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Devilman: The Classic Collection #2
Devilman: The Classic Collection, Vol. 2
THE EPIC CONCLUSION TO GO NAGAI’S MANGA MASTERWORK As demonkind continues to infiltrate human society, they are one step closer to achieving their ultimate an apocalyptic war with the nations of Earth, and the utter domination of mankind! To defeat them, Devilman will need powerful allies, yet betrayal may come from those he trusts the most.
656 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1973
22 people are currently reading
469 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 - 30 of 62 reviews
November 20, 2018
Demons have infiltrated human society and the world is in flames! Can Devilman save humanity, even if it isn't worth saving?
Devilman: The Classic Collection Vol. 2 completes Go Nagai's Devilman run from the 1970s in a sweet looking hardcover from Seven Seas Entertainment. After the last Devilman collection, I wasn't sure what to expect. I sure didn't expect carnage of this magnitude!
Fudo Akira continues to wage war on demons but humanity might be his greatest enemy. After Satan, of course. The gore factor in this is tremendously high. No one is safe and there are fountains of blood and gore. From Akira and Ryo at Little Bighorn to the worldwide slaughter in the present, Go Nagai wasn't fucking around. There are decapitations and assorted mutilations, grotesque demons, hermaphroditic angels, and all sorts of other craziness.
Go Nagai had balls, that's for sure. I wonder if he had the big twist coming or it was something he came up with sometime during the creative process. Also, the series ender was a shocker akin to the Silver Age Doom Patrol.
That's about all I can say without spoilage. Devilman: The Classic Collection Volume 2 easily surpasses the first volume. Four out of five stars.
Devilman: The Classic Collection Vol. 2 completes Go Nagai's Devilman run from the 1970s in a sweet looking hardcover from Seven Seas Entertainment. After the last Devilman collection, I wasn't sure what to expect. I sure didn't expect carnage of this magnitude!
Fudo Akira continues to wage war on demons but humanity might be his greatest enemy. After Satan, of course. The gore factor in this is tremendously high. No one is safe and there are fountains of blood and gore. From Akira and Ryo at Little Bighorn to the worldwide slaughter in the present, Go Nagai wasn't fucking around. There are decapitations and assorted mutilations, grotesque demons, hermaphroditic angels, and all sorts of other craziness.
Go Nagai had balls, that's for sure. I wonder if he had the big twist coming or it was something he came up with sometime during the creative process. Also, the series ender was a shocker akin to the Silver Age Doom Patrol.
That's about all I can say without spoilage. Devilman: The Classic Collection Volume 2 easily surpasses the first volume. Four out of five stars.
December 12, 2024
Nie spodziewałem się, jak bardzo mroczna i krwawa się zrobi ta manga. Kawał klasyki, przy której spędziłem przyjemnie czas.
October 22, 2019
There are themes of how we humans tend to treat the marginalized, and how it takes all too little for us to turn on and destroy each other, and how fear and distrust create grand tragedies. All in between a bunch of nudity, scenes of cruelty that are sometimes hard to stomach (and sometimes both at once, unfortunately), long, mildly boring stretches where Ryo explains everything that's going on to the reader, and fairly pointless morality-tale historical side stories.
Violent, kinetic, erratically paced, interesting. It isn't something I anticipate reading more than this once, but it was worth a look.
Violent, kinetic, erratically paced, interesting. It isn't something I anticipate reading more than this once, but it was worth a look.
November 26, 2018
Seven Seas continue their compilation of Go Nagai's original Devilman manga with this volume. As was the case with the previous "Classic Collection," this is based on Japan's "Deluxe Edition," broken into five volumes but compiled for the West as two, so the final product is a bit wonky, especially as regards the additional content injected within the text of the greater Devilman story. That said, this volume is near-perfect for containing what I believe to be the truest essence of Devilman, that is the Armageddon battle and the events leading up to it, which I believe had greater influence on anime/manga to come (though I do suppose it's true the more episodic "monster-of-the-week" battles had their own influence on shonen-demographic battle manga).
Devilman: The Classic Collection Volume 2 begins with the last chapter of the Shin Devilman stories, short pieces written nearly a decade after Nagai finished the "canon" Devilman story. As with the stories included in Classic Collection 1, this one is basically worthless, a brief tale of time travel meant to fluff up the length of the book. As it is, this is actually one of the better Shin tales, second or third to the Jeanne d'Arc one ("third" if we're giving the Hitler story credit for its unintentional humor). This is a tale of the Wild West, about Custer's Last Stand. Akira and Ryo are hanging out with some Cheyenne Indians, wary of possible war with the white men. Custer and his troops are possessed by demons, leading them to rape and murder Cheyennes en masse, to later be defeated by the coalition between Cheyenne and Sioux. The demons once more lose a battle intentionally to help their cause for the overall war with humanity, setting up further racial violence by tricking the red men into killing the whites. But the real significance here, in my opinion, is that Nagai is a wee bit more explicit with the homo-eroticism from Ryo, setting up the deal with Satan at Armageddon, though of course Shin Devilman was written years later, so it's more like "retroactive character development," if that makes sense.
There's another story that appears in this volume that isn't exactly canon to the initial Devilman tale, and was indeed written a little while later, but which has some value for the same reason as the "Little Bighorn" story. "One Summer Day" builds on the little love triangle between Ryo, Akira, and Miki, culminating in a battle with a sea monster who may or may not have been summoned by Satan's energy. Ryo gets a premonition showing Akira may grow to hate him, and that is indeed what kinda happens later on, chronologically, though (again) this story was written after Devilman's original conclusion, and so is another case of "retroactive character development."
