Well, no one reviewed this yet for a lonnng time, so I thought I’d give my first shot of reviewing on Defense Devil, today’s date as February 21, 2011.
85 chapters in and DD has been a pretty fun ride as of yet.
The best general idea I could give for this manga is referencing an earlier work by the duo team. If anyone’s read the two mangakas’ past series, Shin Angyo Onshi, DD follows a similar story pattern and plot elements that I think many can strongly relate to. If you haven’t, no worries, DD’s great story telling ability, art, and characters will offer up
...
a considerably enjoyable experience.
I’m not gonna spoil anything for you readers, hopefully, but instead I’ll just give a general description of the type of story you’re expecting. It’s very similar to Shin Angyo Onshi in this respect, combining both the uses of small, short arcs/chapters with large overbearing arcs. Either way, DD excels at both. You’ve got your excellent short episodic stories reeled with a large adventure story. And the authors do their job well, offering up suspenseful storytelling while leaving the reader constantly guessing and wishing for more. They succeed at appealing to the large majority of audiences using a variety of genres: comedy, fantasy, drama, mystery, romance, action, and supernatural elements all rolled up nicely in a small package--how convenient.
There is, however, one major beef I have for the story. Certainly, it does have short and long arcs, but it’s dumbly disconnected. Once you begin reading, you’ll realize relatively quickly that Defense Devil disappears, to be replaced by Adventure Devil very quickly. The lawyer devil drifts away, and in its place we have extensive fights and an epic journey. We lose the "tough-talk" man we've known, replaced by the "RAWR-FIGHTING" man. For some people, this won’t be a major problem—hell, we’re all shounen boys obsessed with fighting anyways right--but looking at it as a whole, the story fails to follow its original roots, and that may upset some people. For those specifically enjoying the lawyer aspect, I would give a small caution reading further.
Moving on, the art is nothing to scoff at. Expect to see well-done action sequences from fights, a big variety of different outfits, a plentiful mix of character designs, and a large array of weapons. And just a warning (or supplement), expect to see a lot of ecchi mixed in for you creepo boys out there. There’s nothing I can really point out as erroneous in art, and just as Shin Angyo Onshi, expect the same level or the better.
And the characters, of course. I don’t find them bad, but they’re just so… typical, if that’s the right word. Let’s start with the character art while we’re still on the topic.
There’s one common thing going on for all the women: tits. Big boobies everywhere, and being a sucker male guy I am, the hotties everywhere in the manga’s gonna make you look for some good "doujinshi” around (^_^). But aside form sex appeal, the outfits themselves aren’t amazing. When I think of a very strong character, I think of Yoko from Tengen Toppa: a hottie with a sniper rifle, original color design, trademarked clothes design, hell, let’s even include her signature skull symbol design. That’s my top of the line original character. In comparison, DD’s characters look cool, but they’re ordinary. They’ve certainly got their own type and the such, but don’t expect a revolutionary character within DD.
And personalities? Nothing special. Hopefully not spoiling too much, but your main character this time around is gonna be the super peaceful, no-violence-if-possible kind of guy. Certainly a lot to build off of, but in my terms, again, nothing special. You’ve got your tsundere female lead which is always nice, but again, nothing special. And the extra characters are, really, all extras, nothing special. I’ve used nothing special four times now in this paragraph, now five, but that’s exactly the point.
Many people may critique that originality doesn’t have a factor in character ratings. But in my opinion, I can’t give a 10/10 for what I find to be an unoriginal character. I think it’s fair to say, however, that what it all comes down to, application to the story. If a story does a good job in pulling all the characters together, it doesn’t matter if a character is unoriginal, even a supposedly boring character can get recognition.
DD accomplishes this in some respects. There is a hint of mystery shrouding every character that the authors accomplish very well. Some characters are completely unknown, while others have “hidden” pasts. Taking a step back, we can see that this use of mystery backgrounds can be a double edged weapon varying between mangas. In some cases it can be done really badly, where the mystery portion is dragged on so long you’re wondering when the hell shit is gonna get explained, if it gets explained at all. In this case however, the mystery element is no doubt a positive factor. These mangakas are great storytellers, pulling off this mystery off nicely; the suspense won’t kill you, but will keep you guessing until the right time.
But besides mystery, there’s always character development to talk about… just kidding. DD’s character development is pretty non-existing. Unless if you count their pasts, the characters we know at the present haven’t changed. Nothing major really happened to the characters 85 chapters in, but there is major potential coming from our characters. There are certainly elements to work with, and we’ll have to see later what happens. But 'till 85, I can say that all you're going to see is plot, and nothing character-wise.
