#devilman anime
Previouslywe discussed how the growth of the anime market place in the mid-to-late 80’s established a new production trend, the OVA, as well as a new precedent for violence and sexual content in animation. This new precedent in turn helped lead to the development of new Devilman anime that could incorporate the more brutal aspects of the manga without fear of broadcast standards or guidelines. With the advent of pay-per-view programming and On-Demand broadcasting, a similar change would occur to the market place again, Original Net Animation, or ONA for short.
The similarities between both OVA and ONA can seem rather negligible for most, where the biggest difference being their intended distribution: either through home video or some kind of video service. However, a gradual shift in the production of ONAs would eventually take place because of technological advances; with ONAs making the shift from being mostly pay-per-view or On-Demand, i.e. cable services, to internet streaming content, either original animations made by indie creators, or for the sake of this article, professionally made content for streaming platforms.
ONAs have recently found themselves becoming a hot ticket item. Corporations are desperately trying to get a foothold in the streaming market and maintain staying power–keeping their customers paying every month; never lapsing in their subscriptions to their service. A key element to this is curating an extensive library of entertainment you cannot get anywhere else. This has lead to the creation of an astronomical amount of new entertainment, all catered to a younger, online audience instead of an traditional mainstream television audience, and the effects can be felt in almost every medium, anime is no exception.
Netflix’s forway into original anime started out slowly, first with just licensing already localized anime, then to translating and simulcasting new anime themselves, and eventually to funding the creation of their own anime. For Devilman it all started back in 2015 with an OVA series released in Japan called Cyborg 009 vs Devilman. Netflix ended up picking this series for international distribution. This OVA is a bit of an odd one, however, and you don’t see many people mention it, despite Devilman’s eventual rise to the mainstream a few years later on the very same platform. I imagine a large part of this may be the cross-over aspect, as not only do you need to be familiar with Devilman, but you also need to really know your Cyborg 009. Oh boy do I hope you know your cyborgs.
The first episode of this 3 episode OVA is the worst offender of this, as it has a cold opening that animates famous scenes from both series’ manga, a cool treat for long time fans, but an absolute nightmare for everyone else. Not only will the first 5 or so minutes of this anime be hard to follow, lead alone understand, for those who are new to one or both franchises–it’s also spoiler city, showing potential newcomers huge moments from their respective franchises way before they should. It would be as if Star Wars: A New Hope started with the scene from Empire where Darth Vader tells Luke he is his father, then rolls its credits and goes back to the start of A New Hope.
While I want to be more negative, however, the cold opening, while not newcomer friendly at all, is just so well made for its fans. This is also weirdly the only instance in any Devilman adaptation that Go Nagai’s use of negative space was replicated. Nagai loved using negative space in his manga, and Devilman is especially heavy on this use during particularly brutal or emotional scenes, yet no other anime ever made in the franchise actually tried to replicate this use of negative space other than the cold opening seen here. Perhaps this is a metaphor to best sum up the entire OVA, as it’s a fun romp that knew its two source materials inside and out (look no father than the ending theme animating legendary panels from both manga) but just is really hard for anyone to get into who wasn’t already a huge fan. It’s a shame as this is great fun with a team up I never knew I wanted but ended up enjoying a lot, but it’s just so hard to recommend to anyone.
It would be 3 years later in 2018 where Devilman really got his major hit on Netflix, Devilman Crybaby, a brand new ONA produced in part for Netflix itself. Devilman Crybaby was helmed by directer, animator, and all around auteur, Masaaki Yuasa, an artist that was for the longest time an underground darling but has recently started to really garner the more mainstream respect he deserves, much like Devilman itself. Yuasa and his studio Science Saru have a very unique look that isn’t like what a lot of people may think when they hear “anime”–instead of the usual highly detailed but stiff, Yuasa’s works are mostly fresh and emphasize free form movement. Devilman has never looked like this before, and that’s probably the best way to describe Crybaby as a whole.