Now, for the actual "meat" of the Devilman story, it's all basically great. There is a bit of a "monster-of-the-week" battle, but the fight is somewhat interesting, and the rest of the story introduces/continues a subplot that will bide its time until the overall story goes into full swing. We return to the group of bullies / juvenile delinquents who messed with Akira and Miki back in the first volume. They're out to get revenge on Akira, but he doesn't care enough to bother with them, so they fuck off to the roof of the school to plan a means of getting Akira's attention, where they are possessed by some kind of spider demon. Akira uses the power of Devilman to destroy the spiders attached to the bullies' heads, and the bullies in turn come to Devilman's aid to stop the demon attacking the school. What's interesting about the fight is that the demon is actually a mass of thread/silk who takes up a giant spider body as a decoy, rather than being simply the spider itself. A bit cooler than the turtle Jinmen with his shell covered in faces. I guess it's just a creative idea and it appealed to me for reasons that many background demons interest me more than the bigger villains Nagai used for his stories. Anyway, the real significance of this story is that the bullies have become willing allies of Akira/Devilman, and will go on to play a larger role when Shit Goes Down.
On that note, after getting through the Shin Devilman, spider-thread-demon, and "One Summer Day" stories, shit does indeed go down, and the rest of this book concerns the coming apocalypse and Amon's final battle with Satan (and/or Akira's final battle with Ryo). Done with dicking around in isolated incidents of possession and terrorism and attempts on Miki and Akira's lives, the coalition of demons decide to launch a gigantic assault, first infecting many humans' bodies to kill the many who do not have potential to become Devilmen themselves, and secondly gathering under Demon King Zennon to wage physical war against the human armies of the world. Between events, Akira is able to sense the births of many fellow Devilman, and seeks them out as allies to defend humanity against the threat of Zennon and his followers. Unfortunately, the human leaders are complete fascist war-mongers (in the most didactic of Nagai's overt messages, which threaten to weaken the story's value on the whole), and they fall easy prey to the demons' usurpation of the USSR, who launch nukes at the US, who in turn move to launch nukes at the USSR, seguing to the start of World War III. Luckily(?), a mysterious sphere of light rises around Russia, evaporating the nuclear missiles at the cost of melting everything in existence, buildings and people alike, allowing the US to abort their attempts at contributing to world war. The demons pull back, but the humans aren't done with their violence (revealing the demons' true goal as terrorism rather than concrete war, forcing a fear of demons to incorporate a fear of Devilmen to fuck with Akira), and a witch-hunt begins alongside the formation of a high-tech legion of devil-hunters armed with laser rifles and power armor. The funny thing is how extremely "sci-fi" the series gets at this point, especially w/r/t the devil-hunters' wacky headquarters tower, foretelling the more explicit "sci-fi-over-dark-fantasy" feel of Nagai's later Mazinger Z, but which does not show up in any film/anime adaptation of Devilman (note the lack of laser beams in Crybaby).
I'll blaze through the plot summary to reflect the brisk speed with which Nagai burns through his story. Akira and Masa's gang gather Devilmen while Miki's family stays in their house, guarded by Masa and the rest. Ryo believes there is a being above Zennon in power, a god of demons to surpass Zennon as king. He and Akira figure it must be the biblical Satan. Ryo tries to uncover secrets his father may have left back at his house, only to learn he's not the "real" Ryo Asuka. He is then visited by a demon called Psycho Jenny who "hypnotizes" him (really, she undoes a previous hypnosis), and realizes he was actually Satan in disguise the whole time (which sounds dumber than it is, and it's actually well done, even if you know the twist going into reading the manga). Satan prepares himself for a final battle against his beloved Akira, fueled by his love for his friend, attributing his homosexuality to the hermaphroditism of his angel/demon body (he has a dick and tits). As Ryo, Satan goes on TV to tell all of humanity to keep an eye on possible demons, to cast suspicion on anyone who goes against the flow of society (decent satire here), and ends his spiel by showing the video of Akira's fusion with Amon and the resulting massacre of failed-Devilmen in the nightclub from Volume 1. With Akira as public enemy #1, Miki and her family become targets for the witch hunt, for their association with Akira. Miki's parents are abducted by the State devil-hunters, so Devilman goes to save them, burning down their HQ tower in the process. Meanwhile, a mad mob breaks into Miki's house and murders everyone, displaying bits of their bodies on pikes, pissing Akira off, and showing him there is no more reason to save humanity, since the only humans worth saving are now dead. Akira then goes to meet Ryo, who transforms into Satan. The final battle begins, leading to Devilman's loss. Satan sheds a tear for his fallen friend while the sphere of light from before encroaches upon him, filled with vengeful angels, God's last step in the defeat of Satan, suggesting the entire plot of Devilman thus far was God's attempt to fuck Satan over with finality, tricking him into loving a human so he could feel the sting of His divine betrayal. There was never any hope for humans or demons in Devilman's saga, because God was always at the height of His powers, always planning on slapping Satan down when he came close to "winning," the Pyrrhic nature of his "victory" perhaps foreshadowed by Silene's fight ages ago. (Later Devilman-related series would suggest a time-loop binding Satan to a constant repeat of this story as further punishment for his attack against God).
