Bam, buch, fuck, tits
You may have seen an anime with this title on Netflix. Both productions are related, but you are looking at the original only now: the camp manga shounen from 1972. Go Nagai redefined the genre here, moving it towards body horror. With an emphasis on the body.
The idea for Devilman seems very simple – once the world was ruled by demons, cruel, violence-loving creatures. As a result of (among others) climate change, they had to leave the field to mammals, and finally to humans. Now they come back to take theirs and kill them all, and the only way to fight them is to be possessed, while still keeping human nature. Sounds like a standard kids’ adventure game? Well, note: in the very first scenes, you may wonder about the physicality of creatures that look like “the good ones”. On the next ones you will realize that it will be indecent, a vagina dentatait’s just one tiny step in the procession of Nagai’s crazy imagination. Well, demolition, demolition will be bloody, long, brutal and driven to absurdity. Everything will be torn off and torn apart. Well, maybe apart from the breasts mentioned here, which are clearly used to warm up the world presented.
What’s next for the adventures? We have the main character here, a standard orphan, a gentle, cowardly boy, whom a much more socially attractive friend urges to become a protector of humanity. There is also a friend who packs the protagonist into school fights for the sake of having fun. Sounds idiotic? Seems to be that way.
End of the world, how wonderful that sounds
After all, Akira becomes a Devilman not for her own amusement, but for noble reasons. In a long, pathetic dialogue with a friend, he learns about the hidden history of the world, begins to understand the cesspool in which mankind has landed and takes up a fight. The following chapters unfold as befits a shounen: the action is advanced by subsequent fights with school bully or brazen demons. Sometimes someone accidentally loses their clothes and underwear – usually some girl. Demons don’t wear clothes.
Devilman is heading relatively quickly (but not yet in this volume) to the bombastic high-C finale, which you probably already expect if you know any animations based on it. It cannot be treated too seriously, starting with the aesthetics that flap between Tezuka and the zine, full of tight shirts and bell trousers, drawn to the cartoon exaggeration of the characters’ expressions, the thick line and the deep darkness of the demon-man’s gloomy thoughts. And having finished? Well, probably on those unfortunate tits …
I want to hear that bang!
You may get the impression that I have reasonable doubts about publishing Devilman in ZOZZ. He’s politically incorrect, overly pathetic, the motivations of the heroes are leaky here like a colander of a spaghetti church… And that’s what I loved about Nagai’s manga! I do not intend to spice it up with pseudophilosophy, although you will find such interpretations as well, the whole thing is derived from the Catholic lore . Sometimes a bloody absurdity conquered by a heroic mission is just what we need. Especially if its author does not suggest that he is creating a memorable work.
I can have doubts until … the afterword. It was taken from another exclusive manga edition; Nagai mentions colored pages, which are not there (in the paperback version, at least). Regret and sadness, that’s what. I would gladly take the colorful cover under the roof, which the publisher showed, for example, in the post advertising the series.
If you are looking for something similar to Devilman , because more than 650 pages is not enough, take a look at Johnny Ryan ‘s Prison Pit series beautifully translated by Łukasz Kowalczuk (those onomatopoeias!) And published by Słowobraz . You just have to be of legal age and open to slime aesthetics. It’s a much more grotesque, dark and often disgusting story that will abuse you emotionally – a worthy modern successor to the brutal curiosities of the 20th century.
Apparently, the first volume of Devilman is selling well, so you probably don’t need any additional encouragement. If you haven’t seen Netflix’s anime, I can add that this fat manga may be on your shelf somewhere near Bailiff Gołkowski or his Siberian . Many new horror manga also grow out of similar climates, but Nagai’s comic has an immeasurable amount of nonsense that gives it lightness and humor.
And here is the Italian inro to the series based on the anime:
