Ask John: More Devilman?

Question:
I am looking for more Devilman episodes. I have seen The Birth and Demon Bird, but I can’t seem to find any more episodes or information. Are there more episodes available for the US market? Are they in English? And what is this Devilman/Woman thing–is it related?

Answer:
The original Devilman TV series premiered in 1972 and ran for 39 episodes. These episodes have never been legitimately translated into English, and are now rather difficult to find. Capitalizing on Devilman’s popularity, he also appeared in the 1973 theatrical movie Mazinger Z vs Devilman. Then it was more than a decade before Devilman returned to animation. Devilman was revived in a 2 episode OAV series with the first episode released in November 1987 and the second episode released, after much delay, in March 1990. It is this two episode OAV series that is the only Devilman animation legitimately available in America. 1990 also saw the premier of a 3 episode super deformed comedy OAV series titled “Chibi Chara Go Nagai World: Ore wa Akumada Devilman” that featured SD versions of characters from Devilman, Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and Violence Jack all meeting and fighting with and against each other when their respective universes meet through a rift in dimensions.

Go Nagai’s 1997 Devilman Lady manga serial became a 26 episode late night television series in October of 1998. Although set in an alternate continuity from the traditional Devilman, the dark, erotic and apocalyptic horror of Devilman was in full force in this series that is essentially a re-telling of the original Devilman story with a female cast. AD Vision announced their acquisition of the translation license to Devilman Lady in the summer of 2000, and announced in the summer of 2002 plans to release the series in America under the name “Devil Lady” at an unspecified future date.

In May 2000, the Devilman mythology was expanded again with the release of Amon Devilman: Apocalypse of Devilman, a single 46 minute long OAV that, for the first time ever, revealed the demon Amon himself, who shares the body of Akira Fudoh and gives Akira the power to become Devilman. Amon Devilman was a violent and bloody direct continuation of the 1990 OAV, but unfortunately performed poorly in Japanese home video sales, minimizing any possibility for rapidly successive future episodes. At the present time I’m not aware of any plans for an official English language release of Amon Devilman.