I know Devilman mostly for its influence on Berserk's Eclipse and Evangelion's Third Impact. With these great "events" experienced before I ever read Devilman, I came into Nagai's series expected to seek the "weight" of its Armageddon scenes. Perhaps Devilman had an influence on the genre of shonen-demographic supernatural battle manga with its episodic fight scenes, his skillset influencing Seiya the Pegasus, Kenshiro of the Hokuto no Ken martial art, and the Saiyan hero Son Goku, and perhaps that is a large part of Devilman's historic significance. I don't know. It explains why the big OVAs cover only the first two volumes of Nagai's original manga, at least. But I'm really here for the "bigger" stuff, the apocalypse and the events leading up to it. There's a point where shit hits the fan, hard, and the manga spirals ever downward into despair, "tumbling down," to call back to Evangelion. THAT is what I looked for in Devilman, and that was what impressed me most. The births of new Devilmen, the resulting war against Zennon, the resulting world war among humans, the resulting witch hunt, the resulting reveal of Akira's truth, the resulting deaths of Miki and company, the resulting battle between Devilman and Satan, and the resulting (assumed) evaporation of Satan by his oncoming angel opponents. It's a hell (huehue) of a sequence of events! I didn't plan on reading this book all the way through, but once I got to the introduction of "Miko" (the first Devilman after Akira), it was nearly impossible to put down.
How do I feel about the "Classic Collection," specifically? I don't know. I think Shin Devilman kinda-sorta sucks. The stories are sometimes kinda neat, but they don't add too much to the "main" Devilman story, and often feel more like fluffy padding to up the total page-count, slightly derailing the progress of the "actual" story, at conflict with the reader's investment in the trials and tribulations of Akira Fudo. But they aren't inoffensive, and I'm glad they're available in English, and I'd maybe rather they were placed in the middle of the text, rather than shitting up the perfect ending by coming afterward. So that's good. The other additions are better, the "Great War" chapter that precedes the whole thing and the additional pages added to the final couple chapters. Nagai's demons look amazing and it's always great to get more of them. I guess, somewhat unfortunately, most of the "best" material (imo) is loaded into this book, making the first Classic Collection volume feel much weaker by comparison. But there's probably no way around that, other than to make a single 1200-page tome, so it's fine.
One minor nitpick for the Devilman story: the big final fight moves too fast. There's little dialogue to pad it out, so it can technically be "read" in seconds. Of course, I spent time studying Nagai's art, so I didn't just blaze through the chapter, but still. Masaaki Yuasa's version in Crybaby feels too long, Nagai's original feels too short. What can you do?
Devilman: The Classic Collection Volume 2 begins with the last chapter of the Shin Devilman stories, short pieces written nearly a decade after Nagai finished the "canon" Devilman story. As with the stories included in Classic Collection 1, this one is basically worthless, a brief tale of time travel meant to fluff up the length of the book. As it is, this is actually one of the better Shin tales, second or third to the Jeanne d'Arc one ("third" if we're giving the Hitler story credit for its unintentional humor). This is a tale of the Wild West, about Custer's Last Stand. Akira and Ryo are hanging out with some Cheyenne Indians, wary of possible war with the white men. Custer and his troops are possessed by demons, leading them to rape and murder Cheyennes en masse, to later be defeated by the coalition between Cheyenne and Sioux. The demons once more lose a battle intentionally to help their cause for the overall war with humanity, setting up further racial violence by tricking the red men into killing the whites. But the real significance here, in my opinion, is that Nagai is a wee bit more explicit with the homo-eroticism from Ryo, setting up the deal with Satan at Armageddon, though of course Shin Devilman was written years later, so it's more like "retroactive character development," if that makes sense.
There's another story that appears in this volume that isn't exactly canon to the initial Devilman tale, and was indeed written a little while later, but which has some value for the same reason as the "Little Bighorn" story. "One Summer Day" builds on the little love triangle between Ryo, Akira, and Miki, culminating in a battle with a sea monster who may or may not have been summoned by Satan's energy. Ryo gets a premonition showing Akira may grow to hate him, and that is indeed what kinda happens later on, chronologically, though (again) this story was written after Devilman's original conclusion, and so is another case of "retroactive character development."
Now, for the actual "meat" of the Devilman story, it's all basically great. There is a bit of a "monster-of-the-week" battle, but the fight is somewhat interesting, and the rest of the story introduces/continues a subplot that will bide its time until the overall story goes into full swing. We return to the group of bullies / juvenile delinquents who messed with Akira and Miki back in the first volume. They're out to get revenge on Akira, but he doesn't care enough to bother with them, so they fuck off to the roof of the school to plan a means of getting Akira's attention, where they are possessed by some kind of spider demon. Akira uses the power of Devilman to destroy the spiders attached to the bullies' heads, and the bullies in turn come to Devilman's aid to stop the demon attacking the school. What's interesting about the fight is that the demon is actually a mass of thread/silk who takes up a giant spider body as a decoy, rather than being simply the spider itself. A bit cooler than the turtle Jinmen with his shell covered in faces. I guess it's just a creative idea and it appealed to me for reasons that many background demons interest me more than the bigger villains Nagai used for his stories. Anyway, the real significance of this story is that the bullies have become willing allies of Akira/Devilman, and will go on to play a larger role when Shit Goes Down.
