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Digital Devil Story #1
Digital Devil Story: Goddess Reincarnation
Jusho High School's student body is divided: the gifted versus the normal. Akemi Nakajima, one of the gifted, is assaulted by one of the normal students, Kondo Hiroyuki. Battered and bloody, Nakajima decides to finish his Demon Summoning Program to exact his own revenge. What follows are the consequences of playing with demons...
447 pages
First published March 3, 1986
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February 19, 2021I’m one of the many who read this because I’m a MegaTen fan and wanted to see what inspired and started the series. And now I can safely say that I only really recommend reading this if you are in the same boat and very curious, or if you just really want to read a bad, pulpy 80s Japanese horror novel I guess. But I will say, with your limited and valuable time on Earth, you’d probably be better off playing the MegaTen games instead of reading this.
July 19, 2018
This is certainly A+ when it comes to horrific imagery -- I don't think James Herbert can top this in terms of descriptions of squishy gore -- however I find the psychology of the characters too silly to take seriously. I mean the protag And don't get me started on the romance which occurs entirely by authorial decree.
The funny thing is, this book has inspired a whole slew of video games -- the Persona series being the most famous in America, but also Shin Megami Tensei, Devil Summoner, Devil Survivor, and many others -- which are better written than this. Yes, even Persona 2 where you win demons to your side by dancing.
The funny thing is, this book has inspired a whole slew of video games -- the Persona series being the most famous in America, but also Shin Megami Tensei, Devil Summoner, Devil Survivor, and many others -- which are better written than this. Yes, even Persona 2 where you win demons to your side by dancing.
August 29, 2011
I'm new to the Shin Megami Tensei series. While I've heard of it, this is actually my introduction to it. I must say, while flawed, I did enjoy this "novella" and am very glad that it was finally translated into English. The book had some serious issues with character development and somewhat of an obsession with bizarre gore, but there were enough original ideas in it to entice me into reading it to completion. While I'm not new to Japanese mythology this book did introduce me to more details and factoids I was unaware of.
I would recommend this book to anyone who's interested in Japanese demonology as well as cyberpunk. The book at times reads like fan-fiction, but good fan-fiction which is understandable as I've read it was written on a BBS. This fact itself makes it much more impressive that its garnered the huge fan-following this series has today.
I would recommend this book to anyone who's interested in Japanese demonology as well as cyberpunk. The book at times reads like fan-fiction, but good fan-fiction which is understandable as I've read it was written on a BBS. This fact itself makes it much more impressive that its garnered the huge fan-following this series has today.
May 16, 2020
Being a big fan of the game series that was ultimately started off by this light novel, I was thrilled to find a fan translation of it at MeNaSe Publications. And while it certainly was interesting to see the humble origins of such an awesome and deep game franchise, I confess that the book ultimately left me a bit disappointed. Whether it was due to the translation effort or the original novel, I can’t really tell, but there was a lot of “third-party omniscient” explanation and exposition throughout that would have made a much better story had even half of that information been things that we get to see the characters figure out on their own. This, I feel, also contributed to just how short the novel was. I read this thing in only a couple of hours. It could have stood some fleshing out.
That being said, it was quite a creative idea that the author played with. A teenage computer programmer back in the 80s sees the similarity between coding and magical theory, and works out a program to summon demons from other worlds. Just enough detail went into the scheme to avoid contradictions without giving too much away, thankfully, so while the idea was a little vague, it will worked. Naturally, though, this teenagers doesn’t quite understand what he’s dealing with, and in getting his revenge on the students who tormented him, he goes somewhat mad with power and starts working with the god Loki, to assist Loki in gaining full physical form and taking over the world. Unfortunately, they didn’t count in the intervention of other deities, one of whom was reincarnated as a recent transfer student to the school.
