Halloween is quickly approaching, and so in the spirit of the season I decided to review some manga to scare me silly. 666 Satan has the scariest title imaginable; I bet kids cry and old ladies puke after reading this manga’s cover. However, remember that old saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover,”? Let me tell you now that 666 Satan is not a horror manga.

In essence, 666 Satan is a familiar series. Sometimes it resembles Dragon Ball, while other times it resembles Naruto; all with an overall layer of JRPG goodness that blankets the entire series. This is not random event, there is a solid reason behind this shonen train wreck.

First of all, the mangaka behind 666 Satan is Seishi Kishimoto, twin brother of Masashi Kishimoto, the mangaka of Naruto. Both artists were heavily influenced by Akira Toriyama, and were motivated to peruse this career because of him. Finally, this manga is published by Square Enix, creator of many different JRPG games. Do all of these segmented parts add up to make a good manga; better than any one of its ancestors? Find out after the jump.

The story of 666 Satan is very similar to the story of Naruto. However, Seishi has feverishly stated that he did not copy off his brother; rather they were influenced by the same things. Much like Naruto, the main character of 666 Satan, Jio, has a demon inside of him. However, this is no ordinary demon, but Satan himself.

Jio’s dream is to conquer the world, to make it a better place; so that nobody has to grow up in the environment he had to. Jio is aided Ruby Crescent, a girl who has the same personality and look as Bulma from Dragon Ball. Ruby is a treasure hunter, looking for powerful relics known as O-Parts.

O-Parts are what gives this manga its shonen edge. They are items that have special effects which can be accessed once spirit energy is infused into them. Like a sword that can manipulate gravity, for example. These crazy O-Parts bring a multitude of different characters together in order to find bigger and stronger O-Parts. Because of this and other reasons, this group quickly becomes enemies of the Stea Republic and the evil Zenom Organization.

Satan is not the only devil infused inside of a human; in fact there are 9 more devils out there. Ranging from Beelzebub and Lilith, to Astaroth and Baal. However, when there are demons, there are Angels; ten of them to be exact. Both these Angels and Demons hold amazing powers, and when inserted into a human (or animal) they have access to these fantastic powers. So what happens when you collect them all? You have the power to rule the world, of course.   

666 Satan is not just Naruto with Judeo-Christain themes instead of Asian-inspired ones. It’s more like Dragon Ball, because adventuring plays a very big role in the story; an aspect that is not found in Naruto. Its also a standard shonen series, meaning the story just seems to be an excuse to get two people with cool powers to fight each other.  

So far, this story does not have that magical arc that really draws you into the action. So it’s definitely not on the same level as Bleach, Naruto, or One Piece. But that does not mean it’s bad. The story moves a lot faster than all three of the ones listed above; and could end in the next fifty chapters. So in the end, its more like Yu Yu Hakusho, a manga that is fairly long and also has an ending.

If you like shonen manga like MAR, Naruto, and Dragon Ball then you will love 666 Satan; otherwise pass. Viz has licenced the manga in the states, but changed the title to “O Parts Hunter”. Did I mention there is a time-skip too? Everything is better with a time-skip!