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Devil Lady #1
Devillady n. 1
Cosa succederebbe se Devilman non fosse un uomo ma una donna? Una vicenda che sembra partire da diverse premesse, ma che a poco a poco diventa la saga dove confluiscono 'Devilman' e 'Mao Dante'...
224 pages, Paperback
First published July 23, 1997
3 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Go Nagai
1,054 books145 followersKiyoshi Nagai (永井潔 Nagai Kiyoshi, born September 6, 1945 in Wajima, Ishikawa), better known by the penname Gō Nagai (永井 豪 Nagai Gō?), is a Japanese manga artist and a prolific author of science fiction, fantasy, horror and erotica. He made his professional debut in 1967 with Meakashi Polikichi, but is best known for creating Cutie Honey, Devilman, and Mazinger Z in the 1970s. In 2005, he became a Character Design professor at the Osaka University of Arts. Since 2009, he is a member of Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize's nominating committee.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 10, 2017
Edit: I just saw the anime and its actually not that bad.
Review from volume 1 to 17.
Finished series.
I was dwindling between giving it a 1 star and a 5 star.
This is one of the strangest manga I have ever read. Its violent, very dark, overly-sexualized with too many gravity defying boobs and erect nipples. There is bad art, explicit and crude rape scenes, ridiculous pacing, too much blood and too many dismembered limbs. I was all set on giving it a 1-star. But then I realized that somehow the story has managed to keep me hooked through 17 volumes. So there must be something, right ?!
The story focuses on Jun Fudo, a teacher, who was attacked by a group horny demon/devils while on a school trip with her students. During that assault she turns into a half-devil herself; a devilman. Hence the name "Devilman Lady". (i don't know why the name on GR is just Devillady when it really is "Devilman Lady" everywhere else. Apparently she belongs to same universe as "Devilman" which is also a famous manga by Go Nagai.)
Jun, as expected, decided to fight these devils/demons/beastly creatures using her new found powers. The important thing to know about these devils is that when I say "attack" I actually mean rape. All these creatures want to do is rape human girls. I am not kidding. I consider myself to have quite the stomach for these things, but it was disturbing; not as much because of the rape itself but because of how unemphatic the depiction was. This manga has a very warped form of feminism (if you can even call it that). You can't escape nudity because our heroine's superhero costume is her birthday suit; which in a way is quite fitting to this manga.
Jun could have been quite a badass if the focus was more on her character rather than her ass. When you get used to hairy boobs and everything, she actually looks very cool. Or maybe I am just weird.
Anyway! I feel like I have bitched enough about what I hated in this book. It would only be fair to talk of its redeeming qualities.
The concept was interesting. Jun is in an internal turmoil due to her existence as a devilman. The only difference between her and the devils is that she has somehow managed to keep a grip on her humanity and not gone ape-shit crazy. She always had the genes in her and the assault only triggered the powers she always held. The devils are the next step in the human evolution with superhuman senses and strength and blah blah blah.
The last few volumes were UNEXPECTED. What started as a horror fantasy ended on a very strange surrealistic note, with heavy existential questions accompanied by hermaphroditic gods and what not. The ending could be called anything between "hilariously disastrous" to "poetically beautiful" depending on how you perceive it. For me it was both. Maybe. I still can't decide. Maybe I will come back to this series after 10 years or so.
This could have been such great read, if not for moments like these:
1. Suddenly Jun becomes 100 feet tall in the middle of the battle. what the fuck?
2. Extreme monster designing. What the fuck, again?
3. Are you fucking kidding me?
I don't want to insult anybody, especially not the author who is a very revered mangaka. But so many things just didn't sit well with me.
Do I regret reading this? No.
Will I recommend it somebody else? Probably not.
Do I respect this book? Yes.
and the last question, Will I read another manga by Go Nagai? HELL NO!
A lot of thought has clearly gone into making this story. And I am going to be content by telling myself things like "it was 1990s, of course their idea of feminism is different from mine" and "a writer is not always given full freedom and forced to sexualize his perfectly good story". The fact is I am still not sure whether or not I actually "liked" the manga. I was entertained, sure. So I have decided to be very critical and objective about it.
