novel with excellent character chemistry, fun chaos, and surprisingly heartfelt moments. The only real downside, if you can call it that, is how often outside forces meddle with the characters’ lives, but I suppose that is part of the charm.