is the title of a popular manga and anime created by Go Nagai, as well as the name of the main character of the manga and anime. Devilman began as a manga in Kodansha's Shōnen Magazine and a 39-episode anime TV series in 1972, and has since spawned numerous other anime, manga and films.

Series background

Devilman evolved from Go Nagai's previous manga, Demon Lord Dante, after Toei Animation approached Go about turning Dante into a television series. The producers wanted certain elements toned down, and a more human-like anti-hero created. Devilman was born as a result of this; Go Nagai worked on the anime's scenario along with Masaki Tsuji, a well-known anime scenario writer and a highly successful and regarded novelist of several mystery fictions.

Along with the television series, Devilman was also produced as a serialized manga in Shukan Shōnen Magazine over 53 issues beginning in 1972. Go Nagai designed the manga to be more horror-like and mature than the anime version. It was later reprinted in a five-volume series, and has enjoyed over a dozen reprints and in five different languages. The manga's extreme violence and complex story line made it an instant hit.

Storyline

[SPOILERS]

A long time ago, the Earth was ruled by demons. The demons constantly fought each other for survival, but soon found themselves fighting a new race of beings: The first humans. The demons then became imprisoned in ice after a great cataclysm. They would remain there until the ice melted, after which it was said Satan would rise and lead them in Armageddon. That time has come in Go Nagai's Devilman.

Devilman is about a teenager named Akira Fudo. At first, Akira is very modest and gentle, avoiding conflict. When his parents are lost on a business trip in the Antarctic (or the Arctic), Akira goes to stay with his childhood friend Miki Makimura; both soon form a close relationship as the story progresses. Miki, a tough, smart, self-sufficient girl, loves Akira but wishes that he would stand up for himself when he gets pushed around, and is frustrated by his lack of backbone. She often has to defend herself from bullies even when Akira is with her; in the OVA, she saves Akira from a gang of bullies who are threatening him. (In the manga, Ryo Asuka rescues Akira and Miki by pulling a gun on the bullies to frighten them off.)

One day, Akira's best friend, Ryo Asuka, asks a favor and completely changes Akira's life. Ryo's father had discovered the existence of demons when he found a mask during an excavation of the ruins of an ancient Mayan temple. This mask turned out to be a fossilized demon skull, which showed whomever wore it what the world was like when demons ruled over it. Ryo shows Akira this and informs him about the demons' revival. Akira then sees Ryo's plan: "To fight a demon, one must become a demon."

Demons have the ability to possess and control humans. However, Ryo believes that people like Akira may be able to harness a demon's powers when possessed, due to the fact that Akira has a pure heart. Ryo takes his friend to a nightclub and picks a fight to draw demonic attention to the club. His ploy succeeds: Demons possess the clubbers and threaten Ryo and Akira, until he is possessed by Amon. Amon is the Lord of War, also called the Beast of Hell, and also one of the strongest demons. His possession of Akira causes Akira to transform into Devilman. Devilman contains the strength and power of the demon Amon, as well as the heart and soul of the human Akira Fudo, giving Akira complete control.

After he becomes Devilman, Akira is no longer timid and shy: He becomes very aggressive and no longer lets anyone push him around. This change pleases Miki, although she is unaware of Akira's new-found powers (although in the TV series, she often has to step in to stop Akira when his temper gets out of control, and it is revealed that she knew of Akira's identity as Devilman in the CB Chara Go Nagai World OVA, due to secretly reading the manga offscreen).

Throughout the manga and anime, Devilman has many battles with the demon hordes. He encounters many foes such as Silene (also called Sirene, Siron and Shirenu) the demon bird (she was also Amon's lover before he possessed Akira), the water demon Geruma (also called Gelmer), a large turtle-like demon called Jinmen, Welvath, Kaim, Zannin, Zan, Zenon (Zenon is basically Satan's right hand, and one of the strongest demons), Psycho Jenny, Lala (a demon in the TV series who transformed herself into a beautiful young woman and attempted, unsuccessfully, to seduce Akira), and Saylos (Saylos is one of the main villains in the movie Amon: Apocalypse of Devilman).

