Characters / DEVILMAN crybaby - Ryo Asuka

DEVILMAN crybaby Main Character Index
Main Characters (Akira Fudo, Ryo Asuka) | Devilmen and Humans | Demons and Heavenly Beings

Ryo Asuka

Voiced by: Ayumu Murase (Japanese), Akira Fujimura (child - Japanese), Kyle McCarley (English), Bruno Borsu (French), Fabienne Loriaux (Satan form - French), Miguel Ángel Leal (Latin-American Spanish), Kerygma Flores (Satan form - Latin-American Spanish), Alejandro Veiga (European Spanish), Dario Sansalone (Italian), Tobias Kern (German), Sophie Rogall (Satan form - German), Renan Alonso (Brazilian-Portuguese)

^{Click here to see Ryo...} 

...as Satan

"Humans have weak minds. Thinking with emotions won't yield rational answers, and exceeds our capabilities. At times like that, humans simply forget, humans also have the ability to not think."

A childhood friend of Akira, Ryo Asuka is a young prodigy who works as a college professor overseas. After discovering the existence of demons, he has enlisted Akira's aid in finding them and destroying them, lest they ravage the human race.

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A-C

• Adaptational Attractiveness: Heavily downplayed. In the manga, Ryo was already portrayed as good-looking, but the change in his appearance when he transforms into Satan is much more notable as his face transforms from fairly masculine to borderline feminine and elegant. In Crybaby, he's much more prettier-looking to the point that there's not much change in his facial features when he shifts into his angel form, and he's even described In-Universe to be beautiful both before and after his transformation. It helps that his character designer drew Ryo with the idea of making him appear more androgynous.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Downplayed. Ryo was already smart and clever in the original manga, but in Crybaby his status as a Teen Genius is illustrated with his job as a professor living in America.
• Adaptational Villainy: Ryo is still the Big Bad of the story; although while he was more of an Anti-Villain in the manga, the "anti-" part is completely removed in the anime, with his character being much more cruel and psychopathic.
  • In the manga Ryo has a soft spot for animals, loves nature, and was suffering from Sanity Slippage while taking drugs and alcohol to cope with the existence of demons, with Shin Devilman and the deluxe edition of Devilman showing his much kinder side before he learned about demons. This isn't the case in the anime, as seen in a few flashbacks where he callously tries to kill a dying cat and almost does the same to a pair of capybaras who entered the same springs he and Akira were bathing in.
  • Ryo isn't saddened by the fact that his actions made Akira his enemy, and he doesn't get the epiphany that by exterminating all the humans on Earth, he's no better than God — who he resented for attempting to do the same to demonkind.
  • Ryo had the ability to empathize and cry for those he cared about, all of which is gone from his incarnation in Crybaby. Likewise, after awakening as Satan, in the manga Ryo is still very emotional but has better control of his emotions, whereas in Crybaby he is more monotonous in nature — at least until his breakdown.
  • Ryo isn't as kind to the demons in this adaptation. It's not that he's a Bad Boss, but even though he's their leader, he shows no attachment to them like he did in the manga. He prefers them over the humans, but that's all there is to it. He isn't even fazed by their total eradication in the final battle and doesn't even bother to mention them one time in his musings. The fact that he only focuses on Akira, would seem to suggest that either he's only capable of empathy towards Akira, or he's just so emotionally repressed he's bad at showing his empathy. By contrast, in the manga he grieved over the death of the demons, and ironically enough, the death of humanity at the same time.
  • There's also the way he acts during his fight with Akira. In the manga, Ryo knew that a battle was inevitable, but he still pleaded with Akira to stop before and even when they were already fighting, and his action of killing Akira was completely accidental, and beforehand he even offered to spare the humans and the other Devilmen if Akira joined him. In Crybaby, Ryo made no such offer, and while he also expresses reluctance to fight Akira, he's unable to realize why Akira is furious with him. Then when Akira charges at him and strikes the first blow, Ryo immediately throws said reluctance out the window and fights back in earnest, and when he kills Akira, it's clearly intentional.
• Admiring the Abomination: Though he seeks to eliminate the demons, at least at first, he still compliments their exceptional combat abilities and survival skills, even pointing out that unlike humans they don't fall victim to paranoia or let their emotions dictate their actions.
• Aesop Amnesia: No matter how many time loops pass, Ryo will never accept that love exists and by extension, the fact that he loves Akira until it's too late. This is symbolized by the baton pass scene, which is repeated several times and always ends in the baton being dropped when Akira tries to pass it to Ryo.
