Devilman Grimoire Vol. 1

Devilman Grimoire #1

by Go Nagai, Rui Takato (Illustrations)

A modern retelling of the horror manga epic spanning generations of fans!

When demons begin taking over the bodies of humans, only the strongest survive. When a practicing young witch named Miki Makimura asks her friend Akira Fudo for help with a ritual, the spell is interrupted and Akira is left on the brink of death. His body is overtaken by a powerful being named Amon. Now torn between his humanity and the demon within him, Akira uses his abilities to fight in the war between demons and humans for the future of the world itself!

Genres: Manga, Horror, Fantasy, Comics, Graphic Novels, Comics Manga, Collections

180 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

Kiyoshi 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.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 2 out of 5]

Extreme graphic violence...dismemberment of high school students...a teenage girl who 'thinks' she is a witch summons demons...sexual situations. I really did not follow this; the incantations used to call demons forth evoke the name of God - which makes no sense to me. Perhaps I am looking at this from my Catholic upbringing; just did not 'click' for me.

[Delia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a weird over the top reboot, remix, whatever want to call it for the original Devilman which I haven't read yet only seen the OVA and the new Crybaby series. But this was still entertaining as hell.

So the story starts off similar. You have Miki and Akira as childhood friends. Akira is one day bestowed upon the devilman himself, Amon. So this devilman is an extremely strong demon who shreads apart any demons in his ways. Demons even try to break through the and hurt Amon by going after Miki, setting him off.

It's over the top, lots of sexual content (even have Miki naked for like 40 pages fighting) and plenty of gore. It's violent, crazy, and somehow still really enjoyable for most part. Don't take it seriously and you'll enjoy it.

A 3.5 out of 5.

[Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grimoire is a slightly different take on Devilman that can sometimes capture the magic of the original, but so far usually comes up short. This leans a little more towards fun and violence, while the original had a more tense and oppressive horror atmosphere. The art in Devilman G is bubbly, yet gruesome, and captures the style of the original series perfectly while fitting the funner tone of Grimoire. Sometimes it was a little too busy for my liking, but I found it appealing overall. For fans of the franchise, it should be interesting to see how differently the same events play out given the more bombastic start, the lack of Ryo(???) and a Miki with way more agency.

[Doc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is he more devil or man?

First off regardless of the Older Teen rating for this book I have to mention it not only has mention of sex and has plenty of nudity but is also a very messy gore filled book where battles between demons tend to leave body parts everywhere and the mangaka is not shy to show the occasional human being devoured either. Other things that might offend certain people include a same sex relationship that is quite physical, bullying, potential witchcraft, devil possessions, bloody dismemberments, and body horror (some humans can be changed by those devils we meet in the book.

In fact from what I can tell there is a tendency for three thing that seem to happen in all incarnations of Devilman that I have seen as anime or read as manga with excessive gore and nudity being the first two. The last is the cast often remains the same for every incarnation of the series regardless of how it might change plot wise with Akira Fudo aka Amon, Miki Makimura, and Ryo Asuka aka Satan (though so far Ryo has yet to appear) being the protagonist most of the time. Of course there are a slew of devils loose in the world too so you might recognize some of them if you have seen any other versions of Devilman in the past. :)

If you are looking for a realistic and potentially serious horror story I fear I must disappoint you as there are scenes of amusement intermingled here and there to offset the story based on the return of devils to the world and the potential fall of humanity. Then there is the Makimura family who are their own special brand of weird not only encouraging their oldest daughter to believe she is a with who can access the magic of Solomon but have no problem with their youngest child being "tutored" by a woman claiming she is from the tutoring agency even though she is clearly questionable. :)

[myinon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t normally read these type of stories, but it brought a nice change of pace overall. The old-school art style was also great to see.

[Skjam! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dateline: Tokyo, in the present day. Or rather, the present night. Three strangers who met on the internet get together for a night of drinking. Susumu, Sacchan and Deathmask. Deathmask heads out alone, and Susumu manages to convince the heavily drunk Sacchan to go to a hotel with him. The next morning, Deathmask confronts Sacchan when she leaves the hotel, commenting on her nice smell. The smell of Susumu’s blood! Turns out that Sacchan and Deathmask are demons hiding out in the human world, but only one of them will be walking away.

Not that our protagonists are aware of any of this. Akira Fudo is a mild-mannered orphan who lives with the Makimura family. Their daughter Miki Makimura is his best friend, and he likes her a lot, but she’s eccentric and sometimes embarrassing to be around. Ever since her parents gave her a replica Ring of Solomon as a child, Miki has believed that she’s a witch and believed that she will someday come into her full powers.

