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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Devilman: The Classic Collection

Japanese: デビルマン

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 5

Chapters: 53

Status: Finished

Published: Jun 11, 1972 to Jun 24, 1973

Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, Supernatural

Themes: Mythology, Psychological, Super Power

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Magazine (Weekly)

Authors: Nagai, Go (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.03¹ (scored by 23,760 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #693²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #295

Members: 55,155

Favorites: 3,333

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Reviews

Filtered Results: 26 / 27

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Apr 11, 2015

Dokubachi

Recommended

Considered to be the author's most iconic work, Devilman has created certain standards for works to come after it and could be considered a pioneer in that respect. However, it is questionable how well can it cope with the tastes of today and not be cast aside as a mere superheroic work with horror elements.

One of the weakest and probably most prominent aspects is its artwork; which could repel readers immediately. However, there is more than meets the eye in this clunky and out-of-place cartoon-ish style. Emotional overtones simply ooze out of panels, while anatomical accuracy is sacrificed for the sake of distorted depictions ...

Oct 15, 2009

RogerZaraki

Recommended

Preliminary (20/53 chp)

What can I say? I love DEVILMAN!!!!

The story is epic! Demons lived on Earth many years ago, before being chased out by cavemen, God and the Angels, before Satan betrays them and saves several demons! Akira and Ryu two best friends decide to prevent the apocalypse to be caused by the demons! In that moment...both their lives change forever as Akira turns into DEVILMAN!!!

The series is filled with violence, gore, nudity, destruction and some disturbing images. The series is filled with great characters, awesome story lines, and some pretty incredible stuff!

What are ya waiting for? Go read DEVILMAN!!!!

Then check out its sequel...Jack...VIOLENCE JACK!!!

Nov 5, 2017

therubdown

Recommended

Set at an ever increasing, feverish pace, Devilman is a flawed masterpiece. I find this incredibly hard to rate, because it's simply all over the place. It's easily finished within three or four hours, it feels like a two films, one set in a reasonable setting, and the second in a dream.

The framework for universe is great. There are rules, they make enough sense to be believable, and there's an attempt to adhere to these rules. Simple enough. It mixes in a few genres, and what it attempts in the early chapters works. There's the familiar shounen ... school setting, a timid boy given powers who becomes more confident (though in Devilman's case, simply becomes rad over night), and he's given a clear goal to work with. Mystery is woven in, along with horror and the very occasional bit of humor, and I was hooked.

The art is great and only improves throughout, coupled with some fantastic panel flow that gives a pretty visceral sense of the action. There's some no holds barred frames scattered throughout the entire series that stick with me, along with one of the creepiest images I've ever seen in a horror manga. There's nothing to complain about here. It works, and it works well.

What I find the most interesting about Devilman is there's not a single part that doesn't have issues, yet it somehow works despite its parts. For instance, the characters almost don't matter. They're pretty stereotypical, and with only five volumes you never truly get a sense of who they are. Go Nagai didn't take time with this story, never really giving it a pace that makes sense. The first couple of chapters happen sequentially, but after that, time can be skipped in huge chunks with only a small bit of exposition later to explain how long it has been, if any exposition is given at all. Many times, details are dropped and seemingly forgotten, without any explanation that I'm aware of. Still, I don't care, because the cohesion is great.

The ending, which takes up pretty much the last two novels, is a whirlwind. I don't want to give too much away, so I'll be vague, but the tone and scope shift so much, it basically becomes another genre. Before I read Devilman or anything related to it, I'd already heard about the ending, which it's quite famous for, and understandably so.

Devilman simply knows what it is. Go Nagai had some concepts in mind, enough to string a narrative along to reach an end goal, and he did just that. The story has very few frills. It doesn't slow down to explore anything beyond the main point, and that is a bit sad to me. I would have liked to have seen more from the world he was building, for him to take some time to attach us to the characters and give it another edge to the punches he knows how to throw. Still, despite it's questionable pacing and character issues, it's easy to see the genius at work here, and ultimately, Devilman is a ballsy, weird, and fun ride.

Jun 28, 2013

Fenryr19

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (53/53 chp)

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 ...

Aug 12, 2016

DeeWatchesAnime

Not Recommended

This manga is an experience. Go Nagai experiments with genres, style and tone ultimately creating a story that is incoherent, full of nonsensical plot twists that culminate in a truly bizarre anti-climax ending. Amidst all the chaos, you may find elements you enjoy, but they are likely to be scarce as the manga has no focus whatsoever.

