Living Project Outline

FAIR WARNING: I wrote this while I was drunk

Characters:

AKIRA FUDO / DEVILMAN :

Main character: This is actually worth noting because I'm very interested in fleshing out Ryo/Satan, which leads me to the pitfall of neglecting the fact that Akira is the main character of the story. This is a reminder for me.
Torn between sides: I want to emphasize this more than in canon. To me, Devilman is inherently about being loud, choosing your place in the world with intention, and learning to reconcile your emotions, biases, morals, and actions. I think a key part of that is observing the protagonist's character arc relating to his own actions, ethics, and choices with regards to the conflict he ends up in the middle of. The exploration of that is crucial to making that point, in my opinion. The hard part comes in balancing showing vs telling, and properly understanding the level of work I need to do to get my point across to my audience effectively without doing the work for them.
Mainly driven by love for others and emotional urges: This is not only important to keep Akira a flawed character, which is necessary to drive home the above point. It's also necessary to properly situate him in the middle of the humans vs devils conflict. Are these drives more demonic or human in their nature? Really, it's both. But the presentation is the key distinction.
Love: For Ryo, for Miki, for his parents, for humanity as a whole. Akira is a believer in the power of love. He wants to help others, and he wants to protect those he loves. This is the heart of his choices, ultimately, even when that feeling gets buried under layers of complicated feelings. The story can never fully lose sight of this (though for conflict's sake, it's probably important for this to be challenged; Akira himself should almost forget sometimes, I think.)
The vessel: Part of Akira's role is as the vessel for the audience to situate themselves in to explore the themes and various opposing viewpoints of the story. Akira himself being caught in the middle gives a fantastic opportunity to explore the various sides of the conflict. This is necessary to the audience getting a full view of the devils' nature, Ryo's history and drives, and follow Akira through his resulting choices. The point isn't necessarily for the audience to agree exactly with Akira's choice, but they need to get the diverse view he does. From there, it's important that they see him MAKING a choice, not necessarily that his choice is what theirs would be.
Freedom: A quieter piece I'd like to explore is a desire for freedom that Akira is empowered to pursue as Devilman. Personally, I want to touch more on the ways Christianity and its morals are used to justify a lot of bigotry and oppression. Crybaby had a great set-up for this in making the Makimuras an explicitly Christian family. Personally, I think they could have done a bit more to expand on the tension that Akira's role as a Devilman would create in the home. Especially considering all that the devils act as a metaphor for. The closeted-queer-in-a-religious-household narrative isn't even really subtext, in my opinion. I want to say that a bit louder. Devilman is empowering to Akira in a lot of ways, and it would work in this area too.
Choices: Touched on this above, but. It is important that Akira's journey is one that shows the importance of making a choice and taking action. Arguably, that is more important to the story than what choice he makes (though his choice to side with humans was always inevitable, and to write it otherwise would feel disingenuous.) He is at a crossroads, and the more he learns about his enemies and those he's fighting for, the less certain he is. But a choice has to be made anyway, because the alternative is to not act at all. With his power, in this conflict, that in itself is making a choice to let certain violence happen. There is no neutrality in this fight. To pretend otherwise would mean choosing comfort over one's morals and allowing violence to happen. And Akira simply isn't that person.
Naïveté: Bewteen the religious upbringing, the high empathy, the empowerment from being a hero, and the need to be needed, Akira spends a long time looking for the "right" answer to this conflict. His worldview is based on the idea that there are good guys and bad guys. As this starts unraveling when he encounters devils more and more, he is forced to become wiser through reconciling his drives with the uncomfortable grey reality he's now seeing. The final kicker is when he learns that not only is there no objective "right" answer, but he has to make a choice anyway.
Fear: For all that being Devilman empowers Akira, it scares him as well. Devilman is power, change, and - in many ways - liberation. But that leads to an exposure of the self that is uncomfortable. His impulses are so front-and-center, which brings on feelings of shame. His strength puts him in a position where his actions truly have consequences on those around him, which is a lot of pressure. If he gets this wrong, what does that mean not only for him, but for those around him?
Bisexual: He is. Note: This is not in a "can't decide but needs to" way. This is just in a. "little bit of everything" kind of way. He's empathetic. He's changeable. He's open-minded and open to trying to bridge gaps. I don't know, that just translates well for me. Also, logistically it supports the Ryo-Akira-Miki love triangle situation (though I'm going to take a bit of a different spin on this than in canon.)
Questions he poses and tries to answer as the protagonist:
- Is he still human? Is he a devil? Where is the line between the two? Is he actually something wholly different? (This was explored in canon, so this should be obvious.)
- How does one find their place in a world that is ever-changing and full of suffering?
- What does it mean to seek the "right" answer? Where is the line between being driven by your own selfish ideals, and being "righteous"? Is there a single "right" answer, and if not, how do we find the answer that is right for ourselves?
- What is love "meant" to look like? How do we experience love? Is there a point where love is not enough?
- Can you save someone who is not willing to be saved? Can you change someone's mind, and should you even try?
- Is there a way to navigate everything without "picking a side"? Is there a way to just choose to stand firm to the values one already has? For Akira, what does this mean sacrificing?
- Does someone need to be a good person to "deserve" to live?

