Main Characters (Akira Fudo, Ryo Asuka) | Devilmen and Humans | Demons and Heavenly Beings
This page is for tropes relating to the demons and heavenly beings that appear in DEVILMAN crybaby.
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Demons
General
- Adaptational Villainy: The demons were far from saints in the manga, but they were characterized more as extremist eco-terrorists that badly wanted to take back their home. note Humans were characterized as misguided, having squandered their gifts by living for greed and fruitless pleasures, with the demons acting as an equalizing force to keep them from growing beyond their rightful place in nature. The irony came about when demons and humans found there weren't as many differences between them as they thought. In Crybaby, most of the demons are just as depraved as the worst of humanity, being little better than savage beasts.
- Adaptational Wimp: Strength and ability-wise, the demons are far more inferior to their manga counterparts. A good example is with Agwel and Ghelmer; in the manga both demons attacked Akira in his house and it took a long while for him to defeat them (to be fair to Akira, he wasn't fighting at full power at the time), whereas in Crybaby Agwel was done in with a single rifle shot and Akira was much quicker in vaporizing Ghelmer before ripping him apart.
- Alien Blood: All the demons bleed yellow blood.
- Ancient Evil: Demons by human standards embody the worst aspects of mankind and come from a primordial Earth that was destroyed by God.
- Blessed with Suck: Most demons, like some devilmen, are barely able to suppress their urges to fight, kill, and eat. Unlike those devilmen, most tend to embrace being nothing but animals, with a small number able to have noble qualities like love and loyalty without needing to be mindless creatures.
- Composite Character: The demons are combined with the dinosaurs and act like the Devilbeasts of Devilman Lady.
- Demonic Possession: They possess humans who have strong negative emotions or are engaging in overly violent/sexual behavior and eventually take over their bodies, killing them from the inside out.
- Energy Being: Demons are presumably this since they have no physical shape on their own, that is until they possess living creatures.
- Eldritch Abomination: Due to constantly merging with each other to become strong, most demons have misshapen and chaotic forms.
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: As they represent the most primal and bestial nature of life, satisfying their urges can only be done through violence— to demons violence is sexual and sex is violent.
- Irony: Demons embrace a survival of the fittest mentality, yet they evolved the ability to fuse because they were weak creatures unable to survive otherwise.
- Our Souls Are Different: Death does not end demons. They become disembodied souls seeking to revive. This applies to all demonic and angelic beings, including Devilmen.
- Primordial Chaos: They represent the most primal and basic nature of life, having been born in a time where compassion and empathy were more likely to get them killed.
- Social Darwinist: How they justify murdering their lessers. They are understandably shocked and horrified when they aren't on the top of the food chain.
Silene
Voiced by: Atsuko Tanaka (Japanese), Cindy Robinson (English), Cécile Florin (French), Xochitl Ugarte (Latin-American Spanish), Maika Aguado (European Spanish), Marina Thovez (Italian), Kathrin Gaube (German), Carla Dias (Brazilian-Portuguese)
Click here to see Silene's demon form
"I was lonely, Amon! I waited so long for you to come to the human realm!"
An ancient demon and Amon's former lover. She has journeyed to the human world in the hopes of reuniting with Amon, seeking out his host in order to reawaken his memories, or else kill him.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Silene is usually seen with blonde hair whenever she is in human form. Here, however, she now has white hair when in human form.
- Adaptational Wimp: While she's still a decent match for Akira in this adaptation, she no longer has the ability to teleport and conjure fire, which made her an even more dangerous opponent in the manga. Her telekinesis isn't as powerful either, since while she still uses said ability to hurl objects at Akira, she never tries to create any shock waves.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Akira felt pity when he see Silene's and Kaim's love for each other that cost them their lives.
- An Arm and a Leg: In her fight with Akira, Akira gets her to accidentally wound herself with her right arm before violently tearing off one of her wings, with the injuries being so severe that her fusion with Kaim only delays her death by a few minutes.
