Devilman

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Devilman, also known by his alter ego of Akira Fudo, as well as the alias Violence Jack, is the titular protagonist of the Devilman franchise, starting with the original 1972 manga series.

In the main story-lines based around the manga, Akira Fudo was an ordinary Japanese teenager who became the host of a massively powerful prehistoric demon by the name of Amon, but instead of becoming possessed by the entity Akira himself took possession of Amon and with his newly gained powers Akira defends the human race against the demon race, bent of total human extermination and world conquest.

However, in the 1972 anime it was Amon who took possession of Akira's body and developed human emotions and as such became good and decided to defend the human race from his kind. In both cases, Devilman is good friends with with Miki Makimura, a childhood friend whose family adopted him. Following the manga's story Akira is also the best friend of Ryo Asuka, the man who gave him his powers, as well as the main antagonist of the series.

Personality

Prior to him gaining superpowers, Akira Fudo was a kind-hearted and mild mannered individual who openly disliked violence and avoided it at any given time. According to Miki, Akira always ran away from fights during his childhood, which led to him being branded a coward by others. Akira himself was shown to be rather ashamed of his bashful and meek attitude. In spite of this, he had demonstrated true loyalty to his friends and at a certain extent courage. Although reasonably afraid at the thought of the existence of demons, Akira believed in humanities ability to overcome great obstacles. He believed that human weapons such as tanks and even the hydrogen bomb could easily eradicate demon kind and expressed this belief with a passion. The only reason Akira agreed to help fight back the demons was because he wanted to save his friends and loved ones from the coming threat. To that end he was willing to partake in the Black Sabbath, despite earlier shame towards debauchery that came with it.

Soon after Amon had been assimilated into Akira's body and mind the young man displayed a change in attitude and world views. He became a far more assertive and competitive man. When he and Miki were surrounded by a previous gang of hoodlums Akira happily jumped right in an pummeled them into the ground without a second notice. Earlier on, this new character trait gave him a thirst for battle. In one instance he in the manga he felt bore of beating thugs and asked to kill demons. However, this did not last for very long as Akira' humanity got the better off him. With more demons threatening human life Akira put greater priority in saving people rather then killing.

History

Early Life

Akira Fudo was left orphaned in his late childhood, or early adolescence, depending on each individual interpretation of the character. According to the Devilman OVA series (which remains mostly faithful to the original manga) Akira's parents disappeared in the Himalayas during a geological expedition, seemingly buried alive, but in truth they were devoured by the demons that had been hibernating in the ice. As a result, Akira was taken in and raised by the Makimura family, Kozo Makimura having been good friends with Akira's father. Akira ended up growing up alongside the Makimura's eldest daughter, Miki, and younger brother Kensaku "Tare". Prior to his adoption, Akira became friends with a younger girl named Sachiko, and Ryo Asuka, the son of an archeologist who was another close friend of Akira's parents. During this time, Akira met Ryo's father personally.

Becoming Devilman

One day, in his high-school years, Akira is reunited with Ryo Asuka, who's father had recently passed away under gruesome circumstances and had left him an inheritance. Ryo takes Akira back to his families mansion and shares to him his father's secret and legacy. Ryo reveals that his father had committed suicide by burning himself alive shortly after experiencing homicidal tendencies. Prior to his sudden mental breakdown, Ryo's father had been exploring an ancient Mayan ruin where he accidentaly stumbled across a fossilized skull resembling a devil. The skull was dated far before the Ice Age, sometime around either the Mezozoic or the Cratecious Era. The skull was hallowed out and could project memories inside the mind of whoever wore it, thus revealing the history of the demons:

"Alongside the dinosaurs lived the demons, seemingly humanoid organisms with the unique ability to merge with their surroundings. As they continued absorbing other animals, plants, and even one another, the devils became hideous creatures with no remorse and no understanding of the concept of sympathy, who killed amongst themselves."

