Character Meta: Akira Fudo / Devilman

Beginning:

Typically, the first thing the story establishes about Akira is that he is kind, gentle to a fault, but still willing to (try to) be brave for someone he cares about. The original story plays this off for laughs a bit, but still establishes very quickly and intentionally that Akira is all heart. Crybaby takes an interesting approach by highlighting his high-empathy with his crying. Regardless, Akira is initially presented to us as someone who is empathetic, emotional, and incredibly human.

His general presentation changes drastically after his transformation, but I would argue his core personality does not change in the slightest. He postures more, he falls to anger quicker, he seems to have lost his filter and a bit of self-control. But he is still defined by his emotions, sense of right and wrong, and his relationships to others.

Drives:

As stated, Akira is driven by his emotions first and foremost. He has a very clear-cut sense of right and wrong, and acts impulsively based on that worldview. He wants to protect and support those he cares about, and is willing to go to impressive lengths to do so.

Alongside that, however, once he becomes Devilman, we see a very prominent drive emerge: that of pursuing pleasure in various forms. This extends through his sexual desires, etc. as well as into violent ones. There is a notable glee he frequently seems to take in fighting and killing devils. It could be argued that this is purely Amon's influence, but truly I think Akira's maintained conscience and sense of self would suggest that this is instead just a bloated version of drives that were already in him.

Crybaby goes in hard with using this as a puberty metaphor. Sure, but there's so much more there.

The indulgence in pleasure is a very universal experience. Sexual urges, though not universal, are very natural. Beyond that, there are also moments where Akira seems to indulge in brief power fantasies. The urge to feel empowered is also natural.

Then there's the violence. For me, this is because killing demons feeds that power fantasy while neatly falling in line with his very structured worldview and desire to protect those he loves. He seems to enjoy it because he does. It is, in his mind, a perfectly justified way to act on his impulses and achieve his goals at the same time.

Assumptions:

The key to all of this is, as mentioned, Akira's heavily structured, black-and-white view of the world. There is good, and there is bad. Fight the bad to protect the good. Hate is the source of all the world's problems, and love is the solution. If you're unwilling to engage in love as a solution, then he is perfectly justified in destroying the evil. This is how he views demons at the beginning, sparked by what Ryo tells him about them.

It's also worth noting that he is very easily convinced of things that fit into his view of the world. He takes Ryo at his word, very quickly accepting the statement that devils are pure evil, and that it is now his duty to destroy them to protect humanity. I truly believe his willingness to join this fight is not just a statement to his relationship with Ryo. He was handed a large amount of power and clear goal that aligned with his pre-existing worldview. Become Devilman, fight evil, protect humanity.

He didn't need or want to question this. Maybe he would have, if he hadn't been thrown into it so quickly and intensely. But he very possibly would have acted on impulse regardless, and agreed without having to think about it further. Especially when his dear friend was asking it of him, and feeding into the idea of Akira himself being the only one who can.

Growth / Turning Points:

As the story goes on, Akira is challenged in various ways. The more devils he encounters, the more diverse view of them he has. He meets some that question his view of them as selfish, heartless evils (Sirene and Kaim), and thus the justification of eradicating them all for the sake of humanity. However, in encountering Jinmen he also is faced both with a very real, unflattering and unjustifiable look at a devil, as well as the fact that he will never be able to turn a blind eye to the bias that has now been instilled in him. He has very strong, personal reason to hate Jinmen, and thus a very strong, personal drive to reflect that hatred onto every devil that poses the same danger to humans.

In this way, in his role as Devilman, he is shown all sides of this conflict, as well as his own personal stake in it. Sirene and Kaim challenge his view of the conflict, but as Devilman he is still able to remain removed from it in a way. He is still aware of devils and their goals, and powerful enough to fight them. So, he views it as his duty to balance the scales in this fight. Regardless of whether devils were what he thought they were, they pose a threat to humans that only he can combat. In this way, he is able to keep himself removed from the heart of the conflict; a noble protector who is doing what he must.

