is a manga series written and illustrated by Go Nagai. The series tells the story of Ryo Utsugi, a student who finds himself in the body of an ancient demon known as Dante and sees himself in the middle of a conflict between God and the devils. Nagai's main influence to create the work was Gustave Doré's illustrations of Dante's Divine Comedy. The series challenged the traditional view of God as good and Devil as bad and was created to provoke the critics of his previous works. During 1971, Nagai wrote the original Demon Lord Dante manga, which was published in Kodansha's Bokura Magazine. The series ran from January to June, but it ended prematurely because of the magazine discontinuation. In 2002, the manga was officially revived by Nagai, and during the same year a 13-episode anime adaption was created and broadcast in Japan by AT-X. The anime was released in North America in DVD format by Geneon Entertainment in 2004 and re-released by Discotek Media in 2016. Plot 1971 manga is a high school student who lives with his sister and his parents. He has been repeatedly having nightmares about demons. Because of this, he cannot sleep well the day before he goes on a trip into the mountains. There, Ryo follows a voice who proclaims himself to be "Dante, the King of Devils" and ends up falling from a cliff. As he falls, he unconsciously teleports to the Himalayas with his psychic powers. After Dante explains he was Judas Iscariot when he was a human, he controls Ryo's mind to break free from the ice prison and kills Ryo. Unaware of Dante's resurrection, a group of Satanists kidnaps a female student to sacrifice her to revive Dante in a Black Mass. , a religious group secretly led by Ryo's father, , attack the ritual, but Dante arrives and kills them. Dante flies to Nagoya, where he is confronted by the Army after he crushes buildings and kills people. Ryo notices his consciousness is in Dante's body, but he still kills the Army's soldiers. Then the demon appears and fights Dante. Zenon is defeated but before dying he says he wanted to fight God but he was afraid to do it. Zenon trusts Dante this task, saying Dante should assemble a demon army with the power of Satan and be careful about Adam and Eve. The other day Ryo