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.