How Kishimoto pays tribute to Go Nagai's Devilman
Other people both here on tumblr and on reddit have written posts on how Kishimoto pays homage to Devilman in Naruto and Sasuke's final battle [LINK] [LINK]
But I still wanted to make my own post after reading Devilman's og manga and a couple side stories because I feel I have a couple things to add to the conversation :D so without further ado let's get started
Devilman is one the most influential manga out there. Among the series it has inspired you'll find Evangelion, Berserk, Parasyte, Chainsaw Man, Tokyo Ghoul, Attack on Titan & Naruto. And if you want to talk about the "founders of yaoi" in shonen, you must talk about Ryo and Akira, many of your favorite mlm ships have been influenced by them.
When Naruto's chapter 698 first came out back in november 2014, Japanese fans quickly noticed the similarities between it and Devilman's final chapter. So let's discuss what Kishimoto takes from Devilman and incorporates into his own work
Our main characters of each series are Naruto and Akira respectively. They're both seen as righteous and noble. Naruto always follows his promises and Akira is considered to be pure of heart. They're both dorks who over the course of their series gain power specifically for their final battles, the climax of their series. However, where Naruto seeks to save Sasuke, Akira actually wants to kill Ryo out of anger and revenge.
Another thing that makes Naruto and Akira different is the fact that Akira's driving force is Miki, a girl with whom he lives and who also has feelings for him. Miki's death is Akira's breaking point and what leads him to fight Ryo. Meanwhile Naruto's driving force is Sasuke
Meanwhile Naruto's driving force is Sasuke. Basically, there's stronger subtext for Naruto's homosexuality you won't find often in other shonen main characters.
Then we have our deuteragonists that are at the same time antagonists (and in Sasuke's case even considered the heroine) of their series. Ryo, who is Satan in the body of a human from whom he took his memories and lived a relatively normal life until the return of the demons he orchestrated himself. During his time as a human Ryo fell in love with his best friend Akira but was mostly in denial of his feelings until right before their fight. Sasuke also bears feelings for Naruto he tries to supress.
Both Ryo and Sasuke believe they must cut off Akira and Naruto out of their lives for they consider the feelings they have for them a "weakness" in their goals, which for Ryo is reconquer the planet for demons and for Sasuke to bear all the hatred of the shinobi by himself to stop the cycle of hate and achieve true peace like his brother intended
Ryo's feelings for Akira are what made him turn his beloved friend into a devilman, at the cost of his best demons, hoping that way he'd survive the demon apocalypse and be together afterwards.
Sasuke's feelings for Naruto is what made him defy his brother Itachi's command to kill his closest bond to awaken his mangekyou sharingan so he'd be able to defeat him in their future battle
What makes Ryo and Sasuke different is that Ryo doesn't actually want to fight Akira and even cries when he's told there was no way to avoid the fight but ultimately.
Sasuke, on the other hand, calls for the fight to take place and is the one who pushes Naruto to fight him.
An interesting thing that happens right before Naruto and Akira's respective battles against Ryo & Sasuke begin but the conflict in their respective universes has already begun (humans vs demons war in Devilman and the 4th great shinobi war in Naruto) is we observe Ryo and Sasuke trying to protect Akira and Naruto from what's going on, urging them to not engage in certain events and at the same time not show any care for the well-being of other individuals affected.
So the final battles are about to begin. In Naruto everyone is under Tsukuyomi and in Devilman humanity has gone extinct after 20 years of war against the demons.
Ryo & Akira's fight is described as a battle of love and hatred. Naruto's fight is described as a battle of love and power.
The Sage of Six Paths stated that he'd hoped Naruto would be able to turn hate into love unlike his predecessors Ashura and Hashirama who failed to do so.
Although in Devilman's case you could also see it as Ryo being the love because he loves Akira & Akira representing the hatred because he's come to hate Satan after Miki's death. It could also be Ryo representing hate due to his hatred for humanity and Akira representing love due to his love for Miki.
Ryo and Sasuke being the "hatred" and Akira and Naruto the "love" side of the battle.
Once the battles have come to an end we see both pairs laying on the ground observing the moon. The winner of the fight being the first one to speak.
After the battles, Ryo gives a monologue on his sympathy for the demons as living beings, why he betrayed God and how he came to hate humans vowing to exterminate them. Sasuke on the other hand, asks Naruto why he never gave up on him and after getting a satisfactory answer he ponders on how much Naruto has meant to him.
Ryo claims he won the battle whereas Sasuke admits his defeat, but why?
Naruto and Sasuke showed themselves to be pretty much equal in the battle field and they're both equally wounded as well, so why Kishimoto decided Sasuke lost? It's all about the theme of the battle, love and hatred.
Ryo managed to kill the man he loves and succumb to darkness to achieve his goal, that's why he won. Sasuke couldn't, that's why he lost.
Ultimately, Ryo & Sasuke admit their wrongdoings. Ryo asks Akira for forgiveness and Sasuke accepts out loud he's finally come to acknowledge Naruto seeking reassurance from him that he wants him by his side.
And is right after this we get the gore reveal: Akira dead cut in half by Ryo and Sasuke and Naruto bleeding to death after losing their arms. It's important to point out that Naruto and Sasuke losing specifically their arms has a deeper significance beyond being a nod to Devilman, me and tumblr blog twomiddlefingersforthehaters discussed it in depth in this other post [LINK]
As you can see Kishimoto also took the single tear Ryo shed after realizing he killed Akira and wrote it into his manga but this time Sasuke sheds a single tear overwhelmed by Naruto's devotion for him, his one and only who never gave up on him.
And Kishimoto LOVES the single tear trope, he's used it for Minato and Kushina, Haku and Zabuza and Mario and Saori. Always in the context of the love and devotion one has for the other bringing the other to tears.
But another interesting aspect of Naruto and Devilman's parallels is these panels where Naruto (winner) tells Sasuke (defeated) "finally awake" and in Devilman, Ryo (winner) tells Akira (defeated) "you fell asleep"
It feels like Kishimoto turning the tables on love winning over hatred this time. When love wins, Sasuke who represented hatred, gets to wake up and see the light/right path again. When hatred wins, Akira who represented love, falls asleep entering total darkness.
This is reaffirmed when we remember how Sasuke decided to destroy Konoha as dusk fell, symbolizing his descent to darkness. But after being saved by Naruto and acknowledging his own love for him, we see the sunrise, symbolizing Sasuke escaping darkness (we also see him laugh for the first time in years abandoning the evil 'kukuku' laugh for the genuine 'hahaha' laugh, you can read more about this here)
Sasuke would've regretted killing Naruto just like Ryo ended up doing.
"Don't kill Naruto... You will regret it" -> "Don't leave me alone. Don't leave me"
Kishimoto takes Ryo and Akira's story and turns it on its head for Naruto and Sasuke, who actually get to reconcile their differences and reach each other's hearts. His homage to Devilman asks the question: what if this time love wins?
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