devilman

Devilman (デビルマン Debiruman?) is a Shōnen Urban Dark fantasy Superhero horror manga series written by Go Nagai in 1972. The series is renowned in history for pushing the Shōnen demographic to its limit with its dark atmosphere.

Production

The idea for Devilman came about when Nagai was approached by Toei about adapting his manga 'Demon Lord Dante' to television, but wanted certain elements to be toned down and a more appealing main character.

While having similarities to Dante, Devilman is set in its own universe. A month after the manga premiered in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine, the Toei-produced anime began airing on NET, which lasted 39 episodes.

The manga was later adapted in novel form, True Devilman, written by Nagai's brother Yasutaka Nagai, which in turn inspired two OVAs (Devilman: The Birth and Devilman: The Demon Bird) directed by Umanosuke Iida.

Story

Devilman starts with a group of Angels descending down onto the Cretaceous era of Earth where they are suddenly attacked by an armada of demons, led by an angel traitor Satan. The Angels flee and merge together and summon God who attempts to eradicate the demons; however, they go into hibernation deep in the Himalayan Mountains.

The story then follows a boy in his late teens named Akira Fudo, who after unexpectedly encountering his old friend Ryo Asuka is thrown into the world of demons. Ryo takes him to his home where he tells Akira about his Father's recent death and how he had been researching demons and that he wanted Akira to join him in has battle against them. To do this he needed Akira to risk his own life to fuse with a demon. Akira agrees and after a narrow escape from a gang of demons, Ryo takes him to a Black Sabbath where Akira successfully merges with the demon Amon, who then goes on to slaughter the other demons who had merged with the partiers at the Black Sabbath. However, Ryo is seriously injured in the battle.

In a flashback to the Cretaceous era, the beautiful demoness Sirene bathes in a stream, while the lovestruck Kaim watches from a distance. Sirene then notices Amon, whom she loved, battling another demon high in the sky. Back in modern day, post-merge Akira has become much more aggressive and starts to fight with anyone who annoyed him including the gang of Masa Bokuto and Dosu-Roku. Later, Sirene comes down to try and kill Akira for having stolen her love and rival, Amon. She summons the demons Agwel and Ghelmer, to kill the Makimura family and serve as the prelude to her attack. Akira battles with the two demons, killing both in short order, and lets down his defences in the aftermath, allowing for Sirene to fly down and grab Akira. The two start to battle within a forest however, Akira starts to get the upper hand so she flees and begs for some back-up from her lord Zennon. He sends down a small army of lesser demons as well as Kaim who confesses his love to her before killing himself and allowing for her to merge with him. She does and with her new found powers she battles with Akira and almost manages to kill him. However, she succumbs to her wounds and dies in a statuesque stance, which Akira remarks as beautiful.

As more demons start to appear Akira and Ryo take them out however one night, he is attacked by the web devil Rasber, at his school, at the behest of Demon General Zann. Rasber is killed and Akira makes allies Masa, Dosu-Roku and the other delinquents in the process. Shortly after, Akira meets an old friend Sachiko. However, on her way home she is devoured by the turtle demon Jinmen who then tells Akira to come meet him at a playground, the two battle and he is eventually forced to kill Jinmen by killing Sachiko. 

Eventually the demons announce their plans to attack, announced to the world by Demon Lord Zennon, who sends out an armada of demons who go on a bloody rampage killing innocents in the masses within the span of five minutes. A group to tackle the threat is set up by Dr. Rainuma called the Demon Special Investigation Team. However, around the same time many of the demons go into hiding leaving behind only the Devilmen, people who similar to Akira, had managed to fuse with demons.

Eventually Ryo returns to his home only to be attacked by a large group of demons, led by Psycho Jenny, who restores Ryo's true memories as the leader of the demons, Satan. Still performing as Ryo, Satan then leaks a video tape showing Akira's first transformation into Devilman, Akira flees, however the Makimura parents are arrested by the Demon Busters and taken to the Anti-Demon Corps HQ. When Akira learns of this, he sends an army of Devilmen led by himself and destroys the HQ he finds the parents dead in torture devices and flees back to the Makimura home in an attempt to save Miki. However, when he arrives, he finds her, her kid brother Tare, and his friend Masa Bokuto all dead.

Akira calls together his Devilman Army and sets off to battle with Satan and his demon army, and a long twenty-year war broke out. Eventually however, Akira is killed by Satan, who goes into a depression as Angels begin to descend from the skies around them.

Characters

Trivia