Miki is considered mildly delusional, but she is known for being surprisingly good at finding lost objects and mending broken friendships. So it’s not too much of a shock when she volunteers to help some classmates find their missing friend Mikiko. “Miko” hasn’t been home in three days, and she’s been hanging out with a bad crowd lately (nobody’s heard from them either.) Miki sets up a summoning circle while explaining modern magick theory to the skeptical girls.

Everyone including Miki is surprised when physical beings show up, seemingly in response to her summons. Oh, it turns out these spooky people in black robes are just looking for a missing person of their own. The interlopers turn out to be excessively careful about witnesses to their girl hunt, turning into demons and murdering Miki and Akira’s classmates. Akira’s badly injured but still trying to protect Miki, and she begs someone, anyone to protect Akira.

Something was listening. Akira becomes possessed by a powerful demon, Amon the Brave, who promptly slaughters most of the attackers. (One gets away to start the main plot.) Much to Amon’s shock, while his personality is dominant, Akira still holds a strong sway over their shared body’s behavior and Amon can’t just eat Miki. (Ironically, one of Amon’s other titles is “The Uneater.”)

The new badass version of Akira navigates school life while dealing with demon attacks against himself and Miki. For such is the life of the Devilman!

Devilman G (for “grimoire”) was created for the fortieth anniversary of the Devilman franchise as an introduction for modern readers. One of the big changes is the absence of Ryo Asuka from this first volume, completely changing how Amon is summoned to inhabit Akira. Instead, Akira’s relationship with Miki is centered, and she is much more active in the plotline, though her powers remain nebulous.

While several of the major demons remain important (you didn’t think we’d be skipping Jinmen or Sirene, did you?) there are new enemies afoot which changes the mid-term plotline.

There’s also references to other Go Nagai manga–one of the lesbian teachers is a character from Devilman Lady, for example.

Rui Takato does a pretty good job at Nagai-inspired art and the monster designs are still top notch. Some long-time fans might feel that there’s a bit too much recycled material, while others may decide their favorite bit was slighted by non-inclusion.

Content note: As expected from the Devilman franchise, there’s a lot of gory violence. Also nudity (mostly female), rape, consensual fondling on panel, and several of the human men are pervs. This would be a hard R, edging into NC-17 territory.

Overall: Well, it’s no Devilman Crybaby, but this is a decent update of the material and giving Miki more to do is all to the good. If you generally like the idea of the Devilman franchise but the Seventies art seemed too old-fashioned for you, this might be your version.

[Kennedy Athena Areffi · Rating 5 out of 5]

My "Devilman Grimorie" review

Well now, It's official because on April 17th 2023 (3 months ago), I have like started and finished each and every volume of Devilman Grimoire and I really enjoyed the story by Go Nagai himself and the art by Rui Takato, It's a new Devilman story but it has some references from the original Devilman manga itself and from a few of the other mangas along with their anime addaptions as well as for they are the many retellings for the tale of Devilman.

I love the idea of Miki becoming a Devilman herself and fighting alongside Akira and sure there are some new characters, But there are familiar faces like Miki's family and even demons like Sirene, Jinmen, etc. - Like the original, It has it’s share of death, Tons of bloodshed, Gore, and even some nudity in the mix.
But what truly stands out for me is Akira and Miki's relationship the most of all because having been good friends ever since childhood and of course, He lives with Miki and her family as his parents died in an accident and even after the whole demon summoning ritual with Amon making an appearance and having taken over Akira's body, Yet he still retains his pure heart to gain the upper hand and to have turned him from sweet and innocent from the beginning to somewhat of a bad boy, Your parents would never approve of.

But for these two reasons here for why that what makes something truly stands out for me to Akira and Miki's relationship the most of all.

For one, The relationship between both Akira and Miki evolves from friendship to love as in Volume 4 - Chapter 13 like as they shared their first confession of love.
Within their first kiss and Akira making a promise that he will protect Miki no matter what happens to him in Volume 4 - Chapter 17, I felt it sounded really romantic and it really makes me wanna like say and shout out loud saying - "OOO yes there he goes!!!, Oh my god yes!!!, That’s my boy!!!, Akira!!!, You done it bro!!!, You did it!!!, You got it bro!!!, I’m really so very proud of you!!!"

And I'm truly grateful that they didn't get killed off and the story had ended like in the original manga volume series from the 1970’s and the reboot of the Netflix anime series of "Devilman Crybaby".