Devilman starts as an origin story for the eponymous character, only far more disturbing than your typical western comic book. This is typical of Go Nagai's work. There's plenty of violence, gore and rape from the beginning. This is in stark contrast to the art style, depicting the ... human characters as if they're in a newspaper comic strip like Peanuts or Archie Comics. At the beginning, Devilman even has a minor conflict against some school bullies, in the same volume where demons murder a room of people for no reason.

The first arc largely focuses on Devilman keeping his secret identity and saving his would-be love interest from the demons, making use of one time powers such as eyebrow razors that are never seen again in any media. The early part of the manga has some promise, but the tone is completely inconsistent. Most of the time it's fairly lighthearted and Devilman is a normal high school student, but there's always a sense that the plot will go off the rails.

Eventually it does, rather spectacularly. This is what brings us to the next arc of Devilman and the best one in my opinion, the one shot villains, comprising only a few chapters of the entire manga. This is where possibly the best Devilman character, Jinmen, appears and has an amazingly dark, disgusting segment and is definitely worth a look. He would go on to become one of the most featured characters in the franchise and his entire section is excellent, barring maybe the finale of the fight which inserts a moral choice in place of a logical conclusion.

The fights in this manga tend to not be satisfying as Go Nagai will pull a new power for Devilman out of nowhere for him to win. The villains, besides Jinmen and Sirene, tend to be as undeveloped. The same goes for the main characters who largely exist as plot devices or symbols to be subverted, in place of good writing. It's a shame that Jinmen did not become the basis for a slew of one shots, as this whole arc comes to an abrupt stop to make way for build up into the ultimate anti-climax. The story veers off in so many directions it leaves no room for characterization.

Up until this point, Devilman has largely not faced any conflict he can't overcome by brute force and sheer dumb luck. It is now that the writer decides that he wants to make a political story like X-Men where the demons are a symbol for downtrodden people, or something. This is the point of no return where nothing begins to make sense. The story is effectively crumpled up and thrown in the garbage to make way for a massive plot twist. Everything that happened is completely meaningless and the final chapter in particular comes out of nowhere. It gets so abstract I had to read online to understand what the last pages are showing, as it's never explained.

Overall, this manga might be worth a read to form your own opinion. I read it in a day, and I can't say it wasn't captivating, but left me feeling very disappointed. Go Nagai would go on to make other mangas that while not as experimental and acclaimed, were far more coherent and focused properly on either the violence (Violence Jack) or experimental plot (Devilman Lady). To properly enjoy them it's a requirement to at least know the Devilman story. However if you're coming in to the original Devilman expecting a deep plot, good characters and art that isn't stuck in the 70s, I doubt you'll feel satisfied.

Apr 29, 2016

RabbytX

Mixed Feelings

"Beware that, when cutting onions, you yourself do not get cut... for when you gaze long into the onion. The onion will make you cry like a bitch."
-Friedrich Nietzsche while cutting onions.

Through the years of reading manga you accumulate experience that will probably lead you in despising generic, plot holed and genuinely boring stories that were once to your preference. You move on to something you think is more appropriate for the mileage you got from reading such stories. You want stories that are perfectly coherent to the narrative, you want flawed human beings, you want stories that you can look back at and think ... that they were not completely shit. But once in a while there are stories that work the complete opposite. Such mangas are the ones that Go Nagai writes.
Go Nagai is a legend in the business as much as Rumiko Takahashi, Moto Hagio and many more of those who shaped the industry as we know it today. He is mostly known for inventing two genres, that being the ecchi and super robot genre respectively. And while those are big innovations at the time, I think that the stamp of Nagai is the high brutality that is involved in a lot of his works. Among them the best and most known one is Devilman. Shocking the readers at the time of its publication and somehow pulling it off to this day, it is to many regarded as a classic and it has inspired many popular works such as Parasyte, Berserk and many more. But there is more to it than just being a work of inspiration as it represents Go Nagai himself quite well.
What do I mean? While pioneering the manga world, you quickly notice that contrary to his famous colleagues, he isn’t regarded as an iconic writer. In fact he is known for doing a lot of shitty series and even those that are regarded as his masterpieces are genuinely shit. His stories are so heavily plot holed, they are not subtle at all, and his characters are bat shit insane. But there needs to be a reason to why people regard his works as classics. Not because of historical value but rather, and I was pretty shocked myself, they are a ton of fun to read. Especially Devilman which is as much a train wreck as Nagais carrier itself. Now that we cleared the context in regards to Devilman, let us tackle the actual characters and story.

