Best anime of the past decade. Your first watch through the series is best experience binged in one day. Spoilers ahead not sorry lol. Akira being this crybaby character can be one that is a bit of a turn off. As you continue through the series it becomes a major part of the plot. All because he doesn’t cry for himself ever but only for others. That sort of thing becomes apparent as early as the first episode and it adds SO MUCH to the story. Rio is a character later revealed as Satan who doesn’t even know his real identity until the second to last episode. The relationship they have has this beautiful contrast. Rio being the whole reason Akira being possessed by this devil that’s a champion, making him different in the way that while he’s a demon he still possesses a human heart, thus the title Devilman. And he wears that badge proudly as he tries to keep peace in this fucked world where demons are feeding on civilians. Rio and Akira team up to find these demons and kill them. But while all of this is happening Akira is living with some family friends and is madly in love with their daughter Miki who goes to school with him and is the most popular girl in her school. Their relationship is one that can be relatable as she only sees him as family while he just wants to be all hers. And Akira often has very sexual thoughts about her. Which I think would also be a huge turn off for most when it comes to this series. It’s very lewd and some of what I guess you could say is hentai, but it’s not excessive and is put in places where it really does add to the story. Especially when there’s a demon that’s been searching for the demon that has possessed Akira to make love. To only find that he still has a human heart and dies in the process of trying to kill him due to that fact alone. The turning point of the whole show being at the track meet where we’ve already met a few more devilmen that Akira is trying to help and Rio completely exposes demons to the world causing complete panic. That’s when Devilmen hide to protect themselves as humans are trying to hunt down anyone suspicious to kill them. This is also where Miki’s family dies and Akira has to go deliver the bad news. Like, all of these twists can’t be predicted and it hit so hard. I was constantly on the edge of my seat. It only got better when Rio and one other devilman join forces to kill all humans to leave earth all to themselves. Surprising us all by completely exposing Akira to the entire world as a devilman and that’s when miki goes and dies trying to protect Akira. Leaving him with no more reasons to cry and nothing left to live for. And we do see him cry for himself during this time as he sees his own house in flames with Miki’s body parts on sticks with rioters celebrating her death. Which is far more disturbing and sad than I wish it was, but I loved it for that reason. This evolves into Rio discovering his true identity and revealing himself to Akira. Where Rio becomes the only person alive. Leaving Rio feeling sad for the first time in this whole series. I can’t even begin to tell you how many emotions I felt during this show not expecting it to at all end the way it did. Everything had it’s reason and each twist had me wanting MORE but there won’t be more because there’s literally nothing left. The few smaller additions that really helped with the vibe like the raps and Miko having that rivalry with Miki was so impactful also. The small things were just as beautiful as the big moments. It’s disturbing, hard to watch maybe, beautiful, sad, loving, and in a literal sense epic. Words can’t describe. I 100% recommend this series. Please go watch it. 10/10 best anime of the decade