Plus as two for why that what makes something truly stands out for me to Akira and Miki's relationship the most of all is that it was like also satisfying that Akira and Miki both made love for the first time into the middle as the ending of Chapter 13 and I feel like the whole series would have a possible anime adaptation itself and I imagine
Griffin Burns and Cristina Vee voicing Akira and Miki and for those guys that I gotta say that they did great in Devilman Crybaby before and I felt it'd be amazing that they'd voice them again. I wonder if Tara Sands would provide the voice of Tare (Miki's little brother) and for Miko and maybe Cherami Leigh and Joe the Fist - Bryce Papenbrook and I also imagine Todd Haberkorn as Alphonse sensei

And I don't know if they would, But hey, If one can dream, Then maybe you can as well too.

So anyways into this conclusion that I gotta say right now that it's a wonderful Devilman manga series worth reading and it also has it’s share of funny moments and a couple of naughty scenes.

So anyways I’m gonna give Devilman - Grimoire (The Completed Volume Manga Series) a 10/10 as into a gigantic 100% - 10 out of 10 yes and I’d so recommended it to anyone who's a fan of Devilman.

💖

[Ashe Catlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

If it wasn’t for the third act this would be 2 stars. This is the first time I’ve read Devilman, thought I’d check it out after thoroughly enjoying Crybaby.

The premise is the same as Crybaby with a few differences. Demons are still trying take over the world, instead of having Akira and Ryo getting muddled up in this you have Akira and Miki. I don’t mind Miki but there isn’t much to her, she’s a witch in this and even that isn’t enough to make her interesting. She’s more interested in telling people she’s a witch then actually doing anything cool or worthwhile. Akira is still a wimp, which is understandable. At least he gets a little interesting when Amon first appears but then he just disappears and you have to deal with Miki which just isn’t interesting. I know I’ve said that a lot but honestly that’s just how it is, the set up was cool as 2 demons size each other up. Then you get more of that toward the end but the middle is something else. For one there is no mention of demons like they don’t exist but in the very first page you established they did it’s very weird.

The fights are pretty cool in this, Akira and Amon are interesting enough on own. Just not sold on them together yet, the battles were fun as well. Its got past the part where it got interesting in Crybaby but this is sorely missing Ryo. He’s the perfect match for Akira because he’s everything that he isn’t, without that complimentary relationship Akira just feels a bit flat.

[ACARVA · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up with the intention of being immersed in a cool and rich demon universe. Unfortunately, I saw an overwhelming amount of nudity, a lot of unexplained fighting, and individual commentary that really took away from making this better--cringey and removed is how I felt a lot of the time.

It definitely carries an old school vibe to it, but that story had plenty potential to dig deeper than it did--there's something there but it wasn't explored enough. Instead I walk away from this feeling like I took part in some odd perversions...
I only stuck through because I wanted to remain open-minded, but this book seemed to solely rely on its visuals. I don't think that was enough to bring out what it could've been in this first volume and I was sad about it. But the art style was still nicely done.

For what it was, and although not as overall engaging, I appreciated what was at least given in this book (art, MC's and story elements).

If you wanna read for the hell of reading something then this is ok, there's still enough there. But don't expect a universe that'll bring you in, at least in this volume...
If I see the 2nd, though, I MAY give it a shot to see if it makes up for this. But unfortunately that's a BIIIIG maybe 😅

[Matisse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now THIS is a manga.

Far too often, I come across manga that want to be *fun*, at the expense of telling conveying stories with powerful imagery. Western stuff does this too: think of all the Image comics that barely have any words or story, or the DC and Marvel titles that sacrifice characterization for endless crossovers. Bad manga can have bizarre, distracting paneling, with fights that go on for multiple volumes, and stories that drag on for so long that it becomes incomprehensible over time, and so on.

'Devilman Grimoire', at least at this volume, is perfection. The art is an excellent match for the material, the tone fits the gruesome-for-a-preteen-and-ridiculous-for-everyone-else pace of the story, the panels make everything clear while still conveying outrageous action...it's solid gold.

I'm following this one.

[Gustavo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cuando compré este manga esperaba leer algo violento con un aire a manga "clásico" y eso es exactamente lo que es.

Aunque no he leído ningún manga de Go Nagai, si he visto varios de sus anime como Mazinger, Grendizer, y varios otros, así que no me esperaba tanto gore y sobre todo tantos desnudos, hay mujeres desnudas prácticamente hoja de por medio. No es necesariamente algo malo, pero si en este caso me pareció un poco innecesario.

