Amon - The Apocalypse Of Devilman Now

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.

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. amon - the apocalypse of devilman

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. Culturally, Amon has gained a massive reappraisal in

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. Umakoshi’s character animation is the star

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.