Devilman G デビルマンG (グリモワール) (also known as Devilman Grimoire) is a manga written and drawn by Takato Rui (with Go Nagai himself also writing) for the 40th anniversary of Devilman to introduce younger generations to the franchise with a completely fresh tale from the original format. For that reason familiar elements like Ryo Asuka (Satan) and his relationships with the main cast have been completely erased to show what Akira Fudo really is as a human compared to Amon.
It was published in the magazine Champion Red running from May 2012 to January 2014 issues, although Rui may continue the story at a later date. It incorporates a large amount of its themes from the original Manga and TV series, however characters and other points from many other manga are present too.
The series was completed in 5 volumes (coincidentally with the number of volumes of the original 1972's manga). In 2017, Seven Seas Entertainment acquired the license for the series and launched the first volume on October 17, 2017.
In the dark streets of Tokyo, things have slowly but surely begun following the law of jungle where the strong devour the weak. This was revealed to be because demons have been appearing taking over humans. A schoolgirl named Miki Makimura is a self-proclaimed witch who is helped by her childhood friend Akira Fudo in her exploits. When one of her rituals gets interrupted by demons, Akira is horribly injured and with his consciousness fading, his body is hijacked by the demon hero Amon. Afterwards the demon tribes begin to move in for a turf war to control the world. With much of their activity, people with pure hearts and strong wills become Devilmen, continuing to fight against the Demons until only one party is left standing.
Provides examples of
- Action Girl: Miki becomes one once she gains her devilman powers. Others include the usual female demons like Sirene and Mico, with this manga placing a lot more emphasis on the female combatants as Satan isn't the Big Bad here and Akira is instead the secondary protagonist.
- Adaptational Curves: Miki is notably more voluptuous in this manga, which is commented on numerous times by the other characters.
- Adaptation Name Change: In order of each character’s appearance in the manga: Iwao Himura -> Asuka Himura, General Muzan -> Lord Atrocious, Zannin -> Harsh, Drango ->Nix, Lacock and Arlon -> Cruel and Coco, and that’s just the important characters.
- Adaptational Badass: In the original manga and most adaptations, Miki mostly exists as Akira's love interest and is killed off. In Grimoire, Miki becomes a Devilman herself.
- Adaptational Heroism: A few characters who were antagonists in either the 1972 anime or the manga are on the side of the heroes in this story.
- Adaptational Wimp: In the original manga, Satan was ultimately an unstoppable force who manages to kill even Akira in the end. In Grimoire, he is killed by Miki in her Devilman form and isn't even the Big Bad in the end.
- Asshole Victim:
- Dosu-Roku and Go are introduced bullying Akira and harassing Miki and later suggest that next time they actually rape her, both of them wind up getting eaten by Aleda.
- Masa Bokuto and his girlfriend also get this when they laugh at Himura getting slapped around by Miki and get abducted and subsequently eaten by Sirene.
- Bury Your Gays: During the attack launching demonkind's war against humanity, Aioi Kurosaki, the lesbian lover of Jun Lan, is fatally wounded and dies in Jun's arms.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Practically every human that's killed goes out in an incredibly gory and often drawn-out fashion. The demons are not gentle to the humans they decide to hunt down.
- Death by Adaptation: This and the good ending of the NES game are the only editions to Devilman series where Satan gets killed.
- Death Glare: Illuge gives one to Jinmen before their fight. During the demon war Aleda is on the receiving end of this by an bunch of humans including Akiko and Tare when she finds their hideout.
- Demoted to Extra: Satan goes from being the Big Bad of the original manga to being a Monster of the Week in this one.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: In stark contrast to the rest of the franchise, Grimoire ends on a triumphant note. Though many people die throughout the manga, in the end, humans and Devilmen are able to coexist peacefully. It's also one of the few adaptations in which both Akira and Miki survive.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: Appears in full force, with Jun and Aioi passionately making out in almost all of their scenes and Cruel and Coco having incestuous oral sex in mid-conversation.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Tomoda Hikaru aka Nix is cut in half. He gets better cause he uses the lake that was near him to regenerate his lower torso.
- Lighter and Softer: Downplayed. While Grimore retains the manga's original content, it ends on a high note instead of a straight up downer. Akira and Miki even survive in Grimore as opposing to being killed off.
- Mythology Gag: All over the place.
- First off, Amon’s attacks are named similarly to his attacks from the anime.
- While wishing that he’d possessed Miki instead of Akira, Amon briefly considers the possible end result which looks like the title character of Devilman Lady.
- While Ryo Asuka is absent from the series, Nix bears a strong resemblance to Ryo. In an inversion of Ryo being Akira's Big Bad Friend, Nix is the former friend of Amon before becoming an ally of the devilmen after his defeat.
- The aftermath of Amon and Nix’s fight pays homage to the last panels of the original manga.Whereas the original manga's ending had Satan talking to Akira only to realize he had killed him, Akira and Nix have a conversation while Nix is bisected but still alive.
- Tachibana's decapitated head is displayed to the Devilman Corps in a box, mirroring a shot in the original manga of Miki's severed head inside a briefcase as Akira buries it.
- Cruel’s death is a panel by panel recreation of Miki’s death from the manga ending with her head and other body parts paraded around, stuck on the ends of poles. Lampshade when Miki is shown disturbed by the sight.
- Oh, Crap!: Aleda’s last expression, before she's killed by three devilmen who were with the humans in the hideout.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Kei abandons Cruel and Sirene at the demon fortress as soon as he sees the Devilman Corps coming for them.
- Sex for Solace: Miki and Akira Sleep together after Atrocious’s attack on the school.
- Shout-Out: To a few of Go Nagai’s other works.
- Miki sings the ending theme of Shin Mazinger while taking a bath.
- Tsubasa uses her mind powers to make the Makimuras believe that she is their daughter, much like the title character of Majokko Tickle.
- When Miki shows off her new Devilman form, Medoc’s face under Miki’s witch hat invokes to image of Chapeau-ji from Dororon Enma-kun.
- Speaking of Majokko Tickle, Cruel and Coco’s human forms seem to be based off of the protagonists of the anime.
- At one point the demon Vlava takes a human form that resembles Violence Jack.
- After Todaji and Sirene fuse together their shared human form resembles Baron Ashura of Mazinger fame.
- During the final battle Ryo Utsugi shifts through several different forms one of which is based on the beast head of Jushin Liger.
- As for things not related to Go Nagai, in the first chapter there's a cameo appearance
from the Studio Pierrot Magical Girls. (Yuu Morisawa, Persia Hayami, Mai Kazuki, Yumi Hanazono and Miho Shinohara)- In that same chapter there's also cameo appearances by Runna Minami◊, Mika Kujiraoka and Maruko Hesoya from Rui Takato's pervious manga, Mikarun X.
- In that same chapter there's also cameo appearances
- Agawa Shiro debuts doing Akio's car flip-slide thing from Adolescence of Utena.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Both Miki and Akira live through the events of Grimoire, while both die in the original manga.
- This Cannot Be!: Satan is in complete disbelief when Miki merges with Flam and Medoc.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Inverted, while at first it seems that the demons including Amon had possessed human hosts, in the end it’s revealed that the demons are all humans suffering amnesia as result of the trauma of gaining their new powers and the memories of their lives on prehistoric Earth were planted by the Big Bad.
- Took a Level in Badass: Miki, now a Devilman, can manipulate fire and uses a katana in combat.
- The Unfought: Jinmen is never faced by the heroes.
- Villainous Incest: During Kei’s audience with them, Coco can be seen pleasuring Cruel, this is well after it’s been established that they are sisters.
