Veltol Velvet Velsvalt, a returned ancient Demon Lord, leader of an Immortal Army, is a game streamer in the year 2099. Awakened 500 years after his defeat into a world that has merged with technology, Veltol's army and strength are much reduced, but his desire to rule is not. He will take on those who have betrayed him and be King again.

Demon Lord 2099 has story by Daigo Murasaki and art by Yutaka Sakurai. It is translated by Sergio Avila and lettered by Amethyst Xuan. Published by Yen Press (December 16, 2025.) Rated OT.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

When a book begins, “The planet of magical civilization, Alnaeth, and the planet of industrial civilization, Earth...fused in a cataclysm known as the Fantasion.” You just KNOW it will be good.

And it is good! Veltol has lost everything—his kingdom, his armies, much of his magic. His former chief retainer is not only now his implacable enemy, but is the reason his followers dwindle in number. But Veltol has one of his dark peers left, Machina. Machina has been loyal to him for the entire 500 years. With her help, Veltol will acclimate to this new, alien world, don the tracksuit of the neet, and take on a new age. Thus is born Veltol the livestreamer, who is gathering fame, money, and power by livestreaming. Along with Machina and Aethernet hacker, Takahashi, Veltol is building a new army…of viewers. Veltol's enthusiasm for regaining his power is fun, even if the situation he's in is very much not so. Sincerely, this is a brilliantly entertaining manga. Veltol may not understand the new world he's in, but he gets humans just fine and can manipulate them to build his power in ways that make perfect sense to those of us who have had haters online. All one has to do is remain standing, and one gains status. Veltol inflames hate and enjoys praise to gain power.

The way the story plays out is a tad predictable, but with “Velly” and his allies being so likable, and his enemies so very the opposite, there's only so many ways this all can end. As predictable as it all is, Veltol is so much fun that we love to see it. We're 100% with him as he tracks down the secret power that runs Tokyo and takes down his closest advisor with the help of new friends and old enemies.

This is a rollicking, fun yarn of a manga.

Rebecca Silverman
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If ever there was a time when stories about demon lords needed to be tinkered with, it would be…well, probably about five years ago, to be honest. There are other hoary genres and tropes that are presently inundating us that could use a refresh right now. But it's still never a bad thing to play with stale story beats, and Demon Lord 2099's manga definitely has fun with that. Rooted in the idea of a merger between Earth and a magically-inclined planet resulting in a sci fi world, the plot enjoys itself so much that it's almost impossible to not enjoy this at least a little.

The “almost” is something that may not bother other readers, but I found pretty tasteless. The new aethernet, a souped-up internet with AR capabilities, is a central part of the story. It was created by Marcus, a former henchman of the eponymous demon lord, and he powers it using something called a “furnace” that he puts “firewood” in. But the “firewood” is actually people, immortals from the magic world. It's a thinly-veiled metaphor, what with immortals being cultural minorities and Marcus shown as nothing less than utterly evil. The fact that society is so enmeshed with the aethernet means that it can't be totally destroyed (or so everyone keeps saying; I'm not convinced), which leaves a lot of very unpalatable options. Our demon lord hero chooses the least of the evils, but I'm just not comfortable with this plotline. There are plenty of ways to show that someone is evil without resorting to this sort of imagery.

That aside, the rest of the omnibus is a lot of fun. Demon Lord Veltol may have been locked out of the aethernet by a Marcus preparing for his inevitable return, but that barely stops him, because what he needs is people to have reactions to him to generate the “faith” that's the basis of his power. And what better way to do that than to become a livestreamer? Positive, negative, whatever – as long as people are thinking about him, he's only going to get stronger. And he has such a good time doing it, too! The man's enthusiasm is contagious, and that extends to other characters in the story, like his right-hand woman Machina, savvy hacker Takahashi, and Gram, the hero who defeated him five hundred years ago and is now having a crisis of faith. If anyone could solve all the world's problems with charisma alone, it would be Veltol.

While the art can get too busy for easy reading, especially during fight scenes, the translation makes the wise choice not to get too caught up in slang, ensuring this won't feel too dated in a year or so. I'm not sure how it compares to the original light novels, but that one potentially major caveat aside, this is a regular romp of a read.