Jun Fudou is a fashion model, quiet, shy but successful at what she does. She lives a fairly busy life going from photo shoot to photo shoot. However one night her life is changed forever when a mysterious woman named Asuka Lan appears at her apartment. Forcing the rather weak willed Jun into a car, Asuka takes her to a warehouse on the outskirts of town. From this moment Jun's life is changed forever, as deep down inside her she possesses something known as the "beast gene". Jun is a Devilman - a possible evolution of mankind in the future. Asuka reveals to Jun she is part of a top secret government agency that eliminates those Devilmen who have lost all shreds of their humanity and are preying on humans as a weaker species.
Jun still has her humanity intact and while Asuka awakens the ability to transform into a beast inside her, Jun can go back to a human form and has a human soul. Taking advantage of Jun's weak personality yet inhuman strength when in Devilman form, Asuka coerces her into becoming her hunting dog to slay beasts.

"The Devil Lady" begins slowly as we meet the three leads in this horrific tale. Three totally contrasting personalities that develop alongside each other. Jun is already reserved to begin with but with the pressures of finding the nightmare creature inside herself she seems to shrink away from her life more and more. Asuka lurks in the background coercing Jun onwards with her much more aggressive and dominant personality looming over Jun and treating her almost like some kind on animal on a leash. Her behaviour does seem rather manic at times however, as she can suddenly seem almost as if she cares about Jun before returning to her colder self. It becomes clear early in the story that Asuka has her own agenda for wishing to eliminate the Devilmen in the world but what this is remains to be seen. Asuka is certainly a villain it is easy to love to hate. Finally the third lead in the story, Kasumi, is a good friend of Jun's and a high-school student doing modelling part time. Kasumi is a happy and bubbly girl who at first does not realise the darkness that lurks in the city, but Jun's new life soon gets far too close to her friends for comfort with tragic results. Part of what makes Devil Lady such compelling viewing is how different the three leads are from one-another and the vast differences in how Jun and Kasumi react to one-another compared to Jun and Asuka.

Starting off slowly the anime begins with a "Monster of the Week" style premise. Asuka summons Jun to her side to fight a variety of beasts who have abandoned their human souls. Giant plant women, serial killing shark demons, giant worm like creatures: the variety of monsters Jun fights is huge although they are all equally hideous and well designed. Combine the disturbing creatures with the gothic soundtrack and the atmosphere is set up for a proper horror title and it does it's best to live up to its atmosphere throughout. The series is certainly not for the weak of stomach, straight from the get go as blood flows freely and limb removal is common. After thirteen or so episodes of a similar monster slaying formula (with slight plot and character developments occurring in the background) Devil Lady could have made the mistake of continuing as such and making the show rather dull. Instead however the series changes pace incredibly quickly and suddenly descends into a macabre dance of carnage that's difficult to put into words. Mass death, emotional trauma, combined with dark sexual undercurrents (which were there from the start) all become increasingly common. The sheer jump from a slow pace to a frenzied orgy of death can be a bit overwhelming but it is nonetheless exhilarating and makes you sit up and take note of the speedily developing storyline.

Perhaps the main fault of Devil Lady is how it ends, the final three or so episodes occur almost a year after the previous events in the story. While they are in no doubt perhaps the three most horrific of them all and the story is well told it does feel rather disjointed from the rest of the plot. It is an ending that will make you sit there stunned thinking "Did that really just happen?" but you may well feel a little cheated it felt so separate from the rest of the plot. The only other fault I can level at the series is that the opening stint of rather generic scene setting episodes might drag for some people. The stories are a little predictable but with the real meat of the series coming into play at the halfway mark in such a powerful and epic way then it really is a must to stick with it.

In Summary

Devil Lady is perhaps one of the best horror titles I have seen. With just the right amounts of violence, a brooding gothic atmosphere and well developed cast of interesting characters there is little to prevent me from recommending it. The violence may be a little to much for some to stomach as may the nudity and slight sexual content, but if your not phased by this and the disjointed ending then there is a lot here to enjoy.