Miki Makimura Talks Like a Samurai

Pronouns in Japanese, both first and second person, are a lot more complicated than in English. If you're reading a post about Devilman, you probably have at least some cursory knowledge of the subject, but for a quick redux: in Japanese, there are a variety of ways to say both "I/me" and "you," each carrying …

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Devilminutia: Name Meanings

(I'm going to be using the heading Devilminutia for short posts discussing the minutia of Devilman - things that don't quite have enough substance for a proper piece, but are still worth pointing out and discussing.) Because of the nuances of kanji, there are both a lot of ways to write Japanese names and a …

Asuka Ryo Best In Show

As you all know, I am the #1 Devilfan, and I will fight to the death anyone who claims otherwise. By extension, this means I am also the #1 authority on all things Devilman related. Including Ryo. Especially Ryo. Because boy howdy, are there a lot of Ryos to keep track of, varying wildly in …

On Satan, Gender, and Representation

Part I - Angelic Identity Politics In Devilman, Satan is physically intersex. They're shown to have both breasts and a penis, and in the manga, they explicitly refer to themself as "both male and female." This is a clear, objective statement of fact. What one chooses to make of that fact, however, is a little …

Shin Devilman, More Like SHIT Devilman

Let me be honest: I am not fond of Shin Devilman. For those blissfully unaware, Shin is a one-volume spinoff of the original manga drawn by Go Nagai and written by his novelist brother Yasutaka, serialized from 1979-1981, in which Akira and Ryo travel through time and confront demons in various historical contexts. Unfortunately, it's …

“You know I’m a…”: On the Value of Liberal Translation

This post contains major spoilers for every iteration of Devilman. Devilman completed serialization in 1973, and didn't receive an official English translation until 2018, meaning that for approximately 50 years, the only version available to people who didn't speak Japanese (and even those who did, but couldn't get their hands on copies of the original) …