• Albinos Are Freaks: Inverted. His backstory implies he was reborn as a white-skinned blonde child to a naitive African village, however due to this oddity (and his powers that slowly surfaced), the villagers there see him as a Wonder Child and worshipped him as the god he originally was.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: And even that is not saying much. Even before he remembers his true identity, Ryo was already ruthless and couldn't really care about anyone else besides Akira and himself. While wanting to kill the entire human race isn't a good thing, he's a bit better off than God, who's more than willing to doom an entire planet and the many races living in it to extinction and have Ryo suffer losing his beloved countless times, all because he dared to fight Him.
• Ambiguously Gay: Unlike in the manga, the nature of his feelings for Akira are never specified. He can be touchy-feely with Akira at times and there's clearly no one he loves more than him, but the kind of love is left ambivalent. Though even if his feelings are still romantic, Ryo wouldn't be exactly gay since his attachment to Akira is more accurately a case of Single-Target Sexuality, and Ryo as Satan is a hermaphrodite, rather than specifically male.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: As Satan, Ryo is a hermaphrodite, having both male and female parts. This technically labels him as intersex, but whether or not Ryo himself identifies as such is up for interpretation. Though it's likely that Satan still identifies as male; in the English dub, other characters refer to Satan as a "he", and in the Japanese dub, he refers to himself with "watashi" at first but eventually switches back to "ore". ^note  "Watashi" is a unisex pronoun, albeit used more commonly by women since men tend to use the pronoun only in formal situations; "ore" on the other hand, is a male-specific pronoun. It should also be pointed out that Ryo refers to himself with either "watashi", "boku", or "ore".
• Amnesiac Dissonance: Halfway through the series, Ryo becomes aware that his actions and his motives aren't matching up, and eventually realizes that he's not supposed to kill the demons; he's supposed to lead them. At this point, he undergoes a complete Face–Heel Turn and takes his place as the series' main villain.
• Amnesiac God: Satan's resurrection and fusion with a human apparently messed with his memories, so Ryo has no idea of his true identity for most of the series (though his plans subconsciously help along his original goal of eradicating humans, even though he thinks he's fighting demons instead). In a way, his growing contempt for humans over the course of the series is just him reverting to his old self.
• Angelic Beauty: Played with; Ryo is a fallen angel and the Big Bad, but his Satan form appears pristine and ethereal.
• Asshole Victim: His final fate is tragic and monstrous, but hardly undeserved. Whether or not he deserves to be repeatedly subjected to the same fate (key word: repeatedly) is for the audience to decide, however.
• Badass Boast: While it's less of a boast and more of a warning, this line counts nevertheless given just how powerful he is, especially as his fight with Akira was a complete Curb-Stomp Battle.
  Ryo: If you make me your enemy, you'll die.
• Badass Longcoat: A white overcoat, to be precise.
• Bathtub Bonding: There were at least two instances in his and Akira's childhood where they were together in a bathtub/hot spring. He gradually learns from Akira not everything is a threat or dangerous.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Much like in the manga, Ryo deeply cares for Akira because Akira is the only one who befriended him and was unfailingly kind to him.
• Beneath the Mask: Ryo is highly intelligent and level-headed, but later episodes hint that there's an unhinged side of him lurking beneath, said unhinged side referring to his real personality: malevolent and deranged. After he awakens as Satan, it becomes obvious that he's hiding his true colors under a calm veneer.
• Belated Love Epiphany: Ryo's nihilism and misanthropy prevent him from recognizing he has feelings for Akira until he dies by Ryo's own hands.
• Believing Their Own Lies: It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that Ryo is deeply infatuated with Akira, even if he tries to deny it. Ryo professes the lie that love isn't real, so he doesn't have to deal with the difficult reality of his affection for Akira. Making this more ironic, is that Satan is known as the father of lies, and yet the greatest lie the devil ever told was the one he told to himself.
• Big Bad Friend: Ryo's true identity is Satan, the king of demons who is planning to wipe out humanity. He is also the one who causes the major problems of the series' second half by revealing to the world the existence of demons.
• Big Fancy House: His apartment is large and comes with a big swimming pool.
• Blood Knight: Ryo shows hints of being one, particularly when he gleefully and wildly kills a few humans in the Sabbath in an attempt to draw out demons. ^note In the manga, it's heavily implied that Ryo was largely faking this deranged behavior, and didn't enjoy the violence. Keep in mind he weeps bitterly with Akira about the loss of humanity they're about to go through, leading credence to this idea. When he fights Akira, he's always seen smirking or grinning whenever he lands a blow on Akira, even showing a Slasher Smile when he delivers a fatal attack.
• Born Winner: Wealth, knowledge, admirers, and success come to him ridiculously easy, making it so that he has no genuine excuse for being the way he is. Going by the Bible tradition this applies to his true identity as Lucifer (who later became Satan), as he was considered the most beautiful of all of God's creations. Lucifer has been admired for his exceptional beauty and power since time immemorial. Obviously he wasn't created evil, but his incarnation as Ryo was no doubt heavily influenced by Satan's dormant negative emotions.
