The Devilman
I felt the need to clear some things about why sometimes I’ll call myself a devil, or more clearly a devilman. You see I don’t do it to be some sort of edge lord. I do this after a lot of thinking of what it actually means to be a Devilman.
By now some older folks might be deucing out of this article lol. I can’t blame them, there’s a lot of connotation to the word devil, much more if someone said they’re a devilman. I won’t go into any religious aspect of these connotations, because the devils I’m talking about are more a product of pop culture & really cultures in general. I’m speaking of the Devilman that cries for humanity. The one that was tricked into killing his own kind, the one tricked by Lucifer. Lucifer, a lightbringer that rebelled against God, and who fell in love with the Devilman. A Devilman who only wanted to save his friends first, then the world second.
Ok so I will get into some symbolism lol. More importantly on what being a “devilman” means to me & what I think it can mean to others.
A lot of people believe that Lucifer is the ruler of hell, that he is the big Satan in scripture. But this is also a myth, even the fan fiction that was canonically incorporated into the Catholic Church (Dante’s Inferno) has Lucifer not doing a whole lot. If you take what is said in this book as true, Lucifer is in the ninth circle, perverted into 3 heads. Frozen & twisted for all eternity. Devils and any other creature who torture souls, well they’re the working class. Here doing a job for all of eternity that have been commanded to them.
And here we begin with the first symbol, devils aren’t human, but they aren’t these all powerful beings either. They’re us, and not us. They’re the everyday workers in the inferno, tasked with a job. And dreaming of leaving the inferno every waking day of their existences, but unable to leave. The devil that took over Akira’s body in the anime “Devilman: Crybaby” is just that, another person in hell. He was special for he had more power than normal devils, but Amon was still just a devil. He too did not the power of the Angelic or of the Holy.
But, what about the man in “devilman”, well sir. That’s the thing the holy falls in love with.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16, King James version of the holy text many call the gospel.
We are all loved by God, and I’m not saying this as a preacher, I’m saying this as someone who believes these words wholly & truly. It is important to know this in order to know the next symbol in the word “devilman”, man.
Men are imperfect (and by men I mean all of humanity, please don’t cancel me lol), and because God knows this he knows they will succumb to sin. He knows that we will succumb to pleasures and desires that are not holy. He does not want us to accept the devils in our heart because of some battle, but because he knows the devils will eat us whole if we let them. In the anime “Devilman: Crybaby”. Akira (the boy who had Amon take over his body), sees for himself how the devils have consumed people. How they sin, and how they just…don’t care. I mean you can’t blame the devils, they know they’re damned. It’s why they can pervert people so easily, because it’s so easy to do and be a devil. But to do the right thing, well that’s as hard as not letting a devil take over the heart you promised to God.
Sin is tricky concept, God knows we’ll do it, yet he wants us to not do it if at all possible. Why introduce a concept like sin in the world, but give us the freedom to do it even if you don’t want mankind to do so. Why not just separate the universe into the devils & the angels. And why did Lucifer rebel? this I think is what gets at the heart of the anime “Devilman: Crybaby”, the complexity of life. Of our lives, of this world, and the mystery that is God.
I’ve had to tell people in the past, more importantly atheists, that science doesn’t have all the answers. Spirituality isn’t a religion, it’s a muscle. Because God might be the Almighty, but are there other gods? Science is mostly a system that we ourselves invented, is science a tool that God gave us to try to make sense of the universe? Are these other gods holy? Or are the other gods perverse in some way? And if Lucifer, the light bringer who rebelled against the Almighty, isn’t Satan….then what is the great evil that is Satan? Are we…that evil? Are our sins the product of that great evil? And if there’s a battle of good & evil, is that great Satan on par with God?
These are a lot of questions that I don’t have the credibility to answer right now. These two things, the devil and the man, are a symbol of the struggle we all have in each of us. The devils are damned in the anime, but the devils didn’t choose to be devils. Even the devilman of this work of fiction didn’t choose to be a devilman. He cries, every time he sees evil, not because he’s weak. But because the good inside him tells him it shouldn’t be this way.
In the anime the Devilman tried his best to fight against the light bringer. He fought for men, and for the devils. But in the end, God sent his army of angels to have a redo. Lucifer again screamed at God, and in his rebellion he dragged men, devils, and the Devilman down with him. For Lucifer can be reborn, his punishment was never death, no. His punishment is something far worse than death. It’s being alone, forever.
May the Devilman live again, and may he learn to stop the lightbringer this time. We men doesn’t exactly have a lot of time left to save this world after all