On that note, after getting through the Shin Devilman, spider-thread-demon, and "One Summer Day" stories, shit does indeed go down, and the rest of this book concerns the coming apocalypse and Amon's final battle with Satan (and/or Akira's final battle with Ryo). Done with dicking around in isolated incidents of possession and terrorism and attempts on Miki and Akira's lives, the coalition of demons decide to launch a gigantic assault, first infecting many humans' bodies to kill the many who do not have potential to become Devilmen themselves, and secondly gathering under Demon King Zennon to wage physical war against the human armies of the world. Between events, Akira is able to sense the births of many fellow Devilman, and seeks them out as allies to defend humanity against the threat of Zennon and his followers. Unfortunately, the human leaders are complete fascist war-mongers (in the most didactic of Nagai's overt messages, which threaten to weaken the story's value on the whole), and they fall easy prey to the demons' usurpation of the USSR, who launch nukes at the US, who in turn move to launch nukes at the USSR, seguing to the start of World War III. Luckily(?), a mysterious sphere of light rises around Russia, evaporating the nuclear missiles at the cost of melting everything in existence, buildings and people alike, allowing the US to abort their attempts at contributing to world war. The demons pull back, but the humans aren't done with their violence (revealing the demons' true goal as terrorism rather than concrete war, forcing a fear of demons to incorporate a fear of Devilmen to fuck with Akira), and a witch-hunt begins alongside the formation of a high-tech legion of devil-hunters armed with laser rifles and power armor. The funny thing is how extremely "sci-fi" the series gets at this point, especially w/r/t the devil-hunters' wacky headquarters tower, foretelling the more explicit "sci-fi-over-dark-fantasy" feel of Nagai's later Mazinger Z, but which does not show up in any film/anime adaptation of Devilman (note the lack of laser beams in Crybaby).
I'll blaze through the plot summary to reflect the brisk speed with which Nagai burns through his story. Akira and Masa's gang gather Devilmen while Miki's family stays in their house, guarded by Masa and the rest. Ryo believes there is a being above Zennon in power, a god of demons to surpass Zennon as king. He and Akira figure it must be the biblical Satan. Ryo tries to uncover secrets his father may have left back at his house, only to learn he's not the "real" Ryo Asuka. He is then visited by a demon called Psycho Jenny who "hypnotizes" him (really, she undoes a previous hypnosis), and realizes he was actually Satan in disguise the whole time (which sounds dumber than it is, and it's actually well done, even if you know the twist going into reading the manga). Satan prepares himself for a final battle against his beloved Akira, fueled by his love for his friend, attributing his homosexuality to the hermaphroditism of his angel/demon body (he has a dick and tits). As Ryo, Satan goes on TV to tell all of humanity to keep an eye on possible demons, to cast suspicion on anyone who goes against the flow of society (decent satire here), and ends his spiel by showing the video of Akira's fusion with Amon and the resulting massacre of failed-Devilmen in the nightclub from Volume 1. With Akira as public enemy #1, Miki and her family become targets for the witch hunt, for their association with Akira. Miki's parents are abducted by the State devil-hunters, so Devilman goes to save them, burning down their HQ tower in the process. Meanwhile, a mad mob breaks into Miki's house and murders everyone, displaying bits of their bodies on pikes, pissing Akira off, and showing him there is no more reason to save humanity, since the only humans worth saving are now dead. Akira then goes to meet Ryo, who transforms into Satan. The final battle begins, leading to Devilman's loss. Satan sheds a tear for his fallen friend while the sphere of light from before encroaches upon him, filled with vengeful angels, God's last step in the defeat of Satan, suggesting the entire plot of Devilman thus far was God's attempt to fuck Satan over with finality, tricking him into loving a human so he could feel the sting of His divine betrayal. There was never any hope for humans or demons in Devilman's saga, because God was always at the height of His powers, always planning on slapping Satan down when he came close to "winning," the Pyrrhic nature of his "victory" perhaps foreshadowed by Silene's fight ages ago. (Later Devilman-related series would suggest a time-loop binding Satan to a constant repeat of this story as further punishment for his attack against God).
I know Devilman mostly for its influence on Berserk's Eclipse and Evangelion's Third Impact. With these great "events" experienced before I ever read Devilman, I came into Nagai's series expected to seek the "weight" of its Armageddon scenes. Perhaps Devilman had an influence on the genre of shonen-demographic supernatural battle manga with its episodic fight scenes, his skillset influencing Seiya the Pegasus, Kenshiro of the Hokuto no Ken martial art, and the Saiyan hero Son Goku, and perhaps that is a large part of Devilman's historic significance. I don't know. It explains why the big OVAs cover only the first two volumes of Nagai's original manga, at least. But I'm really here for the "bigger" stuff, the apocalypse and the events leading up to it. There's a point where shit hits the fan, hard, and the manga spirals ever downward into despair, "tumbling down," to call back to Evangelion. THAT is what I looked for in Devilman, and that was what impressed me most. The births of new Devilmen, the resulting war against Zennon, the resulting world war among humans, the resulting witch hunt, the resulting reveal of Akira's truth, the resulting deaths of Miki and company, the resulting battle between Devilman and Satan, and the resulting (assumed) evaporation of Satan by his oncoming angel opponents. It's a hell (huehue) of a sequence of events! I didn't plan on reading this book all the way through, but once I got to the introduction of "Miko" (the first Devilman after Akira), it was nearly impossible to put down.
How do I feel about the "Classic Collection," specifically? I don't know. I think Shin Devilman kinda-sorta sucks. The stories are sometimes kinda neat, but they don't add too much to the "main" Devilman story, and often feel more like fluffy padding to up the total page-count, slightly derailing the progress of the "actual" story, at conflict with the reader's investment in the trials and tribulations of Akira Fudo. But they aren't inoffensive, and I'm glad they're available in English, and I'd maybe rather they were placed in the middle of the text, rather than shitting up the perfect ending by coming afterward. So that's good. The other additions are better, the "Great War" chapter that precedes the whole thing and the additional pages added to the final couple chapters. Nagai's demons look amazing and it's always great to get more of them. I guess, somewhat unfortunately, most of the "best" material (imo) is loaded into this book, making the first Classic Collection volume feel much weaker by comparison. But there's probably no way around that, other than to make a single 1200-page tome, so it's fine.
