"Devilman" by Go Nagai is a seminal manga published in 1972. Following the mission of Akira Fudo and Ryo Asuka to save humanity from an impending invasion of demons, it is a massively influential classic on human nature, samsara, and war.
I often say I could talk about Devilman for the rest of my life and not be done talking. Given that, here on this page will be some of my writings on Devilman.
An essay in 3 parts. All links are .PDFs.
The 1972 manga Devilman, by Go Nagai, is a seminal work of anti war literature in which the fate of creation is decided by love, for better or for worse. The story of Akira Fudo’s journey from nonviolence into hyperviolence, why it happened, and what it meant for the world at large has inspired countless works since its publication. As a figure, I’d argue that Akira Fudo the Devilman, in a chiefly Buddhist work, represents something of a Bodhisattva figure, with Satan being the one ushered towards enlightenment.
I’d like to jump right into making that argument; however, as a Western, Christian society, and as an Anglophone audience, this thesis might sound impenetrable. That’s because we are missing some serious cultural context; namely, the Shinto-Buddhist background knowledge that any Japanese reader would know like the back of their hand.
In order to properly explain the idea of Akira and the Devilman as a Bodhisattva, I’m going to have to explain what that means. To do that, I will do two things first: talk about the basics of Buddhism you need to know for this argument, and then talk about Devilman as a love story, and then use these two foundational pillars to discuss the Devilman as a Bodhisattva. In more detail, first, I need to let y’all in on what a Bodhisattva is in a theological and narrative lens. Then, I’ll discuss the Devilman we know and love and how it is chiefly and primarily an antiwar story about love as a transformative force. Finally, I will explain the ways in which Devilman expresses this idea of Bodhisattva, and how it ties into this antiwar love story.
Strap in, this is gonna be weird.
Since the days of Genesis, we have been separated by God - that is, we are in a state of “sin”. Those who are reconciled with God are redeemed. They get to rejoice with God in the ever-after once all is said and done and once the great reversal comes to be.
At the end of ages unto ages, while all of creation sings, can we count Devilman among the choir?
I would like to offer a Christian perspective on Devilman - specifically a Lutheran perspective - and read into the text in conjunction with Biblical and Lutheran sources to determine the answer to this question.
First of all, Devilman is not by any means a Christian work. It may have some ostensibly Christian setpieces - “God” turning people into pillars of salt, demons, references to purgatory and hell or whatever - but there’s no messiah, there’s no redemption, there’s only sin, sin, sin.
Sin, in the Christian understanding, is that which separates us from God, and Devilman embraces that separation - for better or worse. However, it is not at all about any redemption. Therefore, without that critical “then”, it is not Christian.
Given its cyclical nature and focus on breaking the cycle of suffering (samsara), especially in the greater context of Go Nagai’s Devilman literary canon up to and including other works such as Devilman Lady, I could well argue it’s a far more Buddhist framework, but that’s another essay.
In this essay, we are using a Christian reading on a non-Christian work.
I will also be careful to divorce Devilman’s God from the triune God - God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, focusing all discussion of God as the triune, biblical God rather than the textual entity “God”. I am simply reading into Devilman’s characters (excluding its God figure) and whether or not they are justified.
So let’s go on and talk about that neglected aspect of redemption.
In Lutheran terms, we like to call this “justification”.
Justification and Redemption
How do we receive justification?
Martin Luther posited by way of his reading of Paul’s letter to the Romans that we receive justification by grace through faith. What this means is that we do not work for it; we do not “do good enough” and “follow the law”; the law makes clear that we are separated from God and we cannot justify ourselves by the law: “For “no human being will be justified in his sight” by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20)
However, we are justified instead by grace through faith - “For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement.” (Rom. 3:22-25)
That’s what Lutherans call “law and gospel” - Law makes clear we are in a state of sin, i.e. we have departed from God, and brings that sin to light. Gospel is the good news that we receive justification as a free gift of reconciliation from the Holy Spirit for the sake of God the father’s son, Jesus Christ.
Unlike the refined and somewhat rambling Greek of Paul, this is stated rather succinctly in Article IV of the Augsburg Confession, the German and Latin summary of Lutheran belief and conviction:
1 Also they teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for 2 Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight.
The justification is made effective through faith - “For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. “ (Rom. 3:28), which is a response to grace. However, we have established that all humans are sinners (i.e. separated from God and God’s will), that God’s law makes clear that we are separated and in a state of sin, and that to be justified is to join back together with God. But during life, even our faith, a gift by way of grace, is flawed - we enact our faith in often harmful and destructive ways, betraying God’s will and servicing empire. We have our Judas moments all the time. So given that the faith part will always look a little screwy, let’s focus on grace.