The story is of epic proportions but not initially. We start of by meeting the main character Fudou Akira who lends a helping hand to his friend Ryou Asuka. But quickly complications occur. As we have seen from the first chapter, demons exist in this world, and our main character quickly becomes aware of that. Anyway, demons have reemerged from their slumber and are out to conquer the world, and now it is to our protagonist to face evil by becoming one of them as well, as he becomes Devilman. From than on we have a monster of the week story that while not per se bad, it is not as entertaining as the later parts. And now if you lasted this long you are going to get a payoff. The pay off is a crude, brutal, and probably one of the better anti-war stories I have read on shear impact alone. As it is a story about who the real monsters are. It is about humanity and the loss of humanity. The characters are quite hard to pin-point as they are not human at all and then again they are. Why? Because they really are not so well characterized nor developed to call them human. They are rather shallowly written and that certainly isn’t a good thing. But they can be looked more as symbols, as hollow containers where we can project our humanity into them, or have we lost it as well through reading this story? The demons on the other hand are not developed in a particular way either, besides a certain character who one could say is the star of this work. The manga in itself is as mentioned before really badly written. Nagai introduced elements into the story that later on don’t make any sense as either they are regarded as non existent or they are just disregarded as not important. Which creates a lot of problems as we move on and screech our heads and think what happened with that part of the story? Additionally it has pacing problems as there are a lot of times you ask yourself why particular scenes are dragged out and why some are skipped through. We have plot conveniences as characters either win or loss not through their ability but rather because Nagai pulled something out of his arss. I have to mention the ending as well, since quite a bunch don’t like it at all. I think it is perfect for what the author tried to convey with this manga. People disregard it as not well done because of the way it was paced; I think it worked very well because of that very aspect, as the ending would not be as impact full as it was if it was shown in a conventional way. Moving on to the art.

As far as I have read, and that is not really much in regards to his other works, they usually start with passable art to attract attention. But as you move on you get what the art of Nagai is about. Honestly, it is pretty bad, especially if you are not familiar to the cartoon-ish side of manga in that time. Anyway, as you move on it improves in various ways but it never does so in a big way. Although you get used to it, and I personally got attached to the style as I checked other Devilman related work that aesthetically are more pleasing than the original, but I just couldn’t get attached to the artwork as I did in this installment.

And finally we arrived to the end of this review. In all honesty, Devilman is a work I expected nothing of, and at the end I got so much. It is a manga about the loss of humanity but it actually did something different for me, as it restored faith in my own humanity, for I have been an elitist prick who couldn’t enjoy anything as Devilman without tearing it a new one. This manga is one who a lot of people will not enjoy for many reasons, but if you stick with it for a while and find yourself get into it, you will certainly have a fun time.

Jul 22, 2021

inDit

Recommended

Fear.

Fear is a natural defensive mechanism that has been bastardized by our incredible intellect to become our greatest enemy, turning us against ourselves and others.

What was a device to protect our physical self has expanded to protect our psychological self as well with the protection of our ego now playing the greatest role. This causes us to lie, to cheat, to bully, to placate, to hide ourselves, to accept lies, to ignore truths, to dish out shit and take shit, to do so many bizarre and negative things in life. The fear of humiliation, the fear of not fitting in, the fear of being true ...

Aug 23, 2012

tatabox

Recommended

Preliminary (20/53 chp)

Well, i just finished reading Devilman and I'm quite intrigued with Nagai. I had never read anything by him, but as soon as I learned that he's one of those authors that (re)defined several manga genres, I decided to read him, starting with Devilman.

This manga is about a war between humans and demons. In Devilman these demons were the dominanting species living on earth before humans. They are suddently trapped in ice during an ice age, without demons to prey on humans, humanity is able to develop into current society. Devilman's plot starts when demons are discovered to be alive in the ice, and start ...