- Ascended Extra: Due to the character being a Breakout Villain in general for the franchise since her debut appearance in the manga, she is given much more time in this adaptation than in the manga. While there she was a Monster of the Week, Silene shows up earlier and shows more relevance to the plot as Amon's former lover.
- Cleavage Window: In her human form she wears a white dress which exposes her breast cleavage.
- Cute Monster Girl: Even in her demon form, she has the general appearance of a beautiful young woman with blue eyes, light skin, slender physique, v-shaped pubic hair and a pair of large breasts. She proudly exhibits her beauty, appearing completely nude.
- Dark Action Girl: A master of the air, she tears Akira to shreds and puts up a good fight. When she’s near death, she fuses her body with Kaim and proceeds to give Akira a Curb-Stomp Battle, nearly killing him if not for dying at the last minute.
- Detachment Combat: She can use her talons this way, which Akira is able to use against her.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She cares for Kaim platonically, but has no sexual or romantic desire for him.
- Fan Disservice: The scenes of her masturbation quickly turn into her becoming more and more bestial as she reaches orgasm.
- Full-Frontal Assault: In her demon form she fights and goes around completely naked, exhibiting her large breasts and pubic hair.
- Harping on About Harpies: While she's supposed to resemble a hawk, Silene's demon form also resembles a harpy — what with her hands and feet turning into talons as well her hair extending into a pair of wings.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Her eyes have a bright blue color, which is shown more clearly when she's in her human form.
- The Immodest Orgasm: When she masturbates, she climaxes so hard that she loses her human guise.
- In the Name of the Moon: During her clash with Akira, she literally cries out to the moon twice, either to hide itself and not witness the fight or the other way around. And unlike most examples, the way it plays out is dead serious, if somewhat hammy.
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: Her battle with Akira starts from them having sex. Halfway through the fight, Akira starts sexually assaulting her mid-air and thrusting deep inside her while Silene fights back, scratching him bloody.
- Leitmotif: "Night Hawk".
- Light Is Not Good: She has snow-white hair and skin, and wears a dress that's just as white, and she's a vilainous demon.
- Proud Beauty: She seems proud of her beauty, and exhibits it wearing a revealing dress in her human form, and appearing completely naked in her true demon one.
- Romantic Fusion: Kaim allows himself to die in order to fuse with Silene, stating that fulfilling her wish is more important than his life.
- Single-Target Sexuality: She's attracted only to Amon, since even when she voices her sexual frustrations from Amon's absence, she refuses Kaim's offer to satisfy her for the time being.
- Spell My Name With An S: Her name is spelled as either Silene or Sirene. While the official subtitles use the former spelling, her name is pronounced as the latter.
- Villainous Crush: Subverted. She is in love with Amon, not Akira. She initially thinks that they are the same being, but when it turns out it's Akira with Amon's powers, she decides to kill him.
Kaim
Voiced by: Rikiya Koyama (Japanese), Joe Ochman (English), Matías Brea (Latin-American Spanish), Jose Gilberto Vilchis (European Spanish), Marco Balzarotti (Italian), Martin Halm (German), André Gaiani (Brazilian-Portuguese)
"Silene. Even covered in blood... you are the vision of beauty."
Silene's partner in her search for Amon. In truth, Kaim harbors deep feelings for Silene.
- Adaptational Badass: Downplayed, but still notable given how the other demons are subjected to the opposite effect. Kaim doesn't get much of a chance to truly fight and still ends up sacrificing himself, but this time he was able to get a good hit at Akira before deciding to fuse with Silene.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Akira felt pity when he sees Silene and Kaim's love for each other that cost them their lives.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His care and love for Silene is genuine and true, and goes much deeper than simple physical attraction to her.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While watching some other demons toy with their prey before going in for the kill, Kaim chastises them for not being able to rein in their more savage instincts.
- Hopeless Suitor: He never stood any chance to get Silene's interest.
- Off with His Head!: He decapitates himself to leave Silene no choice but to fuse with him.
