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#i go back to dml and do a battle or two
missn11 · 1 year
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Hi friend Ask Box edition!!! While watching your AMV "The Mark," I was really struck by how different the two Akira's are. In the Devilman anime, Akira doesn't fight back much and protects a bunny, (which seems weird to me because the best way to protect a bunny is to let it run away, but maybe that's the point? He's trying, ineffectively, to protect something that doesn't need protection in the way he's offering). In Violence Jack, he's like, ripping people humans apart and reveling in blood. What do you think of Akira's changing relationship to violence? Why does he change so quickly? Is it just Amon's influence? What do you think Nagai-san is saying about the relationship among masculinity, patriarchy, and violence?
For the sake of sanity, let's assume the timeline is Devilman manga -> Devilman Lady + many timeloops until they defeat God -> the divine and the void fic series -> Violence Jack. Thank you!!!!
@badass-at-cuddling Oh yes, Akira goes through quite the transformation when it comes to his relationship with violence when he merges with Amon!
Yeah, in the Devilman The Birth OVA Akira is being over protective of the bunny cause he saw the other two bunnies' dead bodies inside the hutch and isn't wanting the bullies to hurt or kill the last bunny. Its also to show that despite him being a cowardly guy and very conflict avoidant, he is willing to stand up for others when the chips are done, which shows why he is able to overcome Amon's will enough to be in the driver's seat.
Of course that doesn't mean Amon's demoniac nature doesn't affect Akira and Akira's new found enjoyment of violence and fighting comes from that influence. And honestly I think that stays with him even after he's dead in DML's case and reborn in VJ, its just a part of him now. In my hc he and Amon(especially in DML) are almost so merged together that you don't always know where one begins and the other ends.
Its interesting to think what Go Nagai was saying about violence especially from a masculine/patriarchal view, as at first Akira is rewarded for him beating up the bullies by Miki
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And her family are brushing off Akira's sudden change of character as him just being a young man getting out as much fight out of him (Boys being boys and all)
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That's cause the violence he had committed by beating up the bullies wasn't horrifying, it appears heroic cause the bullies had it coming for haressing Akira and Miki, and Akira mostly just bruised them up, no-one was killed. So its easy to brush off any concerns they might have about Akira and that kind low key violence is normal to them.
And they haven't seen how into fighting Akira has become like Ryo has. Ryo has a front row seat to seeing how blood thirsty Akira has become, especially when he's in his devilman form.
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Basically being in battle and feeling all of the adrenaline has changed Akira, now he knows what it means to kill someone, he can't go back to being the innocent conflict avoidant boy he used to be. Now he knows how many problems can be solved by violence. And also Akira has come to enjoy the rush of battle that even facing something possibly more powerful than he is excites him. Even after he got defeated and overwhelmed in volume four, knowing that Satan is the top dog (before he knows it was Ryo all along) makes him want to fight them, he's losing himself to the thrill of battle.
The Makimuras have no idea about that side about Akira until Ryo does the broadcast, even though he is killing demons in it, the violence isn't sexy or heroic looking, its just horrific and they are forced to face the same horrors Ryo once(when he still thought he was human) had to witness. and at first, scared, they reject him until he is able to convince that he is still human.
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Which I think that's the point Go Nagai is talking about how war and violence warps people, turning them into the worst version of themselves, much how like fear made the mob rationalize themselves that they were justified in murder two teenagers and a little boy cause a demon once lived in their house. But also how most normal people are okay with violence as long they don't have to deal with the reality of it, its upsetting and scary to see and hear of it.
Like how people can be convinced that launching wars in developing countries are okay if there is a justified reason for it and you don't see the destruction it causes to the civilians of said developing country. But being faced with the reality of war makes those justifications harder to swallow, a reason why the war in Vietnam was so unpopular, the media coverage at the time was the first time normal people got to see how horrifying war truly was.
But back to Akira. By the time Devilman Lady or Violence Jack rolls around, Akira has learned to master himself when it comes to his violence, he still commits it and enjoys himself in battle, more so in VJ, but there is more of a purpose behind it rather than a desire for fighting.
In Devilman Lady, Akira fights to protect Jun and then fights alongside Satan to take down the Devilman verse God, the biggest oppressor of the Devilman verse(and Demon Lord Dante verse)
In Violence Jack, Akira/Jack fights the murderous gangs and the Slum King so the people of Kanto can see that they can stand up to their oppressors and fight back, and also cause he wants to free Ryo/Satan from his self-hatred. Of course, though he is embodiment of Chaos and Death, so he might enjoy his job a little too much XDD thought thankfully all those he kills are horrible bastards who are in need of a good stabbing.
So basically Akira/Jack is the hero/inspiration the Hellish place Kanto has become needs not wants, the world is rough and cruel and it needs someone just as rough but nicer to the innocent to help solve it! XD
Phew, that was a long one, I hope I've explained myself well enough, but this question gave me a lot to think about. So thanks :D
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kichimiangra · 2 years
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So not last night but the night before that I had a dream that was viewed through my eyes that was just me watching an anime, but I'm gonna talk about the dream anime.
So before I get into that, ya'll remember Devilman Crybaby on Netflix that got popular for a hot minute a few years ago? So that was based on a manga by Go Negai BUT also had this... spinoff(?) Called Devilman Lady. I say "Spinoff(?)" Because how I would describe DML would be more of a reimagining of the premise of Devilman, rather than just a "What if Devilman but girl??" They are two different but similar stories by the same author as AUs spawning off of the same premise kinda?
So back to my dream. The anime I was watching was a Shaman King spinoff(?) In the same vein that devilman lady was to devilman. It was called Shaman King E (I think the E stood for 'Exorcist' because the word was used several times in the episode that was my dream) and was akin to "instead of being a battle manga, what if Shaman King stuck to those early chapters from the manga where Yoh and Manta were just doing small scale personal paranormal stuff? But also mix in a little bit of pre-battle manga Yuyuhakusho (spirit detective stuff) and Ghost Stories (REMEMBER THAT DUB?! THE BEST WORST DUB EVER?!? THAT GHOST STORIES.)... but also girls??"
So you now have an anime about 2 teenage girls, one is interested in the occult and a magnet for the paranormal, the other from a long line of Shaman and exorcists, spending a period of time solving super natural mysteries as an almost episodic horror comedy series.
The dream was literally a whole episode. Will reblog with summary of dream episode and visual figures along with what 'dream me' knew about about the series from reading the 'dream manga' that didn't appear in the dream.
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strawberry-possum · 4 years
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I feel like if my mom watched how I read on my phone she'd have an aneurysm
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