What struck me in particular is that while Japanese deities were indeed referred to as such, Loki, a deity in his own right, was referred to as a demon through the whole novel. Likewise, when a substance is found that destroys demons, Japanese deities seem immune to it while Loki is vulnerable. Whether that was a show of religious/mythological arrogance or whether it was a simple oversight remains to be seen, as I have not read the rest of the trilogy that contains this book. If the rest of the books remain as deep and significant as the games that were eventually spawned from this novel, then I’m inclined to believe the former theory, as almost nothing in those games is without significance. But I can’t say for certain at this time.
If you’re a fan of the Megami Tensei series, then I recommend reading the book that started the whole epic tale. It may not be a stunning literary masterpiece, but it is interesting to apply to the universe (or multiverse, as is more accurate) that the games play with. Otherwise, I can’t see that this novel would hold much appeal for anybody these days.
That being said, it was quite a creative idea that the author played with. A teenage computer programmer back in the 80s sees the similarity between coding and magical theory, and works out a program to summon demons from other worlds. Just enough detail went into the scheme to avoid contradictions without giving too much away, thankfully, so while the idea was a little vague, it will worked. Naturally, though, this teenagers doesn’t quite understand what he’s dealing with, and in getting his revenge on the students who tormented him, he goes somewhat mad with power and starts working with the god Loki, to assist Loki in gaining full physical form and taking over the world. Unfortunately, they didn’t count in the intervention of other deities, one of whom was reincarnated as a recent transfer student to the school.
What struck me in particular is that while Japanese deities were indeed referred to as such, Loki, a deity in his own right, was referred to as a demon through the whole novel. Likewise, when a substance is found that destroys demons, Japanese deities seem immune to it while Loki is vulnerable. Whether that was a show of religious/mythological arrogance or whether it was a simple oversight remains to be seen, as I have not read the rest of the trilogy that contains this book. If the rest of the books remain as deep and significant as the games that were eventually spawned from this novel, then I’m inclined to believe the former theory, as almost nothing in those games is without significance. But I can’t say for certain at this time.
If you’re a fan of the Megami Tensei series, then I recommend reading the book that started the whole epic tale. It may not be a stunning literary masterpiece, but it is interesting to apply to the universe (or multiverse, as is more accurate) that the games play with. Otherwise, I can’t see that this novel would hold much appeal for anybody these days.
May 27, 2023
Lmfao this shit was extremely whack tbh. Truly an 'xD' moment.
This guy like summons Loki using a computer because he gets bullied? Like he literally writes a computer program that summons demons. And then he makes Loki like kill the bullies and sexually assault his teacher (no idea why, I guess Loki just felt like it and the main character was like 'ok you can have this one boss')? And then he like falls in love with this random girl who loves him back through the power of the phantom plot device? And then they run away and Loki like fuckin' robs a bank and shit and chases them to this like cave and they like use some magic balls from this demon lady to kill Loki?
This guy like summons Loki using a computer because he gets bullied? Like he literally writes a computer program that summons demons. And then he makes Loki like kill the bullies and sexually assault his teacher (no idea why, I guess Loki just felt like it and the main character was like 'ok you can have this one boss')? And then he like falls in love with this random girl who loves him back through the power of the phantom plot device? And then they run away and Loki like fuckin' robs a bank and shit and chases them to this like cave and they like use some magic balls from this demon lady to kill Loki?
January 12, 2023
This book inspired the Megami Tensei video games, which led to the Shin Megami Tensei series, which led to the Digital Devil Saga series, the Devil Survivor Series, the Devil Summoner series, the Jack Bros series, and most notably the Persona series. This is a huge mega hit series that encompasses novels, manga, video games, anime, movies, stage plays, musicals, dance shows... the list goes on. As such, I always wondered why the books that started it all never made it to America. And then I read this fan translation of the first book and now I understand: it's terrible. It's horrible. It's easily the worst book I have read in years. Part of this, of course, can be blamed on the dry, simplistic prose of the unskilled translator, and yet even the most lush writing couldn't make this anything more than a horny misogynistic teenage revenge fantasy. It sucks. It's straight up shit. Uncompromising absolute garbage. Its best quality is that it's short.
