Devilman - The Birth/Demon Bird (Vol. 1 & 2)

Devilman - The Birth/Demon Bird (Vol. 1 & 2)
by Tsutomu Iida

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DVD details

Actor: Adam Matalon, David Collins (IV), Laura Kelly (VI), Sh? Hayami, Takeshi Aono
Director: Tsutomu Iida
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 120 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-04-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Manga Video

DVD Reviews of Devilman - The Birth/Demon Bird (Vol. 1 & 2)

DVD Review: Action and gore galore.
Summary: 4 Stars

The main character a high school student named Akira receives a sudden visit from an old friend named Ryo. Ryo reveals to Akira that demons do exist and they plan on wiping out human kind. After going through his fathers research. Ryo learns the only way to have a chance against the demons is to become one.

Go Nagai's Devilman is a very brutal OVA that can satisfy most anime fans bloodlust. It delivers with over the top action and gore. The action scenes are plenty and done very well. The first quarter spends alot of time with giving some background. When the action finally begins, it doesn't really let up.

This OVA is not character driven at all. The only interesting character I found to be is Devilman. A majority of the characters are barely examined. As if a series this short could spare the time anyway.

The character designs are very imaginative and the animation still holds up. It presents a creepy atmosphere and a few scenes could qualify this as horror. The soundtrack is excellent and fits right in with the over the top battles. The biggest flaw is the english voice actors. To be straight up, they suck. And they suck BAD. The voice acting can be terrible at times. And to make matters worst there is no japanese language to switch to. Which I know for a fact is light years better.

The ending is ok at best and the small issues are answered. But the ending came too sudden and has that unfinished feeling. Some people felt the series should have been longer. I thought the same thing until Go Nagai took another crack with Devil Lady. I'll just say that series could have been alot better. Devilman is a lost classic that should be seen atleast once. If extreme violence isn't your thing and you want deeper characters. I recommend skipping this.

DVD Review: Sloppy Effort
Summary: 3 Stars

Devil Man isn't the best anime you'll find. The story starts very slowly and it clumsily lumbers along. The characters are all unlikable and/or uninteresting, and the voice acting is questionable. The hero's love interest is slapped into the tale as an afterthought, and serves as little more than the obligatory damsel in distress to be rescued late in the story. The animation is anything but breath-taking, with characters speaking complete sentences at times without their lips moving. The ending is very unsatisfying and anti-climatic. This is watchable if you're a big fan of the genre, but there is a lot of better stuff to be explored.

DVD Review: Devilman ROCKS!!!
Summary: 5 Stars

Once in a LOOOOOONG while a group of japanese animators, producers, directors, and voice actors, will get together to try and, as faithfully as possible, re-interpret a popular manga (or Japanese comic book). This animated version is a tiny masterpiece, flaws and all. Unfortunately, it is rare that every important nuance in a particular manga is manifested into anime. With this particular crew of artists it would have been AWESOME if they would have made a longer series of more than just two episodes, hence this "tiny" masterpiece. So, in comparison to the manga, since lots of story is skipped, you may feel something missing if you don't know Go Nagai's story very well. Go Nagai is Japan's master of comic book macabre. Not only is he a great story man he is also a wicked artist. He has his own tweaked take on traditional style anime. Look at the eyes of his main characters. They always have this almost Egyptian eyeliner look. VERY cool. BUT! And I do capitalize BUT, here, this doesn't really matter. We're all intelligent enough manga/anime fans, here, to get the gist of this weird, dark, gross-out, erotic, action packed, horror/fantasy. Hell is rising back to the surface after being dormant for millions, maybe billions, of years. Demons are LITERALLY oozing out of your car parts, doorknobs, bathwater, and the only person who could save us is Akira who sacrifices his body and soul to be possessed by the most powerful of all the demons to become half man, half demon, hence DEVILMAN! Pretty twisted. The most horrifying and disturbing scene is the underground "party/club" scene in the first episode. I've seen it several times and it never fails to freak me out. Ultra-violent stuff. The second episode is like Spiderman/Daredevil meets Evil Dead. You get lots more action and still get the creeps. I remember, WAY back in the day, when I had to buy bootlegs on VHS, most of the times with no subtitles, just to be able to see cutting edge anime. This was back in the 80s when the market for anime here was ZILCH. Now its everywhere and most of it is GARBAGE. But, like I said, once in a while you'll come across a little gem like DEVILMAN! Unfortunately, the anime version of DEVILMAN LADY is absolute crap. It is nothing like the manga which is even MORE wicked than DEVILMAN. I don't blame 'em, though. The anime version of DEVILMAN LADY would have been rated XXX. It's truly amazing how Go Nagai can make something so violent and sexual into such good horror genre.

DVD Review: what a rip!!
Summary: 1 Stars

i have the old VHS copies of this and it has japanese language with subtitles. the dubbed voices on this DVD are CRAP!!!
don't waste your money on this at all. find the VHS copies of the LA Hero series on ebay if you want to see this the way it should be done. the description says japanese language but it is dead WRONG!!! who are these voice actors on this DVD??? c'mon really... it's pathetic.
i could do better in my basement with a bunch of drunk homeless hippies.

DVD Review: A dissapointment to Go Nagai
Summary: 1 Stars

When I first found out the Devilman was going to be released on DVD, I jumped at the opportunity to purchase it.To my dissapointment(and DISGUST)I realized that the disc did *NOT* offer the original Japanese Language. I am an anime "purist" and I used to watch the original Jap. Lang and read the scripts for translation so I *THOUGHT* the disc would have the subtitles. But instead I am *forced* to watch a great anime film with sub-par voice acting which totally killed the emotional content of this anime for me. Parts I thought were dramatic and serious, are now comical and humorous.So very sad. Im going to get rid of mine immediately and buy the Japanese only edition (no eng. subtitles - I still have my scripts)
*Dont waste your money or time on this horrid edition*

Description of Devilman - The Birth/Demon Bird (Vol. 1 & 2)

Part of the charm of anime is the fractured storytelling, the disjointed style, which is often a result of trying to fit everything from the manga (Japanese comic book) into the movie. Devilman, for example, opens in a wooded paradise where beautiful and naked fairy women fly about and are then attacked by dinosaurs and demons, until a six-armed fairy warrior shoots down explosive balls of light at the demons. Cut to explorers in the caves of Antarctica, not quite surviving a cave-in and the appearance of a demon. Dissolve to rabbits in a hutch that have been killed. What's going on? It's hard to say, but it sure is interesting.

The story settles down when Akira is introduced. Akira is your typical schoolkid until his childhood best friend Ryo shows up and pulls him into a web of demons and deceit. As Ryo explains, Dante talks about demons frozen in the ice in The Divine Comedy, and now global warming is melting that ice, freeing them. Akira and Ryo decide to team up and save the world. Devilman is chock full of bizarre explanations about demon existence and behavior, demon-on-demon violence, and a little gratuitous nudity. The best reason to watch it is for all the bizarre explanations, which are too weird not to be entertaining. --Andy Spletzer

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