One minor nitpick for the Devilman story: the big final fight moves too fast. There's little dialogue to pad it out, so it can technically be "read" in seconds. Of course, I spent time studying Nagai's art, so I didn't just blaze through the chapter, but still. Masaaki Yuasa's version in Crybaby feels too long, Nagai's original feels too short. What can you do?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 5, 2021
Reviewing both volumes here.
MAJOR DISCLAIMER: If I could, I would give negative stars for the Shin Devilman chapters, which have an excellent Akira/Ryo dynamic but ultimately age like a bad egg in their fumbling and frankly racist attempts to comment on prejudice and violence throughout history. Honestly wish the collected volumes had ditched these additional time travel arcs (published after the original manga!!) entirely.
The art and story of Devilman though? Groundbreaking. Go Nagai created so many innovative ways to show movement and convey events happening on a grand scale. Even better, each epic moment stays grounded in the emotions of the main cast. I love how it comes together in the final arc, and I really wish any of the adaptations focused for longer on the Demon Corps. That being said, thank you 2018 anime for giving Miki a real personality because wooooow wow does she need one in the manga.
I'll always have complicated feelings about Devilman, but I know I'll also always come back to it! Glad to have finally read the source material.
MAJOR DISCLAIMER: If I could, I would give negative stars for the Shin Devilman chapters, which have an excellent Akira/Ryo dynamic but ultimately age like a bad egg in their fumbling and frankly racist attempts to comment on prejudice and violence throughout history. Honestly wish the collected volumes had ditched these additional time travel arcs (published after the original manga!!) entirely.
The art and story of Devilman though? Groundbreaking. Go Nagai created so many innovative ways to show movement and convey events happening on a grand scale. Even better, each epic moment stays grounded in the emotions of the main cast. I love how it comes together in the final arc, and I really wish any of the adaptations focused for longer on the Demon Corps. That being said, thank you 2018 anime for giving Miki a real personality because wooooow wow does she need one in the manga.
I'll always have complicated feelings about Devilman, but I know I'll also always come back to it! Glad to have finally read the source material.
October 28, 2022
⭐ 4.5
May 3, 2025
insane that ryo did all that because he's gay
November 6, 2023
4.5/5
I'm torn between giving this a high four-star rating or a five-star rating, as much of the crudeness that existed in the first half of this series still exists here, and this collection opens with yet another silly and problematic time travel episode set around Custer's last stand. The chapters that follow this are decent monster-of-the-week episodes, with the beach chapter being very shallow but well-drawn. The art in the second half of this volume is a vast improvement over the first, while still retaining the cartoony character designs of the first half of the series in the first Classic Collection.
And then the end begins. Having already watched Devilman Crybaby, I expected the series to take this turn already. The final third of this series as a whole shifts so dramatically into this domino-effect descent into hell with harrowing effect. It is cheesy all the way through, right down to its artistic style and its over-dramatic dialogue; but when the true tragedies begin, the cartoonishness of its presentation hardly matters anymore. The final third of this series is the primary reason why Devilman is such a huge cultural icon even today. It is a masterpiece, and despite the many flaws of the first two thirds of this series, it is all very essential to the overall storyline. Without those two thirds, the final third's impact would have been lost.
I'd wanted to read the manga for a while, and when my dad got both Classic Collection volumes that contain the entire series as an early gift, I ripped through the whole story over the course of a weekend of relatively quiet night shifts at my job. Now that I've read the original story as Go Nagai initially conceived it, do I think Devilman is well-deserving of its iconic status? I think so.
Fuck it, I'll give this half of the series a five-star.
I'm torn between giving this a high four-star rating or a five-star rating, as much of the crudeness that existed in the first half of this series still exists here, and this collection opens with yet another silly and problematic time travel episode set around Custer's last stand. The chapters that follow this are decent monster-of-the-week episodes, with the beach chapter being very shallow but well-drawn. The art in the second half of this volume is a vast improvement over the first, while still retaining the cartoony character designs of the first half of the series in the first Classic Collection.
And then the end begins. Having already watched Devilman Crybaby, I expected the series to take this turn already. The final third of this series as a whole shifts so dramatically into this domino-effect descent into hell with harrowing effect. It is cheesy all the way through, right down to its artistic style and its over-dramatic dialogue; but when the true tragedies begin, the cartoonishness of its presentation hardly matters anymore. The final third of this series is the primary reason why Devilman is such a huge cultural icon even today. It is a masterpiece, and despite the many flaws of the first two thirds of this series, it is all very essential to the overall storyline. Without those two thirds, the final third's impact would have been lost.
I'd wanted to read the manga for a while, and when my dad got both Classic Collection volumes that contain the entire series as an early gift, I ripped through the whole story over the course of a weekend of relatively quiet night shifts at my job. Now that I've read the original story as Go Nagai initially conceived it, do I think Devilman is well-deserving of its iconic status? I think so.
Fuck it, I'll give this half of the series a five-star.
May 31, 2023
Que puedo decir, los primeros 10 capitulos se me hicieron bastante malos sintiendo lo que me parecia como el autor aprovechaba la historia para ilustrar cuanto mas no poder (literalmente mas de la mitad de los capítulos son puras ilustraciones de demonios, peleas, eventos pasados, visiones o paisajes). A partir del capitulo 11 fue cuesta arriba, esos capitulos restantes llevan en la espalda toda la historia y hacen que valga realmente la pena, son una locura, completamente alejados de la epoca en los que fueron publicados simplemente excelente. Algunos aspectos del arte de Nagai son medio meh, creo que los diseños de los humanos son muy basicos pero bueno era la epoca y el estilo de ese entonces (no son malos y los disfrute, simplemente no se compara con la actualidad obvio), mientras tanto los diseños de los demonios me volaron el bocho el hombre se pasa en ese aspecto y los escenarios ni hablar. En fin una muy buena obra que merece una leída, me encantaria que lo publiquen en Argentina en fisico pero bueno es lo que hay
September 1, 2021
A book where every possibly thing that could go wrong does go wrong. The second half of a brilliantly dark story. Unique in a way you would never guess. Highly recommended for people who love books with shocking outcomes.
