Characters / Omens

Lucifer

• The Ace: Lucifer is the most gifted and powerful of God’s angels. God points out that it’s not just his power that makes him special, but a superior intellect and an ability to adapt that other angels do not possess. In canon, Lucifer is a uniquely powerful fighter capable of casually destroying planets, and even the strongest demons in existence pale in comparison to him. Amon in his prime lost a fight to Lucifer, and Akira despite all his efforts also failed.
• Adaptational Attractiveness:
  • The primary design influence for Satan is the ethereal, beautiful design from Crybaby. All Satan designs are contrasted with Ryo’s more masculine appearance, transitioning into a more feminine, elegant appearance. Sure enough the comic Lucifer has a feminine face, womanly curves, and a modest breast size. Lucifer’s design also draws elements from across the franchise, he has the manga Satan’s elf-like ears, Crybaby Satan’s long blonde hair, long claws and sharp teeth like in Violence Jack, and has the thick pubic hair Satan had in the Amon OVA. The pubic hair is a more fanciful design however, looking like a fur tattoo in the shape of angel wings. All in all, this Satan combines many elegant physical traits from across the franchise, making for a stunning depiction of our favorite fallen angel.
  • Per the Bible, a great deal of emphasis is placed on Lucifer’s exceptional beauty, with the narrative pointing out that he is the most beautiful of God’s creations. The comic places emphasis on how Lucifer is the most talented of God’s angels, with no specific emphasis placed on beauty. Lucifer is by no means ugly, but everyone compliments Lucifer for his power rather than his beauty. And while Lucifer is obviously otherworldly in his beauty, there are other angels that are remarkably pretty too. One could argue that the story suffers from the same problem as Helen of Troy, that drawing the most beautiful person ever is a tall order for any artist to depict.
• Adaptational Intelligence:
  • Lucifer is by no means dumb, but despite his intelligence there are limits to what he knows. The story tries to emphasize that Lucifer knows a lot about the fields of expertise he’s been exposed to in heaven, but there’s a whole entire universe out there that he knows very little about. Michael points out that Lucifer masters things far faster than other angels, so there’s every indication that Lucifer only remains ignorant on things because he hasn’t had a chance to experiment with them. Part of this is by God’s design, because he’s afraid the angels are not ready for the dangers of the larger universe.
  • The canon story is very vague on the limits of what Satan knows about particular subjects, and when he became aware of their existence. For example in the Amon manga Satan knows particular details about Amon’s backstory that even Amon himself is not aware of. In the Lady manga, a demon tells Akira that Satan knew about the demons before they evolved into demons, and that Satan himself has the power to transform life forms into demons. In the comic, it’s heavily implied that Satan has never even heard about the existence of demons, let alone seen one. In fact, Lucifer reacts to the existence of demons with horror, and only learns things about their culture as the story goes along.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Of a sort. In the manga, Satan is a stoic, calm and largely passionless character. The number of times Satan smiles can be counted on one hand, and the angel is for the most part very guarded with his emotions. Any villainous behavior Satan gets up to is done with a frown and with complete calm. By contrast the comic Lucifer is brash, rude, arrogant, loud mouthed, and is extremely boastful. The types of villainous behavior Satan gets up to is more or less the same, but you see a colorful side to the character not seen in canon.
  • In the Lady manga, Jun’s co-worker posits the idea that Lucifer was kicked out of heaven because he refused to worship humanity and become a caretaker for them like God wanted to. From that story’s perspective the narration begins and ends with a mouthy Lucifer shouting at God, but we get no further context as to what happened after. In the comic, we see that Lucifer got into a heated debate with God, and essentially blasphemed his Lord and Father straight to his face. God in a long-suffering way tries to deescalate the argument, but it goes nowhere. Making it worse Lucifer has the audacity to attack his brother Michael in front of God, when he’s already angry over Lucifer’s disobedience. If it was just a disagreement, God might have been willing to forgive Lucifer, but his extreme disrespect earned the wayward angel an asskicking and expulsion from heaven.