The story ends with Akira discovering that his friend Ryo is really Satan in a dormant state. After Miki and her whole family are brutally slain by a paranoid human horde (in a particularly famous scene, Akira retrieves Miki's dismembered body from her burned house and later is seen holding her head in his arms), the final fight between Devilman and Satan ensues. The Earth is totally destroyed during this battle, and Devilman dies at the hands of Satan.

Satan regrets what he has done, and then out of his despair creates a malevolent being known as the Slum King. Satan binds himself as a slave to the Slum King, in order to punish himself for what he has done to the world and his beloved Akira. This event leads into the related series Violence Jack. At the end of Violence Jack, it is revealed that Jack is none other than Akira after his battle with Satan.

Media

The TV Series

The anime series was 39 episodes long and ran from July 1972 to March 1973 on NET (now TV Asahi). The series sported some differences from the manga (the character of Ryo Asuka wasn't created until Go started working on the manga after he finished working on the anime), but was still very popular. Both the anime and the manga also vary on the ending; while the anime series had a bittersweet open-ended finale, the manga had a tragic ending. Rather surprisingly given its level of violence, the Devilman TV series was also broadcast on TV in Italy in 1983, and also became extremely popular there.

Differences Between the Manga and the TV Series

The storyline of the TV series is markedly different from that of the manga and of the OVAs.

• Akira and his father are killed while mountain climbing in the Himalayas, and Devilman chooses Akira's body as a cover to disguise himself. Although Devilman takes on his appearance, Akira is gone and Devilman is the body's sole occupant.
• Devilman's mission is to cause death and destruction on Earth to pave the way for a demonic invasion of the human world. However, when he moves in with the Makimuras under the disguise of Akira, he finds himself attracted to Miki's tough, no-nonsense ways, and is thus distracted from his mission. The lord of the demons sends forth a succession of demons to eliminate the distraction by killing Miki, and Devilman/Akira resolves to fight to protect Miki.
• In the TV series, Devilman's motives for fighting are much less altruistic than in the manga or the later OVAs; he fights only to protect Miki, the woman he loves, and nothing more.
• Unlike in the manga, Miki survives at the conclusion of the TV series.
• The character Ryo Asuka does not appear in the the TV series.

Devilman (OVA)

Two OVAs (Original Video Animation), simply titled Devilman, were released in 1987, and 1990 respectively. Kazuo Komatsubara, the animation director on the original TV series, returned for the OVAs as character designer. The OVAs' plot revolves around Akira's transformation into Devilman up until his battle with Silene. Besides a few minor alterations, the OVAs are faithful to the original manga. They and were released in the U. S. during the mid-1990s on video by L.A. Hero, and in the UK and Australia by Manga Entertainment. Manga Video in the USA picked up Devilman after L.A. Hero's license expired in America. Manga Re-Released Devilman on DVD in the U.S. in 2000. The U.S. DVD release, much to the consternation of some American Devilman fans, does not include the original Japanese audio track, whereas the series was released in both subtitled and dubbed form on VHS. Some English-speaking Devilman fans also believe the English dub of the OVAs is of poor quality and that the English-language script featured excessive and needless profanity. (1) The OVAs remain the only Devilman anime (barring the spinoff Devilman Lady) to have been commercially released in the United States.

Amon: The Apocalypse of Devilman

In 2000, Amon: Apocalypse of Devilman was released as a pay-per-view event in Japan and was later released on video and DVD. Perhaps the most violent of all the anime incarnations of the franchise, it covers the period between the humans becoming aware of demons and the final battle between Devilman and Satan. However, in this version, rather than battling Satan, Akira is forced to face his literal "inner demon", Amon, in the final battle. The death of Miki drives Akira to the edge and he loses his hold on Amon, allowing the demon to fully possess his body. Amon kills Saylos, who is at that point the main antagonist of the film. However, Akira, still in his possessed state, revives and mentally battles Amon for his soul; this battle is depicted as an actual physical battle in a barren landscape. Just as Amon is about to win, Miki visits Akira in a vision, silently expressing her forgiveness of his failure to protect her. This gives Akira the strength to truly kill Amon and claim the demon's power as his own. Although Akira encounters Asuka Ryo, and both are consciously aware of the latter's true identity as Satan, Akira doesn't battle him in the film, and instead walks past him silently. The film then ends, leaving the conflict between the two unresolved.