September 14, 2025
a lot of this series is imperfect but the TWISTS in this book had my jaw on the FLOOR!!!!!!!!! i had to do a lap around my house at one point. Iykyk
May 16, 2020
Fast become one of my favourite manga. It’s so over the top and insane and I love it.
January 28, 2022
Despite the first half being very uninteresting, this book managed to end in a high note. I wish the characters had more substance nonetheless I found myself caring with some of them. Also, Go Nagai’s art style was amazing. Only through it, he managed to portray violence, chaos and sadness masterfully.
September 9, 2019
2.5
The art is neat, but I’m just not that into epic battle stuff like the human/demon/devilmen wars. Points for being almost comically mean towards the end.
The art is neat, but I’m just not that into epic battle stuff like the human/demon/devilmen wars. Points for being almost comically mean towards the end.
October 26, 2021
Idk of it's just me but this junk is so mid
February 2, 2021
Once upon a time, demons invaded the world, wiping out all prehistoric creatures that once ruled the earth. After dominating all life, they ruled the world for many long years until the great ice age froze them in burials of ice deep down in the underworld. After the demons were lost to history, a new race called humans were born, and they became the new rulers of the world. Left undisturbed for thousands of years, the humans were ignorant of the threat of demons lurking just under their feet. In the modern age of technology, industrialization and political turmoil, the demons begin to rise once more, merging with corrupt humans to pollute the world with violence so they may rule once more.
Mankind’s only hope for salvation is to use the demons’ power against them, and only a pure-hearted man like Akira Fudo can do so without losing his humanity. Once, he was little more than a timid crybaby, but Akira now wields the terrible power of a devil, yet holds the innocent soul of a man; he is a Devilman. Akira gets dragged into a dark world of conspiracy, betrayal and bloodshed by his best friend Ryo. Ryo's father was a genius researcher of the occult who left many records and findings informing them of the oncoming demon invasion before he was possessed and took his own life. Now the two friends are the only ones with the power and the knowledge to save the world or lead it to its destruction.
Devilman has quite the legacy. It's very rough around the edges and it definitely shows its age with some stale dialogue, major pacing issues, one dimensional characters who react unrealistically, etc, but all of these things are to be expected since it was written in 1972 around the time when the medium was just beginning to find solid ground and can be considered the grandfather of all modern horror, dark fantasy and mature adult manga in general. It heavily inspired countess classic masterpieces and memorable modern tales such as Berserk, Attack on Titan, Gantz, Neon Genesis Evangalion, Parasyte, Death Note, Tokyo Ghoul, as well as the works of Junji Ito, Naoki Urasawa and Satoshi Kon. Hell, even many non-horror series have drawn inspiration from it such as Yu Yu Hakusho, Inuyasha and Dragon Ball. You could say that Devilman is to manga what Lovecraft is to modern horror.
Though it does struggle to move itself forward at times, the lore behind the demons, the origin of the main character merging with a powerful entity which is used in many modern series and the emotional climactic ending are all fascinating to see. The author also utilizes a lot of real-world literature to set the foundation of the plot and backstory. In the world of Devilman, the events of Dante's Divine Comedy and the Christian Bible are things that actually happened, it also brings in a lot of historical references and events such as the Salem Witch Trials, Black Sabbaths, WWII, race feuds, slavery and colonization. It's one of the first series that created the 'humans can be more cruel, terrifying and monstrous than actual demons, monsters and wild animals' plots that we've seen done thousands of times.
It's definitely a tad corny and poorly written in some places, but it's great to see where many modern storytelling tropes originated from and how it inspired so many of my all-time favorite series. The Netflix adaption Devilman Crybaby is also a very cool modernized retelling of the original story and I honestly prefer it over the manga a bit.
***
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Mankind’s only hope for salvation is to use the demons’ power against them, and only a pure-hearted man like Akira Fudo can do so without losing his humanity. Once, he was little more than a timid crybaby, but Akira now wields the terrible power of a devil, yet holds the innocent soul of a man; he is a Devilman. Akira gets dragged into a dark world of conspiracy, betrayal and bloodshed by his best friend Ryo. Ryo's father was a genius researcher of the occult who left many records and findings informing them of the oncoming demon invasion before he was possessed and took his own life. Now the two friends are the only ones with the power and the knowledge to save the world or lead it to its destruction.
Devilman has quite the legacy. It's very rough around the edges and it definitely shows its age with some stale dialogue, major pacing issues, one dimensional characters who react unrealistically, etc, but all of these things are to be expected since it was written in 1972 around the time when the medium was just beginning to find solid ground and can be considered the grandfather of all modern horror, dark fantasy and mature adult manga in general. It heavily inspired countess classic masterpieces and memorable modern tales such as Berserk, Attack on Titan, Gantz, Neon Genesis Evangalion, Parasyte, Death Note, Tokyo Ghoul, as well as the works of Junji Ito, Naoki Urasawa and Satoshi Kon. Hell, even many non-horror series have drawn inspiration from it such as Yu Yu Hakusho, Inuyasha and Dragon Ball. You could say that Devilman is to manga what Lovecraft is to modern horror.
