I see people talking about how Griffith/Kaworu/Homura/Whatever Tragic Gay Narrative Foil ™ is just another Asuka Ryo (and sometimes even the teh rei phenomenon is lumped in with this)
but almost no one talks about how a vast majority of shounen protagonists are just rehashes of Akira: they're unlikely heroes, who are unprepared and mostly unwilling for the powers and responsibility cast upon them, their hero journey is full of suffering and battles with themselves, with distinct jekyll&hyde undertones in most of them. See: Kaneki, Guts, Shinji, all danganronpa protagonists, main character twinks from SAO and guilty crown, Midoriya, Tsunayoshi (khr), etc.
When Ryo started his monologue at the end of episode 10, Akira was still alive.
Listen, I love "how the fuck did Ryo not notice that Akira was dead" memes as much as the next person.
But it really never made sense as to why Ryo would actually talk to Akira if he was dead. I don't mean the "please say something" part, I mean the monologue part.
The only logical explanation for this is that when he starts his monologue, Akira is still alive.
Look at the pictures above. The first one is before Ryo starts his monologue, the second after he finishes.
It's a different Akira, isn't it? The most prominent changes are his eyes and his mouth.
In the first picture, Akira's eye reflects light and we can see his pupil. In the other picture, Akira's eye is more closed, it doesn't reflect any light, and we can't see his pupil anymore.
His jaw also slacks in the second picture, but in the first one his mouth is still closed.
Other than that, Ryo's reaction to Akira's death is also a major indicator that when he starts his monologue, Akira is still alive.
When he turns to Akira, and asks, "Why am I the only one talking?", it's not because he is stupid; it's because he genuinely thought Akira was alive. And when he notices that he is not, there is an immediate reaction afterwards.
While talking, Ryo smiles. His reaction to Akira being hurt has never been a smile (except in this episode). In episode 5, when he holds Akira in his arms after his fight with Silene, he is not smiling - he only smiles a little after he knows Akira is safe. He would not be smiling while giving his monologue if he knew that he lost Akira.
+ bonus: you remember how in the beginning of the episode, Akira says he can't cry for Ryo because his tears have all dried up? yeah? well, then allow me to point out that in the end of the episode, when Ryo asks Akira, "Feel what I'm feeling right now", Ryo is crying
In conclusion I am crying too, thank you for coming to my tedtalk.
i wanted to talk a little bit about my take on dr. asuka and whether or not he had actually researched demons/was ever possessed or if those were fake memories put in ryo’s head by jenny since it’s pretty ambiguous in the manga
gonna put under a cut so i can fully ramble and explain myself but tl;dr version is “dr. asuka did research demons and it was part of the Plan, but like everything else with the Plan, shit got messier than intended”
so i think it’s important to establish both the timeline and the gist of the Plan
basic order of events:
ryo and dr. asuka move to mexico (ryo is 17, akira is 16)
dr. asuka finds the skull mask planted and controlled by jenny
dr. asuka begins researching demons
ryo crashes his car and gets possessed by satan
that same night - dr. asuka gets possessed by a demon in the throes of his grief
the next night: satan!ryo wakes up and goes home, jenny wipes both ryo and dr. asuka’s memories so they wake up like everything’s normal
dr. asuka tries to kill ryo, then kills himself
ryo packs his dad’s research and flies back to japan (events 1-6 take about a month)
events of devilman take about two years
photo album reveal / ryo’s heel-turn (ryo is 19, akira is 18)
20 year war (akira dies at 38)
timeloop restart, babey!!
so satan’s plan was to infiltrate human society and give the demons a controlled specimen to see how humans would react to demonkind and figure out what humanity’s biggest weakness was. ryo was chosen as the meat puppet for various reasons so dr. asuka became the de facto planned first demon encounter for satan!ryo
so to expose the asukas to demons, jenny planted the skull mask within dr. asuka’s archaeological site for him to find. this is the impetus for dr. asuka to start researching demons (and from the Plan’s standpoint, have that information for ryo to find later)
in the manga, it’s played as though dr. asuka tried to kill ryo due to the demon’s influence and dr. asuka regains enough control over himself to commit suicide before the demon can make him kill his son. however, this is satan!ryo’s interpretation of events. from the demon standpoint, a very high-ranking and loyal demon was probably chosen to inhabit dr. asuka to make sure the plan went well, so why would the demon want to try to kill satan!ryo?