- Romantic Fusion: Kaim allows himself to die in order to fuse with Silene, stating that fulfilling her wish is more important than his life.
- Shock and Awe: He has the ability to generate lightning, as demonstrated when he zaps Akira just as the latter is getting the upper hand in his fight with Silene.
- Tiny-Headed Behemoth: His demon form gives this impression; his head is rather small compared to his body, which is massive on the other hand.
- Undying Loyalty: To Silene, who he has dedicated his immortal life to.
Jinmen
Voiced by: Akio Hirose (Japanese), Michael Sorich (English), Juan Diéguez (European Spanish), Silvio Pandolfi (Italian), Marc Rosenberg (German)
A turtle-like demon that absorbs its victims into his body who continue to exist as tortured faces.
- Adaptational Dumbass: This version of Jinmen just a violent monster who lacks his typical intelligence and sadism.
- Adaptational Wimp: He's considerably weaker in this adaptation. While he gains a whiptail he never uses his ability to fly nor does it seem that his hands can extend long distances or heat up to burn others that fight him.
- All There in the Manual: He never reveals his name in the anime proper; you only learn it from either the credits or from the original manga itself.
- Composite Character: With Akira Fudo's father.
- Demoted to Extra: Downplayed. Jinmen has the same role in the show as in the original that to be a demon that makes Akira's fight much more personal by attacking his loved ones, but his character has been reduced quite a bit. As Jinmen possesses Akira's father, that character Fighting from the Inside is emphasized more and Jinmen's core personality is a minor note. His serial killer nature and keeping the faces as permanent trophies is also gone, as they eventually become mere skulls.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Akira kills him by driving his arm right through his chest.
- Off with His Head!: Self-inflicted to boot. Not that it actually kills him, but it destroys what is left of Akira's father.
Psycho Jenny
Voiced by: Yasuhiro Takato (Japanese), Cindy Robinson (English), Luis Fernando Orozco (Latin-American Spanish), Daniel Lema (European Spanish), Cinzia Massironi (Italian), Nina Kapust (German), Tiaggo Guimarães (Brazilian-Portuguese)
Click here to see Psycho Jenny's human disguise
"I've come to get you. You should already be aware by now."
One of the many demons plaguing Japan.
- Adaptational Wimp:
- In the manga, Psycho Jenny was one of the most powerful demons alongside Amon and Xenon. In Crybaby, she is a pretty weak demon who even gets killed by regular humans with lances.
- In the manga, her Psychic Powers were far more versatile in usage and more powerful in scope; she was telepathic, telekinetic and a bit of a Reality Warper, and that's just to name a few. In the anime, however, she only gets to project psionic waves that induce insanity. While still a powerful ability in itself, it's a huge downgrade from the power she possessed in the manga.
- Affably Evil: She's not as destructive or profane as the other demons, prefers to only act when necessary, and always talks in a formal manner. That being said, she's still a demon and much like all the other demons, she seeks to wipe out the human race.
- Butter Face: Her human form has a very buxom body that even Akira finds hot. Her face, on the other hand, is rather creepy and strange-looking.
- Cephalothorax: Her demon form is this; an enlarged head with arms and legs.
- Cheshire Cat Grin: As you can see in the picture, that's a permanent feature of hers. In both of her forms, her face is a frozen wide-eyed grin, and she doesn't move her lips when she speaks.
- Crossdressing Voices: Only in the Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese audio tracks. In the English, French, Italian and German dubs she has a female voice.
- The Dragon: Satan's second-in-command.
- Dragon-in-Chief: Psycho Jenny, alongside Xenon, is the leader of the entire demon army, but she is more passive in authority — since Xenon pointed out that she instructed everyone else to lay low and wait for Satan to return.
- Evil Virtues: Loyalty. Above all other demons Psycho Jenny is loyal to and completely obeys Satan even when he's amnesiac.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Her pupils are jewel-shaped and exude a bright myriad of colors when she uses her powers, similar to how diamonds would form rainbows when they absorb light.