  • In the manga Ryo is shown to have a soft spot for animals. In Shin Devilman this is taken to such an extreme that he shows distaste towards hunting, and lets Akira handle that matter. By contrast Lucifer is totally unimpressed by animals when he’s with God in a celestial garden, going out of his way to kill a deer with a lightning bolt just to illustrate that a mortal creature has no value. God is amused by Lucifer’s naive perspective on the simple beauty of lower life forms, trying to inform the angel that every creature has a role and a place somewhere in the cosmic order of things. Amusingly, this behavior is in line with the psychotic attitude Ryo had towards animals in the Crybaby anime.
  • Lucifer is unrepentant about how his actions have alienated him from his brother Michael, refusing to apologize for any wrongdoing. This also applies to Lucifer’s treatment of other angels, who have long since ostracized the arrogant angel for his pranks. While Michael and Lucifer’s relationship is not explored properly in canon, nothing indicates that Michael and Lucifer had a strained relationship prior to Lucifer’s rebellion against God. The comic indicates that while Lucifer still loves Michael, his head is so far up his own ass it would take moving Heaven and Earth to get Lucifer to give an apology, much less have the apology be sincere.
  • In the manga Ryo had the capacity to empathize with the pain of others and he cried for Akira’s sake. Even Satan showed remarkable regret for the pain his actions caused Akira. The comic Lucifer by contrast is a head strong angel who speaks quickly, jumps head first into problems, and apologizes never. Lucifer shows the bare minimum of acknowledgment that his actions have hurt others, and you can perhaps see a struggle in the angel’s face whether he actually regrets it or not. But even if Lucifer actually felt sorry for others, he would never reveal that kind of vulnerability.
• Adaptational Wimp: Using the term wimp loosely, but Lucifer in the comic is far weaker than the canon Satan. The author after considerable thought, realized that if this early stage of Lucifer had the same power level as the canon Satan, then none of the demon war plot line would be a challenge for the angel. The author has stated she’s fine with Lucifer growing into that power level over the course of the comic, but doesn’t want him to start out that powerful.
• Admiring the Abomination: In canon, this is the attitude that Satan has for the demons. He admires their exceptional combat and survival skills, and views there to be a certain elegance to their dog eat dog competition for dominance. In the comic Lucifer’s first reaction to the demons is one of horror, and he views them to be an abomination. Part of the comic’s narrative is to show how Lucifer transitioned from a fallen angel who hated demons, to becoming Satan, the Lord and master of the demons. The author has stated one reason that Lucifer prefers demons over humans, is that demons admit that they’re monsters and don’t try to pretend otherwise. Humans by contrast resist their baser instincts and pretend to be moral.
• Aesop Amnesia: To show that Lucifer is still naive and childish, the angel foolishly ignores several warnings he receives from God to change his behavior. Each time the wayward angel digs himself deeper, until finally he gets kicked out of heaven. Making matters worse, is that immediately after getting kicked out of heaven, Lucifer mentions the very same lessons of compassion and responsibility that God taught him, and ‘’mocks God for not living up to those principles.’’ The delusional nature of the angel cannot be overstated.
• A Lighter Shade of Black:
  • In comparison to the demons. Lucifer may be a fallen angel, who disobeyed God, but he doesn’t believe in the rampant cruelty the demons live by. At least at first that is. Part of the comic’s narrative is to show Lucifer’s transition into Satan, and show how the fallen angel went from being troubled by demonic violence, to actually delighting in it.
  • Xenon is the Big Bad of the story for a good portion of the comic, and Lucifer helps Amon fight the demon lord. Xenon is a cruel master, considered contemptible even by demon standards (or at least that’s how Amon views him). Lucifer is arrogant and selfish, but at least he gives the demons some degree of freedom to act as they wish.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: As per canon, Satan is a hermaphrodite, having both male and female parts. The manga has on occasion shown a vague outline of a penis, but any hint of a vagina is blurred out. Some adaptions depict Satan with pubic hair so thick that it’s impossible to see the genitals, allowing the audience to fill in the gap with their imagination. The comic went with the pubic hair solution. The comic itself gives no hint if angels even see a meaningful difference between a male angel or a female angel, the same way that humans differentiate male and female for reproductive purposes. For what it’s worth, other characters refer to Lucifer as a he, and Lucifer in turn refers to his twin Michael as a he and calls him brother.
• Angelic Beauty: In Bible tradition, Lucifer is considered the most beautiful and powerful of God’s angels. In the comic, Lucifer is certainly an otherworldly beauty, and would look like your text book example of what an elegant angel should look like. For what it's worth, Lucifer's beauty is emphasized as a cold, aloof beauty, whereas Michael is more of a warm, friendly beauty.
