is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Go Nagai. It follows high school student Akira Fudo, who absorbs the powers of the demon called "Amon" with help of his friend Ryo Asuka, in order to battle creatures hidden in human society, thus calling himself the "Devilman" in the process. The series was originally ordered by Toei Animation as a toned-down anime version of Nagai's previous manga series, Demon Lord Dante, although Devilman ended up having a darker tone which reflected Nagai's anti-war sentiments.
Devilmans 39-episode anime series was developed by Toei Animation in 1972, while Nagai's manga in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine debuted barely a month before the anime series started. The manga was published between June 1972 and June 1973, while multiple publishers have released it in collected volumes. Seven Seas Entertainment published the English translation of the original manga in two volumes in 2018. The series has since spawned numerous original video animations (OVAs), manga spin-offs, novels, films, and a sequel. Devilman and other characters from the series have made numerous cameo appearances in Nagai's other works. The most notable is Tomoharu Katsumata's 1973 feature film Mazinger Z vs. Devilman, which features Devilman teaming up with Nagai's titular robot to fight Dr. Hell. In 2018, a remake titled Devilman Crybaby directed by Masaaki Yuasa was released, functioning as an alternate, modernized retelling of the manga.
Devilman is among Nagai's most popular and influential works. The manga has sold 50 million copies worldwide. Although the artwork was polarizing, critics praised the series for Nagai's darker take on superhero tropes and noted its graphic violence. The series' themes and Akira's design have influenced multiple other series such as Neon Genesis Evangelion and X.
Plot Manga Akira Fudo is a shy teenager who lives in his friend Miki Makimura's house as his parents work abroad. One day, Akira's childhood friend Ryo Asuka reveals that the Earth is about to be invaded by demons, monstrous beings who have been hibernating for centuries. The only way to defeat them is to take control of their powers and fight them on equal terms. Ryo then involves his friend in a ritual called the Black Sabbath, an event where numerous demons plan to merge with humans to infiltrate society. During the Black Sabbath, Akira merges with Amon, a demon warrior both idolized and feared among his kind for his incredible strength. However, instead of Amon holding control over Akira, the latter's pure soul triumphs over that of Amon, bringing the demon to heel and creating Devilman.
After fighting out of the Black Sabbath, Akira uses his demon persona to battle multiple enemies hidden in society. However, Akira starts to question his methods after he encounters Sirene and Kaim, two demons whose relationship with one another challenged Akira's prior perception of all demons being immoral, and the cruel Jinmen, a turtle-like demon who contained the still-living souls of his human victims on his shell, forcing Akira to destroy them to defeat him. A large detachment of demons led by the demon Lord Zennon invade Tokyo, alerting the world's population to the existence of demons. Akira learns that other humans are becoming Devilmen, and resolves to contact them to form a team dedicated to protecting humankind from the demons.
Meanwhile, Ryo journeys back to the mansion where he informed Akira of the world of demons, and finds an album supposedly about his life, which states he died years ago in a car accident. During his ensuing existential crisis, Ryo is met by a group of demons led by the demoness Psycho Jenny, who tells Ryo he is actually Satan, a fallen angel who sympathized with the demons and turned on God for wanting to exterminate them. As part of Satan's plan to lead an all-out war on humanity, he had Psycho Jenny erase his memories and replace them with those of Ryo Asuka until the time when he was ready to begin the war. During a television broadcast, Ryo reveals the existence of Devilmen to the public but does not differentiate them from demons when he shows footage of Akira's first transformation. This leads to a mass hysteria that causes humans to turn on each other worldwide.
While Akira confronts Ryo for answers and learns the truth of his former friend's identity, a mob of humans kills Miki and her family for being associated with him. With Miki's death, Akira sinks to despair and loses faith in humanity before vowing to get revenge on Satan. When asked by Zennon about why he wanted Akira to survive humankind's extinction by becoming a Devilman, Satan implies that the reason is that he loved Akira and wanted to protect him. Twenty years pass, and all humans, save for the Devilmen recruited by Akira, are extinct. During their final battle, the Devilmen and the demons are both annihilated and Satan mortally wounds Akira. Satan then realizes that what he did to humankind was no different from what God did to demons, and grieves over Akira's death as God's angels descend upon the Earth.
Anime Devilman is sent by the Demon Lord Zennon to lead a full-scale invasion of the human world. After he ambushes and kills Akira and his father in the Himalayas, not far from the base of operations of the Demon Tribe, he selects Akira as his host, restoring him to life, but giving him a wild and unpredictable streak. However, after returning to Japan, Akira encounters and falls in love with Miki Makimura. Devilman is then tamed by his desire to protect her. Devilman resolves to defect from his orders and fight against the Demon Tribe.