Yuasa and his team were able to take the original material and adapted it for modern audiences; revitalizing and updating aspects of it to better match today’s times. Crybaby is a whole new beast entirely, that examines parts of the manga that where there, if you read between some lines, and really gives them a brighter focus–aspect like puberty, and even homosexuality are all more thoroughly explored than their original 1972 counterparts where they mostly were left for subtext and later works in the franchise to flesh out. Police brutality, poverty, mob mentality, social movements, and the internet are also now examined under the microscope; aspects that weren’t entirely new are given more depth than previous adaptations have ever really taken the source material as well. Devilman is no longer just a metaphor for war in Crybaby, it’s a metaphor for hate, injustice, and intolerance. It touches on how volatile and knee-jerk modern society has become. This is Devilman on a 21st century entertainment platform with 21st century values being examined. That’s the real secret to Crybaby’s success.
Perhaps the biggest surprise to Devilman Crybaby though is that it is the first animated adaptation to Devilman in over 45 years to ever adapt the original, infamous ending of the manga. That is insane to think about, it took four and a half decades until an entertainment platform outside of comics could show the ending. For many fans this was the cherry on top for Crybaby, something that seemed almost impossible by that point was finally delivered. And let me tell you, it was worth the wait. The original manga ending works especially well with this new interpretation of the material too–Yuasa and his team were able to really transform the whole thing into something beautiful. The less said about the ending, however, the better, so all I will say beyond this is: be ready.
It’s hard to tell where Devilman may go in the future, we examined its prototype, we looked at the original TV series that started it all, went over its OVAs where the series really started to come into its own, and now ended on its ONA where it has finally found mainstream appeal on an online platform. Through the course of all these reviews I really enjoyed seeing how Devilman transformed with the anime market on a whole, but now that my Devilman coverage for this month is coming close to an end I will like to look at the original medium that it was created on; so the final piece of Devilman related content for this year’s Zero Frights will be an examination of some Devilman manga. Please look forward to it.
Asdiscussed previously, when the Devilman manga originally started in 1972 Japanese television was not yet ready for it. GeGeGe no Kitaro just hit the airways only 4 years prior, and it was a long road transferring that particular horror themed series from the pages of manga to the small screen–which was thought far too morbid for children until then. Devilman as a manga is renowned for its sexual themes, grotesque violence, and hideous monsters, but as a manga it’s still not too out there. There was other more extreme stuff in print by that point in the early 70’s, and it was far from the only manga to touch on incredibly mature themes. The point is, for a manga, while still shocking–especially for its younger boy to teenage audience–it was still right at home for a manga, where as the budding television anime market was far too young to touch it.
That’s where the ever expanding anime market of the mid-to-late 80’s and early 90’s really came in. The growth of the anime market saw original video animation (OVA), or direct-to-video film and shows that bypassed theatres and television alike instead going directly to the consumer. The waves of OVAs to follow in the years after Dalloswould range wildly in quality–many productions, such as The Heroic Legend of Arslan, were passion projects that animators poured all their imagination and talent into; as well as all their money–while other productions just seemed to really relish this new found freedom to work out of the restraints, guidelines and censors, leading to a golden age (or maybe a dark age depending on whom you ask) of overly violent and sexual animation. All kinds of schlock would eventually fill video stores, and titles like Urotsukidoji and Demon City Shinjuku started to become the norm for anime shelves. Finally there was an animated market where Devilman would feel right at home.
For the longest time these two particular Devilman OVAs were easily the closest to the original material that any anime had ever got–a somewhat ironic statement when you realize these 2 OVAs were adaptations of the Devilman novelization written by Go Nagai’s brother, and not actually a straightforward adaptation of the manga itself; although it’s a pretty common misconception that it is amongst fans. But all that aside, the franchise finally had an animated series that fit the visceral tone of the original manga: an anime with all the blood, violence and tiddies that the manga had, and maybe even more! For that alone it’s easy to see why The Birth and The Demon Bird are still very fondly remembered today more than 20+ years later.