2.5 stars
Review from volume 1 to 17.
Finished series.
I was dwindling between giving it a 1 star and a 5 star.
This is one of the strangest manga I have ever read. Its violent, very dark, overly-sexualized with too many gravity defying boobs and erect nipples. There is bad art, explicit and crude rape scenes, ridiculous pacing, too much blood and too many dismembered limbs. I was all set on giving it a 1-star. But then I realized that somehow the story has managed to keep me hooked through 17 volumes. So there must be something, right ?!
The story focuses on Jun Fudo, a teacher, who was attacked by a group horny demon/devils while on a school trip with her students. During that assault she turns into a half-devil herself; a devilman. Hence the name "Devilman Lady". (i don't know why the name on GR is just Devillady when it really is "Devilman Lady" everywhere else. Apparently she belongs to same universe as "Devilman" which is also a famous manga by Go Nagai.)
Jun, as expected, decided to fight these devils/demons/beastly creatures using her new found powers. The important thing to know about these devils is that when I say "attack" I actually mean rape. All these creatures want to do is rape human girls. I am not kidding. I consider myself to have quite the stomach for these things, but it was disturbing; not as much because of the rape itself but because of how unemphatic the depiction was. This manga has a very warped form of feminism (if you can even call it that). You can't escape nudity because our heroine's superhero costume is her birthday suit; which in a way is quite fitting to this manga.
Jun could have been quite a badass if the focus was more on her character rather than her ass. When you get used to hairy boobs and everything, she actually looks very cool. Or maybe I am just weird.
Anyway! I feel like I have bitched enough about what I hated in this book. It would only be fair to talk of its redeeming qualities.
The concept was interesting. Jun is in an internal turmoil due to her existence as a devilman. The only difference between her and the devils is that she has somehow managed to keep a grip on her humanity and not gone ape-shit crazy. She always had the genes in her and the assault only triggered the powers she always held. The devils are the next step in the human evolution with superhuman senses and strength and blah blah blah.
The last few volumes were UNEXPECTED. What started as a horror fantasy ended on a very strange surrealistic note, with heavy existential questions accompanied by hermaphroditic gods and what not. The ending could be called anything between "hilariously disastrous" to "poetically beautiful" depending on how you perceive it. For me it was both. Maybe. I still can't decide. Maybe I will come back to this series after 10 years or so.
This could have been such great read, if not for moments like these:
1. Suddenly Jun becomes 100 feet tall in the middle of the battle. what the fuck?
2. Extreme monster designing. What the fuck, again?
3. Are you fucking kidding me?
I don't want to insult anybody, especially not the author who is a very revered mangaka. But so many things just didn't sit well with me.
Do I regret reading this? No.
Will I recommend it somebody else? Probably not.
Do I respect this book? Yes.
and the last question, Will I read another manga by Go Nagai? HELL NO!
A lot of thought has clearly gone into making this story. And I am going to be content by telling myself things like "it was 1990s, of course their idea of feminism is different from mine" and "a writer is not always given full freedom and forced to sexualize his perfectly good story". The fact is I am still not sure whether or not I actually "liked" the manga. I was entertained, sure. So I have decided to be very critical and objective about it.
2.5 stars
March 22, 2019
Dall'1 al 5 saranno una rilettura. Dal 6 al 17 saranno una prima lettura ma tanto non ricordo niente.
Che dire se non che come sempre non mi stanco mai di questo autore. C'è una specie di chimica che mi attira verso di lui. Non solo finirò tutte le serie che ho iniziato della D/Visual (se sono ancora disponibili i numeri) ma farò anche le altre.
Vi ho detto come non sopporto il tutto tette di Saber Marionette J no? Il Sensei Nagai è diverso. Le tette non mi danno fastidio. Si ammalgamano perfettamente. Certo un maschietto godrebbe di più ma mi piace pure a me. Cioè non mi da fastidio.
