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.