RYO ASUKA / LUCIFER :

Deuteragonist: Not simply a straight-forward villain. The key to this story is seeking to understand those around you, reconciling your place in a conflict, and making a choice. For that to happen, we need to truly know and understand this character. Personally, I feel like this needs to extend beyond just understanding his transition from Ryo back to Satan. He had eons of existence before then.
Loves Akira: In his own way, and not without reason. Akira is empathetic and magnetic to him. His first and only friend. There's more I could say here, but I'm drunk right now so I'll save it for his character page.
Manipulation: So good at it, he even convinced himself. He's made his choices, and he's justified them to himself. There is no changing his mind. But he'll get you thinking about changing yours.
The shouting: He is flawed. He is hateful and angry and cruel. He is pained and traumatized. His character is the shout than needs to be HEARD.
Queer: It's very important to be that his queerness is maintained. He is queer in every form. I don't even feel like explaining all the reasoning behind this in detail, nor do I think it's necessary.
As a human:
- Intelligent, messy, manic depressive. He knows there are things he SHOULD know, but doesn't. This is incredibly distressing and overwhelming to him, like having a word on the tip of your tongue, just out of reach, every second of every day. It's both better and worse when he's high.
- On that note, he smokes and drinks and does a LOT of recreational drugs.
- Emotions before logic, but logic is his defense mechanism. He wants war between the devils and the humans. He wants Akira to be a devilman. He makes excuses for why, and tries to convince himself it's for the greater good.
- Uses logic and intellect as the excuse for why he feels so little for everyone in the world (except for Akira.) He wishes, I think, that he cared for humanity more than he does. He WANTS to care for humans because he feels like he SHOULD. He feels like something is wrong with him that he cannot tap into that empathy for humanity the same way Akira does so naturally.
- He is scared and bitter and uncertain about everything, but he refuses to ever let anyone see that. Except, on very rare occasion, Akira.
As Lucifer:

Was cast out of heaven for asking questions. He fell and it fucking hurt. You cannot come back from that.
Found kindred spirits in the forgotten devils on Earth. He forged a strange bond with them; a sort of kinship, though there is still a degree of distance he keeps between them and himself. He is and will always view himself as a different, higher being. And his drives and goals will always take priority over the devils' well-being. Once the devils were pushed aside to make room for humans - God's "perfect," preferred creations - it was the equivalent of them being expected to step aside and let themselves be destroyed. Naturally, they'd rally behind Lucifer's agenda.
He hates. He hates God for casting him out. He hates humans for being preferred by God. He hates Akira for not choosing him.
He wants this war. It's fueled on some level by the deep, long-standing resentment he's grown. But, it's also the only option for him and the devils. There is no place left for him and the devils in this world unless they win this war and make that space.
Peace was never an option. As long as he opposes God, he will suffer the same again and again. But even if he were to repent to God, he would suffer just the same in a different way (if God were even to accept that repentance.) It is better to suffer loudly and freely than to do so silently in chains.
Unfortunately, upon waking up after being Ryo, he still loves Akira. He doesn't know what to do with that love, or the resulting pain, when Akira doesn't choose him.