The first encounter with demons is pretty gory. There are indeed teeth everywhere.
“He never cried for himself, only for other people.”
The words of Miki Makimura rings in the head of her protector Wamu as he tries to encourage her to stay strong. There is a massive angry mob outside, ready to take them all down forcefully. How did it come to this? She doesn’t know for sure, but there’s nothing else she can do. Akira Fudo, her adoptive brother, is nowhere to be seen, but he’s the only one that can stop these people.
There’s something special about Akira, though, even more than Miki knows. The change
Akira shows off his Devilman form, protecting those he loves from danger.
happened quickly: Akira was once a small, bumbling crybaby of a boy, and suddenly transformed into a swaggering young man with a secret. He’s actually a Devilman. This happens so quickly, that even Akira can’t understand the change.
His childhood friend Ryo Asuka stops in town from overseas and picks up Akira one day after school and brings him to a rave. Poor Akira doesn’t know what’s going on, but people begin to change right before their eyes into beings called devils. These devils begin to brutally destroy the people in the club, but Ryo doesn’t let Akira leave. Instead, Akira begins to transform himself under guidance of Ryo. In this way, Akira is able to kill the devils, and still remain human.
Kukun’s devil form – a giant bull. He ends up fighting for the enemies of humanity, despite Akira’s pleas.
The resulting transformation does more than give him special powers. It changes his body, too. He gets a lot more unwanted attention from just about everyone at school, and draws more powerful devils to him. He soon has to face more and more powerful enemies, and when Ryo spills the beans about the existence of devils and causes mass panic, Akira and his family begin to draw even more unwanted attention.
The stylistic nature of this series makes the gory parts somehow even more gory. It was a bit unnecessary, and seemed to take away from the plot, which does leave a lot to be desired. There’s quite a bit of fan-service, and definitely not recommended for kids. It’s very visceral and primal, which doesn’t do it any favors. In fact, it may have made it worse.
Final Words
Spoiler Alert Ahead! The biggest problem this anime has has to be the ending. There’s no closure what-so-ever. Why would you kill off everyone? Like, I know it’s cliche, but having a story where the bad guy wins and no one else is left alive while Ryo cries while holding the disembodied torso of his childhood friend because he won is hardly an ending. I feel like the writers just didn’t try. I get what they were trying to do, but they failed miserably. Here I am, sitting and hoping the good guy wins, since all of his fellow devilmen are there to help, but he just keeps getting chopped up. He keeps going! I know he’ll win because he has hope and friendship on his side! But…he just…doesn’t. He dies and Ryo gets what he wanted – the end of humanity. So what now? Cry, Ryo. Cry.
I would give this anime a… 4/10 (rating scale)
If you like this anime, you may also like… Blue Exorcist, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, D. Grayman
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