So, what do I think about this series. Well, certainly, the storytelling great though disconnected; the art good though nothing special; and the characters cool though nothing special. It’s not an original masterpiece, it’s not something going to be talked in the next generations to come, but at the end of the day, it certainly is what I would consider a fun adventure. Mix all these elements together and you have your exciting journey within the interesting and intriguing life of our defense devil. My enjoyment meter’s off the chart after marathoning 85 through the night.
I’m the type of guy that drops an anime/manga quickly. Check my animelist and you’ll see that my watching list is almost as big as my completed list, haha. It’s hard to keep my attention, and I’m really not sure what attracts me to certain animes/manga, it varies. But whatever it is, my addiction just suddenly pops in. DD is no different. Looking at DD objectively, I don’t think it stands up to the likes of the masterpieces we know. It’s nothing special afterall. Subjectively though, screw these stupid categories, DD has been a blazing ride, is a blazing ride, and will be a blazing ride for quite some time.
In conclusion, there’s not much else I have to say. DD’s a fantastic ride that I encourage everyone to read. Yeah yeah sure, Defense Devil is no masterpiece, but it still has enjoyable story, art, and characters.
Alternative TitlesSynonyms: Defence Devil Japanese: DEFENSE DEVIL More titlesInformationType: Manga
Volumes: 10
Chapters: 100
Status: Finished
Published: Apr 22, 2009 to Jun 10, 2011
Theme:
Mythology
Demographic:
Shounen
Serialization:
Shounen Sunday Statistics Ranked: #24732 2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #493
Members: 38,544
Favorites: 730 Resources | Reviews
Filtered Results: 17 / 17
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Your Feelings Categories Feb 21, 2011
Well, no one reviewed this yet for a lonnng time, so I thought I’d give my first shot of reviewing on Defense Devil, today’s date as February 21, 2011.
85 chapters in and DD has been a pretty fun ride as of yet. The best general idea I could give for this manga is referencing an earlier work by the duo team. If anyone’s read the two mangakas’ past series, Shin Angyo Onshi, DD follows a similar story pattern and plot elements that I think many can strongly relate to. If you haven’t, no worries, DD’s great story telling ability, art, and characters will offer up ... Jul 8, 2009
By reading the synopsis I was expecting a manga with a lot of talk, a lot of stillness and surely no fights...
I was wrong.Sure they talk a lot but they fight a lot too... The story is a shounen story so don't expect much(that doesn't mean its bad ,it means you'l have a "dejavu"...) The art itself is good but i don't like the main character(I mean the chara-design his personality is uber cool> Nov 10, 2009
Ever think about after you die, that you would go to hell without knowing what have you done in your life; and you will be sentence to suffer forever. No one here to help you or even given you another chance. And for this manga review, whoever die are given another chance to prove his/her innocent, of course with a help of a devil lawyer.
Once again, Korean manhwa artist has impressed me once more (the other is KuroKami). Defense Devil was a great combination from some of the manga i know could think of: almost has the Death Note art style and a little story ... Sep 2, 2009
i like this manga very much. it's true that that there are recurring scenarios like getting a client then defending for him/her to prove the person's innocence and obtaining the dark matter. but the recent chapters prove otherwise, with the new chara idamaria(did i spell it right?) the story takes another turn. the story gets more interesting and i find myself anticipitating for new chapters. i smell romance between kucabara and idamaria, though i might be wrong. >_>
the artwork? fantastic kucabara reminds of L though because of his looks. and just like any typical shounen hero, he's self-righteous and strongly believes in justice. i love him ... Jun 17, 2013
To begin I would just like to say that reading this manga was, despite all my negative criticism, an enjoyable experience in which I would suggest to someone who reads manga purely for enjoyment. I have written a lot of negative criticism bellow but would like to say that those are only the negative parts to the story. This manga has a lot of good qualities otherwise I wouldn't have bothered to read it all (my personal opinion).
Firstly, the story was compelling and had well thought out plot which was thrilling to read, especially if you like mystery. However that is only ... Jan 26, 2012
We all know that we have a “Butler from Hell”- Kuroshitsuji. Now what do we have? – “Lawyer from Hell” – Defense Devil.
Meet Mephisto Bart Kucabara. He was a prince from the Demon world but was banished due to some reasons ( I don’t wanna spoil here), and now he lives in Event Horizon. A place between heaven and hell. In order to get back to his home, he must collect this so called “Dark Matter” from souls who were casts to hell.. He then decided to become a defense lawyer. They let their client(the dead) sign a contract, prove their innocence and claim the ... Jul 7, 2015
Defense Devil was a huge disappointment for me. It starts out strong, but you can almost see the point where the authors just stopped caring and started blatantly trolling the readers. It doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as the manga duo's earlier work Shin Angyo Onshi, although from there it's hard to go anywhere but down.