Then Jinmen kills his parents, and he recognizes that he has an unavoidable personal investment. He is not immune to acting on hatred. He is not above the conflict he is participating in. He is faced with an uglier side of himself that he was content to pretend didn't exist, and must reconcile that with his necessary involvement in the escalating war that is to come.

Then Miki dies, he cannot convince Satan to stop, and he needs to pick a side. The choice is clear, but his worldview and sense of self are both shaken. And what is left?

Questions:

With all of this in mind, Akira's character is meant to exist near-permanently in the middle of the whole narrative's crossroads. He is faced with the grey, subjective reality that devils are not quite what he thought they were (this, in my opinion, is not explored enough in canon-- but we'll get there) and his role in the fight could never be pure or unbiased. It is not a matter of right or wrong, at least not fully. It is a matter of survival. Devils and humans, as they are, cannot coexist.

What determines right and wrong?

How do we know we are making the right choice?

How do we know when he have enough information to act?

How do our views of ourselves, our base urges, and our biases factor into our decisions? How do we remain impartial? Can we?

End:

What I want to focus in on here is how easily Akira's narrative gives up on these questions. And I will specify here that I'm referring to the narrative, not Akira as a character. That Akira makes the choice to side with humans is, truly, inevitable. But when he does, the narrative goes with him.

We are given brief, incomplete looks at the diversity of devils and their drives. We are then shown a clear but hard-to-swallow look at the fallible nature of the main character's morals. We see the presented conflict. We are given suggestions that devils are not pure, inaccessible evil, and that our protagonist is not unbiased or infallible in his morals. But as soon as he makes his (obvious) choice, we are given no further look at it all except through Satan's final statements.

As moving as the end scene is, it becomes removed from the conflict as a whole, choosing instead to focus in on the way Satan, personally, was too motivated by hatred and resistant to love in its realest form until it was too late. This was, also, inevitable. However, in this being the last suggestion of making space for a greyer morality - in allowing Satan to come out on top despite it all, and speak his final pained and uncertain piece - this does an injustice to all the questions posed by our main character's journey of growth.

It all culminates in this feeling that none of it matters anyway. It feels nihilistic, but also glaringly like it wasn't even trying to be. In my opinion, canon takes an easy way out by focusing in on love over hate.

Like, listen, okay, I'm not sitting here arguing that love being needed to triumph over hate is a bad message. But it set this conflict up to be one made up of far more than just love versus hate. In choosing to present the final conflict and scene the way it did, the story does an injustice to the complicated moral journey we followed Akira on up until now. Akira making his choice to stop looking for an answer does not need to be ours. We do not need to settle for something so neatly-packaged-easy-to-swallow-and-hard-to-argue-with as "love is better than hate."

Instead, Akira's choice could have been framed to pose a final question, a product of all the previous ones:

"Upon accepting that we will never be unbiased or infallible, and that there will never be a moral guide to tell us the right choice to make, what actions do we then take, and why?"

Akira has his own answer to this question: he takes the side that resonates with him - that he feels he can most justify - and he acts accordingly.

I think there is much more to be said here, but it will be said on another page as it drifts further from our protagonist. For Akira, his choice is the end of his arc, because he has given us a final answer. He has grown by the end of the story - in his convictions, in his sense of self, in identifying what he chooses to stand for - while still staying true to those core traits. He is human, and a devilman. He will act in accordance with his emotions; to protect and fight for those he cares for and empathizes with. He is capable of being gentle, but he is not a pacifist. If his offer of kindness is met with refusal, he will take the violent approach if needed.

Akira is a character who represents how difficult it can be to really make a choice when you have been given the full picture and the chance to act. Akira represents the uncertain struggle of having less answers the more you know. Akira represents what happens when one will never have all the answers, but must act anyway because "neutrality" isn't truly an option.

As I will discuss further in Ryo's page, there are fights you don't get to sit out.