"The Year is 203X, years have since passed since the Great Destruction and the following events. Peace has finally come to Tokyo, that is until a mysterious group of villainous demons known as the Goetia Empire of Seth appears, causing destruction with horrible, evil Demons and collecting humanity's tears of despair! However, no normal Devil Buster can take this task, only very special S-Rank Devil busters are chosen to be the stars that shine in the midst of this darkness, they are... Summoner Squadron Devilranger!" -Official Summary
What happens if you take Shin Megami Tensei (specifically, Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE ) but retell it as a Super Sentai styled Tokusatsu series? This is what happens, as written by Kit Nymphia.
After the events of Shin Megami Tensei I, peace has finally been restored despite the onsalught of demons. That is until a mysterious gang of villains known as the Goeita Empire starts making their attack on the restored Tokyo, wanting to revive their big bad Seth to make Tokyo a personal hell again. It's up to a former Tokusatsu actor to bring forth heroes, as unlikely they may be to restore peace in the form of Devilrangers.
The Fic is a retelling of the Author's experiences in Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE heavily reimagined in the style of a Super Sentai show to where it's more of an Original Flavour fic, emulating several Tokusatsu tropes but also keeping many staples of the Shin Megami Tensei universe such as demon summoning an an After the End setting. Throughout the story, the tone tends to flip between a cheesy sentai parody with many rye jokes to introduce elements like Character Death, Darker Themes and Threats, and even starts to wham about Demon and Human relationships. All in the name of The Power of Friendship .
The First two Arcs (Sometimes called the "Soul" and "Shadow" arcs) are completed, and the third arc, the "Corruption" Arc has started recently with Chapter 27.
You may read the story here
This fic provides examples of:
- Animal Motifs: Each ranger's motif is based on an animal or beast that died in the Great Destruction. Same applies for the Crystal Skull Gang having their own animal motifs in addition to Gemstones.
- Badass Adorable: Nymphia/Pink Pegasus, Broki/Cyan Duck, and Kawaii/Silver Fox on the ranger end. Mothman, Inexperienced Uriel, Frost Ace for demons.
- Badass Bookworm: Aigle/Blue Dragon, Tinka/Black Raptor, and Felicia.
- Badass Normal: Most of the Rangers have usual day jobs and are usually pretty normal people outside of ranger related tasks.
- Beach Episode: Mission 22 Until everything goes wrong.
- Bounty Hunter: Phaz/Cobalt Wolf is one by day.
- Central Theme: The Power of Friendship between demons and humans is very strong throughout, but it's said to be a central idea for the Third Arc.
- Color-Coded Characters: Like any Sentai or Power Rangers, everyone wears their color somewhere: Nymphia is Pink, Deo is Red, Aigle is Blue or more Azure, Eri is Yellow in very small amounts, Kawaii is Silver, Versalies is Gold, Broki is Cyan or Light Blue, Tinka is Black, Phaz is a Cobalt or Dark Blue, Zio is Violet, Daishou is Crimson or Dark Red, Usagi/White Gryphon and later Petite/White Griffnix is White and Hiroshi/Green Jurassic is Green.. Sitri is also Red, Naberius is Yellow, Vepar is Blue, Ipos is Pink, and Furfur is Black.
- Color-Coded Stones: Introduced in Arc 3's Crystal Skull Gang with Garnet being Crimson, Pearl being Silver, and Amethyst being Violet. Later Opal is Black, Aquamarine is Cyan, Ruby is Red, Sapphire is Blue, and Emerald is Green.
- Cool Old Guy: The Ranger's head of opperations and mentor Hiroshi and Edwin from Arcadia. Hiroshi counts as Cool Teacher as well.
- The Dragon: Sitri to Ose, Ose to Seth.
- Land, Sea, Sky: The Arcadia Rangers. Versailles/Gold Unicorn is Land, Broki/Cyan Duck is Sea, and Tinka/Black Raptor is Sky.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Early Chapters have quite a few weird inconsistencies.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Happens in each arc's ending "mini arc" as well as another mini arc.
- Arc 1's three part finale. It's loosely based on the Japanese Server's 7th Anniversary event has the rangers trying to save several hundreds if not thousands of demon's souls. Fuel to the fire is added when each leader has to Mercy Kill a Fiend they knew previously in some way, and Usagi/White Gryphon DIES trying to protect Alice despite her going Ax-Crazy. Everyone now with their new Sixth Ranger Green Jurassic and Fiend allies all ban together to defeat Mother Harlot to avenge their fallen friends.
- Mission 22 and 23's mini arc is surprisingly brutal. A great storm happens halfway through the gang's beach episode, causing Deo's Tam Lin and Nymphia's Oberon to go out to investigate the cause of it. Hours later, Deo's Tam Lin returns bloody and broken, only barely able to choke out that the Fairy Queen Titania has gone crazy. The team is able to save Titania from her demonic possession from Pazuzu, but only for Sitri to come in and kill Nymphia's Oberon before a heartwarming reunion. Mission 23 involves everyone trying to convince Norn's fates to give them the Balm of Life so they can save Oberon, even Nymphia has to convince Titania to join her cause because they both care deeply about him. Needless to say after a downright brutal fight between Pink Pegasus and Pazuzu, the fairies are reunited and Nymphia even gets Titania recruited.