• Brains and Brawn: Ryo is the brain to Akira's brawn.
• Bully Hunter: In a flashback, Akira was forced to walk barefoot due to a trio of bullies stealing his shoes. Ryo gives said bullies a Death Glare before the scene cuts to Ryo giving Akira four pairs of shoes (including Akira's own), implying that Ryo did something to literally scare the bullies out of them.
• Camera Fiend: Whenever demons are involved, Ryo always has his video camera in the ready, which is kind of justified since his plan is to get as much evidence as possible so that by the time he reveals the demons' existence, no one would be able to refute his statements. This also ends up biting Akira in the ass when Ryo discloses the truth (or half-truth, to be precise) about him as well.
• The Chessmaster: He eventually takes over leadership of the demons and turns all of humanity into paranoid wrecks eating each other alive over the threat of demons, which is doubly impressive when he doesn't even realize what his true goals are until 3/4's of the way through the show.
• Childhood Friends: With Akira; even though they haven't met in years, they've known each other since they were kids.
• Child Prodigy: He's already shown exceptional intelligence since he was a boy, as seen when he explains to Akira the pinhole theory and why there are spots on the moon.
• Chocolate Baby: His backstory implies he was born a white child to a native African mother, although because of Mystical Pregnancy rather than infidelity. He was only raised as Japanese due to having survived the massacre on his village while still a child and fleeing to Japan, being taken in by an orphanage there before Psycho Jenny adopted him.
• Color Motif: Ryo is associated with white, in contrast to Akira's black. What's interesting is that none of the positive aspects on the color (goodness, innocence, purity) match Ryo at all, as he is the antithesis of said aspects. On the other hand, white also represents coldness, emptiness, and sterility, which fits him perfectly. Additionally, white symbolizes both death and the end and beginning of a cycle, which alludes to Ryo ending the world and killing Akira before God pushes the Reset Button for him to go through the whole thing again.
• Combo Platter Powers: As Satan, he can summon any power he wishes without much effort. To list a few examples:
  • Bolt of Divine Retribution: He sends a flurry of lightning bolts at Akira and a few other Devilmen, many of which impale the Earth a la End of Evangelion.
  • Bullet Catch: Anything fired at him will be either blocked or deflected by a barrier. In the final episode, he even makes a salvo of missiles immediately explode despite them not hitting their mark yet.
  • Green Thumb: As seen in a flashback, the native people would often have him grow crops at an accelerated rate.
  • Holy Hand Grenade: He is seen firing beams of holy light while fighting Akira, and it's powerful enough to cut the moon in half.
  • Making a Splash: In the aforementioned flashback, he was also able to conjure water out of nothing.
  • Plaguemaster: In the past, he inflicted an immediate death on any animal that approached the natives' home.
• Cool Car: He owns a white sports car.
• Cosmic Plaything: This may not seem to be the case at first, what with his cold personality and the fact that compared to Akira, he hasn't experienced any misfortunes. However, the ending reveals that he is this to God, who made it so that he would bring the world to an all-out war without realizing that it comes at the cost of losing Akira, which by then hits him so hard that he spends his final moments crying in grief and regret. God, being merciful and loving, will make sure that history endlessly repeats itself so Satan has to suffer the pain of losing Akira for all eternity. It's even implied that Crybaby is just another re-iteration of a loop that's been going on since the original manga if not longer.
• Create Your Own Hero: Ryo took Akira to the Sabbath, which resulted in the birth of Devilman and took part in several incidents that would lead to Akira going against his plans.
• Creepy Child: Ryo showed rather troubling behavior when he was younger, such as ripping off the heads of others' dolls and being a bit too eager to give a cat a Mercy Kill.
• Creepy Monotone: He starts speaking in a constant soft tone once he transforms into Satan. He also spoke in a nigh-robotic tone most of the time when he was a child.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: In the Latin, Spanish, and German dubs, his Satan form is voiced by women.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: There's a reason why the demons, who look out only for themselves and value strength and survival above all else, see him as their leader: no one on Earth stands a chance against him. When he fully awakens as Satan, he's more than capable of causing various large-scale natural catastrophes to simultaneously occur around the planet — all without lifting a finger. In the final battle, despite Akira's best efforts none of his attacks leave Satan with any injuries, while he sustains several crippling injuries; ultimately the fight ends in Satan's favor. Just to rub it in how out of his league Akira is, the view from space shows Akira and Satan's auras clashing and smothering the surface of the Earth, but Akira's aura is much smaller than Satan's.

D-M

• Death Wail: While grieving Akira's death in the finale, Ryo lets out a distressed scream of the latter's name.