Nov 8, 2018

felipefelix

Recommended

I'm going to start this review by writing the story behind my motivations on getting to read Devilman's in the first place. I knew Devilman already. It is a very famous character and the image I had about him in my mind was that goofy demon in underwear. That image of him was something that distanced me from the series for years! However, Netflix started promoting this new series called Devilman Crybaby and it seemed to have interesting visuals. Combining these with some great opinions from my Japanese friends I decided to give it a try BUT I knew that Crybaby had to have some ...

Apr 14, 2023

flufferpupper

Recommended

Devilman is one of the most important and compelling manga of all time and it is absolutely imperative that everyone reads it at some point. It has undeniable flaws, to the point that the story feels laughably silly at times, but this is part of Devilman's charm. Beyond its goofy exterior lies a beautiful and thoughtful story about the nature of humanity and the apocalypse.

Devilman is much more plot driven than character driven, illustrated by its small cast of characters. First is our protagonist, Devilman, a.k.a. Akira Fudou, a powerful half-demon with a human heart who wishes to protect humanity from the oncoming demon invasion. ...

Jan 12, 2018

Gundroog

Recommended

Devilman at its most basic is an action horror manga, and not a particularly tasteful one cause Nagai seems to have been more interested in how far he can take things rather than how well can he do it. There is a lot of over the top violence in this, characters get their limbs torn off, they get cut in half, heads get decapitated and at the same time Nagai with in some sex jokes and random nudity. Despite the attempts at being shocking, in the year of 2000 and 18 it's anything but. Since the 70s there have been so many movies, comics and ... video games that are filled with over the top violence and gore that when you see the stuff that goes on in Devilman it's hardly impressive. The simplistic art style doesn't help it cause it's too cartoony to take anything seriously. It reminds me of Leiji Matsumoto and his characters straight out of a gag manga trying to look all sad and depressed. It just looks dumb and silly most of the time. I find it harder to empathize with the characters in what would otherwise be a very grim and depressing situation when they look like caricatures more than anything. On occasion the manga has some quite cool, dynamic and emotional panels and spreads that look quite memorable but otherwise it's pretty sloppy with a lot of nearly pitch black panels and scarce drawings.

The art style though is not the only reason that keeps the manga from being all that emotionally impactful as majority of it lies in the writing. For the time it came out the idea of Devilman was fresh and unique, in a way such a story is still rare cause we don't often get an anti-war message that condemns both sides and instead of doing the part where everything is spelled out it takes things to the absolute extreme and makes you watch what it leads to instead of looking away. That's a large chunk of the reason I gave it a 7, that and the pacing and some humor occasionally. That's about it for the good things I had to say about the story, the rest of it is rather garbage. To start off the characters are awful, even Ryo and Akira are barely defined so watching them do anything is boring, at least Ryo's craziness from time to time can be entertaining. With main characters being wet sponges you can probably imagine how good the side characters are. For a manga that tries to be shocking you need characters the audience would care about, you can't just shove a little girl we know nothing about into the story and have her do nothing for two pages and then she's dead and it's a very dramatic and sad moment that this girl is dead at such a young age. Why even bother trying to set it up at that point. This applies to any character, even Miki is a nobody, go ahead and try to describe who she is as a person, I tried and all I can come up with is that she's a tomboy who's into confident, domineering men yet she's bizarrely important for the plot and probably single most "impactful" moment of the manga relies on you caring about her and her relationship with Akira than never even really happened.

Overall, if you don't look at it too closely, it's just a short, fun schlock manga that to this day has some bold plot points that's probably worth a read but it's no masterpiece and it's not as impactful or dramatic as it tries to be

Feb 11, 2021

BropixWuff

Not Recommended

Devilman is a relatively short horror manga written in the 70s by Go Nagai. It was the subject of heavy controversy due to the violence and dark themes within it for its time.

The manga is an important landmark in manga history. Many creators of popular franchises cited Devilman as one of their main sources of inspiration. Series like Berserk, Parasyte, Bastard!!, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and potentially more would not exist without Devilman.

I was curious about watching the anime adaption, Devilman Crybaby, but I first wanted to read through the original manga. Despite the age I tried to not let it discourage me, it would be ... unfair to dismiss anything and calling it dated just because it happens to be an old work.

However, Devilman is a truly dated piece of art, with its quality having greatly diminished throughout the years.

Devilman tells the story of the main character Akira Fudo fusing with a demon, while keeping his human heart and becoming "devilman", so that he can help humanity defeat the demons.
While the story is boring at the start it does have a good twist and an unexpecting ending.

