'I'm a cab driver, I'm in a coma, and I'm black!' by Kara
Tuesday, April 8, 2014 at 10:14 AM

Had company visiting -- another co-writer, actually -- hence the silence as things went up Saturday. We had fun and caught up and monitored my gaining of a nasty cold. It was fun.

So. Devilman.

I have had literally no exposure to Devilman up until now save for hearsay and knowing what characters looked like. Then I was called upon to edit it for Discotek, and ... well, this is a thrill ride from start to finish.

For those unfamiliar, the story as seen in the '72 anime is thus: Kid named Akira goes to the Himalayas with his da, is killed in an avalanche, and a wing-headed demon named Devilman possesses his body in order to infiltrate the human world and spread curses. Now, in Devilman's case, spreading curses pretty much consists of starting schoolyard fights, being late to class, and driving like a dick. But, you know, whatever.

Now living life as Akira, our hero(?) finds himself falling in love with 'his' lady-friend, Miki. Miki's job is pretty much to go after Akira and slap him whenever he causes trouble. (Literally, people come looking for Miki the Slapper.) He doesn't give a good goddamn about the human race, but he's madly in love with Miki, and this has made him lose sight of his goal. Lord Xenon, his master, decides that the best way to bring Devilman back to the fold is to send other demons out to kill Miki, thus depriving him of his distraction. This just has the unintended effect of Devilman turning around and killing any demons who try to hurt her.

(Why Lord Xenon would not have thought of this is beyond me. Whatever.)

Also there's a kid named Tare who wets himself all the time, and anyone over the age of 40 has a deformed skull, as is often the case with Go Nagai characters.

So far I'm enjoying working on it. My only real problem with it is one I've had with other shows, which is that instead of a preview, they show extended scenes from the next episode. Apparently episodes always ran short so that was padding, so okay. The only thing annoying about that is I have to go back and match up the dialogue between that and the episode proper afterwards. Well, that and it's such a laggy end to a show. Cutie Honey did it, too, as I recall.

At any rate, I continue to work away at it. It's early days still, so I can't even speculate on a release date. Still in the single digits episode-wise. But you'll all know. Trust me. I'm just glad I get to tell people about this for a change.

If you have been, DEBIRU!