Manga Review: Devilman G Vol. 1 story by Go Nagai, art by Rui Takato
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.
And here’s a music video to get your blood pumping!