• Animal Motif: Two animal inspirations apply to Lucifer:
  • Ryo’s last name Asuka literally means “flying bird”. Lucifer has fluffy hair, not unlike the texture and feathers of a bird. More literally Lucifer’s angel wings look like giant bird wings. The Lady manga does have a more cynical take, where angels are compared to birds of prey, reminding you that angels may be beautiful but are extremely powerful and dangerous. Some versions of Satan even have thick feathers fused to his skin.
  • Bible scholars believe Satan is the Serpent who tempted Adam and Eve. The Book of Revelation explicitly refers to Satan as a red dragon. The Lady manga alludes to this fact by having Akira refer to Satan as a Serpent of Light on more than one occasion. Satan never takes on a dragon form in canon, but amusingly the angel does have sharp teeth and long claws on his hands, almost as if they are echoing his true nature. The author of the comic did make an animation where Lucifer transforms into a dragon of blinding light, out of rage towards misbehaving demons, which is more than canon has ever depicted.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Lucifer may have deserved answers from God about his pressing, existential questions. And it might have been better for God to have alleviated Lucifer’s fears about demons. But Lucifer ultimately had it coming. By the time he got kicked out of heaven, Lucifer was guilty of numerous pranks that made the lives of the angels unnecessarily harder, alienated his brother Michael, and was dismissive of God’s teachings. The fact that he got into a protracted argument, made threatening gestures towards God, and physically attacked Michael in front of God, caused Lucifer to receive a well deserved ass kicking.
  • By the time of the manga, Lucifer becomes a full blown villain, and is known as Satan the master of demons. His actions cause the persecution of the devilmen, the extinction of humanity, and the death of Akira. God killing Satan, and then resetting the timeline so the angel can suffer this fate again is a well deserved punishment.
• Beneath the Mask: Lucifer puts on a tough front in most cases, but in truth Lucifer is a deeply vulnerable person:
  • Lucifer has a bad habit of pretending the opinions of others don’t matter to him, acting like he’s totally secure in his self-worth because he knows how special he is. In truth, Lucifer has a ton of insecurities, most of them related to what purpose God has for him. Lucifer is deathly afraid that if God starts finding him uninteresting, then God will stop socializing with Lucifer, or worse yet get rid of the angel altogether. Lucifer’s extreme arrogance is partially based on his actual talent and powers, but it’s implied his brutish attitude could be a coping mechanism so he doesn’t have to admit to his deeper issues. Samael suggesting that humans are a flawed creation, but wording it vaguely so that it sounds like he’s referring to Lucifer, causes the angel to get violently angry and attack Sam. It takes other angels stepping in to stop Lucifer from maiming Samael: if Lucifer was so secure in his self-worth, why the outburst?
  • Lucifer also has a devil may care personality, acting first and asking questions never, rushing head long into situations without considering the consequences. When things blow up in his face, Lucifer acts like he’s only mad that he got caught, and tries to pretend he doesn’t care. If you read between the lines, and pay attention to Lucifer’s body language, you can see hints that he cares deeply about how other people view him, and he does show hints of remorse for his actions. Lucifer would never openly confess to that however.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Lucifer claims that he only hates humanity because they’re boring, and he repeats this lie constantly. The truth is that Lucifer is afraid that angels will some day be replaced by humans, and that humans are the fashionable toys that God is interested in now and the angels will be forgotten. The other lie Lucifer has convinced himself of is that everyone is uptight for not liking his antics, rather than acknowledging that he messed up and needs to reform his behavior. Even after getting kicked out of heaven, Lucifer still thinks he was in the right.
• Blood Knight:
  • This trope varies in canon. In the manga Satan fought Akira with extreme reluctance, and his countenance was grim and frustrated, reflecting the seriousness of the fight. In the Amon manga, Satan tries to reason with Amon, but shows a great deal of smugness and glee once the fight actually starts. In Violence Jack, Satan reluctantly fought Akira to give him a chance at revenge. ^note  For what it’s worth Akira spares Satan’s life, implying some level of forgiveness on his part. Crybaby’s Satan has the angel smiling constantly during his fight with Akira, treating this life or death struggle as if it were a game, and has a psychotic smirk on his face when he deals the killing blow on Akira.