The art quality is not very good, and the style is TOO cartoony, it feels out of place considering the story and the themes that are tackled within it. The action scenes are passable, and the quality of the environments seem to be Nagai's strength. However, the characters look incredibly lifeless, plain, and end up just looking like Ken dolls.

The manga has several dated writing techniques.

Volume 1: more than 70% is a boring exposition, consisting of the main character Akira listening to Ryo’s explanation about demons. This leads to some unnatural and fictional like dialog between the two characters. Ryo speaking as if he was reading a Wiki, then introducing a “genius” plan consisting of fusing Akira with a demon, while Akira’s wimpy personality evolving into a “let’s do it” attitude almost immediately.

While most authors would cleverly add these bits of information throughout the story, Devilman just throws it all out, most of this information is literally useless. Instead of wasting pages for this boring and overly long exposition, the author should have drawn the final battle in Volume 5.

Volume 2 is a generic and boring fight, between Akira and a female demon.
Later, in Volume 3, they introduce a loli child character out of the blue, she is written as an “important person” to the main character randomly. Despite her not existing until the page you turn to, then gets murdered less than 15 pages later.

Volumes 4 & 5, takes a twist, turning from a generic superhero story about fighting demons to Armageddon of humanity. I did enjoy reading through Volumes 4 & 5, but still suffer from meh art, bad dialog, and a skipped final battle.

Overall Devilman when it was released was ambitious and important for the time, inspiring manga creators to make more mature and darker stories, however now it is a dated piece of history.

Execution, is the thing the manga is lacking at, but you know what is executed well? The great anime adaption Devilman Crybaby.
The anime adaption greatly animated, every change they made was for the better. If you wish to try Devilman, just watch the anime Devilman Crybaby.

Dec 28, 2013

Imperade

Recommended

Preliminary (20/53 chp)

It's very easy to be turned off to Go Nagai's 1972 work titled Devilman, as it is likely that most people who will ever end up hearing about Devilman will be watching it any form but it's original manga presentation. If I were reviewing any of the different translations of Devilman to anime or OVA, it would be undoubtedly a harsh review - even if I still relatively enjoy those works for their quirkiness and inadequacies. However, the charm of Devilman becomes nearly completely lost in it's other forms, as it's positives only truly become apparent and shine in it's manga form.

One has to ... keep in mind that Devilman is in no sense a perfect manga, especially by today's standards. Don't expect a manga made in 1972 to be able to somehow compete alongside the manga of today, because it just won't. However, from a historical perspective, Devilman (and really all of Go Nagai's works from this period) are intensely influential and groundbreaking in their creation of niche manga genres. Devilman's appeal really comes primarily in two forms: The influential, and the thematic. Reading Devilman after reading so many clearly influenced works, generates an odd feeling of nostalgia for something I've never read before - a truly interesting experience that keeps occurring as I now attempt to rummage through Go Nagai's classics.

It isn't simple enough to say a manga like Berserk was influenced by Devilman, as it's far more complicated then that. Devilman itself is a product of several factors: mythology/religion, modern human war, and man itself. The whole narrative of Devilman is swallowed by the mythology and interpretations of Satan, God, Angels, and Demons. There is a charm to a piece like this that attempts to practically insert itself into the canon of such a well-known and already constructed mythology - Devilman is basically a potential ending branch of these tales it bases itself from. This isn't unique to Devilman, surely, but the manner in which it does this is quite in-depth for such an early manga, and still keeps my interest. While one can still get a mild sense of this in the OVAs, the depth by which Go Nagai plunges into these biblical references just doesn't become felt at all. The story may feel rushed or cheap to some by the end, by I find it actually incredibly entertaining and consistent with the theme of the work. The experience isn't hindered by it's age either, if not further defined and interesting, as it's thematic discussion on the nature of humankind remains forever relevant.

The art by today's standard is rather hit or miss, as many of the character designs either come off as annoying or missing detail. It's not as bad as some chapters of Hunter x Hunter, luckily, but it rarely comes gloss to touching the detail of panels found in Berserk. I understand that's a pretty vague and huge range, but I would personally put Devilman a bit closer to Berserk for it's attempts at drawing just morbid demon designs (One of my favorite part of any mangas, to be honest) The art gets better as it goes along, at least in my opinion, especially in the last two volumes. Some characters just don't work for, and bother me every-time I have to look at them. Ryo's head and hair just NEVER seem to look decent in ANY of the panels Nagai makes, which is practically the only thing that is remedied in the OVAs.

