Amon - The Apocalypse Of Devilman -

In the end, Akira’s human consciousness briefly resurfaces, horrified by the carnage his body has wrought. He begs Miki to run. But the final scene offers no hope. Akira’s face transforms one last time into Amon’s snarling visage, and the OVA ends with the narrator’s grim words: “The apocalypse of the devil man has begun.” 1. The Illusion of Control: The Birth ended with Akira believing he could use Amon’s power for good. Amon brutally deconstructs this idea. The OVA argues that there is no compromise with a primal force of chaos. The moment Akira merges with Amon, his human identity is on borrowed time. The film asks: Can you truly weaponize hatred and violence for love and protection? Its answer is a resounding, bloody no .

Commercially, it underperformed compared to The Birth , likely due to its relentless grimness and the fact that it ends on a cliffhanger that was never resolved. (A third OVA adapting the apocalyptic finale of the manga was planned but never made.)

We then join Akira Fudo, who has merged with the demon Amon to fight for humanity. But the psychological toll has been immense. Ryo Asuka (Satan in human form) has been pushing Akira relentlessly, turning him into a weapon. The OVA’s central conflict ignites when the demon psycho-jenny, a parasitic creature that feeds on fear, attacks. In the process of fighting it, Akira’s human psyche finally shatters. amon - the apocalypse of devilman

Amon: The Apocalypse of Devilman , directed by Umanosuke Iida (who worked on The Birth ) and written by Go Nagai himself alongside Akinori Endo, picks up immediately where the first OVA left off. The animation studio was Oh! Production, with character design and animation direction by the legendary Yoshihiko Umakoshi (later known for Casshern Sins and My Hero Academia ). Umakoshi’s work here is raw, muscular, and grotesquely beautiful—a perfect marriage of Nagai’s crude, expressive style and high-fidelity anime detail.

The voice cast features the iconic Ichirō Nagai as the narrator (his deep, ominous tone setting the stage), with Tomohiro Nishimura as a tormented Akira Fudo, and Kaneto Shiozawa as the cold, charismatic Ryo Asuka. The OVA opens not with Akira, but with a stunning, wordless prologue: the story of the original Devilman. Millennia ago, a human warrior named Amon was the most powerful demon in hell, serving the demon lord Zennon. Amon refused to bow to the rising power of Satan, leading a rebellion. For his defiance, Amon was torn apart by the demon general Kaim and his consciousness was sealed within a human sacrifice—setting the stage for the modern era. Akira’s face transforms one last time into Amon’s

The demon Amon —the original, unbroken personality of the demon Akira hosts—begins to reawaken. Akira’s body mutates, not into the controlled Devilman, but into the hulking, bestial form of the ancient warrior Amon. His eyes lose all human recognition. His friends, Miki and Miko, look on in horror as the monster that once served Akira becomes the master.

In the vast, bloody tapestry of dark fantasy and horror anime, few works have cast as long a shadow as Go Nagai’s 1972 manga, Devilman . Its exploration of a reluctant demon-human hybrid, the nature of evil, and an apocalyptic ending where Satan himself wins remains shocking even today. However, the original 1972 TV anime was a neutered, children’s version of the source material. It wasn’t until the 1987 OVA Devilman: The Birth and its 1990 sequel, Amon: The Apocalypse of Devilman , that Nagai’s violent, nihilistic vision was finally rendered in animated form. The OVA argues that there is no compromise

Culturally, Amon has gained a massive reappraisal in recent years. As audiences have become more accustomed to “dark” reboots and deconstructionist anime (like Evangelion , which owes a clear debt to Devilman ), Amon is now seen as a landmark of adult animation. It directly influenced works like Berserk (1997) and the Devilman Crybaby (2018) Netflix series.

The title is The Apocalypse of Devilman , not of the World . While demons are attacking Earth, the true apocalypse here is the death of Akira Fudo’s soul. The external chaos mirrors the internal disintegration. It’s a deeply personal, psychological apocalypse, making it far more devastating than any giant monster attack. Animation and Direction: A Masterclass in Body Horror Amon is not a film for the squeamish. The violence is constant, graphic, and deeply tactile. Limbs are torn off with sinew audibly snapping. Blood sprays in impossible geysers. Demons are designed with a horrifying biological realism—they look like cancerous, chitinous fusions of human and insectoid features.

Director Iida uses color masterfully. The first OVA had a gothic, blue-and-black palette. Amon is drenched in rusty reds, sickly yellows, and deep, void-like blacks, creating an atmosphere of a world already dead. Upon release, Amon was controversial even among Devilman fans. Some praised its unflinching loyalty to the manga’s darkest tones. Others found it too nihilistic, even by Nagai’s standards. The abrupt, hopeless ending left many frustrated. There was no catharsis, no final battle for humanity—just the death of hope.

Ryo Asuka is a tragic figure in the manga, but in Amon , his callousness is on full display. He treats Akira’s disintegration as a scientific data point. He created Devilman, and now he watches his creation self-destruct. The OVA hints at Ryo’s true nature (Satan) but doesn’t fully reveal it, making him seem less like a fallen angel and more like a detached, monstrous god playing with pawns.