Devil Man Recommended

Publisher
Manga Entertainment
Director
Tsutomu Iida
Production
King Records, Dynamic Planning, Kodansha
Country of origin
Japan
Format
OVA
Running time
52 min x 2 vol
Year
1987

Devil Man: The Demon Bird

By Will Byrne
28th Apr 04

This was the second Manga I ever watched. I remember waiting up until like 3 am on Saturday night to watch it, and I was so tried I nearly fell asleep, but once the Manga started I was immediately revitalised by the unfolding story!

Devilman - The Demon Bird is part two, of the Devilman series, the story begins just after the events of the first episode (Devilman - The Birth) in which we see Akira (main character) visiting his friend Ryo in the hospital as the result of Akira melding with a demon called Amon to form the Hybrid known as Devilman. In the hospital scene we can see for the first time that since the last episode, Akira has got more aggressive, and doesn't behave in the same boyish manner, this continues throughout the Manga and is a result of the melding with Amon that has changed Akira. Akira now has the powers of the demon Amon even while still in his human form Akira can elude demonic strength, agility and powers. The reason why Akira and Ryo melded with demons was in an attempt to use there powers yet still maintain there human consciences, in an attempt to combat the growing demonic threat (sorta like fighting fire with fire). The main story plot of this episode is that a demon by the name of Siren, wants to capture Devilman and torture him to make an example to others that might want to meld with demons, in truth she just wants to kill him... But she does say the torture bit... Anyways before we even see Siren, Akira gets a phone call and then he's off to fight a demon by the name of Jinmen, a particular nasty demon that eats humans but keeps there souls/consciences as a form of torture and a weapon

This Manga rocks! The animation and artwork is awesome. From the start there 's jaw dropping action/fights. There isn't much character building, but this Manga really doesn't need it, it's just one huge action packed fight scene, and IMO it has the best fight scene I have ever seen in a Manga. As I said it was the second Manga I watched after Guyver and I was totally shocked by what I seen. The gore and violence alone shocked me (that was awhile ago hehe) and the action had my heart pumping. Truly a unique experience for someone not used to that type of thing. The character Akira is also very cool as he taunts the demons as he destroys them, and his general manner was just so cool.

The ending of the Manga is pretty disappointing though if you know the full story that is, when I first watched it though I was like "oh ok that rocked!" But when I read up about Devilman I found that the 2 episodes only scratched the surface of full Devilman story (from comics) and then I was disappointed with the ending. There was a 3rd part however it was not created by the same team and IMO it sucked, it was nothing compared to original Ova's

Anyways this Manga really rocks!, nothing better than relaxing to Devilman - The Demon Bird the action is so awesome I could watch it over and over, (and I did when I first brought it ), I highly recommend this to any Manga fan.

10/10

-- Will Byrne 28th Apr 04

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