Discussion and pondering about Go Nagai's works and their potential influences is endlessly entertaining to me, and it empowers Devilman with greater character even now. Still, even for it's time, I find Devilman to be a great first attempt at a future age of violent, controversial, and unorthodox manga. It may have ended abruptly, but the echos of it's efforts likely still ring true through many manga to this day.

Apr 9, 2023

jsc315

Mixed Feelings

I absolutely love the 80s OVA’s as well as Devilman: Crybaby. Both are fantastic in their own ways, but I had never read the manga.

At first my impressions were not great. Early on the art is rather basic and very flat to the point it’s very unappealing. Even for manga from the early 70’s the art is just a bit jarring. It was a bit of a chore to get through the first chapter and honestly it’s poorly paced and a bit disconnected with the plot and pacing. By the second chapter things become a bit more clear and more coherent, but still a ...

Feb 19, 2018

chubar

Mixed Feelings

When I first started to read this manga, I didn’t expect much other than lots and lots of imagery of tits and naked women. Oh yeah, and apocalyptic imagery and boy, I was not disappointed.

I’ll admit that this manga was way out of my usual comfort zone – especially with how American politics being the way they are but it did give me some insight to what the general mood was like during the 1980s. You see, the Cold War didn’t just affect the United States and the Soviet Union when it was still around – everyone in the world was scared about nuclear ... fallout and potential for World War 3. I would imagine that countries affected by World War 2 outside of the United States felt extremely nervous about that.

There’s more of a focus on the destruction of the world than it is between the relationships between the characters. As a matter of fact, I was surprised to learn that Ryo had fallen in love with Akira or that Miki and Akira had an actual relationship beyond “oh, he’s staying with me until my parents come back”.
If you were looking for any meaningful relationship between any of the characters in the original iteration of the Devilman manga, you’re not going to find it here. Instead, what you’re going to find is someone’s fears of another war happening – only with nukes and demons. Basically, war is bad and that we’re all going to die.

Go Nagai wanted to try something different from his usual gag manga and ended up inspiring more people than he probably thought otherwise. The storyline is a bit messy to follow since, again, he doesn’t put the focus on the relationships between the characters but rather on the destruction of the world and the decline of humans’ humanity.

The biggest problem I have is how rushed the fights were. To be fair, this is only five volumes and with his focus primarily being about the apocalypse and the fight between good versus evil, there were going to be some things that are left on the cutting room floor. There was one fight that sort of came out of nowhere with how detailed the relationships between the demons were – all we knew was that they were after Akira to kill him and to allow the demons take over the world in peace, so to speak.

Would I recommend this to other fujoshi?

Probably not. The relationship between Ryo and Akira isn’t that deep other than the meme pictures that were floating around on social media. I was surprised to find out that Ryo had fallen in love with him, as I’ve mentioned, along with the fact that Ryo’s actually supposed to be dead and then the betrayal Ryo did for… some reason I wasn’t clear on.

If you’re a fujoshi looking for something spicy in between the death and apocalypse, you probably won’t find it in this iteration. However, if the hopeless apocalypse is something that interests you, with how America politics are going these days again, then this is certainly for you – I just hope you’re able to deal with the titties and vagina demons easier than I could. I get that Go Nagai is a ‘legend’ among enthusiasts, especially ecchi enthusiasts, but certainly, this manga isn’t for me.

What I would say though is that this manga managed to inspire works such as Berserk, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and many, many more. This manga certainly is more inspirational for other reasons but Boy’s Love is not one of them. This is a pass for other fujoshis but, otherwise, it’s a good read. It just isn’t for me.

Feb 17, 2021

Eatpeener1234

Mixed Feelings

I wondered, for a while, why Devilman had never had a fully accurate adaptation. There was the original show, that essentially had nothing to do with the manga because it was produced early in the manga's run and had to make up its own material. The OVA was fairly accurate, but it stopped at the fight with Sirene. Crybaby hit many of the manga's beats, but ultimately updated many aspects and changed many others. And then I read Devilman, and I understood. Such a seminal work, one that inspired so many other, whose influence can still be felt to this day, is quite flawed. Devilman ...

