Devilman

Submission 20,127

About

Devilman is a Manga series written by Go Nagai that was adapted into a popular anime series directed by Masayuki Akehi and Tomoharu Katsumata in the 1970s. It was adapted into several novels and films in the ensuing decades and has been revived in several manga series. In January of 2018, it was adapted as an anime called Devilman Crybaby, which premiered on Netflix.

Plot

In the original manga, the story follows Akira Fudo, a timid boy who lives with the family of Mimi Makamura. His friend Ryo Asuka enlists him to help him with his late father's archaeological work, discovering a skull which turns out to be a fossilized skull of a demon. When one wears the skull, one sees how the world was a thousand years ago when demons roamed freely on the earth. Akira wears the skull and encounters the demon Amon, Lord of War, and is able to gain the upper hand on him, and transforms into the titular "Devilman." As Devilman, Akira gains confidence and defeats other demons before the series' violent and surprising end.

History

Devilman's first manga run ran from June 11th, 1972-June 24th, 1973.^[1] The original anime series began shortly after the manga's debut, running from July 8th, 1972-April 7th, 1973, running for a total of 39 episodes.

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Other Manga runs of the series ran from between May 25th, 1979 and May 8th, 1981 (known as Shin Devilman) and between March of 2012 and February of 2014 (Devilman G). There were two original video animations of the series, Devilman: The Birth (1987) and Devilman: Demon Bird Sirène (1990), both of which were directed by Umanosuke Iida and developed with Nagai. The series has also appeared in non-canon crossover films. A live-action adaptation of the series was released in 2004.

Devilman Crybaby

On January 5th, 2018, an adaptation titled Devilman Crybaby was released on Netflix. It was directed by Masaaki Yuasa and written by Ichirō Ōkouchi. The series promised to be an adaptation of the manga rather than the original anime, which featured several plot changes that painted Devilman as a hero.^[2] The anime was very well-received, and was described by Polygon^[3] as Netflix's first masterpiece of 2018.

Online Presence

Online, Devilman has grown a decent fandom. There are over 2,600 pieces of art related to Devilman on Pixiv^[4] and several pieces on DeviantArt.^[5] A mega-thread for Devilman was posted to /r/anime^[6] and gained over 1,000 upvotes. The original manga has a Facebook page with over 4,500 likes.^[7] There are also pages for the series on Wikia^[8] and TV Tropes.^[9]