the demon doesn’t. that was dr. asuka that tried to kill satan!ryo because even though jenny had erased dr. asuka’s memories, he had enough access to the demon’s consciousness to realize that satan!ryo was not really his son.
so dr. asuka gains control and tries to kill satan!ryo in his sleep, but when ryo wakes up and he has to look at his son’s face looking scared and calling him “dad,” he can’t go through with it even though he knows that’s not really ryo. the demon is fighting for control so he can kill dr. asuka and protect satan, and with the knowledge that his wife and son are truly gone, dr. asuka cedes control to the demon and allows him to commit suicide in his body, thus taking them both down. the demon sacrificed himself and dr. asuka committed passive suicide by letting him.
“but jordan,” you ask, “if dr. asuka really did do that research and it wasn’t fake memories, why couldn’t ryo find the notes when he goes back to the mansion in volume 5?”
the demons went back and destroyed dr. asuka’s actual research so satan!ryo couldn’t use it to derail their plan any further than he already had. satan!ryo was never supposed to be actually good at fighting back against the demons, and he CERTAINLY wasn’t supposed to sacrifice amon to turn this random twink akira into a devilman hunk. so, the demons didn’t want to give ryo any more ammo to fuck everything up
in Japanese Buddhism, there’s a central deity named Fudo Myo-o. he’s associated with flames and is described as “immovable” and steady. even though he is a protective deity, he is fearsome, with an angry, menacing, and demon-like appearance. fitting for akira to share his name when he can transform into something like devilman lmao
@imnanashi YEAH that’s something I’ve actually thought about because like, despite being Satan, he’s not shown to be this horrible person. He does some questionable things, yes, but all of that is him trying to do what’s best for his people while also trying to be happy himself.
It’s been a while since I read it so I’m fuzzy on the details, but iirc Amon: The Darkside of Devilman (the manga not the movie) even shows him being seen by the demons as this very beloved and kind leader specifically because of how much he helped them in their liberation from God’s treachery.
In a way, I feel like the pretense of him being this, for lack of better phrasing, very stigmatized individual who really just wanted to be with the man he loved is VERY relatable for a lot of gay people.
Okay so I’m rewatching the OVA’s again after reading the manga because A. I need a laugh and B. I want to see what I missed the first time around, and this time around, I’m thinking about Ryo’s little speech to Akira after they blow up the car fighting off the first demons on the side of the road.
The giftset I reblogged prior to this post has what I assume is the subbed dialogue of this scene, but I’m thinking about the dub dialouge specifically atm, because in the dub it goes as follows:
Akira: (sits down, clearly in shock) “...They’re real...wow, how incredible.”
Ryo: “Yes... (pause) Akira...I’m so sorry. But you’re my only friend, and I need help. Believe me, if there was any other way for me to fight these things alone I would have done so, but the fact is I’m just not strong enough. I can only hope you’ll forgive me.”
Akira: (looking back up at Ryo) “It’s okay, Ryo.”
It is...so interesting to hear this little exchange after reading the manga and knowing what Ryo’s true identity is. The fact that he had no clue who he was at the time and fully believed he was just Ryo the human, and was this scared enough to reach out to the One friend he could trust enough to bring into this fight with him...I dunno man but it hits me somewhere deep in the heart.
Like if you look at it from the point of view once the whole Satan reveal has happened, it almost feels manipulative considering how he’s apologizing to Akira here but still clearly wanting Akira to join him, and he ultimately admits he had ulterior motive for wanting to ensure Akira’s survival by getting him in on the whole thing. But on the other hand, considering he had no idea he was Satan at the time, it’s just kinda touching to see how deeply he cares about and trusts Akira even now when he doesn’t know everything that’s going on.
I don’t have a concreate point to what I’m saying here, but this is just something I was musing over as I watched the OVA’s again.
I just don't get the inclusion Akira raping Sirene . Outside of shock value it actually hurts the show as you said. If it was explored like how Akira felt major regret for giving into his instincts and doing the unforgivable, maybe it'd actual be a worthwhile scene. Crybaby does feel like it just glosses over things it doesn't want to deal with. Throw out everything, but the supporting cast and soundtrack from that show.