Both OVAs were directed by the late Umanosuke Iida, who later went on to direct and storyboard part of the Hellsing OVA, but has storyboarded, directed, and drawn key animation for many other works–touching everything from Cowboy Bebop, to Lupin the Third, to even Mobile Suit Gundam. It would not be unreasonable for newcomers to worry over the quality of The Birth or The Demon Bird knowing the bad reputation OVAs from this era have–mostly that the majority of them are nothing but pure schlock–but thankfully both land overwhelmingly on the artistic side instead. If anything, The Birth and The Demon Bird are those rare crossbreeds that go full batshit in the sex and violence not to shock the audience or to disguise a low budget, but to compliment the story they tell.
The 2 OVAs compliment each other, with each leaning heavily on different aspects. The Birth is just that, the birth of Akira Fudo becoming Devilman. This OVA relies heavily on suspense and while it may be a bit too exposition heavy, it is actually my favorite of the two. The general atmosphere of The Birth is just handled so creepily and all the world building and set up is just so fascinating, that I don’t mind if it’s essentially; Ryo explains demons to Akira: the movie. The small fights dispersed in-between conversations certainly helps too, and more interestingly, they are all Akira and Ryo desperately struggling with just their wits and everyday weapons (mostly a lot of guns), instead of relying on superpowers. Of course that is until the ending bloodbath where Akira finally becomes Devilman and all hell gloriously breaks loose.
The Demon Bird is the polar opposite of The Birth, where very little is explained since pretty much all of that has been covered, and instead goes all in on action scenes. This is where the OVAs bring in some of their best animation, as it essentially runs through back-to-back battles with all the biggest, baddest demons in the franchise, culminating with the final fight against Sirene. Together the two strike a very perfect balance of story and action, and are really satisfying to marathon.
The Birth and The Demon Bird are such solid fun OVAs that have some of the best the late 80’s could really offer, but they are also kind of infamous on the internet too–but not for what you might think. It isn’t the actual content but the hilarious and genuinely gratuitous dub that that it received from Manga Entertainment. This practice was very common for Manga Entertainment back then, whom banked on a lot of hyper violent, sexual, horror anime releases in rental stores. This lead to their dubbing adding a whole slew of swearing and F-bombs that wasn’t ever present in the Japanese scripts in the hopes to raise the age rating of the anime in order for it to have to be placed near the Rated R (or equivalent) movies in rental stores. That way when the average Joe is checking out Friday the 13th Part LXIX they might stumble onto Devilman in the store and want to check it out too.
There are of course people who will tell you to steer clear of this ludicrous dub and just stick with the much more appropriate Japanese audio and subtitles, but I honestly highly recommend it at least once. A dub this insane has to be experienced, and honestly how fitting is it that OVAs known for their shock value and schlock ended up getting dubs that try so hard to be shocking and schlock-y! It’s in some ways the perfect dub for Devilman (okay maybe only in crazy town logic it is, but whatever).
No matter how you do watch the The Birth and The Demon Bird however, you are definitely in for a good time with what was one of the best Devilman adaptations for many, many years.
As discussed earlier in my Zero Frights Introduction and my Mao Dante Review the original 1972 Devilman anime played a key role in the creation of the franchise as a whole. The short version for the uninitiated is that executives over at Toei animation wanted to create a series based around Nagai’s earlier Mao Dante (aka Demon Lord Dante) manga but with changes to make it more appropriate for television and a hero with a more humanoid appearance. Nagai felt that instead of just tweaking the earlier Mao Dante into something else he should start fresh and this is how he took similar elements from Mao Dante reworked them and created the new series Devilman.
Nagai oversaw the production of the TV series and was invested in it greatly but would later put most of his attention into his own manga version that he controlled himself. Eventually the two projects diverged and became wildly different. This was due in part to Nagai’s freestyle writing without any planning ahead as well as how he felt the audience for the magazine in which his manga was serialized under was much older than an audience that would watch television anime making him feel a need to up the maturity level of his work.
Some of the major characters from the manga not present in the anime came about because of these reasons, with the biggest example being the character Ryo Asuka whom was a key component to the manga but noticeably absent in the anime. Go Nagai conceived of Ryo much too late in the production cycle for the anime to incorporate him into their version, much to the dismay of some of the staff whom loved the character and felt he would have been a fantastic addition to the anime version. The anime seemed to try its hand rather hard from that point to create a somewhat similar character, first with the rival character Iwao Himura and later with the demon Dorango, a former friend of Devilman now turned foe.