- Hugh Mann: In her human disguise, Psycho Jenny appears as woman with an attractive and curvaceous body, but with an unsettling Nightmare Face and a Slasher Smile that looks like her demon form's. One character thinks on how she must have had "too much plastic surgery".
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: It's subtle, but when Moyuru asks to join the demons to save his own skin, Psycho Jenny notes that doing such a thing is typical of humans.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: She's impaled to death on several lances by humans while leading the attack on the final human hideout.
- The Man Behind the Man: It's heavily implied the reason Ryo is such a sociopath is because Psycho Jenny raised him that way to help her and the other demons exterminate humanity. It especially makes sense when you realize Psycho Jenny adopted Ryo as a child and has been raising him ever since.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: If she's still aware of being in an endless time loop like in the manga, she knows what Ryo's affiliation with Akira will entail. Regardless, she orders the demons to leave Akira alone, even though she knows he'll eventually become their greatest obstacle — because she knows Ryo won't be happy if he gets killed.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: The blazer she wears in her human form has this effect since she wears it open and she's not wearing a shirt under it. Her very first scene takes this to its logical extreme, where she bends over and her nipples are clearly visible.
- Obviously Evil: With a smile like that, not even an idiot can be convinced that she's not up to no good.
- Psychic Powers: She can project a wave who drives everyone within its vicinity insane, and even suicidal.
- The Quiet One: At least when she's in her human form, as she never utters a word then.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She took Ryo away as a child just when he was starting to understand his own feelings thanks to Akira, which ended up stunting him emotionally and making Ryo obsessed with Akira for reasons he couldn't understand. That eventually lead to demonkind losing alongside the other sides.
Xenon
Voiced by: Avu-chan (Japanese), Gonzalo Faílde (European Spanish), Silvio Pandolfi (Italian), Mário Spatziani (Brazilian Portuguese)
The demon lord overseeing demonkind's subterfuge against humanity.
- Adaptational Jerkass: He's still a villain, but in the manga he was loyal to Satan through and through, even as he questioned some of his actions. In this adaptation however, he's The Starscream.
- Adaptational Ugliness: Xenon's female head on the right looks uglier than how she looked in the manga, where she now has a frog-like face, while in the manga she was more attractive and human looking.
- Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed; Xenon is still a threat in this adaptation, beating Akira to a pulp twice. However, he's nowhere near as powerful as he is in the manga.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Xenon is initially shown as three separate people who lead the demons jointly. When he reveals his demon form we learn that they're all one being.
- Disc-One Final Boss: He's the leader of the demon faction terrorizing the world in the shadows and is killed just before Ryo takes over as the Big Bad.
- Dragon-in-Chief: He's the other demon aside from Psycho Jenny who has command over all the other demons, at least before Ryo reawakens as Satan. But by then, Xenon tries to have him killed.
- Dragon with an Agenda: He bombed Ryo's apartment out of discontent and tried to cause a nuclear apocalypse that would kill everyone without Satan's command. In fact, he was working separately of Psycho Jenny's faction and Satan's loyalists to exterminate humanity.
- Ink-Suit Actor: His human form (the leading human among the three, to be precise) strongly resembles his voice actor, Avu-chan.
- Love Is a Weakness: A possible reason for Xenon's attempt to overthrow Ryo/Satan. With Psycho Jenny stating that Ryo wishes to have Akira spared, and Ryo outing Akira out to the world to isolate him from humanity, Xenon may have picked up on his attachment to the human — even when the humans are their enemies, and Akira being responsible for the deaths of many demons — and thus concluded that he's no longer worthy of leading the demons.
- Multiple Head Case: Xenon's demon form has three heads: there's the main head and a head on each shoulder.
- Oh, Crap!: Xenon panics when he sees God wipe out the group of demons masquerading as the army, although not to the same extent as Satan.
- Satanic Archetype: Xenon ticks a few of the boxes. For most of the series he appears to be the leader of the demons and his minions were the one's infiltrating the leadership of humanity to bring it to ruin. Though it isn't commented on like in the original manga, Xenon's form does resemble certain depictions of the devil (such as in The Divine Comedy) with his three faces.