So how does one receive grace?
There are two sacraments in Lutheran thought - Baptism and Holy Communion. (The Lutheran belief is that communion is not a symbolic act, but the Christ-ordained transformed body and blood of Jesus in, with, and under the bread and wine - it tastes like bread and wine, but is in fact the body and blood of Christ). These are also called the “means of grace”. It is through these means that we petition grace be brought upon people - given through baptism and sustained regularly through communion - and I’m pretty sure nobody in Devilman is baptized or receives communion.
However, there’s a growing school of thought (to which I subscribe) that posits that God gives grace freely, as a gift, regardless of baptismal status or reception of holy communion.
6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
(Rom. 5)
The idea is God gives grace freely, as a gift, to many peoples of many nations, and not all of them have heard the gospel! This is used by many (more progressive) pastors as a way to connect with other faiths without then also saying “oh and you’re also not going to heaven” - we understand that grace comes in many forms and that our understanding of faith is ultimately a human, limited understanding of the divine.
So… We know justification comes by grace through faith.
How do we know someone has received grace?
Proof of Grace
The reaction to the receipt of grace is faith. But there are other signs of receipt of grace and the gifts of the holy spirit.
1 Corinthians 12 goes in on it in a lengthy way - the gifts of healing, miracles, prophecy, a whole laundry list. It lists a bunch and acknowledges more still - speaking in tongues (of men [foreign language] and of angels), interpretation of tongues, ministry, et cetera. But at the very end, Paul says one is the “greatest of these”.
In 1 Corinthians 13, he then goes on to say that love is the greatest gift of all. In fact, he even says if we don’t have love, none of the others matter, because if you don’t have love, you have nothing.
1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
(1 Corinthians 13)
(More on 1 Corinthians 13, by yours truly)
Specifically, he uses the Koine Greek term ἀγάπη, or agape, which can be translated as love, but also as good-will, benevolence, or charity. It is specifically a love so strong it moves us to act for the betterment.
So of discernment or exhortation or speaking in tongues, the greatest gift is the gift of love - but specifically a gift so strong it moves us to act.
Further towards this is James’ exhortation towards good works, and the insistence that “faith without works is dead”:
14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
(James 2)
So not only is faith the gift, but the gift is faith to be paired with works - that gift then being agape. Love!
Martin Luther used to call James the least of the books of the bible - but he came around to it in his old age. As Lutherans, it is our conviction that faith, by grace, is a gift - but that we are then to react to this gift with our works.
Ideally… the way we “work” is per Jesus’ direction: to love God and love the neighbor as one loves themselves (Luke 10:25-37: we are the neighbor and the neighbor is everyone). But the apostles and the later Paul were not Jesus; They were incredibly flawed and often said and did awful things - one apostle, who Jesus allowed to sit at the table and eat with the rest, still condemned Jesus to death. The others were not much better and denied him on his indictment by Pontius Pilate, and pretended they weren’t even connected.
Undoubtedly, however, they were recipients of grace. They loved Jesus, once as a stranger, once as a foreigner, then as a brother and the messiah, even if this love was flawed.
So let’s use our proof of grace as the gift of love so great it causes you to act.
The Gift of Fusion
Ultimately, Devilman is a love story - but a tragic one. It tells of the tragic tale of a love so deep and passionate it takes all of creation with it.
There’s a whole lot of love to go around - Ryo’s love for Akira is so strong he damns him to “eternal hellfire” in order to save him. Akira’s love for humanity is so strong he retains his human will when he fuses with a demon - gaining demonic powers and becoming a devilman. Later, the devilmen’s love and care for humanity bonds them into a fighting force. And further, Ryo - revealed to be a memory-wiped proxy for Satan’s machinations and Satan himself - admits to having loved Akira so deeply that it caused a significant change of plans.
In his autobiographical comic Gekiman!, Go Nagai discusses Akira as a kind of a pathetic, helpless boy. He sees his friend Miki in serious trouble and can’t even muster up the courage to confront the guys assaulting her. He’s a bit of a coward in an exceedingly median way. As we know, he’s roped into the whole scheme by an old friend, Ryo Asuka, who has unearthed a prophetic proof so nefarious that he has to make drastic moves. He enlists the only person he knows, Akira Fudo, into a service so heinous he believes it’ll damn him to hell in a last-ditch effort to “save humanity”.
Of course, we know it’s not that simple. But this Ryo Asuka isn’t aware of that. As far as he knows, they’re the last stand against an incoming demonic horde.