After much pressuring on Ryo's part, Akira wore the devil's skull and learned about the devils existence. Ryo goes on to explain that these very same prehistoric devils had survived extinction by hibernating through the Ice Age and had became the euhemeristic basis of the various monsters of myth, folklore and fairy tales. He illustrates this point by using the final chapter in the Inferno portion of The Divine Comedy, wherein Dante Aligheri observes the three-headed Lucifer frozen in the Cocytus. Finally, Ryo explains that his father had committed suicide after being possessed by one such devil while investigating their existence. Having accepted his friend's claims, Akira tries reasoning that man's modern technology could easily help destroy the devils, but Ryo gives the counterargument that "just as humans developed powerful weapon such as the hydrogen bomb, so to demons allowed their bodies to become weapons that could rival the hydrogen bomb!" But despite this, Ryo brings up in the discussion a single valid method of combating the demons. He decides to take Akira home and reveal it tomorrow night, however, as he wishes his friend to have one final night of happiness.

As they are leaving the mansion by car, Akira and Ryo are attacked by two demons: Illuge and Texsch. With the car having been destroyed, the two teenagers are forced back into the mansion and hide in the underground panic room. With no hope of escape Ryo is forced to jump-star the plan on defeating the demons. He reveals that the only way for humanity to survive a war with the demons is for them to acquire a demon's powers, as a result becoming "Devilmen". He had theorized that humans were the only lifeforms that could not be possessed by demons do to the one quality that separates them from other animals: rational thought. In order for a human to gain a demon's powers, he would have to willingly let go of rationality but have enough inner strength to resist demonic possession and instead they themselves to take possession of the demon. To that end Ryo takes Akira to a nightclub he had constructed in the bunker beneath the family mansion, wherein the party-goers are dancing partially nude and consuming drugs and alcohol. Ryo believed that such behavior is necessary for becoming irrational and invites Akira to join in. Because weak demons could not break inside the bunker it stood to reason that only the strongest of demons could break through and would likely be the ones to merge with Ryo and Akira, and as a direct corollary to this plan the two of them would become immensely powerful devilmen. As the Black Sabbath progresses Ryo instigates a bloody fight in order to further mindless behavior. True enough several guests become the hosts of demons that had broken in by means of teleportation. Ryo is left brutally beaten and left for dead, while Akira begins loosing his mind to fear. Just then, Amon, the most powerful and cruel of all the demons attempts to posses Akira, but Akira proves stronger of will and takes possession of the demon instead. Having become a devilman, Akira murders the demons and rescues Ryo before he can be killed.

Life as Devilman

Not long after becoming a devilman, Akira quickly begins reveling in his newfound demonic abilities. He begins getting into fights with the delinquents at his high school, something he normally avoided prior to his transformation, and delights himself in the praise given to him by the Makimura family because of his newly acquired courage and strength. In the process, he and the recovering Ryo begin discussing plans towards stopping the demon armies. Despite his newfound confidence, Akira expresses some level of doubt, especially after having experienced a dream in which he saw a three-headed demon of immense power who's strength dwarfed Amon's.

The Battle against Sirene

Amon's mighty presence inside of Akira soon caught the attention of the Great Demon King Zennon who feared the devilman would pose a threat to his plan's. To that and end, Zennon began sending his army after him. The first demon sent after Akira was Amon's lover, the avian female demoness Sirene, alongside lesser demons Ghelmer and Agwel. The trio invade the Makimura huse-hold, with Ghelmer using his power of merging with water to drown Mikki, while Agwel restrains Mr and Mrs Makimura with his power to make hard substances intangible. Both demons are killed by Akira who had merely used a portion of his demon powers while remaining in human form. While Agwel is torn apart by Akira's antenna, Ghelmer is dehydrated and then beaten to death. Fortunately for Akira, Mikki did not drown to death and was brought back to her room safe and sound. But the attacks were merely a destruction in order for Sirene to catch Akira off-guard. She had broaken into the house through the roof and impales Devilman with her talons, which electrically paralyze Akira's demon powers. As she was flying off with him away from the city, Sierene intended to have Devilman delivered to Lord Zennon, so that he would be killed through "the torture of a 100 pieces", as punishment for Akira's existence mocking the noble nature of her species. 

As she is flying above a forest, still carrying Akira in her left leg's talons, Sirene is shot in the chest and in the abdomen by Ryo, who had left the hospital after having received a premonition of his friend being in danger. The bullet wounds cause Sirene to release Akira from her grip, but she retaliates against Ryo by firing her right arm's detachable claw towards him, thus pinning Ryo against a tree and leaving him with grieves wounds. Now having been freed, Akira transforms into his demon form and engages Sirene. He easily knocks her into the forest bellow and overpowers her in one-on-one combat. But Sirene delivers two fatal blows to Devilman by summoning back her detached claw and having it chop off Devilman's left arm and then slicing his stomach. At the same time, Devilman realized that Sirene's antennae were controlling the claw's movements, so he grabed and electrocutes them, causing the claw to miss him and instead lunge into Sirene's abdomen, leaving her gravely injured.