• Despair Event Horizon: Ryo crossed this after Akira's death, as he's so caught up in his mourning that he ignores the army of angels descending upon Earth to destroy the planet. Given that Ryo previously stated his plans to have a rematch with God after he's done with the humans, Akira's death left him too broken to care any longer.
• Dissonant Serenity: He's usually calm even in the direst of situations that it can be unsettling, though there are a few instances when he shows a lot of emotion instead. A good example is when the humans become paranoid and murderous after learning about the demons, to which Ryo is initially unperturbed and apathetic about, but then when Akira confronts him about it he goes into a long and crazed rant about humanity bringing about their own downfall. This trope is played straight again after remembering his true identity, and he barely shows any change of emotion until his fight with Akira and Akira's subsequent death.
• Divinely Appearing Demons: Ryo may be an angel, but he is far from the Big Good, even when he was still in his human guise.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: As Satan he is literally a devil in disguise, and yet he managed to be befriended by a human boy, whose affections he grew to reciprocate (and possibly more). Even before he remembered his original plan of wiping out humanity, he made sure to make Akira a Devilman first to ensure his survival when that moment comes. Although since his and Akira's goals clash to the point where Akira's love for him is eventually replaced with hate.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite being the villain and viewing humanity as inferior, Ryo genuinely cares for Akira, which is exemplified when he fondly looks at photos of them in their childhood years. In fact, the reason Ryo has Amon possess Akira is to help Akira survive the upcoming war between humans and demons, and he experiences sorrow for the first (and last) time when Akira dies.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: As an irony, Ryo grew attached to Akira because of his humanity, his kindness, and his pure heart; however, he doesn't take into account that those things are why Akira opposes all his intentions and goals. Though, it is possible that Ryo was taking Akira's empathy for granted and was expecting his forgiveness and compassion to be limitless. Unfortunately for him, Akira points out that while he'd like to cry for Satan Miki's death has dried up all his tears.
• Expy: This version of Ryo has a lot in common with the anime version of Lan Asuka.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Ryo is the most literal example of this trope as of yet, since he is an angel who advocates demonkind.
• Failed a Spot Check: After intentionally killing Akira in the finale, Ryo doesn't notice that Akira is already dead the whole time he was talking to him. It's only when he wonders why Akira hasn't responded does he realize what happened. For what it's worth, the manga does show us that Akira was initially conscious after getting blown in half, as he has a thought bubble showing he's admiring the beauty of the moon. It's only late into Satan's speech that he closes his eyes and then dies, therefore it's possible that Ryo continued to talk because he saw some small signs of life.
• False Friend: Played with. There are times he seems to genuinely regard Akira as a friend, then there are times when he only seems to see Akira as a tool in his goals and completely brushes aside Akira's concerns about the possible chaos said goals would entail. Though by the end, this trope is subverted since it's made clear that he sincerely cares for Akira, despite his actions and morality (or lack thereof) causing their friendship to deteriorate.
• The Farmer and the Viper: He "rewarded" Akira for befriending him when they children by orchestrating the destruction of his life so he could have him all to himself.
• Fatal Flaw: His failure to comprehend the consequences of his actions, even with an end goal in sight. It's because of this that he ends up driving Akira away, and ultimately loses him.
• Fate Worse than Death: Ryo does die in the end, but not without going through the pain of losing Akira first — and he is cursed by God to relive the entire experience until the end of time.
• Five Stages of Grief: His reaction to Akira's death shifts between denial (pleading with Akira to wake up and answer him despite knowing that he can't) and depression (breaking down in tears and continuously sobbing over Akira's corpse).
• Foil: Long story short, Akira and Ryo are exact parallels of each other in every step of the way.
• Foreshadowing: At the moment Ryo calls for Amon's name and asks him to possess Akira, you already know that Ryo is not who he seems, even before he realizes it himself.
• Friend Versus Lover: Played with; he subconsciously has shades of this. Justified on Miki's end due to him being a Psycho Supporter. However, the only time we see her in this position is when Ryo makes his cameo.
• Friendless Background: In the past, every child but Akira disliked Ryo and kept their distance from him, though it's not hard to see why.
• Full-Frontal Assault: In his true form as Satan, he doesn't wear any clothing at all. Naturally, during his final confrontation with Akira he fights while completely nude.
• General Failure: Prince of Darkness. King of Hell. Leader of Demons. Yet his arrogant incompetence and emotional shortcomings get everyone who works with him killed.
• Godhood Seeker: In the past, Ryo tried to usurp God but was defeated and consequently banished for his actions. While he plans to fight God again in the present, it's only so that He would finally leave him alone.
• Gold and White Are Divine: He may be Satan, but his coloration still reflects his origin as an angel. In fact, the human body he inhabits is actually a member of a native South American tribe born with abnormally pale skin and blond hair due to the influence of his soul's otherworldly energies. "White Devil" indeed...
