Devilman

Devilman features Akira Fudo, a shy and timid teenager who has gone mountain climbing in the Himalayas with his father. While in the middle of the expedition, both father and son are killed in a tragic accident. Akira's body is found and possessed by the demon soldier Devilman, who uses his new human form as a disguise in order to fulfill his mission of causing chaos on Earth in order to pave the way for a demonic invasion of the planet.

Before his mission can begin in earnest, Devilman meets Akira's childhood friend Miki Makimura and quickly falls in love with her. Devilman resolves to protect Miki and humanity as a whole by battling against his fellow demons. Demon Tribe leader Zennon becomes greatly angered at Devilman's betrayal and is quick to send Devilman's former comrades to destroy him. The other demons soon learn that Miki is precious to Devilman and he must now work to protect her, as well as protect himself. Will the power of love be able to overcome that of true evil?

Fudou, Akira Main

Tanaka, Ryouichi Japanese

Devilman Main

Tanaka, Ryouichi Japanese

Makimura, Miki Supporting

Sakai, Sumie Japanese

Silene Supporting

Kitahama, Haruko Japanese

Psychogenie Supporting

Mutou, Reiko Japanese

Makimura, Tare Supporting

Yamamoto, Keiko Japanese

Zannin, Demon General Supporting

Masuoka, Hiroshi Japanese

Lala Supporting

Sawada, Kazuko Japanese

Zenon Supporting

Shibata, Hidekatsu Japanese

Faim Supporting

Masuyama, Eiko Japanese

Katsumata, Tomoharu Director

Shirato, Takeshi Episode Director, Animation Director

Ochiai, Masamune Episode Director

Tsuji, Masaki Script

Reviews

Jan 6, 2015

THEAnimeHERO

Recommended

Note: both the anime and manga are two completely different stories but as long as you bear this in mind, Devilman TV is an episodic series super hero series that can be very repetitive but manages to provide gruesome horror or other times some intentionally ridiculous entertainment.

The story begins rather unsettling as the main character Akira Fudo is killed by Devilman, thus he takes over his corpse and becomes Akira. So, in other words our main characters is actually Devilman (or Amon to be more specific with other Devilman material). Despite this key difference, Devilman falls in love with Miki and has sworn to ... protect her from the Demon Tribe. This leads to Devilman being branded a traitor where Demon Lord Xenon will send demons to kill Devilman. As you may have guessed, the series follows a formula where the beginning of the episode features the demon's murderous abilities which sets up the horror mood. Afterwards, Devilman has to fight him or her and usually ends the battle with a Devil Beam or a Devil Arrow.

A basic flaw of the show as a whole is the repetitive problems that it presents itself. As this Devilman is very much like a Tokusatsu series with Devilman turning into a giant and the demons usually arriving one at a time. While we all know it would make more sense to send everyone at once to get the job done, you have to watch this show knowing that it will play out like this. Of course this does hinder its story and instead relies on a fun factor which often led to some hilarious moments such as the iconic "Devil Jump!" . I think appreciating events such as that is what makes Devilman TV enjoyable.

What amazes me about this show is despite being aimed at a children audience, this is NOT a kid-friendly show. For its time and possibly even now, the series is too violent for any public broadcast with its constant use of human casualties, especially ones involving car crashes and airplanes. In a very Go Nagai fashion, many civilians aka extras are constantly killed adding to the dark tone of the series. A lot of demons are very over powered but certainly made their presence almost unforgettable due to their fearsome strength as some episodes are genuinely scary.

However, like any show there are some things that can't be ignored. One of my personal problems with Devilman TV is that the series may have been better is some battles lasted 2 episodes instead of a self-contained story. For example, a lot of the episode's time is spent on creating a terrifying atmosphere which leads to a few minutes of actual fighting. I don't mind short fights but it does get a bit annoying that a lot of the fights end very abruptly with Devilman struggling in a one sided match only to save his skin by using a Devil Beam (which you will hear a lot of.)