May 19, 2017
Trashy 80s sci-fi horror. Was a fun and fairly engrossing read though. Worth checking out if you are a fan of the Shin Megami Tensei series just to see where things started.
July 25, 2020
This is where it all began, and with it I mean the third pillar of the Japanese RPG world beside Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, the Shin Megami Tensei series (though these days the Persona spinoff is more famous). Which started on the SNES and was build on the foundations laid by the Megami Tensei series from NES, itself based on the first book of a trilogy of horror novels by Aya Nishitani. And the book really is the start of it all.
A Japanese high school kid summons a demon after he got bullied in school, loses control over it after some time, and then together with another high school kid fights back, while both have discovered they are the reincarnations of powerful Japanese gods. Despite being so essential for the series, this isn’t a good read or a good book in general. What I read was fan-translated in 2006, so one could argue some of the weaknesses of the book could be laid at the feet of the translator, but even then I doubt it’s all on him.
It’s not just that the writing feels rather ham-fisted and amateurish (given the book started on the web on a BBS, like modern web novels, so no big surprise there), the book is also structurally rather weak. Characters are presented one way, then shift their motivation 180 when the plot needs them to be someone else. The teenager who started the whole demon summoning kills a couple of his classmates mercilessly only then to later become the hero in a turn-around that’s rather inauthentic.
And once the whole reincarnation angle got introduced, a major part of the plot after all, it was all a bit too much. At around 100 pages this is rather short, and yet I had to force myself to get through it and the only reason I did was because it’s the origin of the whole SMT series, not because I thought it was valuable in and of itself. It’s a beginner’s novel, and not by somebody particularly gifted but somebody barely able to string a couple sentences together. The pacing is all over the place, the horrific effects (lots of slaughter and gore and skull-crushing) come off as unintentionally comedic and the characterization is utterly inept to the point I did not only not care about the characters but didn’t feel like they were real characters to begin with. This is just bad on all fronts.
It is kinda impressive how this got enough traction to get professionally published and even games made based on it. I’m thankful for that, as the SMT series is great, but I would have expected the source material to be somewhat better than this.
That said, the one cool gimmick it had, to merge magic and computers and demon summoning eerily foreshadowed something far better by writer Charles Stross who in 2004 started a series of novels and stories about a world where computing and magic are one of the same, lead to summoning demons via computers, is basically modern urban horror and leads to an apocalyptic end of the world scenario that hounds so much of the SMT series. I doubt Stross ever played the games or read the original source material, just convergent ideas, but Stross series is actually worth seeking out and shows just how great this idea can be in the hands of a competent writer.
A Japanese high school kid summons a demon after he got bullied in school, loses control over it after some time, and then together with another high school kid fights back, while both have discovered they are the reincarnations of powerful Japanese gods. Despite being so essential for the series, this isn’t a good read or a good book in general. What I read was fan-translated in 2006, so one could argue some of the weaknesses of the book could be laid at the feet of the translator, but even then I doubt it’s all on him.
It’s not just that the writing feels rather ham-fisted and amateurish (given the book started on the web on a BBS, like modern web novels, so no big surprise there), the book is also structurally rather weak. Characters are presented one way, then shift their motivation 180 when the plot needs them to be someone else. The teenager who started the whole demon summoning kills a couple of his classmates mercilessly only then to later become the hero in a turn-around that’s rather inauthentic.
And once the whole reincarnation angle got introduced, a major part of the plot after all, it was all a bit too much. At around 100 pages this is rather short, and yet I had to force myself to get through it and the only reason I did was because it’s the origin of the whole SMT series, not because I thought it was valuable in and of itself. It’s a beginner’s novel, and not by somebody particularly gifted but somebody barely able to string a couple sentences together. The pacing is all over the place, the horrific effects (lots of slaughter and gore and skull-crushing) come off as unintentionally comedic and the characterization is utterly inept to the point I did not only not care about the characters but didn’t feel like they were real characters to begin with. This is just bad on all fronts.