• Gun Nut: He has a lot of guns and uses them freely. When he meets Akira, he uses a machine gun to scare off a gang of guys trying to approach them.
• Hair Wings: Ryo's angel form has six total pairs of wings, with one pair attached to his head.
• Heel Realization: Notably averted in comparison to the manga. In the manga, Satan struggled with self-doubt after casting off his Ryo persona, and seeks validation from Akira after their battle before coming to the conclusion that he's no better than the God he fights. In Crybaby, Ryo focuses entirely on his affection for Akira, having no regrets for the atrocities he committed against humanity. Any realization he does get in Crybaby amounts to "Man, I sure did screw up killing the only man I ever loved. I can't exactly convert him to my side if he's dead," and suffering from a Despair Event Horizon as a result.
• His Own Worst Enemy: The cornerstone of his eternal punishment. He is born with every advantage, surrounded by friends and the greatest comforts Earth can possibly bestow short of making him actually royalty. The only obstacle to living a peaceful, loving, and wholesome life with Akira... is Ryo himself.
• Humanoid Abomination: Even in his Satan form, Ryo looks human for the most part. However, one must be reminded of the fact that he's an angel, and angels do not originate from Earth. It would be easier to calm him a God in Human Form, in some way.
• Icy Blue Eyes: His eyes are blue, and this Ryo is the most cold-hearted and callous incarnation of the character yet.
• Improbable Age: Ryo is no older than a high schooler, but he's already a professor working in America. It's easy to interpret his high intelligence resulting from residual knowledge from his previous life bleeding into his human existence. Either that or angels are just naturally gifted.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Near the end of his breakdown in the finale, Ryo is reduced to choked, squeaking sobs.
• Insane Troll Logic: Ryo may be ruthless and amoral but he's mostly sensible, or at the very least smart enough to know what he can and can't do to further his plans. However, he's not immune to exhibiting outright foolishness.
  • There's when he asks Akira to join him in killing all of humankind in the finale, just right after he betrayed Akira and indirectly got all of Akira's loved ones killed. And yet he seems surprised when Akira (obviously) rejects him.
  • Ryo claims that humans are flawed, decadent creatures that deny their baser instincts and demeans them as being little better than the demons they fight, even remarking that the demons should replace them. He has a point that humans have the capacity for immense cruelty, but for the most part they created a far more stable and virtuous society than anything the demons ever managed. The Social Darwinist "paradise" Satan is nostalgic for is characterized by relentless pain and suffering as the demons, in their desperate bid for dominance and survival, turned the Earth into such a bloodbath that calling it a "dog-eat-dog" world would be heavy understatement. It's possible that Ryo views that kind of world as beautiful; although what makes things even more foolish on Ryo's part is his assumption that Akira could be swayed to believe that world would be ideal, when he embodies all of the virtues of humanity.
  • In the finale Ryo confesses to Akira about his true identity as Satan and his eons-long rebellion against God, and expresses what amounts to a morbid fascination with the purity of demonic urges, as well as a desire to bring back the Earth where only demons were the planet's inhabitants. However, he doesn't seem to realize the irony, that by eliminating humans, his actions are no different from God's extermination of the prehistoric demons. Ryo eventually realized this contradiction in the manga, whereas in Crybaby he is either ignorant or uncaring of this reality.
• Insistent Terminology: He's the one who tells Akira about the difference between a Devilman and a demon in the first place, and assures Akira that despite his demonic powers, he's still a human. He corrects himself in the finale however, telling Akira the exact opposite.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: As soon as he finishes his monologue regarding the fact that there's no such a thing as love, and therefore sorrow doesn't really exist either, he notices Akira is dead and starts grieving his death while wondering what he's feeling.
• Intrigued by Humanity: Played with. Ryo's opinion of humanity is based entirely on logic, even if it's not of the auspicious kind. But in truth, Ryo regards humans with scorn, seeing them only as irrational pests infesting the Earth. Even then, he's emotionally attached to a human himself, said human having many of the virtues that Ryo lacked and mocked humankind for having.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Even though he's the one who exposed the demons to humans in the first place, Ryo wasn't wrong when he pointed out to Akira that in their paranoia, the humans will much more likely destroy themselves first, even stating that another world war is already imminent.
    Ryo: The weapons that are supposed to protect humans are helping to destroy them. Humans that get lost in their suspicions will start doing terrible things.
  • When Akira is distressed about the world being in utter chaos, Ryo criticizes his altruism as a self-destructive endeavor. Too many people are going to be ravaged by demons for Akira to save any significant number of them, and he'd be better off waiting it out. While this attitude is cruel, it is nevertheless pragmatic; predictably, when Akira tries the One-Man Army approach, he is nearly killed in the process.