Aug 17, 2022

Protocultured

Recommended

With a franchise as big and as long lasting (50 years!) as Go Nagai's Devilman, the usual questions of why and how the series got so popular are omnipresent, especially to a western audience who doesn't see it's impact in the same way that they do franchises like Dragon Ball or Evangelion. Devilman is, in fact, a series that doesn't need it's future legacy as a crutch.

What still stands out after 50 years of Devilman is how angry it is. Not it's edginess or it's violence (though there's plenty of both), but how it's brisk pace and selective narrative at points feel like more ... like a screed - unfocused rage at first, and later on a damnnation of mankind as a whole. It's a deeply unhappy story where, as the stakes rise, so does abject suffering and inhumanity. Both main characters Akira and Ryo's involvement in fighting demons very quickly morphs their well-mannered selves into irritable husks who are constantly trying to quash the next demon-fueled existential threat. Humanity is shown as paranoid, easily influenced, quick to anger, and generally bigoted. 50 years later, it's as palpable as ever.

Something that may throw people off is very minimal context to the world around Devilman - the world shifts multiple times with a single line of exposition, concepts and characters are introduced and concluded with very little context surrounding them and characters will make seemingly huge plans that are often executed in between chapters. One major character development is so quickly brushed over that it almost makes me question it's inclusion at all, especially how little it is utilized afterwards. In the grand scheme I'd argue it mostly works to Devilman's benefit as a bitter, unrelenting story - but undoubtedly this is the result of a story that was clearly serialized with broader ideas in mind at the start.

You can't mention Devilman without mentioning the extreme amounts of gore. The demons that Akira fights are grotesque, screaming abominations with the ability to combine into one another to unsettling results. The female form is often used in particular to create some fairly disturbing walking body horror (read: boobies with gaping maws). Perhaps more defining to Devilman is the gore - any devil actually killed is given an often fiery, always gruesome death - be it torn in half, limbs ripped off, or squashed, every demon Akira kills feels like an immensely visceral victory. This of course, pales in comparison to the human butchering throughout the series, which, without going into too much detail, is more graphic and at points genuine body horror. It isn't all about the grotesque of course - the grander, biblical-scale creation and destruction present throughout the series (especially the opening chapters) are in equal measure devastating and beautiful.

This review being as short as it is is a testament to the burst of rage that Devilman is as a whole - at a lean five volumes composed of about five chapters each, there's very little breathing room. While it may have benefited from a longer story with more worldbuilding and character development, as it stands it feels oddly personal, as if Go Nagai was reflecting on what he perceived as the inherent folly of human nature. It's a hard story not to recommend given how succinct it all is - if you're okay with going to some very dark places.

Mar 6, 2022

giffica

Recommended

The strength of Go Nagai's creativity shines all throughout Devilman. From the interesting Devil designs, to the well executed portrayal of action Devilman is a riveting experience from start to finish, with well written characters, and an exciting trip leading into an increasingly crescendo-ing storyline. Far more consistent than Demonlord Dante, which, I should note, is my least favorite manga of all time, Devilman puts together the threads that Go Nagai attempted to spin in Dante, but failed to execute with any clarity. With this work, Nagai stays far more constrained in a Judeo-Christian framework, helping to reinforce the narrative strength that is lost in ...

Jan 29, 2021

EggheadLuna

Recommended

Despite using "devil" in the prefix of the name and the "-man" suffix, this manga is not about Satanism, nor is it about superheroes! The generic moniker is used on the cover of a story that is a classic tale of good versus evil, right versus wrong, it also personifies the outlook of Japanese citizens, after their loss in World War II. Think about the battle with Silene as an example of wartime commentary, and boy, is it a hard-hitter! Devilman (1972) is a story that you'll be thinking about for years!

※Bonus: The hulking omnibus of Devilman's hardcover edition, distributed by Seven Seas, is gorgeous ...

Mar 31, 2022

TheStupidWolf

Recommended

Devilman, I'll say it right away, is not a manga for everyone, the writing and the scripts are flawed, unripe, outdated and can easily throw you off if you are used to modern works. Personally, once I got used to the type of writing and to read between the lines, the story became more fluid.

In 1972 during a period of enormous political tensions, between the black struggle for civil rights in the United States and the Vietnam War which was now at its peak, in a Japan that knows the consequences of war all too well, Devilman comes to life.

What Go Nagai does, that had ...