Devil Lady, known in Japan as Devilman Lady (デビルマンレディー), is a 1997 manga series written and illustrated by Go Nagai. It is the sequel to Devilman. It was originally serialized by Kodansha from January 1997 to July 2000 in the magazine Weekly Morning, and later collected in 17 volumes. The story follows Jun Fudo, a model who can transform into the powerful Devil Lady and protects humanity from devil beasts and their creations. The manga was adapted into a twenty-six episode anime series by TMS Entertainment from 1998–1999, which was released in the US by ADV Films in 2003–2004, and later available through streaming by Midnight Pulp. A manga crossover with Cutie Honey, another Nagai series, was published in 2013 under the title Cutie Honey vs. Devilman Lady.

Plot

Manga

Set in Japan after the events of Devilman, the story follows Jun Fudo, a teacher and former athlete who lives alone with her younger brother, Hikaru, while their father is away in the United States. For reasons unknown to her, Jun begins to experience unusual nightmares that cause sexual urges. One day, she and some students are attacked by a group of demons during a school trip. The demons kill the male students and rape Jun and the female students. In the conflict, she transforms into a Devilman, killing the demons with her newfound strength. After that, a woman named Lan Asuka appears and says she was the one who awakened the beast within Jun. Confused by her transformation, Lan Asuka, and her father's sudden appearance and experience, things became too complicated for Jun. Professor Fudo knowledge tells a tale of a strange phenomenon that occurred in shantytowns years ago. It was known as the "Devil Beast Syndrome" in which its inhabitants would transform into demons and rape women before eating them with no memories or intelligence of their previous lives and additionally giving them enhanced strength with other abilities. Professor Fudo does not believe that their "Devil Beast Syndrome" transformation was supernatural, but was actually the next stage of human evolution, calling it "Nature's way of dealing with mankind's overpopulation". He states that few people were genetically engineered to retain their conscience should the "Devil Beast Syndrome" occur in them, although Jun is one of them. With Jun now becoming the Devil Lady, she fights to protect humanity from the devil beasts and their creations. Jun, and Asuka fight demons and become close friends. One day Jun investigates the Grumech Embassy. She is put through a demonic ritual that opens the Gates of Hell and sends Jun through them. Here she meets a mysterious man who introduces himself as Akira Fudo. Jun recognizes Akira to be the man she had seen in her visions. Akira explains that he is from a past that no longer exists, as God wiped the Earth out after Akira and Satan's battle at the end of Devilman. He offers to act as a guide on Jun's journey through Hell during which the two fall in love and have sex. During their descent through Hell, they face other characters from Akira's past, including Silene/Sirene and Kaim. Once they reach the lowest point of Hell, they realize that the demon king is there frozen in ice, but Satan is nowhere to be found. On their way back Akira tells Jun about his past with Satan. However, when they reach the surface, Akira cannot follow Jun back to Earth. She promises to never forget him and leaves. After Jun returns to the world several things change, altering the past. Events that led her to fall to Hell are missing. Jun keeps communicating with Akira through the Devilman Ghost customer she made, but slowly forgets his name. The only person she really feels close to is Asuka, who is revealed to be her half-sibling. She starts really opening up to her without knowing that she actually killed their mother with her supernatural powers In later chapters after the leader of the mysterious Cult of Dante, Ryo Utsugi awakens the great demon Lord Zennon by fusing with him and releases Hell's inhabitants into the world including demons, Devilman, and humans held in Hell, chaos and carnage break loose on Earth and the battle between God's army and Satan's demonic forces draws closer. Asuka seduces and impregnates Jun while possessing a male form. Asuka reveals that she was born a male but chose to hide in a female form from the eyes of God. After Jun is forced to give birth in her giant Devilman form to a full-grown Akira Fudo, Asuka reveals the truth to Jun with the help of Psycho Jenny who restores Jun's sealed memories: the half-siblings are actually the two halves of Satan who split himself in order to escape the time loop God threw him into and to be able to bring back Akira from Hell. After learning this, Jun fuses with Asuka, becoming Satan once again. Akira arrives and greets his old friend/enemy. This time, however, Akira joins Satan in his fight against God's army approaching Earth. As Satan puts it, the Akira who was reborn in Hell is different from the Akira who was born on Earth, as he now understands Satan's quest against God. Leading God's army is Archangel Michael, Satan's twin. When Akira notices this, Satan describes himself and his twin as the right and the left hands of God. They have the same powers, but different functions. The battle's victor is not revealed. The manga ends with Satan telling Akira that true hope lies on the other side of the battle as they are launching their attack. The manga ends with a final shot of Earth with humanity once again exterminated and the age of "myth" dawning on Earth once again.