Remakes, Sequels, and Live-action movie

Many other manga titles were created later on including;

• Shin Devilman (which replaced the entire third volume of the original manga in later editions).
• Neo Devilman
• Amon: The Darkside of The Devilman, in which the 3rd OVA, Amon: The Apocalypse of Devilman is loosely based on. It ran from January 21, 2000, to April 23, 2004. The manga differs drastically from the OVA adaptation after Volume 1.

Several other books have been published dedicated to Devilman over the last 35 years.

In 2004, a tokusatsu Devilman movie directed by Hiroyuki Nasu using CGI effects was released. Unfortunately, it was universally rejected in Japan, even by Devilman fans. As a consequence, it won Grand Prize in Japan's Bunshun Kiichigo Awards (the Japanese version of the Razzie Awards, which are given to the worst movie of the year).

Go Nagai also released a manga series called Violence Jack. The series takes place during the aftermath of Armageddon and the battle between Satan and Devilman. In CB Chara Go Nagai World is revealed that Jack is Devilman. This series became an OVA anime in 1986, and was released in the U. S. sometime during the 1990s in an edited version by Manga Video and an uncensored release by Critical Mass.

In 1997, Go Nagai created Devilman Lady (Devil Lady in the US). Devil Lady is based on Go Nagai's idea of "What if the main character was a woman?" The story takes a different approach to the story presented in its Devilman counterpart. In Devil Lady, a top model named Jun Fudo learns that she has the power to transform into a being known as a "devilman" or "Devil Beast". A mysterious woman named Ran Asuka shows up and explains to her that her "powers" or "gifts" are actually believed to be somewhat of a disease known as the "Devil Beast Syndrome". It is even stated that these "devilmen" are actually the next step in human evolution as a means of survival. The story became very popular and was made into an anime series in 1998. The series consists of 26 episodes and was released in the U. S. during late 2002 and early 2003. The Devil Lady series is very popular and contains its own original story that stands out from the Devilman series.

The cast of Devilman, including Akira, Miki, Ryo Asuka, and Silene, also crossed over with characters from Mazinger Z and Violence Jack in the 1991 OVA CB Chara Go Nagai World, also released in the Italian market as Il pazzo mondo di Go Nagai. This release featured the familiar characters in comical and lighthearted antics, in squashed-down "super deformed" form ("CB" in the title may refer to "chibi", a Japanese term meaning "runty" or "shrimpy", as well as "child body" as such double level English puns are popular in Japan). Also in this OVA series is revealed that Violence Jack is a future version of Akira Fudo, it is also revealed that Miki is an otaku, and it is also revealed that she knew of Akira's identity as Devilman, due to reading the manga offscreen.

Popular Reception and Themes

The rich story line in Devilman, in the opinion of several readers of manga, made it stand apart from other manga of the time. However, its extreme violence made it a major target of protest for the PTA and other groups. Still, the story has become a classic in Japan and has even been working its way through the U. S. over the past decade or so. The manga has been translated into English in a series of five bilingual manga volumes published by Kodansha, although the only piece of Devilman anime to have been commercially released in America is the two-part late 1980s OVA.

Interestingly, Go Nagai is said to have been highly shocked that his giant-robot work Mazinger Z, which was on Japanese TV at the same time as Devilman and which he originally did not take very seriously, far surpassed Devilman in popularity. The reason was that he had worked especially hard on Devilman and only made Mazinger as a way to blow off steam.

In an essay written three decades after the debut of the original manga and TV series, Nagai commented that he designed Devilman as an anti-war work. According to Nagai, the fusion of humans and demons is an analogy for the draft, and Miki's gruesome death parallels the death of peace. "There is no justice in war, any war," wrote Nagai, "nor is there any justification for human beings killing one another. Devilman carries a message of warning, as we step toward a bright future." [See: http://www.devilworld.org/revelations.html.

