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Devilman, well-known for its gory death scenes, actually has a pretty interesting concept behind it. Unfortunately, its execution doesn't live up to it. Considering the few amount of reviews about this, and none very detailed, I'm leaving this one here.

STORY (score: 6/10)
Divided into 5 volumes, with 4 chapters each, its plot can actually be seen in four different stages for better reviewing this trainwreck. Yes, in a series where the parts actually build up and pay off this is a wrong method, but that's not the case of a bipolar series like this. So the stages are: chapters 1-3, then 4-11, 12-19 and 20 alone.

Chapters ... 1-3 (score: 6/10)
It starts with a scene from ages past about demons roaming the land and a mystical being appearing and condensing them into a... something. Then it cuts off from that and goes to Akira.
Right at the start, you can see how characterization is dreadful, it shows just a stupid scene apparently trying to tell how Akira and Miki are extremelly cliché, then goes right into the story with Ryo. It presents what the story is gonna be all about, which is actually a fantastic idea. Demons are coming back after thousands of year buried in ice, even referencing Dante's Divine Comedy. Its all well explained in these first chapters what happened to them, how they are, what they're capable of, and what they intend.
Then Ryo tells Akira to merge with a demon to be able to fight them. Decent start, what could go wrong?

Chapters 4-11 (score: 1/10)
Trainwreck. After Akira becomes Devilman, it becomes episodic demon fighting, with lots of asspulled ridiculous powers that were never presented before (I mean, fighting with eyebrows? firing lightinings with them? are you kidding me?). Devilman will be fighting random demons that appear out of nowhere, with failed attempts at drama by introducing a new character and killing her off in the next pages, showing the flat love interest going through peril, and all that serves no purpose AT ALL to the story that's coming in the next stage, it's all pointless, absolutely. Why waste so much time with this? It does not provide any characterization, nor any plot development in the slightest.

Chapters 12-19 (score: 7/10)
THIS is where something finally happens. Remember how the synopsis is about saving humanity from demons? So, this is where they actually do something besides a few of them appearing out of nowhere to fight Devilman. I have to say, without spoiling, that this part has great strategizing and twists, it's really the best part of the story, but it still suffers from a few things:
1 - Pacing. It's all rushed, has timeskips and a few plot devices to try making things faster. Maybe if it hadn't wasted 8 chapters on nothing, the pacing could've been much better on this stage.
2 - Pointlessness. It introduces big demons and a sphere of light (it's possible to deduce what it is, could've been used greatly) that are forgotten later on.
3 - It fails to pass the message. It tries telling about the malice of humanity, but it lacks the drama necessary for it to be meaningful. Akira will be shedding a tear, but the reader won't feel a thing, because the characters are flat and don't feel human at all.

When you reach chapter 19, you'll probably be wondering "how the hell is this gonna end in 1 chapter?" There you go.

Chapter 20 (score: 2/10)
Were you expecting an epic final fight? A mindblowing conclusion? Well, think again. Not only it's extremelly rushed, it fails to explain some stuff that is going on. A sphere of light appears doing something that doesn't make sense, is it the same one that was presented earlier? And what is that in the background of the last page? Is it that same light? What is going on there? No answers.

And the last dialogue, that actually presents some relevant information (which is why I gave it a 2 instead of 1), also adds a new one that makes you wonder if the demons are retarded, because something they did thousands of years ago doesn't follow any logic.

Remember the beginning of the first chapter that showed that scene from ages past? What happened there is never explained too.


ART (score: 5/10)
The artwork is very inconsistent. You see, in the first chapter you'll be seeing the scene from ages past about the demons, and that's very well drawn.

But when it gets to Akira story, you see how shitty it gets. Character designs are all cartoonish, not fitting at all for a story about demons and gore, there's a lot of lazyness such as drawing floating heads to avoid drawing backgrounds and bodies.

Then why did I give it a score 5? Because sometimes it's awesome. In the 3rd stage of the story there are cities, explosions and stuff, and it's all detailed. So by balancing the shit parts with the good ones, it comes out a 5.

CHARACTER (score: 2/10)
Ryou turned out to be well written by the end, truly a good character, with past, goals, morals and development. Not a single one of the other characters is like that.

Akira is one-dimensional and inconsistent right at the start. Ryou says he's a good person with a kind heart - never given a second dimension to back that up - but then Akira will be going all "fuck yeah, I'll become Devilman and go on a rampage on those demons". Then he becomes violent because of the demon inside him, but later on he becomes reasonable again for no reason. Poorly developed, with no second dimension and inconsistent first dimension.

Miki is a cliché zero-dimensional character that doesn't do anything besides trying to be a love interest and make drama.

And the side characters? There's Miki's parents and brother, which are as flat as possible, and... Well, anybody else? The demons? Most get no characterization at all, and the ones who get are only hazy pasts and exist only as devices to fight Akira in the second stage of the story.

ENJOYMENT (score: 5/10)
I really, really wanted to like this manga. It had a fantastic concept, but as soon as I reached the second volume, it started to be a pain to continue reading. Thankfully chapters 12-19 saved this, or the enjoyment value would be around 2.