Major Akuma Kun (2023) spoilers, warning you rn
Yk what gets me about this show is that it would've been really easy to make Strophaia a big bad evil villain who simply uses Ichiro and manipulates him for his own gain. But they don't. They make a point to show that Ichiro loves Strophaia, and that Strophaia loves him, too. That's why Strophaia wants to release everyone's light, I think- or at least, a big part of the reason. He wants to free Ichiro, to have him by his side- and to do that, he needs to have Ichiro be like him.
Unless Ichiro has some special powers aside from being Akuma Kun, he's really just some normal boy. Strophaia was surprised that he had some hidden destiny. This tells me that Ichiro specifically wasn't needed to free the woman in chains. But Strophaia wanted him to do it. He didn't want anyone else to do it, he wanted Ichiro to be the one to choose to free himself and everyone. And he would have, if Shingo and Mephisto II didn't take Ichiro.
Strophaia feels as though his loved one was taken from him, was stolen. That's why he wants to torture Shingo, even after the man is near death already. He didn't care to torture Mephisto III- he was honestly just a casualty in this whole thing. Something to push Ichiro to the edge of grief so the flute would finally break. In his eyes, his beloved Aeshma was stolen and forced into a role he never wanted to have. And honestly? He's not too off the mark. Ichiro had a lot of trouble dealing with this destiny that was thrown onto him, who wouldn't?
It's Strophaia's love that pushes him to do what he does. He's older than almost everyone in the show, save for Satan. But he loves this human. This seemingly random human who was abandoned by his kind.
It's Ichiro's love that both causes Strophaia to almost win, and also the thing that defeats him. For now.
It's just... idk. In a lot of shows they have the protagonist go up against someone they hate, someone who's harmed them or their loved ones and seemingly has no good qualities. But when shows make the motivation love? Ourgh. Ourgh. It's so good. I don't even mean romantic love here. Platonic, familial, any kind of love. Love isn't this pure thing that will solve everything. Love is messy. Love is hard. And I really like how they show that. All the people Ichiro loves hurt him in some way, and he hurts them back, too. Not out of maliciousness- simply out of being human. Despite, yk, a good portion of the cast being demons. But I digress.
I really hope season two takes a closer look at all the.... conflicted feelings Ichiro definitely has. Strophaia is most likely returning, considering they didn't use that scroll. I want to see where their relationship heads. Honestly, I can see a redemption or a double down from Strophaia.
Another thing I wanna point out is how desperate Strophaia was to stop Ichiro from using the flute. He shields himself with his wings, he looks downright terrified. He's begging, repeating "Aeshma" over and over as his voice cracks. It's just. So gripping. Strophaia had all the confidence in the world that Ichiro would come back to him, and not only did Ichiro not do that- he aimed to kill him. Like. Ourgh. Obviously Strophaia needed to be defeated, man's was hurting people, but. Imagine the betrayal. Heck, how Ichiro feels. He's doing the same thing he did all those years ago, what accidentally separated him and Strophaia in the first place- what started the cracks in the flute!!! It's just!!!! Ourgh!!!!!!!!!
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