Cameos

Akira Fudo/Devilman and other characters from the series have shown up in cameo appearances numerous times in other Go Nagai works. Most notable is Tomoharu Katsumata's 1973 feature film Mazinger Z vs. Devilman (Majinga Z tai Debiruman), which featured Devilman teaming up with Nagai's titular robot to fight Dr. Hell. The original Devilman TV series itself featured cameos from Mazinger Z's Yumi Sayaka (a.k.a. "Jessica" in the American version, TranZor Z), in episodes 27 and 33.

Akira has appeared in various incarnations of Cutey Honey, most notably the 1994 OVA Shin Cutey Honey. Episode one features gargoyles of Amon and other demons. Devilman appears as a guitarist in episode three, and Akira himself shows up later on to team up with Honey. In addition, the second opening sequence to the OAV featured a brief cameo of Akira fighting Silene the Demon Bird. Hideaki Anno's Re: Cutey Honey featured cameos by Akira and Miki in their trademark clothing from the original TV series, as well as Himura, a villain from the TV series.

Devilman also made a cameo appearance in one episode of Mahou Tsukai Chappy (a 1972 magical girl anime also made by Toei), in a scene in which one of the characters watches Devilman on TV.

In Mao Dante, Zellin from the original Devilman TV Series appears.

In the episode "The alliance strikes back" of the Voltron series, Devilman appears between some aliens who are staring at the torture of Prince Lotor.

Staff

Devilman TV Series (1972-1973)

• Series Director: Masayuki Akehi, Tomoharu Katsumata
• Script: Go Nagai, Masaki Tsuji, Susumu Takahisa, Tadaaki Yamazaki, Tomohiro Ando
• Original Story: Go Nagai
• Animation Director: Kazuo Komatsubara, Masamune Ochiai, Shingo Araki, Takeshi Shirato, others
• Music: Goh Misawa
• Opening Theme: Devilman no Uta (Song of Devilman), performed by Keizo Toda with Vocal Shop
• Ending Theme: Kyou mo Dokoka de Devilman (Today, Wandering Devilman), performed by Keizo Toda
• Production: Dynamic Planning / Toei Animation Co., Ltd.
• Broadcaster: NET (now TV Asahi)
• Voice Cast: Ryouichi Tanaka (Akira Fudo/Devilman), Sumie Sakai (Miki Makimura), Ichiro Nagai (Alphonne), Joji Yanami (Pochi), Kyoko Satomi (Silene), Kazuko Sawada (Lala)

Devilman OVA (1987/1990)

• Director: Tsutomu Iida
• Script: Go Nagai, Tsutomu Iida
• Character Design: Kazuo Komatsubara
• Music: Kenji Kawai
• Animation Studio: Oh Production
• Production: Bandai Visual Co., Ltd. / Dynamic Planning / Kodansha / Triangle Staff
• Voice Cast:

Japanese: Sho Hayami (Akira Fudo/Devilman), Yuu Mizushima (Ryo Asuka), Makoto Sumikawa (Miki Makimura, credited as "Jun Kounomaki"), Fumihiko Tachiki (Gelmar), Yoshiko Sakakibara (Silene), Takeshi Aono (Jinmen)

English: Alan Marriott (Akira Fudo/Devilman), Laura Kelly (Miki Makimura), Adam Matalon (Ryo Asuka), Lucy Franks (Silene), David Collins (Jinmen)

Amon: Apocalypse of Devilman (2000)

• Creature Design: Yasushi Nirasawa
• Theme Song Performance: Mangahead
• Voice Cast: Shinji Takeda (Akira Fudo/Devilman), Atsuko Enomoto (Miki Makimura), Tomokazu Seki (Ryo Asuka/Satan), Akio Ohtsuka (Amon), Kazuki Yao (Saylos), Rie Tanaka (Miko)

References

External links

• Devilworld, Online Devilman Archive
• Devilman at D/visual.
• Devilman at The World of Go Nagai webpage.
• Revelation, An Essay on Devilman by Go Nagai