In her current state Sirene is again overpowered by Devilman, who rips off her left wing. Sirene is forced to call upon Lord Zennon for help, who sends several demons to distract Devilman, but also sends the pachyderm demon Kaim to personally assist Sirene in battle. Kaim suggests that he and Sirene merge together as their combined power would surely defeat their enemy, but Sirene protests because if her conscious were to take control of their joint body the would both die because of her bleeding injuries. Kaim makes no illusions of wanting to survive the fight and merely wishes for Sirene to win. To that end, he decapitates himself and merges with Sirene. With Kaim's bulky body and tusks, coupled with her own energy blats, Sirene manages to once again inflict mortal injuries onto Devilman, forcing him revert back into human form and falling unconscious. The following morning Akira wakes to find Ryo standing next to him, having bandaged Akira. More still, Akira's left arm had reattached itself after Ryo had placed it back on his shoulder. Ryo speculates that his survival was do to Amon's exceptional stamina and regenerative capabilities. Just then, Akira remembers that Sirene had the perfect opportunity to kill him, but didn't. Ryo answers by pointing to Sirene's corpse, which was standing perfectly erect just a few feet away from them. The demon bird had died while she was still standing on her feet and smiling do to her assumed victory over Devilman.

Powers and Abilities

Akira exhibited several supernatural powers after having taken control of Amon's body. First off, he displayed inhuman amounts of strength, agility, stamina, speed and endurance. He could easily lift objects that weighted several hundred kilograms, and in extreme cases entire tons. This strength proved especially useful when confronting demons that had a hard shell-like hide for protection, as was the case with the bulky Kaim and the turtle demon Jinmen. Coupled with his razor-sharp claws, Devilman could crush, slice and eviscerate demons of varying forms and sizes and even reinforced steel. Devilman also had a pair of bat-like wings which he could grow and retract off of his back at will. They allowed him to fly and together with his enhanced agility and speed Devilman gained the ability to glide and fly at speeds up to several hundred miles per hour. His maneuverability in flight proved to be fluid which allowed him to overpower Sirene in mid-flight. However, he was less efective while flying in a forest, with the trees making maneuvering very difficult which allowed Sirene to take advantage of the battle and overpower him. His demon body allowed Akira to survive potentially lethal attacks, as was the case when Sirene sliced his entire right arm off. After Ryo placed Akira's arm back onto his shoulder it fused immediately back on, although this could have been the result of his demonic power of fusion. Aside from the se abilities, Akira possesses a decelerated aging process, or even a lack-there-of, since his teenage appearance never changed after several decades spent as a devilman. He could very likely have been an immortal given Amon's immense physical power.

While in his human form, Akira Fudo displayed greater physical strength as he could defeat any large number of teenage delinquents with relative ease. Presumably, Amon's knowledge in hand-to-hand-combat and battle tactics had been passed on to Akira.

In addition to the standard augmented physical capabilities, Devilman also possessed a few other powers. For one, he could generate and conduct electricity through the two antennae on his forehead. The antennae could likewise elongate and wrap around Devilman's enemies so when he shot with lightning they would not escape death. During the events of Devilman Lady, Devilman could generate lightning from his entire body, although this was likely restricted while in Hell since he lacked an actual physical body. Another ability owned by Devilman was a limited form of telepathy which he, along with other devilmen, used to try and communicate with devilman across the world. Also, his telepathy allowed him to sense nearby demons and even took notice of Demon King Zennon while the latter had just broken out of ice. Akira could also breath fire.

In the OVA AMON: The Dark Side of Devilman, Akira could absorb lesser demons by merely punching them and could even generate concentrated energy blasts.

While in Hell, at the time of the manga Devilman Lady, Akira's astral form could travel back on Earth and interact on a limited basis with humans, usually in the form of a ghost.

Other Media

Boku no Hero Acadamia (Manga)

Devilman, along side other well known superheroes: Wolverine, Kamen Rider, Superman, Spider-Man, Doctor Midnight and Ultraman, make a cameo appearance as silhouettes during My Hero Academia's first chapter as part of the exposition regarding quirks.

Gallery

Devilman fighting Demons