It is kinda impressive how this got enough traction to get professionally published and even games made based on it. I’m thankful for that, as the SMT series is great, but I would have expected the source material to be somewhat better than this.
That said, the one cool gimmick it had, to merge magic and computers and demon summoning eerily foreshadowed something far better by writer Charles Stross who in 2004 started a series of novels and stories about a world where computing and magic are one of the same, lead to summoning demons via computers, is basically modern urban horror and leads to an apocalyptic end of the world scenario that hounds so much of the SMT series. I doubt Stross ever played the games or read the original source material, just convergent ideas, but Stross series is actually worth seeking out and shows just how great this idea can be in the hands of a competent writer.
September 4, 2020
Queria muito que fosse um filme ruim de terror, daria certíssimo. O livro em si não é grande coisa, a motivação do personagens não faz sentido, mas: INVOCAR DEMÔNIO PELO COMPUTADOR, FODA-SE. Deu mais vontade de jogar os primeiros Shin Megami Tensei.
June 27, 2014
As much as I like the MegaTen series, I must confess the novel that started it all ends up rather... Lackluster. Pacing is poor, characters lack substance and the writing is awkward (and downright cheesy at times). If you can stomach these obvious shortcomings, though, it makes for an interesting insight on how the MegaTen series came to be - definitely only recommended for veterans/hardcore fans.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 11, 2022
I read a fan-translation of this novella. It has never been officially brought over, which is a little surprising to me, given what an interesting historical curiosity it is—it (and its sequels) was adapted into a video game, “Digital Devil Saga – Megami Tensei,” which spun out into a massive, decades-spanning meta-series including the Shin Megami Tensei series and the Persona series. In terms of influencing pop culture, this is a major work.
As a work of literature, ah … so there's this cool and attractive nerd, Nakajima, who all the girls want to date, but he's too much of an “independent maverick” for them, so one of them (who the novel helpfully describes as a “dirty, cowardly woman,” in case you weren't picking up what Aya Nishitani was putting down) has her friend from the karate club beat him up. So he uses a demon-summoning program he's created to summon Loki to kill them, as one does. Things initially seem to be going his way, but he inevitably loses control, and must team up with another student to try to fix things. For a given value of "team up." She spends most of the novel being dead, and will spend most of the second novel tied to a cross, naked, so look forward to that.
There are things about this book that I like; some effective gore, and moments of suspense. But the character work is awful, the second half of the story reads like an overexcited nine-year-old playing with his action figures ("This happened, and then this happened, and then this happened and then and then he got a magic sword and then ....") and the writing is frequently stilted and weirdly expositional. So for example, two doomed office workers are seeing an image of Loki on a computer display: “His finger was tipped with a claw that looked almost like a bird of prey's talon. This was about the time where the concept of polygons first started becoming widely known. Hashiguchi was enthralled by the graphics—graphics that would normally be impossible to display without the use of a massive supercomputer.” What the heck is with that second sentence? And again: "Nakajima thought that his experiment had finally succeeded. He was naive in his line of thought. To start with, he was just an ordinary high school student who had never made contact with a demon at all before, yet here he was immediately jumping to deal with an incredibly powerful demon lord like Loki, which could very well lead to tragedy." Yes! That is, indeed, the plot of the novel; having the third person narrator butt in to explain it to us is bizarre writing.
As a long-time fan of the video game series I can hardly resent the afternoon I spent on this, but it would be hard to recommend outside of that context. I do want to give credit to the translator Masakado; whatever the book's merits, they made an interesting piece of pop culture freely available to English speakers. Prospective readers should know, however, that they did not translate the third novel of the trilogy, and nobody seems interested in picking up where they left off.
As a work of literature, ah … so there's this cool and attractive nerd, Nakajima, who all the girls want to date, but he's too much of an “independent maverick” for them, so one of them (who the novel helpfully describes as a “dirty, cowardly woman,” in case you weren't picking up what Aya Nishitani was putting down) has her friend from the karate club beat him up. So he uses a demon-summoning program he's created to summon Loki to kill them, as one does. Things initially seem to be going his way, but he inevitably loses control, and must team up with another student to try to fix things. For a given value of "team up." She spends most of the novel being dead, and will spend most of the second novel tied to a cross, naked, so look forward to that.