Anime

Jun Fudo is an idolized supermodel. She has a secret that not even she knows about at first, for within her lie the genes that hold the next step in the evolution of mankind, the same blood as the beast-like superhumans that terrorize the city. Unlike them, Jun manages to hold a tenuous grip on her humanity and gets recruited by the mysterious Lan Asuka, a member of a secret organization within the government aimed at controlling, if not eliminating, these berserk destroyers of mankind. Jun, as Devil Lady, must exterminate her own kind. However, it is unclear how much longer she can keep her sanity. The story of the anime differs significantly from the manga, despite having similar beginnings – devils are not mystical beings but the next step of humanity's evolution. Unlike the manga, Devilman does not appear.

Characters

Classifications as per anime official trading cards are next to the names in parentheses.

Crusaders

Four bird-like devil beasts commanded by Satoru in the last third of the series with each possessing the ability to control a specific element. In episode 23 all four of them fuse with Satoru to become Giga Satoru.

Production

The Devilman Lady manga was written and illustrated by Go Nagai, and was serialized from January 1997 to July 2000 in the manga magazine Weekly Morning. It was later collected in 17 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha from July 1997 to August 2000. The manga was published in Italy by d/visual.

Other media

Anime

A twenty-six-episode anime series adaptation was produced by TMS Entertainment, directed by Toshiki Hirano and written by Chiaki J. Konaka, with art direction by Toru Koga, character designs by Shinobu Nishioka, and monster designs by Hiroshi Maruyama. It aired in Japan on MBS TV from October 11, 1998 to May 9, 1999. ADV Films announced it had licensed the series in July 2002, and released the first volume on January 7, 2003. Midnight Pulp started streaming the series on June 21, 2019. Tubi added it. The Devil Lady anime's storyline is different from the manga, featuring only two characters from the manga, Jun Fudo and Lan Asuka. When creating the Devil Lady anime, many concepts and characters were changed. It was more violent and sexually oriented. Jun is portrayed as tougher and braver – she stands up for herself and rarely needs others to save her, while in the manga; she is often a damsel in distress. She is a teacher by profession. Kazumi never appeared in the original manga. Her looks are based upon the character Miki Makimura, Akira Fudo's female friend in the Devilman series. Jun's two forms are a tribute to both versions. While her regular-sized form is similar to Devilman (including satyr-like hairy legs) as he appears in the original manga, her Giga Effect form is a tribute to the 1972 anime version. In Giga mode, she is a giant as tall as classic giant robots or monsters of the 70s, sports turquoise skin and yellow eyes, and displays no body hair, which are all elements taken from the television version of Devilman.

Episodes

Cutie Honey vs. Devilman Lady

Cutie Honey vs. Devilman Lady, a crossover manga between Devil Lady and another series of Nagai's, Cutie Honey, was written and illustrated by Nagai and published by Akita Shoten in Champion Red Ichigo from June 5 – October 4, 2013. The series was collected in a single tankōbon volume on December 20, 2013.

Pachinko

On March 7, 2012, a Devilman Lady pachinko machine called: CR Devilman Lady FPW (CRデビルマンレディー FPW) was launched, which is inspired by the adaptation of the anime.

Reception

On June 12, 2015, the Chinese Ministry of Culture listed Devilman Lady among 38 anime and manga titles banned in China.