Basically, I had a lot of fun watching this version of Devilman but I can certainly see why people wouldn't like it, especially if they read the manga for it. The structure of Devilman TV is very similar to the other 70's Go Nagai series Cutey Honey & Mazinger Z due to their basic superhero plots. And very much like Cutey Honey, the series does end open-ended with Devilman never fighting Xenon or completely eradicating the Demon Tribe. However, I was really surprised to see Devilman gradually change throughout the series where he began as a despicable, violent person and by the end of the series he's an honest to heart good guy. The quality certainly shifts per episode but there's definitely something good to be found in this superhero anime. It's not a must watch series because its so good nor is it a show so bad its good; Devilman TV is the episodic journey of a devil whose becoming more and more human who vows to protect his love. As simple as it is, this type of series can only be enjoyed by a certain few who love tokatsu or just a monster of the week show in general. A recommendation that is inspired by Devilman but is better written is the series Hell Teacher Nube which offers more in terms of characterization and touching moments.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jun 5, 2021

halimede

Mixed Feelings

Not gonna lie, I've been into a lot of older anime these days and out of all of them, this is one of them that's somewhat tolerable (I think since it breaks the stereotype of the clean-cut, good-looking main male character. Nice to finally get some variety).
Also, maybe it appeals to the romantic in me, but I do find it kind of a cute concept that a demon goes out of his way to save humanity all for the sake of one woman.
The only thing I find super silly is the fact that he's like "I must defeat this evil demon lord and the rest ... of the Demon Tribe!"
"Hmm, did you say something?"
"...nope."
Or he basically morphs right in front of them and they're like "Did you just see Devilman??"
It's ridiculous to the point that it's just amusing.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 8, 2024

Silcaria

Not Recommended

Monster of the week tokusatsu series with no real plot or character progression, with almost every episodes being carbon copies of each other.

Nobody figures out who Devilman is. No one is proactive towards achieving anything. Devilman doesn't need to train to get stronger since he's just busted right out the gate. Character relations aren't worked on. etc, etc. The fact that Go Nagai worked on this with Toei and decided to go the exact same route a few years later with Great Mazinger is wild to me, especially when he worked on titles with better narrative structure in-between. But hey, whatever makes money, I ... guess.

For being a tokusatsu, the fights are a bore. Akira has a few attacks that he uses. Three are brawling moves, two more are powered up range attacks, and lastly, he has this one big finishing move that can pretty much one shot anyone called devil beam that he can use multiple times in a row. Now, here's the thing, 95% of all fight scenes are structured in a way to pad out time. Outside of maybe two or three encounters, where there's an in-story reason for why he can't just his devil beam attack immediately and call it a way, they all happen in way to last as long as possible in order to stretch the runtime. Instead of just seeing whoever he needs to defeat and blasting them to kingdom come, he'll kick them, chase them around, wrestle, punch them, and finally, after jerking off for six minutes, he'll use his devil beam to finish them off. The fact that it bothers to give a reason a few times as to why he couldn't just one shot them makes every other battles all the more insulting, as well as making every fight scenes super formulaic.

Despite all the characters starting off as completely unlikeable some of them do get better. The MC becomes less of an asshole. He doesn't grow, he just becomes less of a dick. The little kiddo, Tare, becomes more than just a comedic relief character that pisses his pants every time something happens. This is mainly due to him him getting a little girlfriend. There's also one character that gets introduced in the last quarter that I found to be the redeeming part of the entire thing that made finishing the series much more bearable.

Unfortunately, it has no conclusion or resolution to speak of. The last episode may as well be any other. The big bad still has a legion of demons at his disposable ready to go hunt Devilman. The series just kind of ends abruptly.

Production-wise, outside of the first one, there's maybe five or six other episodes that are nice to look at. The rest are average to below average in terms of art and animation. Sound design is also pretty average.

In the end, much like Great Mazinger, 1972 Devilman is a show that doesn't care or try to be anything more than an episodic monster of the week series. If you really want to watch Devilman, watch any other entry in the franchise.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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