Amon - The Apocalypse Of Devilman ✦ <Essential>
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.)
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 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.
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. amon - the apocalypse of devilman
While The Birth serves as a stylish, brutal introduction, Amon is something else entirely: a psychological horror film that dismantles its protagonist, questions the very concept of identity, and plunges the viewer into a maelstrom of visceral gore and existential despair. This article delves deep into the making, plot, themes, and legacy of this infamous and brilliant OVA. The 1980s OVA boom allowed creators to bypass television censorship, producing direct-to-video content for a mature audience. Devilman: The Birth (1987) was a landmark, adapting the first half of the manga with stunning, gruesome detail. Its success guaranteed a sequel.
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.
Umakoshi’s character animation is the star. Amon’s transformation is a multi-stage process of painful-looking mutations. His final form is a hulking, veined, red-and-black brute with hollow white eyes—a far cry from the more humanoid Devilman of The Birth . The fight with Kaim is a masterpiece of chaotic choreography, abandoning standard anime “rules” for a raw, scrappy, desperate brawl. Commercially, it underperformed compared to The Birth ,
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.
Akira represents fragile, civilized humanity—empathy, love (for Miki), and morality. Amon represents pure, undiluted demonic instinct: rage, the will to dominate, and the joy of slaughter. The OVA charts the slow, then sudden, victory of the primal. When Akira finally loses his grip, there is no tragic hero; there is only a predator.
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 . It directly influenced works like Berserk (1997) and
The second half of the OVA is less a narrative and more a descent into a shared nightmare. Amon rampages, killing demons and humans alike. Ryo watches with a mixture of fascination and cold calculation. The climax is not a heroic battle but a brutal, primal clash between Amon and the demon general Kaim—the very demon who originally dismembered him. Their fight is a cataclysmic orgy of blood, severed limbs, and earth-shattering force, rendered with sickening detail.
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.
For fans of psychological horror, body horror, and animation that pushes boundaries, Amon is essential viewing. It is a masterpiece of despair—a howling, bloody scream into the void, reminding us that sometimes, the hero doesn’t just lose. He becomes the apocalypse.
In fact, director Masaaki Yuasa’s Devilman Crybaby pays clear homage to Amon , particularly in its final episodes where Akira loses control and the world descends into a similar red-hazed, limb-strewn chaos. However, Yuasa’s version retains a sliver of melancholic humanity, while Amon remains resolutely, terrifyingly empty. Amon: The Apocalypse of Devilman is not an easy watch. It is a film that hates its protagonist, despises the idea of a happy ending, and wallows in the grotesque. But that is precisely its power. It is the most faithful adaptation of Go Nagai’s core thesis: that humanity is fragile, that the monster within is always waiting, and that in the war between angels and demons, humans are nothing but casualties.