The art is probably the best part of the manga. The artist half of the combo, Kyung-Il Yang is pretty much a master at his craft, delivering atmospheric landscapes, great character designs, badass fight scenes and beautiful titties. The characters are not bad, but there are ... Sep 30, 2011
The original premise of the story was set up in a way that it could be taken in little bits, basically a bunch of different cases which the protagonist could solve and then be done with. However, after a few of these cases the series takes a turn and begins an arc which spans the rest of the series. Personally I felt like at that point it started to become another generic fight manga where two people take turns slugging it out until one passes out. the story doesn't really have much to offer actually, and there's not enough tension in the end.
The story, art, ... Jan 26, 2019
This manga is one that sets up an interesting premise, story and tone. In order to throw it out the window when it thought it had your attention. To be honest I feel a little betrayed by the direction of this work, as I really enjoyed the opening few chapters.
Story - 4 The story is windy and twisty in that terrible kind of way where you get the feeling things change because the author woke up feeling like that one day. Entire ideas are thrown out at the drop of the hat. The first chapters are the best because not only do characters have a ... Aug 23, 2009
when i read the synopsis for this manga i was hoping for something really good and after a couple of chapters it got better and also a bit repitetive since its all about the main character trying to prove his clients innocent and fighting against shinigami trying to put his clients in hell. it makes me wonder if the author is gonna be using this same formula for each story arc--new client, main character promises to prove client innocent, a bad guy for each arc trying to take main character's client to hell, main character proving client's innocence and then sucking up evil matter to
...
Feb 17, 2012
What's the line between imagination and reality. Should it be a pure fiction or should it be based on fact. what makes manga Detective Conan great is that Ayoma Gosho always consults his brothers who were chemists on technical aspect of crime scene investigation such as blood spatter and blood clot. So he didn't just make up the stories out of his pure imagination.
another case is slam dunk, The author Takehiko Inoue is a genuine basketball lover. He understands the game well, it can be seen on the lead Hanamichi Sakuragi who has the size and ... Jul 9, 2015
When I first came across Defence Devil, I thought of two things, "Harmless dumb shounen fun" or "Absurd concept turn awesomly serious"
Defense devil is about a demon named Mephisto Bart Kucabara, banished from his land as an outcast former prince and takes an interest in human life on earth.He takes up the role of a defence attorney of any innoncent soul who are unfairly judged on their deaths been considered sins.With his sidekick devil Bichura , he battles other devil to protect his client and save their souls from doom. On the surface it sounds like a cool concept. A Phoenix Wright style manga with ... Aug 10, 2012
At first I thought that it was going to be like The World God Only Knows where Kucabara will be doing one contract after another. But then the story completely went off it's mark. He was no longer doing his Defense Devil but something else.
The character was typical too. The main protagonist as the "Naive" and innocent shounen, the main heroine as a Tsundere, and with both of them having experience tragedies in the pass. Overall, a redundant manga but still a good manga. Sep 21, 2011
This manga is the perfect example of story-writers making stuff up (in this case, quite poorly) as they go, which reached outrageous levels at the (!!!painfully rushed!!!) end; unexplained plotholes, huge contradictions and I'm not at all exaggerating when I say that it also manages to take the phrase "Deus ex machina" to a whole new level.
Oh, and let's not forget about the absolutely neglected original storyline, which vanishes out of nowhere right after the first volume. I'm curious about the fate of those next-in-the-line 'unknowns' after Kucabara decided to visit home... Still, it's not all that bad. Yes, it's cheesy and it has lots of ... Feb 9, 2021
Defense Devil
If anyone should ever ask me which work I see as the greatest waste of potential, I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to name "Defense Devil". This work has an excellent style and a very good presentation. I have to give him this at least. I also found some of the beginnings of the plot to be okay. I still have to pat myself on the back and praise myself for getting these 100 chapters over with. Plotholes like no other title. Not even the writer himself apparently had any interest in explaining something and simply threw something down so that it somehow fits the situation ... Feb 25, 2025
Defense Devil is a poorly used work for me.
I first came across this work in volume 8 of Brazil and I was interested in the work because the quality of the cover art was incredibly good. I still think that cover is very pretty today. BUT, the fact is that the work itself is generic and simplistic, nothing really different. The synopsis is actually good enough to "be the devil's advocate" but the way it's done is pretty mediocre. Art: Regarding the covers, it's very well drawn with lots of details that catch the readers' attention. Now, if we talk about the art of the manga ... Aug 31, 2011
short and simple anime/manga reviews:Defense Devil
Pros: Great start with good mystery, Nice art and many ecchi moments for us guys Cons: That great mystery I was talking about in the pro section soon changed into a con after the start of this manga the story went down hill all that great mystery that gave me high hopes for this manga just went away and was replaced with B.S action and B.S plot turns. Overall this manga was dissapointing I mean this could have been the next Majin Tantie Neruo (which you should check out) put really this manga isn't bad but the awesome mystery and whole ... |