Amon: Devilman Mokushiroku

First let me start by saying this, I'm pretty desensitized to violence. Elfen Lied was my first anime, Gantz was my second. Ive seen all of fist of the north star and was barely phased. However, this 40 minute ova has, gore wise, single handedly outdone all three of those combined. I came across this OVA, being a fan of the first two devilmans, wondering why I couldn't find any information, on this one. in fact the only review i found warned "if you find it enjoyable or worthy in any way then seek professional help." I just laughed and commenced to watching... let mesay this, that wasn't far from the truth. However, I might as well start out with the (Brief) positives to this movie. The animation is actually very good, It puts go nagai's nice art style into this nicely budgeted 2001 OVA. And the sound is awesome as well, the actors seem great at making death sounds, and they must have had hundreds of death sound effects, not a single death has the same flesh ripping, bone smashing, blood squirting sound! The positives end there, as the rest of the film is a practically an animated train wreck with too much red paint. Apearently the world has ended and demons are fighting, and by fighting I mean massacring each other in graphic detail. wings are ripped off, eyes are popped out, fingers are smashed, stomaches are punched out, people are beheaded with kitchen knifes, breasts are ripped off and eaten... The movie starts off in a not so bad way with what appears to be a little girl running from a man in a populated city, however he is not a man he is some nameless snake demon thing, oh and the girl is also some octopus demon thing. (I wish they actually named the characters) oh yeah, only three characters in the film have names Akira (also known as devilman) Amon, and Ryo however, if you want to know who they are, youll have needed to see the first two devilman movies, barely anything is spoken, except such memorable lines as "I want to fight you" and "Die". Anyway, Akira comes in and saves the day, but when more demons show up, he explodes (yes, he explodes) and turns into the villan of the film, leading to more off a massacre between demons. oh and cannibalism in a way makes the one in violence jack look like no big deal. after more brutallity, we see that Akira is still alive inside amon and they have another very gory battle. I wont spoil the ending, but i must say that it leaves more of a "wow... what the heck?" feeling than anything else If i wasnt so desensitized, i would have probobly puked at leasted thrice during this film, really, unless you are making a death metal amv, or are really into just pure gore, stay far from this title. very far.

My very first anime experience, (aside from mass market dubbed kids cartoons in the 80's) was the Devilman OVAs; The Birth & Demon Bird. I have never fallen out of love with these & as of this writing, they remain at the top of my favourites list. When I found out about Amon I knew I had to watch it. As a pre-existing fan of the series I knew the characters & backgrounds but if you haven't seen the OVA's there's very little chance you're going to fully understand what's happening. The plot is quite simple, however its almost completely buried beneath theextreme violence & questions. i.e Who the hell is that? What's exactly is happening here? & What the hell? - Where all questions I repeatedly asked myself throughout the watching. I'm quite desensitised to animated violence but there are several scenes which made me think; ok, that's going way too far. The art & sound I can't really fault as there's nothing wrong with them and as long as you've have seen the OVA's you know who the characters are (well most of them) but there has been an obvious passage of time between installments and there is little explanation given to who new characters are & what they're doing there. I was disappointed that I couldn't enjoy this as much as I wanted to. It feels as though it was only half way done when it finished & that there was supposed to be another installment. I would not recommend this OVA if you haven't seen the originals. If you are already a Devilman fan then you might enjoy this as a small side piece to the overall saga but you also might find yourself annoyed at the almost lack of respect shown to the characters.

To those who just watched "The Birth" & "The Demon Bird" note this does not actually follow the storyline from the 1972 Devilman Manga. This OVA follows the 1999-2004 manga "Amon: The Darkside of Devilman" hence why this adaptation feels very different from the original. As a newcomer to this franchise I just wanted to share this info to new fans just to avoid the confusion. However the conclusion is quite anti-climatic especially when you read the original 1972 manga for Devilman. From sources I can find on the web has proven that this OVA only adapted the 1st volume of "Amon: The Darkside ofDevilman" & was loose with its adaptation seeing how the manga was nowhere near finished when this OVA was released. After watching this it felt like a honest mess & tried to squeeze in some sort of character development but just feels like a mess to fans & new fans alike. There are some scenes I enjoyed being adapted into animation but this OVA can be skipped if not just watch it & see how it turns out.

For an anime that came out in the early 2000's, this is more in the mold of ultra nihilistic 80's/early 90's shock anime like MD Geist and Genocyber. Unlike those, though, it doesn't ever conjure that "fun," free wheeling and frenetic aura that make those films, while not great, watchable in a certain mindset. A lot is made of this adapting Go Nagai's "style;" no, not at all. The animation is crude and slapdash compared to the original Devilman OVA's; It definitely looks and feels like a deadly serious sequel to Apocalypse Zero with its straight up ugly character designs and ugly ways of havingsaid character designs dismembered, disemboweled, etc. So what we have here is a serious story that at the same time is incredibly stupid and pointlessly brutal. I gave it a chance because I actually like the Devilman manga and aspects of the simplified OVA's. It's trash.

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