It’s the intended audience that is the biggest difference between the two works, however, and goes much deeper than just missing characters. The television anime was conceived to thematically be about evil vs evil, with the villainous demon Devilman assuming the role of the now deceased Akira Fudo and falling in love with the “goddess” Miki Makimura. Instead of spreading death and destruction like originally intended Devilman fights to protect Miki and her family because of this love he now harbors even though it meant fighting the very evil forces he was once part of. Eventually we watch Devilman grow as a better person–he mellows out and loses some of that sharp edge he used to have, and noticeably carries a deeper respect for ideals like love and friendship.
This is very much at odds with the strong anti-war message of the manga where humans assume demonic forms and power being a message for war drafting and arming young people with weapons. The second the protagonist Akira Fudo lets the demon Amon possess him he is throwing away his innocence and arming himself with a weapon. Hate begets more hate and the cycle becomes increasingly violent until eventually things go too far. Devilman the anime sees concepts like justice and love winning out in the end where as Devilman the manga sees a world where violence carries heavy consequences.
The Devilman manga is a story with a deeper meaning meant to be interpreted through its pages and it’s easy to look at that and feel the original 1972 anime just doesn’t belong with its typical tokusatsusuperhero monster-of-the-week formula, which is why it has a bad rap amongst some fans. This however is pretty unfair as the 1972 anime series is thoroughly well crafted and written. Scenario writer and novelist Masaki Tsuji oversaw much of the writing for the anime and produced incredibly solid scripts for the series. Tsuji was a huge writer at the time and wrote a large amount of episodes for an extensive amount of now legendary TV series such as Astro Boy,GeGeGe no Kitaro,Cyborg 009,Tiger Mask,Dokonjo Gaeru,Babel II,Dr Slump, and Giant Gorg–just to name a few.
Putting aside the manga, and what the franchise later evolved into–after all there was no franchise at this point–the original 1972 Devilman is a great 70’s superhero series that really deserves more love from the fans. Devilman’s multiple powers are all fun with cheesy names like Devil Cutter, Devil Eye, and Devil Beam (that the catchy opening song of course explains), and he possess the ability to grow into a giant much like Ultraman. Fights are dynamic and even a bit bloody at times, but the best aspect by far, however, is the fun monsters-of-the-week themselves. These demons typically looked grotesque and often used underhanded and sometimes actually scary methods to fight Devilman. A lot of the demons in the original manga made an appearance here and they are all great enemies for Devilman to fight. The general horror themed based animation really just started by this point on Japanese television as GeGeGe no Kitaro only aired 4 years prior, so you can see the yokai boom in full effect.
The 1972 Devilman anime is one of my personal favorites from this era and anyone that enjoys older tokusatsu shows or are looking for some horror in their cheesy monster-of-the-week romps can easily fall in love with this series. I always was really fascinated with the series just for the fact that it stars the demon (not yet named Amon) instead of Akira Fudo as well. That difference is just so interesting in retrospect for the franchise and puts a whole other spin on much of the later created content. There’s also obvious Mao Dante trappings left behind that are a lot of fun to notice for long time fans as well; such as the demons all living in a frozen wasteland and being sealed in ice for thousands of years, the character Zannin who is blatantly just a reused Zennon from Mao Dante, and the ruler of the villainous Demon Tribe looking very much like a silhouette of Mao Dante himself as well as (kind of confusingly) being named Zennon.
The series as of late as found a renewed interest thanks largely in part to the many lovingly placed references to it in the brand new Devilman Crybaby. Thankfully it is incredibly easy to get a hold of nowadays as well because of Discotek releasing it on DVD (you know I was there on Day-1). The Discotek release contains a great translation that is easy to understand which is a huge improvement over the old days where I watched the series with bootleg English subtitles that were pretty questionable and always refereed to Devilman as Debiman (I like to think this was his nickname because he ate one too many Little Debbie snacks). With such a huge milestone as Go Nagai’s 50th anniversary this year and all the recent releases for Devilman in North America from Netflix to the many newly released manga, maybe now the original anime can finally get some more love too.