Production
Devilman evolved from Go Nagai's previous manga, Demon Lord Dante, after Toei Animation approached Nagai 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. Devilman's outfit seems be inspired by a villain from the 1972 Gekko Kamen anime. Go Nagai worked on the anime's scenario along with renowned screenwriter and science-fiction novelist Masaki Tsuji, who wrote the scripts for 35 of the TV series' 39 episodes. Along with the television series, Devilman was also produced as a serialized manga in Weekly Shōnen Magazine beginning in 1972. Go Nagai designed the manga to be more horror-like and mature than the anime version. When developing the Devilman manga, Nagai was told by his editor to write an alternative take of the anime aimed towards a more mature audience.
Nagai designed Devilman as an anti-war work; the fusion of humans and demons is an analogy for the draft, and Miki's violent death symbolizes 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."
In further exploring themes of war, Nagai stated that he wrote this manga to alert the world in regards of the narrative's chaos possibly happening in the real world. He further stated that despite Satan's actions in the manga, he was not a stereotypical villain as Nagai believes that God would fit more into this category as a result for the actions he committed against demons years before the series' start.
Media Manga
The manga was originally published by Kodansha from June 11, 1972, to June 24, 1973, in Weekly Shōnen Magazine. The series has been published in format several times, most of them by Kodansha. Starting with the 1987 publishing, most Kodansha editions include Shin Devilman, which originally was not meant to be included in the canon of the original series, as a part of the volumes. The manga has been translated into English in a series of five bilingual manga volumes published by Kodansha.
The manga has also been published along with Cutie Honey in the magazine published by JIVE during 2004 in order to take advantage of the release of the live-action films of both series.
Seven Seas Entertainment published the English translation of the original manga in two volumes in 2018, and of Devilman G and Devilman VS. Hades in 2017 and 2018.
Spin-offs
was originally published in Kodansha's Shōnen Magazine Special on May 25, 1979, January 25, 1980, September 15, 1980, March 6, 1981, and May 8, 1981. All chapters were drawn by Go Nagai, but the first chapter was written in collaboration with Masaki Tsuji, while chapters two and three were written by Hiroshi Koenji. The rest of the chapters were done by Nagai. The manga is sometimes known as Devilman 2 and Neo Devilman.
A one-shot, which is not originally part of Shin Devilman, but that has always been compiled along with the series in , was published in the magazine Variety by Kadokawa Shoten. This 16-page story does not have any text and it presents the moments of Akira after the death of Miki in the original series, but before the battle with Satan, as he buries the remains of Miki and encounters Ryo.
Go Nagai published the manga Devilman Saga in Shogakukan's Big Comic from December 25, 2014, to March 10, 2020. The story takes place in the year 2025, a roboticist named Fudou Yuuki joins a project involving a large mural depicting humanity's true past as well as the ancient but advanced technology found in Antarctica. Shogakukan compiled its chapters into thirteen volumes, released from June 30, 2015, to May 29, 2020.
A manga series written and illustrated by Fujihiko Hosono, titled Devilman Gaiden: Ningen Senki, was serialized in Kodansha's Monthly Young Magazine from January 23, 2023, to June 20 of the same year.
Animated adaptations
The anime television series was 39 episodes long and ran from July 8, 1972, to April 7, 1973, on NET (now TV Asahi). Outside Japan, the TV series was broadcast in Italy in 1983 and enjoyed great popularity there. A DVD box set of the series was released in Japan on September 21, 2002. The TV series has been licensed for the first time in North America by Discotek Media who released the series on DVD in 2014.
was released on November 1, 1987, by King Records. It was followed by , released on February 25, 1990, by Bandai Visual. Kazuo Komatsubara, an animation director on the original TV series, was the character designer for the OVAs, which were animated by his Oh Production.
Both were directed by Umanosuke Iida (credited under his birth name, Tsutomu Iida) and were closely developed in conjunction with Nagai himself. The OVAs' plot revolves around Akira's transformation into Devilman up until his battle with Sirène. Besides a few minor alterations, the OVAs are faithful to the original manga. Both OVAs were released on Laserdisc and on a single DVD by Bandai Visual on March 28, 2003. The two OVAs were also the only Devilman anime to have been commercially released in the United States (by Manga Entertainment) prior to 2014. The DVD release included only the English-dubbed version (the original Japanese version was previously released on VHS in 1995 by L.A. Hero and Dark Image Entertainment).
In 2000, Amon: Apocalypse of Devilman was released as a pay-per-view event in Japan and was later released on video and DVD. Based on Amon: The Darkside of The Devilman, it covers the period between the humans becoming aware of demons and the semi-final battle between Devilman and Amon, who was unleashed after Akira became demoralized by witnessing the death of Miki. In the final battle, Amon is subdued and remerges with Akira, but instead of Akira then proceeding to battle Satan, he rejects the latter's challenge, and walks away into the wreckage of Tokyo.
In 2015, Cyborg 009 VS Devilman was released. The three-episode OVA features the Devilman series crossing over with Shotaro Ishinomori's Cyborg 009, with the titular characters from each series becoming rivals before working together to bring down a joint threat.