Defense Devil is a Japanese manga written by Youn In-Wan and illustrated by Yang Kyung-il. It was serialized by Shogakukan in Shōnen Sunday from April 22, 2009 to June 8, 2011.note
Kucabara was recently banished and stripped of his powers. In order to regain his powers, he needs dark matter which is found from human sinners. He decides to become a Defense Devil in order to get dark matter. A Defense Devil's duty is to prove the innocence of human sinner of his or her crime. Once that is done, a Defense Devil shall be allowed to take the sinner's dark matter. Kucabara then must prove the sinner's innocence before a Shinigami takes the sinner to hell. One day, Kucabara's friend Funi arrives and tells him the demon world is in disarray and Kucabara must return to save it.
It has since ended at 100 chapters.
This manga provides examples of:
- Accidental Pervert: Kucabara all the time with Idamaria.
- Father Serma peeks on purpose though.
- Genderflipped version with Jupiter and Shugarl, due to some confusion with the newly transformed women-to-men-shower room the little girl Jupiter ends up in the shower room alone with a very naked Shugarl. It's up to the reader to interpret what exactly she saw and/or understood due to the steam but the girl is still blushing long afterwards.
- Accidental Unfortunate Gesture: A little girl that Kuccabara saves, Jupiter, gives him a cross which is deadly to demons as a thank you gift, and then leads him to the girls shower when he could not touch the cross.
- Later, the cross finds good use in the demon world.
- Alliterative Title: Defense Devil.
- And the Adventure Continues: Now Kucabara has to save God from falling into disgrace.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Brillheart either has this, or is wearing very tall tights.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Legato applies this to the whole Demon World.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: Father Serma has a variation of Type 1: think the Sword of Conviction, and you have Serma's weapon.
- Cheerful Child: Kucabara's sister Bird, which carries on to her illusion of herself after her death.
- Cool Car: Jody is a car blessed by the Catholic church, granting it powerful abilities and even sentience.
- Clothing Damage: Lots and lots both on male and female (but leaning more on the fairer sex) which results in a lot of Fanservice.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Kucabara embodies this trope; he constantly presses the fact that he's a demon, and he uses Dark Matter to supplement his powers, but he never does anything evil.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Not so much friendship as ally in the war to save hell, but after Kucabara defeats Shugarl he starts to actively appose Legato.
- Defrosting Ice Queen:
- Father Selma, who can't bring himself to kill Idamaria to destroy the demon inside her.
- Deliberately Cute Child: Legato. But honestly at first, only deliberate after he has to play the 'bad little brother' per their father's request.
- Demon Slaying: Idamaria does this. So did Selma for a time, when he was trying to come back to life.
- Ecchi: The amount of Fanservice, BOTH male and female, is...yeah....
- Expy: Legato looks suspiciously similar to a certain one-winged angel of Final Fantasy fame.
- Appearance-wise we could compare Kucaraba to L, and Shugarl is like Light with slightly longer hair (Death Note, anyone?).
- Fire and Brimstone Hell: Every Hell is different, since every Shinigami gets to make their own version of Hell for the victims they bring back. This one is Maya's version.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Kucabara and Idamaria, Kucabara and Bichula at first.
- Genre Shift: The series starts out as a court drama in hell with a demon fight near the end of every story line. Now it's a shonen fighting manga with a bit of ecchi. And is now sort of shifting back to court drama.
- Good with Numbers: Shugarl is so good with physics that he can cause power lines to break by flicking away his cigarette the right way. Doing equations also allows him to attack people with his demonic abilities.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Shugarl, to save Jupiter's parents.
- Hitman with a Heart: When tasked with killing Catherine (Idamaria), Selma simply can't bring himself to do so, and instead cares for her like she was his own daughter. This comes back to bite him in the ass four years later, when the church he served discovered the deception.
- Kill All Demons: When Idamaria goes insane.
- Liquid Assets: Brillheart steals youth.
- Luminescent Blush: Idamaria sports these a lot when Kucabara is not getting a case of foot in mouth disease, and when he is being an accidental pervert.
- Ms. Fanservice:
- Elimona loves to cosplay as slutty occupations not like as strippers, but teachers, police, ect.
- Idamaria is seen naked or changing a lot, but she is not happy about it.
- All relatively attractive female character old enough get one scene or another.
- Naughty Nun: Idamaria. It's inevitable when a Church Militant meets Ms. Fanservice.
- Nietzsche Wannabe:
- Legato. "If you can't protect it, destroy it", indeed.
- Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid: Kucabara is the offspring of the devil king and an angel, who was banned from heaven.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Kucabara about Elimonia's true form and the plot of the entire story.
- Panty Fighter: Pretty much inevitable, when Idamaria's battle outfit involves a skirt.
- Really 700 Years Old: Brillheart, who is over a thousand.
- Retired Monster: Father Selma, formerly known as Kanto.
- Royally Screwed Up:
- Kucabara's family. Most of whom are either dead, missing, or banished.
- It is later revealed that only 2 survivor remains and all of them is caused by the angles Light Is Not Good indeed.
- Not as screwed up as they appear to be as later chapters reveal that they all care for each other a lot.
- Say My Name: One heartwrenching example would be Kucabara screaming Legato's name when Elimona shoots a hole into Legato's abdomen.
- Super Drowning Skills: Kucabara. He can actually swim, it just gave him a chance to get mouth to mouth with Idamaria.
- Supreme Chef: Shugarl becomes one using his intense skill in mathematics and physics.
- Thanks for the Mammary: Kucabara ends up groping Idamaria after Elimona teleports him into her shower for some reason.
- And it happens again, with a random ample female when he is transportet to the human world to prove someone's innocence.
- That Came Out Wrong: About 80% of Kucabara's opening lines to woman. He keeps doing it with Idamaria though.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Idamaria is Lilith, the goddess of hell. She doesn't know this for the majority of the story.
- Training from Hell: Ironically, it's for a demon and a nun!
- Tsundere: Idamaria and to a lesser extend Samus. She does shoot all the enemies while claiming she is aiming at Kucabara.
- Unexplained Recovery: After getting her hands on the potion Apocalypse, Idamaria manages to barely escape death and brings back to life Shugarl, Bichula and Legato.
- Double-subverted with Legato when he gets himself impaled in the chest in the next chapter. Then it's revealed later on that he barely avoided death and is still alive.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Kucabara's friend, Funi, is killed off in the exact same chapter he's introduced in.