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Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga: Devilman


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Daimao Raki



Joined: 03 Jul 2008
Posts: 593
Location: Dark Side of the Moon
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 3:43 pm Reply with quote
Links to buy the bilingual edition? This seems like something I'd like to have.
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Unholy_Nny



Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 622
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 3:51 pm Reply with quote
Awesome article. I've had trouble finding scans of Go Nagai's work, except for Devilman. I read the whole series in one sitting. Loved it.

I really need to look into the bilingual edition.
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Brand



Joined: 30 Jan 2006
Posts: 1028
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 3:52 pm Reply with quote
I absolutely love Devilman! Though, the end of Devilman could also give CLAMP a run for their money in the WTF?! Srly?! endings.

I also blogged about Devilman and Shin Devilman. Which I basically agree Devilman = Awesome and Shin Devilman = Poop. I do think there is some really awesome panel work in both titles.

I had only known about the Cutey Honey '90 release stateside, it was cool to find out about the other stuff. To bad it all went so poorly. I heard on ANNcast that Vertical is looking to pick up some Go Nagai titles, I hope they get the chance to publish this.
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FeralKat



Joined: 06 Jan 2005
Posts: 402
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 4:24 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
That's right: HE GAVE THE CHARACTERS NOSTRILS.

I don't know why I found it so funny, but this left me in a fit of giggles. Laughing

Love these articles! Very Happy[/quote]
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Basilisk Steven



Joined: 28 May 2010
Posts: 16
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 4:30 pm Reply with quote
Great choice, Devilman really is a classic!
It's not for the faint of heart though, not only because of its incredible level of gore (I had to do a reality check first time I read it: "This is from 1972!?"), but most of all because of its relentlessly bleak worldview. It really preceded the whole dark and edgy era of American superheroes by almost two decades. And really, compared to Devilman stuff like The Dark Knight or Watchmen paints a rosy picture of humanity.

On a related note, I consider the battle between Devilman and Silene in the second OAV the best anime fight ever. It's got a rawness and physically to it that is still unmatched. It almost feels improvised instead of choreographed.
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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 4:45 pm Reply with quote
"Shameless". That's a good word for it.

I especially laughed at its view of relations between the sexes; in the beginning, Miki gleefully mocks Ryo as a wimp, but as soon as he's a barely contained storm of violence, she's all over him.

Devilman's full of nonsense and isn't the best writing in the world (whatever happened to that mysterious dome of light engulfing Moscow?), but it really does have a raw emotional impact that makes it well worth reading.
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wandering-dreamer



Joined: 21 Jan 2008
Posts: 1733
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 5:02 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
The last scene in volume 1 is a repentant Ryo standing naked and alone in the blood-soaked club, cradling the body of his unconscious friend Ryo, crying "Ryo! Don't be dead!

You did mention Ryo again later in the article but was it Akira who was holding Ryo's body or Ryo did some some or funky split and was holding this own dead body?
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Penguin_Factory



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 732
Location: Ireland
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 5:45 pm Reply with quote
Does anyone else think Devilman looks a lot like The Grinch in those three panels near the top?
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GloriousMaximus



Joined: 11 Nov 2009
Posts: 138
Location: North America
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 6:20 pm Reply with quote
Yes! Go Nagai! I watched Black Lion a while ago and was hooked on his level of awesomeness and insanity levels lol. Will definitely be checking this out.
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rinmackie



Joined: 05 Aug 2006
Posts: 1040
Location: in a van! down by the river!
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 6:31 pm Reply with quote
OMG! I've actually been thinking about Devilman a lot lately. Unfortunately, I've only seen the few anime episodes from the 90's. I believe another OAV was released not too long ago but I don't know if it was ever licensed over here. It's a shame, really. Even though it's crazy-violent, I love Devilman. Nice to see Go Nagai tried to publish over here, even tried to team with Marvel. But I guess the timing was all wrong but I think he should definitely try again. I'd like to think America might be ready for something like Devilman this time. (Then again, maybe not.) But I really would like to see him give it one more try.

P.S. I have the complete collection of the Devil Lady anime. It's not Devilman, but I thought if was pretty good for a spin-off.
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TokyoGetter



Joined: 28 Nov 2006
Posts: 416
Location: CA. You can tell by the low moral standards.
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 7:44 pm Reply with quote
"The last scene in volume 1 is a repentant Ryo standing naked and alone in the blood-soaked club, cradling the body of his unconscious friend Ryo, crying "Ryo! Don't be dead! Don't leave me alone in this Ashura hell!"

He's holding himself?
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Joichiro Nishi



Joined: 21 Jul 2007
Posts: 163
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:44 pm Reply with quote
Basilisk Steven wrote:
Great choice, Devilman really is a classic!
It's not for the faint of heart though, not only because of its incredible level of gore (I had to do a reality check first time I read it: "This is from 1972!?"), but most of all because of its relentlessly bleak worldview. It really preceded the whole dark and edgy era of American superheroes by almost two decades.


If Devilman were published today it would be viewed as a deconstruction of the shounen genre. It has a insecure boy who became the choisen one for saving this world thanks to his pure heart but spoiler[he utterly failed]. The shounen fantasy collapse in the middle of a situation too complex for a kid. In a sense it's very similar to Neon Genesis Evangelion, even Yoshiyuki Sadamoto admitted that Anno was influenced by Devilman.

The last scene is one of the saddest moments I read in a manga spoiler[When Ryo admitted that demons aren't better than humans or God because at the end the strong one thinks he has the right over the lifes of the weaklings. Just that phrase deconstruct the entire heroic fantasy of shounen genre. Battles aren't about love or justice, they're just about power.]

Devilman is a great manga, it's a shame that it isn't very popular.
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Shay Guy



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 2093
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:51 pm Reply with quote
Ah, the famous Go Nagai. Influential on several different fronts in manga and completely, utterly...well...batshit insane. I still remember this blog comment I read once:

Quote:
Mazinger Z is hyperactive and spastic. Something is always exploding or someone is yelling or a neck is erupting with missiles. In Mazinger, fists are missiles, necks are missiles, eyes are missiles, even breasts are missiles. EVERYTHING IS A MISSILE.


I know Sailor Moon (and hence its imitators) traces some of its lineage back to Cutie Honey, and Mazinger Z's influence is obvious, but did Harenchi Gakuen have a lot of imitators itself?
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NeoShinGundam



Joined: 24 Jan 2008
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:57 pm Reply with quote
Awesome column! I'm familiar with Nagai's mecha anime, and have been looking into his manga stuff. Thanks for all the helpful info.
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Craeyst Raygal



Joined: 30 Apr 2002
Posts: 1383
Location: In the garage, beneath a 1970 MGB GT.
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 10:12 pm Reply with quote
I have always been a big fan of Go Nagai for the same reason I'm a fan of Alice Cooper.

The man is a genius, and is capable of work that's perceptive and intellectual, but doesn't force it in every piece of every work because it's not what he likes.

There's a brutal, flippant, and immersing HONESTY to Go Nagai's works that make them fun to watch. Sex and Violence aren't tacked onto his works because he wants to sell another volume. Sex and Violence are key components in his works because Go Nagai loves him some SEX AND VIOLENCE!

Call me crazy, but I've never felt that you could even genuinely call Cutie Honey or even Kekko Kamen "fanservice" anime, simply because that's exactly what Go Nagai wants to do with his characters. It's not some half-baked "and then we need a hot springs episode to get the male otaku to pay attention" scheme but instead the genuine desire of a creator to present sexy, playful, and hysterically fun heriones.
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