La historia hasta ahora no es la gran cosa, pero el manga es entretenido y las peleas están buenas. El arte tiene un estilo medio tosco de manga de los 70, pero actualizado, es bastante interesante.

[Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh man. I wish I liked this more, but... I don’t.

I know that I’m not a fan with manga anyways, but I wasn’t a big fan of the art style change. Am I really going to say it was too graphic? Not like me, could just be the art style.

The premise is quite funny and quirky, but I don’t think it pays off. I’m aware this franchise has a lot of coals in the mine, and I’m beginning to understand that there’s no version quite like the original. Guess it’s worth a read if you want to get familiar with the entire go nagai world however.

[Roberto Diaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una reinterpretación del clásico del manga japonés que brinda interesantes conceptos que refrescan la historia pero no escapan del Fanservice con el cual se ha conocido últimamente a su autor original. Cabe recalcar que el arte Dentro de este libro resalta no por su gran detalle si no por como de alguna manera rinde homenaje al estilo gráfico de la década en donde Devil Man originalmente concebido pero brindando el dinamismo de los trazos contemporáneos

[Floor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the manga a lot as someone who has been a fan of the devilman series for a few years now. It stayed true to the original source material and was able to put its own spin on it. the art was great and fit the story. I only would have liked Ryo to have been a bigger part of the story, since he always has been an important part of it ever since the original manga first came out. It didn't bother me to much though and overall it's an amazing book.

[Rocio Panchu · Rating 4 out of 5]

me gustó bastante que sacando a Ryo la historia sea tan distinta a la original pero igualmente muy buena. la disfrute mucho, solo me molestó la sexualización de los personajes femeninos como siempre.

[Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Go Nagai's devilman riff is still hot in this reboot

[Matthew Manchester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun. Looking forward to the reboot of the anime on Netflix.

[Queen Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This manga is amazing. I need the next volume right now.

[Avis F. · Rating 3 out of 5]

i'm riding this devilman wave pretty hard
oh shit it's also 4/20 today smoke a blunt for satan

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story isn’t quite the same without Ryo, but I like that they’ve given Miki more of a personality this time around.

[Chad de Lisle · Rating 4 out of 5]

TWISTED SHI*.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blood, nudity, and ultraviolence to the point of ridiculousness! In other words, "it's by Go Nagai." Would look better in color!

[Leandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Good start, it has the essence of the original.

Buen arranque, tiene la esencia del original.

[Isaiah Colbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty interesting reimagining of Devilman. Finally Miki was done justice.

[Jin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice story structure. Cool art.

[Helen Arlet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always been a fan of the idea of Devilman (and Devilman Lady) but I've never actually cared for story itself in (nearly) any of its incarnations. It always starts out pretty fun but by the third act gets rather depressing and finally wraps up with an ending that is equal parts WTF and a huge downer. The only Devilman related story I've ever enjoyed from beginning to end was the DevilLady anime, which veered off the path of the original manga and decided to do its own thing. So when I picked up this reboot and started reading through it I was rather pleased to see that they weren't just rehashing the same old story over again the same way everything else has. So for this first volume at least I'm rather loving it. There is still enough familiarity with the classic that it actually feels like Devilman, but at the same time things are different enough that I have hope it won't just play out the same way again. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the volumes and seeing where it goes.

I also appreciate the vast amount of naked demons who somehow manage to stay sexy while still being freaky as hell.

[nadia | notabookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was FUN, y'all. i'm glad this exists because im honestly not about to read the original volumes knowing i won't be there for the storyline. the art style in here is ×10 times better than the original manga, so that's another thing.

also, devilman crybaby on netflix can like.... get it. i watched this anime 3 times in full and i feel like i'd want to watch it again at some point while reading the manga. i really don't know anything about this universe but i just hope my demon child ryo is in there somewhere and i'll see him soon😫✊🏻

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Qué desastre, otra obra gonagaiesca que leí entera, me resultó muy entretenida a nivel de la bolacera historia, me encantó en su dibujo, y sin embargo no le dejé ni una reseña. Otra que le re pegaría una relectura en un día aburrido en el que no tenga otras cosas pendientes, o sea que probablemente duerma el sueño de los justos unos cuantos años más.

[Dony Grayman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Primera edición argentina, tanto de esta serie como de cualquier otro manga de Devilman.
Tomo 1 de 5, apilado junto a los 9 tomos de Shin Mazinger Zero. No recuerdo si también había póster.