Though it does struggle to move itself forward at times, the lore behind the demons, the origin of the main character merging with a powerful entity which is used in many modern series and the emotional climactic ending are all fascinating to see. The author also utilizes a lot of real-world literature to set the foundation of the plot and backstory. In the world of Devilman, the events of Dante's Divine Comedy and the Christian Bible are things that actually happened, it also brings in a lot of historical references and events such as the Salem Witch Trials, Black Sabbaths, WWII, race feuds, slavery and colonization. It's one of the first series that created the 'humans can be more cruel, terrifying and monstrous than actual demons, monsters and wild animals' plots that we've seen done thousands of times.
It's definitely a tad corny and poorly written in some places, but it's great to see where many modern storytelling tropes originated from and how it inspired so many of my all-time favorite series. The Netflix adaption Devilman Crybaby is also a very cool modernized retelling of the original story and I honestly prefer it over the manga a bit.
***
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My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPs...
My Instagram Account: https://www.instagram.com/michael_sor...
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September 17, 2022
Devilman is about high schooler Akira Fudo absorbing the powers of the demon Amon to help his best friend Ryo Asuka fight other demons that are hidden in society! Originally I watched the netflix adaptation of this, Devilman Crybaby, and immediately I knew I wanted to read the manga its based on. If you like older stuff, an artstyle that isn't "normal", and gore then this is right up your ally. This is a manga that I like to call a pointless manga and its not cause its legit pointless and not worth reading its because in the story no matter what the protagonist does to defeat the antagonist it never works and the antagonist ends up "winning", which I love. I think I like that kind of thing so much because the protagonist always wins so its nice to have a change once in a while.I think my favorite thing in the book, besides the gore, is the love Ryo has for Akira. Although it isn't exactly said you can tell Ryo loves Akira in a non-platonic way which is something I never expected to find in a book published in 1972! I would say my least favorite thing is the time travel arc. It felt out of the blue and didn't really fit in with the story. I think the craziest story in that arc was when Akira and Ryo went back in time to visit Hitler!?!?!?!?!?!?!!? Anyways if you liked this then I definitely recommend Devilman Crybaby on Netflix due to it being a more modern take on it!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 8, 2019
My feelings between this as the second/ending and my review of the first isn't all that much different.
Despite that the themes/art had matured somewhat from the beginning to how it ends, it's still very important to keep in that it released in 70's Japan... so a lot of the humor, characters, portrayals, concepts/etc are pretty dated. I already knew what I was getting into, but I can see how it would be a shock to anyone completely unaware of what the series is like.
The second part of this collection ups a bit of the seriousness as it starts going into the god vs satan plot more thoroughly, and because of such the depictions of rape/death/gore/etc also ups in seriousness. I actually like this more serious direction, where the occasional comedy isn't AS silly, and is a nice break in insanity.
I'm glad that these collections exist now, as I think that because the newest anime had to be crunched at the end, it helps fill in a lot of gaps leftover that I've seen a lot of people have/personally asked me because I was someone who had actually read it before/seen the older anime[s]. They look great on my horror manga shelf.
Despite that the themes/art had matured somewhat from the beginning to how it ends, it's still very important to keep in that it released in 70's Japan... so a lot of the humor, characters, portrayals, concepts/etc are pretty dated. I already knew what I was getting into, but I can see how it would be a shock to anyone completely unaware of what the series is like.
The second part of this collection ups a bit of the seriousness as it starts going into the god vs satan plot more thoroughly, and because of such the depictions of rape/death/gore/etc also ups in seriousness. I actually like this more serious direction, where the occasional comedy isn't AS silly, and is a nice break in insanity.
I'm glad that these collections exist now, as I think that because the newest anime had to be crunched at the end, it helps fill in a lot of gaps leftover that I've seen a lot of people have/personally asked me because I was someone who had actually read it before/seen the older anime[s]. They look great on my horror manga shelf.
June 8, 2022
I wanted to read Devilman ever since I watched the Netflix adaptation Devilman Crybaby which I absolutely adored. Having read it, I can see why people may have more love for one over the other. Devilman gives you more of the lore that was definitely missing from the adaptation, while Devilman Crybaby fleshes out the relationships between its characters a bit more, and I definitely preferred the metaphors in the anime—
I can also see the influence Devilman had on other media, most notably Berserk and Neon Genesis Evangelion . The only real flaw I had with the manga was that it definitely didn’t age all that well, which I can’t really hold against the manga since it is a product of its time, but there were just some pieces of dialogue that really didn’t work. Regardless, Devilman is a classic in manga and I definitely recommend it to anyone especially fans of series like Berserk and Neon Genesis Evangelion .
I can also see the influence Devilman had on other media, most notably Berserk and Neon Genesis Evangelion . The only real flaw I had with the manga was that it definitely didn’t age all that well, which I can’t really hold against the manga since it is a product of its time, but there were just some pieces of dialogue that really didn’t work. Regardless, Devilman is a classic in manga and I definitely recommend it to anyone especially fans of series like Berserk and Neon Genesis Evangelion .
