Amon

Although I am a big Devilman fan, and have read a couple volumes of Amon, I am not 100% sure how it ties in with the Devilman continuity. So what I will do is summarize Devilman, and then review Amon. Beware, this review will contain Devilman spoilers, it would be pretty hard to write this without them. Devilman is the story of Fudou Akira, a timid, bullied teenager who is living with his friend Miki due to his parents being away. (They are archeologists.) One day, Akira's best friend, Asuka Ryo tells him he has something urgent to tell Akira and takes him to his house where he explains that demons once ruled the world but were frozen during the ice age. For a long time they were trapped, but now many of them have been freed. Ryo tells Akira that the only way to combat the demon threat is to unite with one. Furthermore, demons can only be controlled by a person pure of heart. Therefore, Akira must unite with a demon to become mankind's savior. With Ryo's help, Akira is able to unite with Amon (Hell's god of war.) and he becomes Devilman. OK, now fast forward to Amon. (Here come the Devilman spoilers.) Miki is dead. Akira's precious friend was killed by the very humans he was protecting. Ryo was actually satan - in human form. The trauma of Miki's death causes Akira to fade into himself and this allows Amon to take over. At the same time, it seems that satan has initiated the apocalypse. (There is this goup spreading from Japan throughout the world, melting/absorbing people.) satan works to bring the demon race under it's(?) (...satan is a hermaphrodite. I can't say "his" or "hers".) control as they run rampant, killing people. The human race, facing the demon threat has entered into martial law and chaos, frequently killing each other even. It seems the world is headed for destruction, and Akira's friends Dosu 6, Mericou-jin (I think I spelled that wrong.), and Miiko along with some other unidentified psychic figures, try to restore Akira's consciousness. While all of this goes on, Amon has only one thing in mind - killing satan. If you can tolerate the violence and demonic themes, Amon is a solid story delivered by the pen of the great Go Nagai with excellent art by Yuu Kinutani. It's not for everyone, but I recommend it to all who are confident they can handle it.