There are things about this book that I like; some effective gore, and moments of suspense. But the character work is awful, the second half of the story reads like an overexcited nine-year-old playing with his action figures ("This happened, and then this happened, and then this happened and then and then he got a magic sword and then ....") and the writing is frequently stilted and weirdly expositional. So for example, two doomed office workers are seeing an image of Loki on a computer display: “His finger was tipped with a claw that looked almost like a bird of prey's talon. This was about the time where the concept of polygons first started becoming widely known. Hashiguchi was enthralled by the graphics—graphics that would normally be impossible to display without the use of a massive supercomputer.” What the heck is with that second sentence? And again: "Nakajima thought that his experiment had finally succeeded. He was naive in his line of thought. To start with, he was just an ordinary high school student who had never made contact with a demon at all before, yet here he was immediately jumping to deal with an incredibly powerful demon lord like Loki, which could very well lead to tragedy." Yes! That is, indeed, the plot of the novel; having the third person narrator butt in to explain it to us is bizarre writing.
As a long-time fan of the video game series I can hardly resent the afternoon I spent on this, but it would be hard to recommend outside of that context. I do want to give credit to the translator Masakado; whatever the book's merits, they made an interesting piece of pop culture freely available to English speakers. Prospective readers should know, however, that they did not translate the third novel of the trilogy, and nobody seems interested in picking up where they left off.
August 14, 2023
I enjoyed this more than I expected to.
I’m not a SMT fan. I recently discovered Persona 5 Royal on Nintendo Switch and am enjoying it so I wanted to see the series it’s based on.
This book seems to have a kind of bad reputation, as a mediocre story that somehow started one of the biggest JRPG franchises ever created. But honestly, I enjoyed it a lot even if it has some flaws.
I can see the evolution here. This story introduces digital demons, using computers to summon demons using digital information to perform spells. This seems on-brand for SMT and Persona, since the creatures/demons encountered tend to be very cyber/digital but also demon/spiritual. Beyond that, “Shin” means “Super” and a bunch of SNES games had Shin at the beginning, so Shin Megami Tensei was basically “Megami Tensei: the SNES adaptation.” I don’t know if that’s what the game was actually like, or if it was completely different from the story I just read, but at least it makes sense in theory.
As for this novel, it’s a pretty good horror demon story. It’s a bit gory but nothing crazy, but it’s interesting and a fun read to see what will happen next. Trigger warning, there’s some sexual violence here but if you’re not sensitive I wouldn’t call it graphic, but not just implied either, it’s just kind of mentioned without a ton of graphic detail but also not clean either. It’s just kind of there for a few sentences then done, then later a sentence or two then done again. I hope that makes sense, it’s hard to describe that kind of thing without getting too graphic. Basically if you’re triggered by all SA skip this, but if you’re at all ok with any SA this is not super detailed/intense imo.
I enjoyed this story. It’s better than people give it credit for, IMO. Not the best horror story I’ve ever read, but also definitely not the worst. It’s a fun quick read, and I think it deserves better reviews than it currently has tbh. If you’re not super queasy and you enjoy some horror I’d definitely recommend this, it’s not as dark as some reviews say and honestly it’s not as gruesome/body horror-y as some reviews say either, it’s just good middle-grade horror schlock. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to book 2, and I’m hoping I can learn Japanese well enough to translate the 3rd book by the time I get there.
I’m not a SMT fan. I recently discovered Persona 5 Royal on Nintendo Switch and am enjoying it so I wanted to see the series it’s based on.
This book seems to have a kind of bad reputation, as a mediocre story that somehow started one of the biggest JRPG franchises ever created. But honestly, I enjoyed it a lot even if it has some flaws.