- Smug Snake: While Xenon is still one of The Dragons to Satan alongside Psycho Jenny, in Crybaby he doesn't seem to have any loyalty to Satan whatsoever, and tends to make things worse for demonkind with poorly constructed plans and choosing to disobey Satan's orders of sparing Akira.
- Spell My Name With An S: An enduring aspect of his character. With his name varying in spelling as Xen(n)on or Zen(n)on.
- Voice of the Legion: His demon form speaks with the voices of his three human halves, combined with a fourth deep and booming voice, giving off this effect.
Heavenly Beings
God — Warning: Walking Spoiler
An ancient entity who, despite the many myths surrounding Him, is deeply shrouded in mystery. What is certain about Him is that He has a connection with the demons.
- Adaptational Badass: In the manga God fought in the prehistoric demon war, utilizing a combat form which looked like a super angel. God wields a terrifying sword and blinding aura against a horde of demons, which is illustrated as a one sided slaughter — that is until Satan appears. The outcome of God's battle with Satan is never shown, but Satan claims he was the victor and God was the one who retreated. note God's sudden appearance smothering the planet is present in the manga too, but the prehistoric battle between Satan and God is dropped. As far as can be understood from this version, God is an incomprehensible being, with no hint that he can be challenged or understood — Psycho Jenny even expresses concern that Satan probably hasn't recovered enough from the last war to effectively challenge God, though Satan acts smug and doesn't acknowledge it as a problem.
- All There in the Manual: While the canon interpretation of Devilman's version of God differs depending on the adaptation, what's established is that He's also existent in this adaptation and is still connected to Ryo's true origins. And judging from the post-credits scene in the finale, it's highly likely that this God has placed the Earth under a time loop too.
- Ambiguously Evil: Due to never speaking or having anyone speak for him and his more questionable actions being unconfirmed in this adaptation, God's nature is subject to much
Alternate Character Interpretation.- Satan claims God is merciless and cruel, except Satan is hardly unbiased; and for a slew of reasons, is not a reliable source of information, let alone arbitrator of the actions and motivations of others. Not to mention, Satan is deranged even when it comes to his own motivations towards Akira and is in denial of his love for him, thus he's in no place to be a valid judge of character towards God.
- God hates Satan and demons and wants to destroy them, except the latter are an Always Chaotic Evil race reveling in the death and destruction they cause beyond mere survival — in contrast to the manga where while they're still destructive and hostile (with Jinmen being the only demon who's outright malicious), they're more akin to aggressive animals who simply wish to reclaim their home. By pretty much any moral system, they are inexcusably evil and it is understandable for God to despise them.
- God fails to intervene to save humanity from the demons, but in Episode 7 he did prevent the demons from claiming an instant victory via a nuclear holocaust. The scene is accompanied by a pastor reading about the destruction of Sodom and Gommorah which were destroyed for their wickedness. The whole thing can possibly come off as God giving humanity a fighting chance against demons.
- Batman Gambit: He might reset the clock, but punishing Satan largely involves letting Satan self-destruct due to his own character defects.
- Deus ex Machina: Quite literally an example of divine intervention happens when God steps down from heaven to stop the demons from starting a nuclear war that would have given them an instant victory over humanity. It also suits the definition of "a new object/character solves a seemingly unsolvable problem in a sudden, unexpected way."
- The Dreaded: When He makes His presence known by wiping out a large faction of demons masquerading as the army, all the other demons react in fear. Even Satan is so unnerved that he's reduced to a screaming and trembling mess.
- Eldritch Abomination: This God isn't exactly the God depicted in the Bible, and whatever He is, three things can be made certain: He is powerful, He is an otherworldly being, and He is not friendly.