Che dire se non che come sempre non mi stanco mai di questo autore. C'è una specie di chimica che mi attira verso di lui. Non solo finirò tutte le serie che ho iniziato della D/Visual (se sono ancora disponibili i numeri) ma farò anche le altre.
Vi ho detto come non sopporto il tutto tette di Saber Marionette J no? Il Sensei Nagai è diverso. Le tette non mi danno fastidio. Si ammalgamano perfettamente. Certo un maschietto godrebbe di più ma mi piace pure a me. Cioè non mi da fastidio.
May 28, 2023
1 perché te lo devi meritare tutto lo schifo.
Go Nagai mi vergogno per te.
Go Nagai mi vergogno per te.
March 7, 2020
Having read the original Devilman series and Shin Devilman, I am confused on how this is part of the series. Does this take place before, after, or at the same time as the original series? Are devilbeasts, demon? If so, why does the psychology of the beasts differ from the demons? Why does a Human Alliance exist?
The art design, which has its benefits in that it appears with better crafstmanship than the original series, but it doesn't have the same style that I enjoyed. The only positives I found was the background to Jun.
Update 4/7/19- Now having understood fully the Devillady universe, I actually enjoy this first volume. Originally, I did not like my confusion with the start and I would rate it 3 stars now but I must refrain from doing so.
August 25, 2019
Update
With the adoption of my new rating system, a two star rating is befitting. The original review and rating update conform to the new rating system. I did not dislike the volume, despite my confusion, but I did not like it either. For now I rate books that give me confusion as two stars, since I do not think that I dislike confusion. When I finished reading the first volume of "Pandora Hearts", I was confused about the start of the series, but not necessarily disliking the volume.
March 7, 2020
Update
The 2F rating type is not as accurate. I am not left with as much confusion that pesters me as in the first volume of Pandora Hearts, and I am feel more with a neutrality and the feeling of the volume being "OK". I have created the 2FA rating type to accommodate for these differences.
I have left the rating color at yellow with a grey outline because the "Devilman Lady Abridged" folder's photos on the first volume do not resurface any feelings of liking or disliking, and neither when I briefly skim the full volume on MangaKakalot. I place great trust in the update from Update April 7, 2019, since this was written after I had created the "Devilman Lady Abridged" folder, which means that I had spent more time skimming the volume in order to find the best pages that would fit for an abridged version. Further support for the two star-rating comes from still pronounced memory of the feeling that I was fine with the first volume and wanted to continue to see where it went.
The art design, which has its benefits in that it appears with better crafstmanship than the original series, but it doesn't have the same style that I enjoyed. The only positives I found was the background to Jun.
Update 4/7/19- Now having understood fully the Devillady universe, I actually enjoy this first volume. Originally, I did not like my confusion with the start and I would rate it 3 stars now but I must refrain from doing so.
August 25, 2019
Update
With the adoption of my new rating system, a two star rating is befitting. The original review and rating update conform to the new rating system. I did not dislike the volume, despite my confusion, but I did not like it either. For now I rate books that give me confusion as two stars, since I do not think that I dislike confusion. When I finished reading the first volume of "Pandora Hearts", I was confused about the start of the series, but not necessarily disliking the volume.
March 7, 2020
Update
The 2F rating type is not as accurate. I am not left with as much confusion that pesters me as in the first volume of Pandora Hearts, and I am feel more with a neutrality and the feeling of the volume being "OK". I have created the 2FA rating type to accommodate for these differences.
I have left the rating color at yellow with a grey outline because the "Devilman Lady Abridged" folder's photos on the first volume do not resurface any feelings of liking or disliking, and neither when I briefly skim the full volume on MangaKakalot. I place great trust in the update from Update April 7, 2019, since this was written after I had created the "Devilman Lady Abridged" folder, which means that I had spent more time skimming the volume in order to find the best pages that would fit for an abridged version. Further support for the two star-rating comes from still pronounced memory of the feeling that I was fine with the first volume and wanted to continue to see where it went.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews