In Japan, there are two divided races. One is humans and the other is vampires (also known as devils). The devils appear to be regular humans on the surface, but when they see blood, they become uncontrollable monsters that could kill anyone. To this end, they need to use sedatives to calm themselves down and try to blend in with society, even if it's a little bit of a challenge for them.
The story tells us about a meek college student called Tsukasa Taira. She is saved by Yuuki Anzai from a vampire who tries to attack her. However, it turns out that Anzai is a half-devil who works for a police task force that specializes in devil-related crime in Tokyo. As Anzai continues to keep guard over Tsukasa, the two quickly forge a tentative bond and, needless to say, Anzai needs to control his own bloodlust in order to protect Tsukasa from harm. However, Anzai also needs to face another threat from the shadows, a devil extermination organization called the CCC which tries to eradicate all of the devils in Japan.
Created and illustrated by Ryo Hanada, Devils' Line is a Dark Fantasy manga series that was released in 2013 and was published by Kodansha and the English version was released by Vertical. It also has an anime adaptation produced by an obscure anime studio called Platinum Vision that was premiered on April 7, 2018. The show consists of twelve episodes and an OAD.
After over five years of serialization, Devils' Line has ended on December 22, 2018 with 66 chapters. Currently there are five extra side-story chapters being released.
A sequel, Devils' Line II [Trigger], began serialization in January 2022.
This manga contains the following tropes:
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Somewhat averted. Tsukasa receives a facial scar early in the anime and, while not particularly disfiguring, it does remain for the rest of the series.
- Berserk Button:
- Never, ever hurt Tsukasa in front of Anzai. If you do, he will go berserk and then turn himself into a raging monster.
- With the exception of Hans Lee, who can control his bloodlust, devils will go berserk after they see human blood and could harm anybody around them.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
- Keiji Ochiai, Tsukasa's professor, is an affable, friendly and considerate teacher during the day. However, he is a vicious serial rapist during the night as he tries to rape Tsukasa for satisfying his own lust.
- Kikuhara. While he's more of a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, he actually manages to trick most of the police force into not realizing that he is actually a leader of a terrorist organization called the CCC.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Tsukasa Taira is the gentle and sweet girl counterpart of the seemingly stoic and brooding Yuuki Anzai.
- Can't Have Sex, Ever: Anzai and Tsukasa love each other and would really like to get it on. The only problem is that Anzai transforms into an uncontrollable, bloodthirsty monster when he's turned on.
- Crapsack World: Needless to say, the world isn't a nice place to live in for the humans and devils alike. The humans are seemingly living their own lives in the first half. However, after the Ikebukuro incident that exposes the devils, most of the humans end up becoming scared and become xenophobic against them. The devils have a pretty horrible life too, as they need to control their bloodlust. What's worse is that when one of them marries a human and accidentally sees blood, they can't help but hurt their human spouse. After the Ikebukuro incident, it only gets worse from there for the devils themselves.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Anzai was raised believing himself to be an orphan, only to discover in his early twenties that not only are both his parents alive and well, but that they were respectively a scientist and patient in the research branch of the orphanage he was raised in. As for why they never contacted him, they legally couldn't. Anzai was conceived as part of a scientific experiment on the hybridization of devils and ordinary humans; and while Midori and Tamaki were voluntary egg and sperm donors, taking part required them to sign away their custody rights and ability to contact him. That, and Tamaki is a convicted mass murderer.
- Genre Mashup: The story is a mixture of supernatural romance, police thriller and political drama.
- Heel–Face Turn: Zero Seven and Zero Nine, who are the members of the Devil Extermination group, the CCC, experience this after meeting with Tsukasa Taira. This is proven by the former's case as after seeing Tsukasa and Anzai's strong bond, she then began to change her view of the devils as a whole.
- Interspecies Romance: half-human, half-devil Anzai forms a romantic relationship with full human Tsukasa.
- Anzai's parents. Midori Sako, a human researcher and Tamaki Anzai, a mass-murdrering convict devil.
- Kanzaki (a non-binary and asexual human) and Eka (a devil with ReMI).
- Sawazaki and Jill are an Official Couple by the final chapter.
- Nakamura and Narumi became an Official Couple after the events of the omake.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Chapters and episodes are titled "Line".
- The Stoic:
- Megumi Ishimaru is a bit calm, apathetic and eccentric towards the people he comes across and he only uses his deadpan face as his default expression most of the time.
- May also apply to Anzai, who is usually calm and collected most the time. However, he will step into the Not So Stoic territory when Tsukasa is attacked by someone or when he sees blood, like most vampires.
- Sympathy for the Devil: A lot of people, including ones in the ONLO organization such as Midori Anzai, do express some sympathy for them, as most of them have an even worse life after the Ikebukuro incident, to the point that the humans want to eradicate all of them from the society. A CCC member named Naoya Ushio also sympathizes with the devils in his own twisted way by exterminating all of them, because he feels that humans and devils can't coexist together. May also apply with Tsukasa, as she tries to understand their pain and suffering due to her strengthening relationship with Anzai.
- Technically-Living Vampire: Devils are a Human Subspecies born with vampiric traits due to a genetic mutation. They lack any typical vampire weaknesses (sunlight, garlic, and so on), but they do have enhanced senses, reflexes, and strength. They also have fangs when they transform, but instead of the typical elongated canines in the upper jaw, the first premolars in both the upper and lower jaws sprout into long, prominent tusks that distort the mouth into a snarling grimace, giving them an appearance much like the traditional Oni.
- Token Minority:
- Hans Lee is a foreigner who helps Anzai and Tsukasa out of trouble. Despite being raised in Japan, he is the child of a Chinese devil mother and a German human father.
- Jill is Caucasian, born to American and Russian parents.
- May also apply to the bartender, Toshiro Sakaki, as he is the only black character that appears in both the anime and manga. This makes sense, as he is the child of an American mother and a Japanese father.
- Warm Bloodbags Are Everywhere: Life for a devil is very difficult to say the least, with the fear of something so much as a scratch can trigger a bloodlust-induced frenzy in them.
