Devilman (Devilman: The Classic Collection)

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Alternative Titles

English: 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, Demons, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, Shounen, Super Power, Supernatural, Psychological

Authors: Nagai, Go (Story & Art)

Serialization: Shounen Magazine (Weekly)

Statistics

Score: 7.97¹ (scored by 14,461 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #755²

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

Popularity: #327

Members: 31,926

Favorites: 2,391

7.97

Ranked #755Popularity #327Members 31,926

MangaShounen Magazine (Weekly)Nagai, Go (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /5

Chapters: /53

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Synopsis

Demons exist and their power is beyond what humans can fathom. In fact they are so strong that humans do not stand a chance against them in a fight. The only thing strong enough to defeat a demon is another demon and it is through this logic that Ryo Asuka hatches the plan to have his good-hearted friend Akira Fudo possessed by a demon. If a person is of pure of heart then he might be able to control the demon that possesses him and thereby acquire power equal to a demon. After raising some hell in a club the plan works and Akira is possessed by the powerful demon known as Amon. Now Akira is mankind's sole champion of justice against the hidden demon menace that has plagued humanity since the dawn of time.

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Background

Devilman has been licensed in English as Devilman: The Classic Collection by Seven Seas Entertainment.

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Related Manga

Sequel:	Violence Jack, Devilman Lady
Spin-off:	Neo Devilman, Devilman vs Getter Robo, Silene-chan, Devilman Tai Yami no Teiou
Side story:	Amon: Devilman Mokushiroku, Shin Devilman
Alternative version:	Devilman G
Adaptation:	Devilman: Yochou Sirene-hen, Devilman: Crybaby, Devilman, Devilman: Tanjou-hen
Other:	Cyborg 009 VS Devilman: Breakdown, Bijo to Yajuu
Character:	Dynamic Heroes
Prequel:	Akuma Kishi

More characters
Characters

Asuka, Ryou

Main

Fudou, Akira

Main

Devilman

Main

Satan

Supporting

Makimura, Miki

Supporting

Silene

Supporting

Kawamoto, Mikiko

Supporting

Psychogenie

Supporting

Jinmen

Supporting

Makimura, Tare

Supporting

More reviewsReviews

Apr 11, 2015

53 of 53 chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

Dokubachi (All reviews)

78 people found this review helpful

Considered to be 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 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 it 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 which read more

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Aug 12, 2016

53 of 53 chapters read

Overall Rating: 4

SmashDaddy (All reviews)

39 people found this review helpful

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.

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Nov 5, 2017

53 of 53 chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

therubdown (All reviews)

23 people found this review helpful

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.

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Apr 29, 2016

53 of 53 chapters read

Overall Rating: 5

RabbytX (All reviews)

19 people found this review helpful

"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.

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