I can see the evolution here. This story introduces digital demons, using computers to summon demons using digital information to perform spells. This seems on-brand for SMT and Persona, since the creatures/demons encountered tend to be very cyber/digital but also demon/spiritual. Beyond that, “Shin” means “Super” and a bunch of SNES games had Shin at the beginning, so Shin Megami Tensei was basically “Megami Tensei: the SNES adaptation.” I don’t know if that’s what the game was actually like, or if it was completely different from the story I just read, but at least it makes sense in theory.
As for this novel, it’s a pretty good horror demon story. It’s a bit gory but nothing crazy, but it’s interesting and a fun read to see what will happen next. Trigger warning, there’s some sexual violence here but if you’re not sensitive I wouldn’t call it graphic, but not just implied either, it’s just kind of mentioned without a ton of graphic detail but also not clean either. It’s just kind of there for a few sentences then done, then later a sentence or two then done again. I hope that makes sense, it’s hard to describe that kind of thing without getting too graphic. Basically if you’re triggered by all SA skip this, but if you’re at all ok with any SA this is not super detailed/intense imo.
I enjoyed this story. It’s better than people give it credit for, IMO. Not the best horror story I’ve ever read, but also definitely not the worst. It’s a fun quick read, and I think it deserves better reviews than it currently has tbh. If you’re not super queasy and you enjoy some horror I’d definitely recommend this, it’s not as dark as some reviews say and honestly it’s not as gruesome/body horror-y as some reviews say either, it’s just good middle-grade horror schlock. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to book 2, and I’m hoping I can learn Japanese well enough to translate the 3rd book by the time I get there.
March 5, 2022
I've been a fan of Megaten series for a long time and finally decided to pick up the first entry I have to say it was not a good novel that is certain, the writing felt more like a fanfiction than a book and some aspects of it were very primitive but I still enjoyed it a lot. I wouldn't really recommend it to someone that isn't already a megaten fan but if you are and you want to know what started the series then I think it's worth reading especially because it's short and not so engaging.
Now onto more detailed review containing spoilers,
My main issue with this was the relationship between two main characters, they knew each other for a very short period of time, Nakajima was ready to sacrifice Yumiko but after 5 minutes for some reason he stars caring for her and desperately wants to bring her back to life [I know it's later revealed how they're reincarnations of mythological gods who we're connected but it still doesn't make much sense], they're whole relationship didn't feel realistic and bugged me quite a lot. Another issue I had with this book was unreasonable change of Nakajima's personality, at first he didn't seem to care about anyone else besides himself, he even kills three people and probably wouldn't mind killing more for the sake of summoning a demon. How he reacted to people's suffering and pain looked quite psychopathic. And yet after Yumiko, a person he barely knew was hurt he switched to a caring 'knight in shining armor' wanting to free the world from evil demons. It was very out of character and strange, they could've just made him someone who was interested in demons for research/scientific purposes and summoning one could have been his mistake and something he didn't meant to do which wouldn't change much of the earlier story and would make more sense for his later actions.
Now onto more detailed review containing spoilers,
My main issue with this was the relationship between two main characters, they knew each other for a very short period of time, Nakajima was ready to sacrifice Yumiko but after 5 minutes for some reason he stars caring for her and desperately wants to bring her back to life [I know it's later revealed how they're reincarnations of mythological gods who we're connected but it still doesn't make much sense], they're whole relationship didn't feel realistic and bugged me quite a lot. Another issue I had with this book was unreasonable change of Nakajima's personality, at first he didn't seem to care about anyone else besides himself, he even kills three people and probably wouldn't mind killing more for the sake of summoning a demon. How he reacted to people's suffering and pain looked quite psychopathic. And yet after Yumiko, a person he barely knew was hurt he switched to a caring 'knight in shining armor' wanting to free the world from evil demons. It was very out of character and strange, they could've just made him someone who was interested in demons for research/scientific purposes and summoning one could have been his mistake and something he didn't meant to do which wouldn't change much of the earlier story and would make more sense for his later actions.