(unpoopular opinion in that i couldn’t give less of a shit about any of the soundcloud rappers except as a collective greek chorus - that’s super interesting - but yeah big same on the soundtrack)
yeah the rape scene was solely included for shock value and as gross fetish fodder, just like all the pedophilic stuff surrounding that nagasaki dude. these are all really troubling things that dmcb did. if yuasa was going to include that shit he should have a) not fetishized/sexualized it for enjoyment purposes and b) actually explored the meaning and emotional impact of those scenes.
and because tunglr.hell can be like this, i want to be absolutely clear: liking dmcb doesn’t make you a bad person. i like dmcb. but be a conscientious consumer of media. like things! but also be critical of things that you should be critical of
it is, in fact, possible to criticize media without damning it and its audience, and to enjoy media without excusing everything about it
i’m only going to review the new translation of the original manga and leave the shin devilman portion of the classic collection out since i’m not as familiar with shin devilman
review including some screenshots and “scans” under cut (i’m far too lazy to actually scan manga pages so please accept my shitty phone pics)
the devilman classic collection, vol, 1 is available on amazon and at barnes and noble for approximately $25-30 depending on the retailer and contains volumes 1-3 of the original manga as well as parts of shin devilman, as shown below.
not including a “bilingual” japanese-english edition from 2002 that seems to only exist in some japanese library catalogues, the devilman classic collection is the first official english translation of the original devilman manga. all online versions available on sites like mangarock are fan translations and while these are INCREDIBLY appreciated, they don’t always make the most sense in terms of either content or tone. for the most part, the classic collection translation clarifies scenes such as ryo’s explanations at the sabbath and akira and ryo’s conversation at the diner about humanity’s predators. however, the tradeoff for better dialogue in the wordier sections of the manga is that lines from the fan translations that have since become Iconic(tm) in the english fandom are not always present in the classic collection. for instance, take “miki the hands” in the fan translation:
vs. “slapping miki” in the classic collection
this happens a lot in volume 1 especially since so many of its individual lines were memorably funny in the fan translation. don’t worry, though, “laced with drugs” was kept intact.
the improvements to the translation don’t really change the content very much, but they do come across as more natural and flow a bit better, as shown by this snippet of ryo and akira’s conversation in the diner:
but now it’s time for the fatal flaw of the classic collection: incredibly important scenes have been cut, especially those centered on ryo and his characterization. the most glaring examples of cut scenes are akira’s visit to ryo in the hospital (aka haha they gay) and ryo’s solo fight against eader/maegawa (aka murder umbrella scene). the hospital visit, which takes place before the sirene fight in volume 2, is cut and akira and miki’s first interaction post-amon goes straight into the sirene battle. this cut removes vital characterization for post-amon akira (”i enjoy being violent! it excites me!”), context for ryo being in the hospital during the sirene fight, and further development of ryo and akira’s dynamic with each other. this cut is very jarring to those who have read the manga before and could be confusing to those who haven’t.
the eader fight happens after the diner scene in the fan translation, but the diner scene in the classic collection cuts straight to tare and susumu. the eader fight’s removal from the classic collection is as baffling to me as it is crippling to the story. this fight is CRUCIAL to ryo’s characterization and reveals the extent to which he is losing his marbles from fear, which is the whole diddly-dang point of his character in the manga. this is also critically important to the story because it is the first real foreshadowing of ryo’s true identity as satan, as shown below.
this foreshadowing is not present at all in the classic collection and ryo’s mental decline will feel much more sudden to those who only read the classic collection vs. the fan translation.
SO WHAT’S THE TAKEAWAY HERE?
is the classic collection good? depends what you’re looking for. having better dialogue in the scenes that are present is very nice, though it is disappointing when iconic lines from the fanslation have been changed. there is also some very neat art in the collection and even the regular black and white art within the manga is crisper on paper. however, massive cuts have been made to the story, so i would not advise first-time readers to read the classic collection. i would direct them to the online fanslation that tells the entire story. i would only recommend the classic collection to experienced fans who want a collector’s item/physical copy of (most of) the story. it’s up to you if that is worth $30ish. i personally am glad that i have a physical copy and will preorder volume 2, but i now expect massive cuts.