February 25, 2024
Probably one of my new favourite things ever! like genuinely, it was amazing. before reading this, i had already watched the OVAs and had the ending spoiled, but this was definitely worth it. It did take me a while to get used to the art style, but it's great. The art does change a bit from the first chapter to the last chapter, which is obviously normal. the art is gorge so im not complainign.
sometimes the dialogue felt a little too on the nose, but that might be because i was reading a weird translation. That didn't really bother me too much.
this is probably incorrect (i do not know what im yapping about) but i personally view this story as having 2 acts. The first one is akira running around and killing baddies, and the second one is entirely tonally different. i LOVE LOVE LOVE both acts, but the transition between them felt pretty abrupt. that being said, i really dont know if it would even be possible to have a smooth transition between them.
when i first read it, i was pretty disappointed that the final battle was around two or three pages long, but i genuinely do not care anymore!!!! the ending was great, go read devilman!!
sometimes the dialogue felt a little too on the nose, but that might be because i was reading a weird translation. That didn't really bother me too much.
this is probably incorrect (i do not know what im yapping about) but i personally view this story as having 2 acts. The first one is akira running around and killing baddies, and the second one is entirely tonally different. i LOVE LOVE LOVE both acts, but the transition between them felt pretty abrupt. that being said, i really dont know if it would even be possible to have a smooth transition between them.
when i first read it, i was pretty disappointed that the final battle was around two or three pages long, but i genuinely do not care anymore!!!! the ending was great, go read devilman!!
January 25, 2019
I decided to read the original manga because the Netflix original series was my favorite show on TV in 2018 and because PewDiePie recommended reading this to get the full story. The second half of the Netflix series (dealing with the apocalyptic war between humans and demons) was rushed due to budgetary constraints, but this original manga fills in the gaps. Vol. 1 of the original collection contains campy and pointless time travel stories that were rightly cut out of the Netflix series, but Vol. 2 is fortunately free of such filler. At its best, this manga's writing and animation is on the same level as
Akira
.
November 17, 2020
I have mixed feelings about this. The concept is still great, but the execution is lacking. The book begins with more time travel that fails to add anything to the overall narrative. Then we finally move forward with the beginning of the end, with an unnecessary introduction by a 4th wall breaking Akira. This part of the story is great and really could have been fleshed out more. When we get to the final chapter, though, it is jarring. We are told that it's now 20 years later, we get scant exposition with no dialog, and just a series of splash pages. They look nice, but it's anticlimactic. The resolution is absolutely what it needs to be, though, and it should never be changed. It's everything leading up to it that leaves it lacking.
September 18, 2021
So this was my first Manga series and I absolutely loved it. The art, the words, the lessons. I just loved it. Why did it take me so long to get into manga I don’t know, let’s saying being dumb and young. Back to the book, at the surface it’s your typical good vs. evil that everyone has read and every author has their version. But as you read and the story unfolds it becomes more than that. Now I did see the twist that came into play but I couldn’t put it down I had to know what happened, if it wasn’t for life getting in the way I would have finished sooner. I can honestly say I have my new obsession and that’s manga.
May 21, 2019
Damn! This went in a direction I didn't expect whatsoever, and I loved it! I always enjoyed the old '80s OVAs for their crazy gore, but none of those touch on where this story will go, and neither does the first volume of this collection. It was all quite entertaining, but at the end of the day nothing very substantial or lasting. The second half of the manga is a totally different beast altogether. Now I understand why this has been labeled as such a highly influential manga, as I can see it now in so many of my favorite series over the years. Gotta highly recommend this one!
March 8, 2019
The final volume of Go Nagai's original Devilman manga continued the insane story of demons at war with humans and Devilman caught in the middle. No saccharine sappy endings here, the brutal horror builds and builds up to the final chapter. Betrayal and barbarism abound. The juxtaposition of the classic cartoony manga style of the human characters with the gruesome designs of the demons is truly spectacular to behold. Not a manga for the kiddies, it was almost too much for me if I'm honest.
March 20, 2019
Torn on this one. The conclusion to the story is fine, the art is great, the action is bonkers. It's a bit more convoluted than it should be and I get the sense that the odd bit of this as whole had chapters maybe appearing in other magazines or something since it doesn't flow well until it gets into the final chapters. That said, the insane violence and truly bizarre demons keep you interested so it's still worth a look if you're curious about classic manga.
July 18, 2019
A great, heart-rending ending to this series. Well, for this first iteration of Devilman. There's a sequel (Devilman Lady) that I don't think has gotten a release in the States, that seems to be really, really convoluted.
Anyway! In case you were wondering, the "Devilman: Crybaby" is a pretty faithful adaptation, if the story intrigues you but you can't handle Go Nagai's...unique artwork. Overall, I can see why this is one of the anime / manga greats. It deserves it.
Anyway! In case you were wondering, the "Devilman: Crybaby" is a pretty faithful adaptation, if the story intrigues you but you can't handle Go Nagai's...unique artwork. Overall, I can see why this is one of the anime / manga greats. It deserves it.
November 17, 2021
worth the read. I can see how impactful it could have been at the time it was written if it had not also been subject to so much controversy. I can seen why Go Nagai is a classic and an inspiration to many later manga artists and anime producers.
side note: Netflix did a great job with the modern adaptation! They were able to draw parallels with society today to highlight the same themes and motifs.
side note: Netflix did a great job with the modern adaptation! They were able to draw parallels with society today to highlight the same themes and motifs.
April 11, 2025
Dude! I would say the second volume was better than the first even. Brutality level was way higher. Social commentary and insight into the evils of the human heart I think was pretty much spot on. When his family was killed in the way they were I was like damn there is no turning back now. The end was epic. Plus some scenes towards the end with the head of Miki I had the funniest feeling that the author of Attack on Titan was influenced by it if not the whole series to boot.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 10, 2020
This second half of the graphic novel by far is the darkest yet. But it is sad, just when the reader thinks he's got it all figured out only to be proven wrong. Just as Fudo Akira has found out the hard way. Still, it kinda sucked when that happened. Still a good story though.
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