April 3, 2021
I have some mixed feelings with this book. Even though I have found its main ideas quite interesting, I can't take it as seriously as expected... There are certain passages where I felt lost, since the action skips from one point to another without providing any deep reasons. As some readers have pointed out in their reviews, the psychology of the characters is too simple and it makes it complicated to take them seriously. Anyway, it's interesting to think that this saga has inspired a whole video game saga which has been releasing new titles since 80's. Without Digital Devil Story, SMT and Persona wouldn't be here... (As a fan of the latter, I have to say that the video game format suits me better for the type of story that Aya Nishitani tried to reflect in DDS, mainly when it comes to action scenes. Maybe this has heavily conditioned my opinion on the books.)
June 24, 2025
What a ride to finally read and understand the origin of Megami Tensei, now famously known for the videogame series SMT and Persona. I didn't expect the first book to be this graphic and brutal. Especially the descriptions about Loki were making me uneasy through the whole read. I do like how the book describes the demon summon process though and how it mixes different genres together in this grand conflict, that starts at the end. It would be so cool, if we could get a nice version of Aya Nishitanis original trilogy as a nice collection in the west, because this story really expands the understanding about the whole franchise.
April 18, 2018
I understand that I read a fan translation of this novel, so my own experience could've been coloured because I didn't read it in its native Japanese. Megami Tensei was an easy read; I got through it in less than a week. However, I felt that the narrative was very rushed. The one thing I liked most about Megami Tensei was the amount of description put into the more horrific parts. I literally had my jaw unhinge while reading some of the body horror. I would recommend DDS only if you're a fan of the Shin Megami Tensei video games.
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October 31, 2023I'm not gonna trash this, it's clearly an amateur's passion project and it has a fun concept. It's full of cheap sexy thrills and needless extra violence with a whole lesson in Japanese mythology. I didn't hate it nor loved it, nor felt it was cheap or special enough to warrant a review score. It's a kernel that spawned a franchise that has far outgrown the source material.
November 22, 2020
I liked it as a schlocky kinda dumb read. The era this was different sure was different, still sort of holds up in terms of horror.
Some parts are weird though, like the and the two import workers being attacked for some reason.
Some parts are weird though, like the and the two import workers being attacked for some reason.
January 20, 2021
Entertaining, but uneven and cringeworthy at times. Big Cronenberg vibes, which is always nice. I read a fan translation, and I have to say - were it not for a couple of minor things, I would have easily taken this for a retail translation.
July 4, 2022
It's definitely a schlocky horror science fiction novel, but if you're a fan of the (Shin) Megami Tensei franchise, it's a short enough read if you're curious. It's interesting to read the origins of the Megami Tensei tropes, and I can see how this ended up into an expansive multimedia franchise.
December 26, 2019
An incredible story who inspired the saga of Persona games.
A short book. But still deserves an actual translated version for the fans of these series.
8/10
A short book. But still deserves an actual translated version for the fans of these series.
8/10
maybe-or-stumbled-upon
March 18, 2022Same as https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... tho?
October 15, 2022
Schlocky and one dimensional, but fun. Nice premise of cyberpunk meets the occult. Essential for the fans of the games even though the games have more inventive plots.
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January 11, 2023休养期间，重新回顾了金子一马大师的设计，并且系统的了解了女神转生系列几部早期作品的资料。真的是每次都会有一些新的认识，这个系列对于神秘学的意义是无法言喻的。
October 4, 2023
this is like the mcdonalds of japanese horror novels
cool concept though
cool concept though
July 22, 2025
A curiosity for the fan looking for more, rather than a quality piece of work. However, I’m a sucker for pulpy old horror, so this was right up my alley in some ways.