• Kill the Ones You Love: In the finale, he ends his fight with Akira by bisecting the latter. It's possible that he only meant to wound — not kill — Akira and was just overcome by his bloodlust at the time, since when he realizes that Akira's dead the entire time he was speaking to him, Ryo has an emotional Villainous Breakdown.
• Lack of Empathy: He and Akira are different in many, many ways. But what mainly sets them apart is that while Akira is full of empathy and compassion, Ryo is incapable of caring — let alone trying to care — about other people and understanding how they feel, and won't spare a second thought to anything or anyone that he doesn't deem to be worth his time. As highlighted in this exchange:
  Akira: I just saw someone get killed.
  Ryo: I see.
  Akira: He was a human. He was crazy, but he wasn't a demon.
  Ryo: I see.
• The Lancer: Is this to Akira until his Face–Heel Turn.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After indirectly causing Miki's death and causing the human race to go extinct, it really bites Ryo in the ass when he also kills Akira but ends up heartbroken and in despair because he lost the only person he truly loved, and he only has himself to blame.
• Leitmotif: "Buddy, Ryo", "Ryo", and "Satan".
• Light Is Not Good: In contrast to Akira, he's associated with nothing but light colors, particularly white. However, he's ruthless and a lot more unscrupulous than his manga counterpart, lacking any empathy whatsoever. It's taken even further in his true form as Satan, where he has an angelic and ethereal appearance. Although he ultimately sides with the demons, he's technically not a demon himself but a fallen angel.
• Lightning Bruiser: He wields incredible power as Satan, as seen when he makes half of the Earth self-destruct without much effort. If you're thinking that he may be a Squishy Wizard, you're dead wrong. He takes every hit that Akira throws at him and comes out none the worse for wear, but one physical blow from him is enough to give Akira serious damage — and it's possible that he was still holding back.
• Living in a Furniture Store: Ryo's apartment is ridiculously minimalistic and always extremely clean, which is particularly notable since almost everything is completely white. Partially justified due to his wealth; with his means, maintenance of such a place would seem rather unproblematic.
• Love Cannot Overcome: There's no doubt that Ryo deeply treasures Akira, but that's not enough to stop him from driving the humans to insanity and eventually extinction — which fractures their relationship beyond repair. What's worse is that he expected to both achieve his plans and still have Akira with him, when in reality he was only able to succeed in one plan at the cost of the other.
• Manipulative Bastard: He's perfectly capable of pulling everyone's strings and making them believe what he wants them to believe, and plots several schemes — simple or complicated — that almost always ends in his favor. It helps that his credentials provide him with a lot of influence.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: In the end, Ryo/Satan successfully eradicates not only the entire human race, but every living thing on earth, including the demons, and he even kills Akira when he tries to stop him. Unfortunately for Ryo, he realizes too late that Akira was the only person he ever cared about, and he has a breakdown, crying over Akira's corpse.
• Mercury's Wings: Alongside having Hair Wings (see above) in his Satan form, Ryo also has a pair of wings around his ankles.
• Misanthrope Supreme: At first, Ryo talks about humanity through a cold but neutral and pragmatic viewpoint, but as the series progresses he starts to speak about them in an increasingly disdainful manner. While he knows the weaknesses and strengths of humanity, he believes that humans are too flawed to ever improve, let alone survive for much longer. It makes a lot more sense in hindsight when he's revealed to be Satan.
• Moral Myopia: Akira is the only one Ryo cares about. No one else, not even the people Akira himself cares about, earns a modicum of what little compassion Ryo has. Even then, he's completely inconsiderate of Akira's feelings. He orchestrated the events that led to the death of Akira's family and friends, but he doesn't even consider, let alone realize that his actions are giving Akira all the more reason to not side with him. There is also the fact that the soul-crushing pain he feels when he kills Akira is a pain that he and his demon army have inflicted upon billions of humans, although he only cares when this pain affects him personally.
• Motive Decay: Lampshaded by Ryo when even he realizes that his actions over the course of the series are more and more at odds with his original goal, causing him to wander off to do some investigating and eventually discover that he's the reincarnation of Satan and the true leader of demonkind, and his actions have been subconsciously furthering Satan's plans all along, at which point he fully embraces his true motivations to destroy humankind.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Played with. He doesn't seem to harbor any jealousy or resentment towards Miki, and while he tried to kill her at one point his reasons were purely pragmatic; although his action of exposing Akira's identity as a Devilman to the world resulted in Miki's death when she defended Akira on the Internet. It's uncertain whether her death was part of the plan or not, but either way Ryo shows no remorse about it.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Satan takes Akira's death much harder in Crybaby than he did the manga. In the manga, when he realizes Akira was already dead while he was talking to him, his reaction is simply one of resigned acceptance. When he realizes it in Crybaby, he completely breaks down, feeling emotions he had suppressed outwardly for the first time in his existence.

