critics he was receiving from his precedent works. His most popular manga until then, Harenchi Gakuen (1968–1972), an erotic comedy set in a school, featured satirical critics to the Japanese scholar system and society, and was campaigned against by parent-teacher associations across Japan. As a response, with Demon Lord Dante, Nagai tried to subvert the traditional view of God and Devil to provocate "the keepers of the standard". As such, Demon Lord Dante "represents the struggle between the monster and the standard seen through the eyes of the former", as a pair of literary critics put it. Through the manga, Nagai wanted to show that good is not always the "good guys" and evil could be the right path. The manga was materialized during 1971 through its serialization in Kodansha's Bokura Magazine from the January issue to the June issue. However, the magazine went defunct and the story ended incomplete. The first collected version of the series was published by Asahi Sonorama in three volumes released between June and July 1973. It would be reprinted twice by the same publisher—in a three-volume edition in 1976 and in a two-volume version in 1984. Chuokoron-Shinsha also republished the manga twice; in a single-volume in 1991 and in a two-volume reprint in 1995. It was also rereleased by Kodansha into two volumes in 1999 and into three volumes in 2002. In 2018, as part of the 50th anniversary of Nagai as an artist, the series was republished into two volumes by Shogakukan as Maō Dante: The First in a version meant to be closer to the original Bokura Magazine serialization. The first volume was released on August 27, 2018, while the second one was published on September 19, 2018. Nagai started a reboot series to complete the unfinished story in the March 2002 issue of Kodansha's Magazine Z. It was divided into four arcs, each one of them being released as a collected volume in June 2002, December 2002, July 2003, and January 2004, respectively. was serialized until the June 2002 issue; was published between July 2002 and March 2003; from April to July 2003; and between September 2003 and January 2004 issues. The series was also made available as by eBook Japan through its site on August 9, 2013. Related works Aki Fūga wrote a remake titled that was published under LEED's Kyofu no Yakata print. The series was collected into eight