- Now with Arc 2's Finale. Mission 25 is already a major wham episode. Gold Unicorn ends up becoming a vessel for the Vile Lord Nyarlathotep, apperaing as a twisted, grouteqe version of her usually very shimmering appearance. The two other Arcadia Rangers and White Griffnix try to confront her, but it ends up rather horribly, with White Griffnix, who is actually Gold Unicorn's younger sister getting the most beating out of her initially. Hope seems to have come when Versalies' demons (Mothman, Inexperinced Uriel, and Yoshitsune) come in to try and save her, even with Inexperienced Uriel about to give the final blow...Only for him to be repeatedly stabbed by the demonic gold ranger, each one of his tiny screams of pain being audible. It's made even worse when you realize Uriel at this point in time is only about the equivalent of a five year old child, and he was killed by his own mother figure. Eventually Gold Unicorn breaks free, only to talk with the small seraph one last time in possibly one of the most tear jerking scenes in the series. It's then found out that Nyarltahotep has stolen the souls of not just the other rangers, but also their demons (including Mothman and Yoshitsune), plunging the area into darkness...
- Mission 26 is centered around Gold Unicorn, whom is able to revive Uriel through her determination. After a very earned heartwarming reunion between Gold Unicorn and a now fully matured Uriel, the two Digitize into one hell of an angelic badass. The rest is centered around kicking Nyarlathotep's ass by trying to rescue the ranger's souls with the help of their demon friends, Hopes and Dreams Will SAVE the World style. After being beaten around by Nyarlathotep for a bit, everyone gathers with their demons to show their Power of Demon Friendship to seal away Nyarlathotep, despite him existing so long as there's evil.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: The Souhonzan Rangers are this. Sort of. Daishou/Crimson Kitsune is Fire, Zio/Violet Tiger is Lightning, and Phaz/Cobalt Wolf would be Ice, but instead is Radiation (Fitting considering his name stemming from another series...).
- Fusion Dance: Cross Digitize Fusion allows rangers to fuse with their demons as a means to power up and gain new weapons and affinities based on the demon they Digitized with. However, the user and demon must have a strong bond, and Fiends currently have some drawbacks, like breaking your neck suddenly afterwards.
- Hollywood Cyborg: Edwin from Mission 23 and Mission 27 has robotic limbs.
- Monster of the Week: Usually one per chapter, unless it's a mini arc. Lampshaded as the usual passage of time between chapters is a week.
- Old Master: Hiroshi is about in his early sixties yet he still gets around pretty well.
- The Psycho Rangers: The Five Goetia Demons of Sitri, Naberius, Vepar, Ipos, and Furfur could be considered this. Also the Crystal Skull Gang introduced in Arc 3.
- Parody Episode: Mission 21. The gang finds a collection of strange figures thought to be gods and heroes of other realms right before the monster of the week shows up for a smashing good time.
- Retired Badass: Edwin survived the great destruction and is implied to have raised Archangles Michael and Gabriel by himself in later chapters.
- Samus Is a Girl: Phaz/Cobalt Wolf is found out to be a girl crossdressing as a dude in chapter 12.
- According to the Author, it's because she thought the real life Phaz was male until finding out that they where a woman with a male avatar in game, as well as a nod to the Franchise/Metroid series' main protagonist (As Phaz is derived from "Phazon").
- Shout-Out: AND HOW. There's many, many shout-outs from nearly every corner of media.
- "Super Sentai" Stance: Done in nearly every chapter.
- Transformation of the Possessed: Happens to Titania in Mission 22 when she's possessed by Pazuzu. She isn't exactly pretty either as a result and slight shoutout.
- also happens to Gold Unicorn in Mission 25.
- Wham Episode: Mission 12. In the Soul Prison, the gang splits up and gets into fight with the four Humanoid Fiends whom have all gone crazy. In short, Yoshitsune, Tokisada, Jeanne D'Arc and Usagi/White Gryphon all meet with heartbreaking and rather graphic demises. Hell, there's a reader discretion before the chapter and it's even called A Fight of Fate, a Fight of Blood Stained Love! for good measure.
- Mission 25, Part 1 of Arc 2's Finale. Holy crap, this one whams. Gold Unicorn ends up becoming MirGoaUnicorn after Nyarlathotep possesses her. She isn't able to snap out of her demonic possession until after Inexperienced Uriel was killed by multiple stabs to the chest. By her own blade. In a desperate attempt to plead with who he thinks is his mother. The following scene of Gold Unicorn hearing Uriel's last words is downright heart breaking, even the Author said to have cried when writing it.
- The very end of Mission 22 and the premise of Mission 23 involves the rangers trying to desperately revive Nymphia's Oberon. Made sadder since he's the closest family she has and now he's gone. There's even a fairy funeral scene in the start of Mission 23 directly mirroring that of Disney's Snow White. Though he's revived after one hell of a journey.
