beta
this was the manhwa that convinced me to make this fucking list, because it's not the typical ongoing trope of "im being forced into servitude" friendship because it feels like they genuinely respect him, but never for the right reasons because they all clearly feel conned into thinking he was a great guy every time he opens his mouth.
jinmu + his posse of overwhelmingly destructive children (ages 18 - 70, all inclusive).
i love how his lil slapstick cast of terribly OP supporters are actually in awe with him, despite every outsider (and even his inner circle ngl) are more or less more astonished by his shithead personality rather than his capabilities.
omg okay. it's kinda cute how MC's supporters are like slightly older than him, but they're like lil' brats. like idk. the age really makes it here bc it's like a middle schooler bullying around a bunch of high schoolers, and teenagers are the MEANEST breed of children, so seeing them play house together (via bonding over incredible acts of absolutely one-sided, obliterating violence) is really cute to me.
this is one of those stories where his subordinates/"friends" are found via genuine acts of kindness, whether or not the kindness was MC's intent in the first place. most of my stories are more or less "no we're following you because i'm terrified you're going to knit my intestines into leg warmers for this upcoming winter," but this is more or less mc literally is the weakest link without others from the start.
no.1 example of this list, ngl. except all his friendships are heavily built on misconceptions of MC being a sacrificial soul, as well as him being a pretty reasonable person in the sense that he doesn't outright provoke people, and by extension, better peoples' lives even if not initially for their sake. he has like. his lil' fanclub and they're all his friends. his lil harem of pretty girl and boy himbos.
great balance between earning loyalty through kindness and "friendship is magic" attitude, and forceful friendship through unrelenting and stalkerish persistence with absolute disregard for peoples' circumstances. love to see it.
they're the type to proclaim they're not friends, and then shamelessly and outright yell in the middle of the fight of how MC has changed their life via a really heavy ass whooping that somehow gave them the epiphany of shounen friendships and love.
when even the original MC of this story is confused as to how our current MC has gathered HIS set harem of OP himbos rather than him in this lifetime.
when every character technically revolves around MC. actually idk it's been a HOT minute since i've read this.
(ch 25) tbh she had loyal subordinates from the very start, and MC kinda just went "time to cement them with my badassery." MC really just takes shit into stride, alongside with the princess' entourage, which like, ig good for him.
The Return of the Crazy Demon