Amon: Apocalypse of Devilman

My very first anime experience, (aside from mass market dubbed kids cartoons in the 80's) was the Devilman OVAs; The Birth & Demon Bird. I have never fallen out of love with these & as of this writing, they remain at the top of my favourites list. When I found out about Amon I knew I had to watch it. As a pre-existing fan of the series I knew the characters & backgrounds but if you haven't seen the OVA's there's very little chance you're going to fully understand what's happening. The plot is quite simple, however its almost completely buried beneath theextreme violence & questions. i.e Who the hell is that? What's exactly is happening here? & What the hell? - Where all questions I repeatedly asked myself throughout the watching. I'm quite desensitised to animated violence but there are several scenes which made me think; ok, that's going way too far. The art & sound I can't really fault as there's nothing wrong with them and as long as you've have seen the OVA's you know who the characters are (well most of them) but there has been an obvious passage of time between installments and there is little explanation given to who new characters are & what they're doing there. I was disappointed that I couldn't enjoy this as much as I wanted to. It feels as though it was only half way done when it finished & that there was supposed to be another installment. I would not recommend this OVA if you haven't seen the originals. If you are already a Devilman fan then you might enjoy this as a small side piece to the overall saga but you also might find yourself annoyed at the almost lack of respect shown to the characters.

To those who just watched "The Birth" & "The Demon Bird" note this does not actually follow the storyline from the 1972 Devilman Manga. This OVA follows the 1999-2004 manga "Amon: The Darkside of Devilman" hence why this adaptation feels very different from the original. As a newcomer to this franchise I just wanted to share this info to new fans just to avoid the confusion. However the conclusion is quite anti-climatic especially when you read the original 1972 manga for Devilman. From sources I can find on the web has proven that this OVA only adapted the 1st volume of "Amon: The Darkside ofDevilman" & was loose with its adaptation seeing how the manga was nowhere near finished when this OVA was released. After watching this it felt like a honest mess & tried to squeeze in some sort of character development but just feels like a mess to fans & new fans alike. There are some scenes I enjoyed being adapted into animation but this OVA can be skipped if not just watch it & see how it turns out.

For an anime that came out in the early 2000's, this is more in the mold of ultra nihilistic 80's/early 90's shock anime like MD Geist and Genocyber. Unlike those, though, it doesn't ever conjure that "fun," free wheeling and frenetic aura that make those films, while not great, watchable in a certain mindset. A lot is made of this adapting Go Nagai's "style;" no, not at all. The animation is crude and slapdash compared to the original Devilman OVA's; It definitely looks and feels like a deadly serious sequel to Apocalypse Zero with its straight up ugly character designs and ugly ways of havingsaid character designs dismembered, disemboweled, etc. So what we have here is a serious story that at the same time is incredibly stupid and pointlessly brutal. I gave it a chance because I actually like the Devilman manga and aspects of the simplified OVA's. It's trash.

Knowing this is the last movie i kind of was waiting for a an decent ending. When the movie ended i was kind of dissapointed. I was expecting to see more and just wondered what the hell will happen next. Oh right their is no next. Love when a anime ends with alot unanswered questions;) But if you have seen the first two i would defintely recommend seeing this one,just dont have your hopes up for a good ending.