July 26, 2025
As a fan of Shin Megami Tensei, really cool to see where so much of that series began. As a novel in its own right though, it’s a pretty fun but not very good edgy story
August 21, 2025
I couldn't understand some parts properly but overall just a fun book
August 27, 2016
It’s no mystery that one of my favorite videogame franchises is the venerable “MegaTen” series, which is shorthand for “Shin Megami Tensei” and encompasses a “main series” and its spinoffs. The first entry in the series, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei, was released in 1987 on the Famicom (NES) and its success spawned the entire franchise that still has new games coming out yearly. Few people realize, however, that this entire franchise was originally a book by Aya Nishitani. I’ve wanted to read the original novella that started the whole thing for quite a while, but the lack of an actual translated book and my desire not to read thousands of words on a computer screen kept me away until now. I did see an old anime OVA based on this book years ago (check youtube for Megami Tensei OVA) but it’s pretty bad despite being largely true to the book. I finally noticed that Goodreads hosts a translation of the book in a ebook format, and I jumped on it.
Akemi Nakajima attends a prestigious school called Jusho High (the gifted class no less) and despite being a genius, is having trouble in his classes. He is distant, ignores his schoolwork, and has few friends. This all seems to stem from the bullying he deals with from day to day. The book opens with Nakajima fighting with a male and female classmate because he ignored her romantic advances and is some kind of lunatic and gets her boyfriend to beat Nakajima up. He is plagued by nightmares of ancient gods Izanagi and Izanami, the gods from the Japanese creation myth, roughly the equivalent to Adam and Eve in Christian culture.
Instead of being a mature adult, Nakajima uses his vast intelligence with computers and new found fascination with the occult to create a demon summoning program for his computer. He plans, with some success eventually, to get a demon to take revenge on his bullies and make him more prominent at school. What he doesn’t know is that he should never trust a demon and has his life thrown into utter chaos. It’s hard to pin Nakajima down as the “hero” of this story as he is basically a giant sociopath for about half the book. It isn’t until the presence of his love interest, a transfer student named Yumiko, that he stops being a total D-bag. I don’t mean benign either – his is directly responsible for rapes, murders, and brainwashing until he flips a total 180 to being a heroic lover this side of Shakespeare’s Romeo.
This weird characterization is one of the real reasons I have given this book an average review – yeah I see all of the building blocks here that eventually became one of my favorite videogames of all time, but the characters seem one-dimensional and switch personalities half-way through the book. Perhaps this is the fault of the translation I have, or characterization was not the purpose of this story. To me, Mr. Nishitani excels at describing horrific gore and body horror, and the majority of his descriptive prose is there to make the reader’s stomach turn.
Akemi Nakajima attends a prestigious school called Jusho High (the gifted class no less) and despite being a genius, is having trouble in his classes. He is distant, ignores his schoolwork, and has few friends. This all seems to stem from the bullying he deals with from day to day. The book opens with Nakajima fighting with a male and female classmate because he ignored her romantic advances and is some kind of lunatic and gets her boyfriend to beat Nakajima up. He is plagued by nightmares of ancient gods Izanagi and Izanami, the gods from the Japanese creation myth, roughly the equivalent to Adam and Eve in Christian culture.
Instead of being a mature adult, Nakajima uses his vast intelligence with computers and new found fascination with the occult to create a demon summoning program for his computer. He plans, with some success eventually, to get a demon to take revenge on his bullies and make him more prominent at school. What he doesn’t know is that he should never trust a demon and has his life thrown into utter chaos. It’s hard to pin Nakajima down as the “hero” of this story as he is basically a giant sociopath for about half the book. It isn’t until the presence of his love interest, a transfer student named Yumiko, that he stops being a total D-bag. I don’t mean benign either – his is directly responsible for rapes, murders, and brainwashing until he flips a total 180 to being a heroic lover this side of Shakespeare’s Romeo.
This weird characterization is one of the real reasons I have given this book an average review – yeah I see all of the building blocks here that eventually became one of my favorite videogames of all time, but the characters seem one-dimensional and switch personalities half-way through the book. Perhaps this is the fault of the translation I have, or characterization was not the purpose of this story. To me, Mr. Nishitani excels at describing horrific gore and body horror, and the majority of his descriptive prose is there to make the reader’s stomach turn.
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