- Good is Not Nice: The story seems to imply that God might care more about enforcing His own sense of justice, even at the expense of suffering and loss of life. God preventing the nuclear apocalypse is overlaid with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, implying that God is willing to spare those that don't fall into depravity like in that story, but He won't hesitate to punish you severely if you don't repent. In addition God shows no visible remorse for the humans that were caught in the crossfire of His attack, nor does He seem interested in doing more to stop the apocalypse.
- In Mysterious Ways: The classic argument of "God knows what He's doing, even if it makes no sense to us" may be applicable here. If God ultimately has good intentions then His motives might be explained as Him seeing a "bigger picture" that isn't immediately obvious. Though given the ambiguous nature of God's character, one could attribute this to malice or indifference — God himself isn't big on explaining himself.
- Light Is Not Good: The story puts less emphasis on the supposed loving nature of God, where in most Biblical stories the worst you get is God being cryptic and unhelpful with His advice. Here God is implied to be cold and merciless, while having a very clear divine gold and white color scheme in the aura He projects. Though, it could be interpreted as "Light is willing to use an iron fist to crush evil" more so than it implies any deep seated malicious intent.
- Might Makes Right: God exists as the logical terminus, end-all-be-all of The Social Darwinist mindset demons and Satan live by. Regardless of how anyone views God's morality, His power renders him self-sufficient, and subservient to no one, so what He deems right is right by virtue of no one being able to challenge Him. The demons and their hatred towards God is likely driven by envy over God's status as an apex predator. A tragic underpinning of the story, is that Akira values justice and good will towards others but his ability to enforce is limited by his power. By that logic, God's justice is supreme because who is mightier than God?
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: Demons cackle, complain, gloat, and contort themselves in all sorts of goofy ways. God? He acts swiftly, mercilessly, and wordlessly.
- The Omnipotent: Regardless of what lore God is based from, God is undoubtedly and immensely powerful by any practical measuring systems. God is capable of — among other things — projecting an aura big enough to smother the surface of the planet, can dissolve demons into salt piles, and destroy planets and create planets.
- Orcus on His Throne: Played with. Despite what He has planned for Satan, God never actively does anything in the story. The one exception is Episode 7, but it was simply to let Satan and the demons know that He is watching. And in the finale, the Earth is destroyed not by Him, but the army of angels that He had sent.
- Power Glows: And by glow, we mean a a ball of light big enough that it can be seen from space and in fact is covering a noticeable portion of the Earth with its girth. If you thought the backlight around Satan and the angels were bright, then they have nothing on how bright God's power glows.
- Touch of Death: The energy wave God uses to prevent a nuclear war in Episode 7 vaporizes everything it touches, even evokes Biblical imagery by making demons and humans alike dissolve into pillars of salt. However, it's left ambiguous if God is consciously targeting those He kills, or if simply being around the energy wave is lethal. note
- The Unseen: God never makes an official appearance (at least not in this adaption), and the ball of light in the character image is the closest thing the viewer really gets a glimpse of Him.
- Walking Spoiler: The most basic facts about Him reveal Ryo/Satan's true motives.
Angels
A race of extremely powerful humanoids who enact God's plans and act on His behalf.
- Ditto Aliens: If the image is to be believed, every angel looks exactly the same.
- Gold and White Are Divine: Gold and white are the only colors you see from them, and they are angels; although the extent of how benevolent they are is questionable.
- Holy Backlight: They're surrounded in spheres of light, and it's almost blinding. Satan is an exception, but this is most likely because he's a Fallen Angel.
- Icy Blue Eyes: It's not their most prominent trait, but they possess these kind of eyes. Given the way they seem to glow though, it may also count as Occult Blue Eyes, since even though they're not demons, they are no doubt Humanoid Abominations.
- Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: While no other angel besides Satan is explicitly featured in the series, it's possible that they also share hermaphroditic traits.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: When God sends angels to obliterate the Earth, He sends not one or two, but an entire army of them, and given how powerful one angel already is, the destruction that at least thirty of them would wreak reduces the planet to nothing more than a burned, hollowed, and crumbling rock. In fact, just one shot of their attacks creates an orb of light as large as a continent.