So he puts on a sabbath - a debauched, mindless bacchanal full of tits and drugs and music - and with the spilling of some blood invites the demons right in, hoping that one will fuse with either of them and against all odds, that one of them will be goodhearted enough to overpower the demon’s will and become a devilman.
What happens is in the name - Akira Fudo fuses with Amon and becomes Devilman.
Ryo says over and over that it’ll damn him to hell, and he’s regretful that it’s come to this - committing his best friend into an eternity of torture and fire.
But Akira has been gifted love. And moreso, he’s been gifted agape - a love so powerful that he can now act on that love.
He becomes a protector of sorts - he protects the Makimuras and Miki, he protects strangers, and in a bit of a monster-of-the-week portion, he protects the whole city.
Arguably, regardless of Satan’s machinations, the devil could be seen as a gift - the gift of agape.
As we know, the gift of grace can come by the way of other people. Maybe it can even come by Satan himself, even if inadvertently.
Satan as a Vehicle
In the bible, Satan is an entity who tests God’s creation - pokes and prods it to see if it’s up to snuff. That’s how God made Satan. As Christians, we are to rebuke these tests and see them for what they are - a diagnostic for God’s people. Jesus himself is tested by Satan, and he is the only one who passes with flying colours. The idea is, we all fall prey to Satan and empire from time to time. We are all sinners, after all!
But Satan, nonetheless, is an entity - as with all things, an entity created by God.
All things created by God can teach us something. God uses animals all the time to teach lessons - how God used a “great fish” to bring Jonah back on track for his mission, how God uses a dove to signal the end of the flood to Noah, et cetera. God uses people to teach, too. The holy spirit comes through and enacts God’s message to others, and God’s will. Sometimes this is a good thing - like strangers bringing protection, or unexpected blessings.
Sometimes, it is Judas kissing Jesus on the cheek.
That’s a whole other discussion - Judas, it is theorized, was not tempted by Satan as a retributive measure, but by Satan as an agent of violence. He was a Zealot, a member of a sect of Jews who wished to violently overthrow the Roman occupation, and when Jesus wasn’t the violent, guerilla messiah as prophesied in Isaiah that he was hoping for, he turned him in to the authorities with the promise of some money to fund the real revolution. That makes his actions a lot more understandable to a contemporary reader.
In any case, Satan is no different from any other of God’s creations, and Satan, too, is within the constraints of God’s plan. Through the gift of love, even the biblical Satan, and even Devilman’s Satan, bring about God’s will.
Let’s bring the love further: In one interview from Go Nagai’s World, he explicitly calls Devilman a love story:
Interviewer: It’s quite the beautiful depiction. And, despite being enemies, Devilman and Satan had something more than just a friendship. When I was reading through ‘Devilman’, I was thinking, “isn’t this actually a love story?”
Go Nagai: Right. Readers have asked me if ‘Devilman’ is a love story. “Yes, it is”, I replied *laughs*.
Interviewer: When love grows too passionate, there’s the possibility that it can destroy you and your partner. And in this case, even humanity was caught up in this (…).
So did Devilman receive the gift of grace?
Did the humans, frightened and turned against each other through Satan’s machinations, receive the gift of grace?
Let’s take it even further:
Did Satan, living on Earth as Ryo Asuka and revealed to be the Tempter, receive the gift of grace?
Putting to rest any delusions of hell as a Biblical entity (it isn’t, “Sheol” is the afterlife in general and when Jesus referred to “Gehenna”, he was referring to what was basically the town dump), and remembering that justification is bringing God’s creation back into accordance with God, one can see even the tragic events of Devilman as a long game of the deliverance of grace and ultimately bringing God’s creation - humanity, devils, and even Satan himself - over cycles and repeats of the same damn tragedies away from the separation and suffering of sin back towards God in accordance with the will of Heaven.
Taking Devilman (1972) as a standalone work, and even within its greater Buddhist cyclical context, I believe that all these entities ultimately acted out of love.
Even if incredibly destructive and flawed, perhaps in the end they were all ultimately justified by God’s grace.
Further Reading
Go Nagai on Devilman (trans. Kea)
Hell and How to Get There (Rev. Brian Zahnd)
Gekiman! (Go Nagai)
The Small Catechism(Rev. Dr. Martin Luther)
All Bible quotes use NRSV translation
Maybe in another essay I’ll tell y’all about Devilman and the Buddhist lens. I gotta read Devilman Lady first though. lol.
“Do the demons receive grace? Are demons justified, too?” I mean… If animals can receive the Holy Spirit…… I don’t see why not