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• Nigh-Invulnerability: Part of what makes Satan so powerful is that almost nothing harms him. Xenon's men tried to assassinate him by planting bombs in his apartment, but the following episode shows that he came out completely unscathed. And when he's facing off against Akira in the finale, none of Akira's attacks seem to damage or even graze him at all.
• Not So Stoic: There are a few times when he acts completely unlike his composed self, but the example that takes the cake is when he screams in terror upon witnessing God's attack on a demon army.
• Obliquely Obfuscated Occupation: Played with. While we do know from Akira he is a college professor, the fact he has his own TV show, is routinely shown to be on TV either giving commentary or holding speeches, appears to have an amount of wealth well beyond what any professor/scientist could be earning strongly hints that he has other (possibly more shady) ways of earning money.
• Obviously Evil: With many of his more sympathetic traits being non-existent in this adaptation, it becomes less of a surprise when Ryo turns out to be the true Big Bad of the story.
• Odd Friendship: He and Akira get along, despite their personalities and opinions towards humanity (heck, even their appearance and color schemes) being the complete opposite of each other.
• Offscreen Karma: Granted, he already receives his karma at the end, however... If we assume that Violence Jack probably takes place in the same universe as Crybaby, then it is likely that Ryo will suffer an even more brutal fate, by having his limbs and tongue sliced off and kept as a slave by Zenon (albeit, in the form of a human samurai tyrant), before allowing Akira to finally kill him off for good as atonement.
• Omnicidal Maniac: By the end, Ryo remembers that his true goal is to bring about humanity's extinction, and wholeheartedly embraces said goal.
• One-Winged Angel: Ryo is a literal example of this trope, being a fallen angel who sprouts several wings in his all-powerful form.
• The Only One I Trust: Says this to Akira in the first episode. Not surprising given his Friendless Background.
• Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: Though his human form is male, his angel form has male genitalia and female breasts, as well as a more androgynous-sounding voice. It's possible that his angel form has No Biological Sex, though it's also possible that Satan is simply a Hermaphrodite as was bluntly stated in the original manga.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In the past, he and Akira had a heated argument about whether to save a wounded cat or give it a Mercy Kill. Even then, he sheltered Akira from the rain when the latter mourned the cat's inevitable death.
  • Despite his ruthlessness and the outright glee he shows when the world falls into chaos, Ryo doesn't hesitate to help Akira find Miki's family.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Despite being a professor overseas, we never see him actually teaching.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Ryo cries this to Akira, albeit in vain, as he's the reason why Akira is dead.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: When he transforms into Satan, his hair grows past his shoulders.
• Precious Photo: There are a few times Ryo is shown looking at images of both him and Akira when they were younger.
• Psychopathic Manchild: While Ryo is smarter and more powerful than any human, he is far more emotionally immature than them, and more often than not he has his moments of short-sighted judgment (see Insane Troll Logic above). The entire scene of him killing Akira then regretting it hard moments later is akin to an child who played rather violently with something/someone, but then realizes the damage they had caused too late, and while he talks about sorrow (indicating he knows what it means), he fails to realize that that's what he's feeling regarding Akira's death.
• Psycho Supporter: Ryo is this to Akira. Ryo cares about Akira to the point where he willing to do some pretty bad things for Akira's safety, regardless of whether Akira approves of these choices.
• Psychotic Smirk: He sports a few of these in the earlier episodes, and then a lot when he's giving his misanthropic speech in Episode 7, hinting that he's a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist after all. He goes all out in the finale when he gets overwhelmed with bloodlust while fighting Akira.
• Pyrrhic Victory: As Satan, Ryo's ultimate goal is to lead the other demons and eradicate humankind. He succeeds... at the cost of his own demon allies, most of the world itself, and the only person he's ever truly loved. And as heavily hinted in the after-credits scene, this scenario will happen over, and over, and over...
• Really 700 Years Old: Angels are more ancient than even the demons, and as one, Ryo/Satan is far, far older than he looks.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Akira is the passionate and emotional Red whereas Ryo is the indifferent and logical Blue.
• The Rich Have White Stuff: It's his trademark color, and it marks him as classier than Akira.
• Satan: His true identity. While he initially appeared to help humanity, his true goal is to actually annihilate them; the demons see him as their leader; he's a Fallen Angel who was banished to Earth for attempting to usurp God, his angel form is beautiful and glowing with light — which completely contradicts his true nature; and even though he's a close friend of Akira, he's the one who made Akira a Devilman in the first place and is responsible for all the tragedies Akira suffers throughout the story.
• Selective Obliviousness: As explained by Yuasa, Ryo loves Akira literally more than anything else but is unable to recognize and accept these feelings (or the existence of love at all) due to his nihilism and stunted emotional development. It's only after he kills Akira that Ryo comes to his Belated Love Epiphany.
  Masaaki Yuasa: Deep in Ryo's heart, he feels that Akira is the one thing in the world worth keeping, but he doesn't realize it.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Like Akira, he also lies somewhere in-between. Appearance-wise he fits the former, being a little lanky, pale, and while not exactly effeminate, is nowhere near as well-built as Akira after the latter's transformation. Personality-wise however, Ryo is anything but sensitive.
• Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: When he transforms into Satan, he is left completely in the nude.
• The Social Darwinist: He loathes humanity's natural weakness since they rely on technology to make significant advancements, growing to respect demons for their simple way of acting and their capacity to merge to survive. In the end, his plan is to wipe out humanity so the demons can become the reigning species in the world again. He is also implied to have developed this mentality after losing to God and seeing the way the demons survive on ancient Earth.
• The Sociopath: He comes close to being one. For starters, he has zero empathy, is extremely intelligent and manipulative, and while he carries himself with composure it's obvious that he harbors some bloodlust. What, or who, keeps him from completely fitting the trope is Akira.
• Sole Survivor: By the end of Crybaby, Ryo is pretty much the only main character still alive, and all alone, which he laments when Akira perishes in his arms. And even he doesn't get to live for very long.
• Stalker without a Crush: Ryo and Akira haven't met in ten years, so how does he find Akira? By tracking his location through the GPS in Miki's phone. It's also likely that he did a background check on Akira, as seen when he inquires him about his choice to play track-and-field. At one point, he even eavesdropped into Akira's conversation with Miki via the former's cellphone to implicitly warn Akira that lying is pointless. Given his true feelings for Akira, the part where Ryo doesn't have a crush becomes questionable, even though the aforementioned actions were done for different reasons.
• Techno Wizard: Ryo definitely knows his way with technology, being able to hack passwords, determine someone's identity via photographic composite reconstruction, tap into phones to record conversations or pinpoint someone's location... you name it.
• Teen Genius: He's the same age as Akira, although while Akira is still studying in high school, Ryo is already a professor working overseas.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: His eyes perpetually gave this look when while he was with the Peruvian natives, and he was looking blankly into the distance when Akira first found him.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: The final episode of Crybaby reveals Ryo had a dark side in preschool, beating up children, always carrying a box cutter, and probably even poisoning his class's aquarium — which is a clue he's got his literally satanic impulses and desires in him.
• Twirl of Love: Gives one to Akira in their reunion after receiving The Glomp.
• Villainous Breakdown: An interesting case where the breakdown happens not because the villain failed, but succeeded in his plans. He has a complete emotional breakdown on realizing that Akira is dead next to him, and is gone from below the waist altogether.
  Ryo/Satan: Why am I the only one talking? Akira. Akira, right now... I'm feeling something. What is this? Tell me. What is this, Akira? Feel what I'm feeling right now. Listen to me. Akira. Look at me. Respond to me. Don't forget that you've been with me till now. Say something. No, Akira. Don't leave me alone! Don't leave me! Please, be somewhere! Say something! Akira!
• Villain Protagonist: Initially starts as the second main character like in the manga, but his role slowly diminishes as he becomes more of an antagonist, until he reveals himself to be the Big Bad, and the story was about teaching him love.
• Vocal Evolution: His voice normally sounds masculine, but when he transforms into Satan his voice becomes softer and more androgynous. In fact, if you listen more closely to his opening monologue in Episode 1 and the very few lines he utters in Episode 9, you can already hear the difference in pitch.
• We Can Rule Together: In the final episode, Ryo provides Akira a chance to side with the demons. Of course, after everything he's done to Akira, Akira refuses.
• What Is This Feeling?: He begs Akira's body for an answer on why he feels what he is feeling once he notices he is dead, unaware that he had already stated the answer a moment ago.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Ryo knows what love is in theory, but he doesn't believe that it exists, even as he states that the difference between humans and demons is whether they have the capacity to love or not. His viewpoint on love eventually changes thanks to his relationship with Akira, but he admits this to Akira too late.
• Yandere: Zigzagged. He only opted to kill Miki out of suspicion that she may know about Akira's other identity, and his act of revealing the truth about demons to the world was planned from the beginning rather than something he did out of jealousy. But then he also outs Akira's secret to the public in Episode 8 not only to exacerbate their paranoia, but also to alienate Akira from everyone else. And unlike his original counterpart, he never shows regret for what happens to the Makimuras.
• You Are Number 6: Implied. The intro to the show reveals that the only thing that could distinguish him from the multitude of identical angels that populate God's army is what little humanity he has.

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