  • In the comic’s continuity, the artist has drawn numerous pieces of Michael and Satan fighting, and Satan shows psychotic glee at the idea of defeating and killing his brother. By contrast, the art showing Akira and Satan fighting reflects a more grim expression, showing Satan’s reluctance to hurt him. Some art however has shown Satan treat a fight with Akira as a bizarre form of flirting.
• Born Winner: Lucifer was created by God as an experiment, to see the heights of what an angel could accomplish. God succeeded. Lucifer is exceptionally more powerful than other angels, learns quicker, and is quick to adapt. God even points out that Lucifer is capable of deeper insight and intellectual freedom than the other angels. Michael points out that activities that take him a lot of practice come easily to Lucifer. What makes Lucifer’s situation more miraculous, is that there is a quirk in his programming giving him this rapid ability to think and adapt, that God himself did not create. Even Michael, despite being Lucifer’s twin did not receive this quirk. The problem that arises is that Lucifer is depicted misusing and abusing his gifts, applying his gifts to start mischief simply to ease his boredom.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: As Michael contends, everything that other angels struggle to master, comes easily to Lucifer. Whether it's magic, academics, even something as mundane as choir practice, Lucifer picks up on the skill easily and knocks it out of the park. Lucifer has become lazy and complacent because not much interests him anymore, and the truly fun experimentation he would like to do — namely go exploring with God — he's been barred from doing on account of God's absence. As far as Lucifer is concerned, he's like a college graduate doing 5th grade homework, and he just finds it boring repeating the same old steps he mastered years ago, while watching the angels below him go through the motions. At least if he's lazy, he can make up his own rules and his own fun as he goes along.
• Broken Ace: Despite his incredible gifts, Lucifer suffers through a turn of bad luck that spirals out of control. Lucifer suffers through a host of psychological issues, struggling with such concepts as his purpose in life, parental abandonment, and the nature of horrifying things in the universe, and he gets no help with these issues. After getting kicked out of heaven, crippling loneliness, plus exposure to a violent and hateful demonic culture causes the angel to spiral into insanity. By the time of the manga Lucifer is a full blown Big Bad, who views heaven and God with contempt.
• The Chessmaster: This is how Satan is depicted in canon. His infiltration of humanity by becoming Ryo was an intricate, well thought out plan that took years of careful insight and preparation. By contrast the comic Lucifer (who admittedly is younger and less experienced) rushes into things and takes action first without analyzing the situation, and has a “What is the worst that could happen?” kind of attitude. It’s not hard to imagine that numerous failures led to the later characterization.
• Color Motif: Two examples.
  • Lucifer wears a blue robe, and even points out to Michael that everything he owns is blue. Blue is associated with calm, serenity, peace, and a composed mind that is relaxed under pressure. More darkly, blue is sometimes associated with coldness and an aloof personality. Lucifer is the opposite of the positive blue symbolism, but is definitely in line with the cold and aloof personality.
  • Lucifer is also associated with the color white, and has a glowing white aura and ethereal white wings to show for it. In Western culture white is associated with goodness, innocence and purity. In the East white represents coldness, emptiness and death. Lucifer is anything but good and pure, despite his outward beauty, and after his sins start mounting emptiness and death are a fitting description of Satan’s personality.
• Cosmic Plaything: Lucifer does suffer from this trope to some extent.
  • Lucifer after seeing the demons suffered from fear and trauma, and wanted answers from God as to what those things were. God refuses to answer, because he wants the angels to stay far away from the demons. Lucifer is afraid that God will grow bored of the angels and destroy them. God has no such plan to dispose of a good creation once it’s already made, even if he does grow bored of them he has no desire to just murder and replace them. God does nothing to put Lucifer’s mind at ease that he doesn’t consider him obsolete. Lucifer is afraid that his actions aren’t pleasing God, and he wants to know what actions to take to fulfill his purpose. God finds it boring to just give his creations the answers, because he finds life more exciting if his creations use their free will to surprise him with new possibilities. Lucifer is upset that God leaves heaven for extended periods, and gives them a boring assignment like babysitting humans after coming home for the first time in years. God refuses to give answers as to what his plans with the humans are, frustrating Lucifer. Lucifer was wrong to act out, but God had an obligation as a leader and as a father to put his child’s mind at ease. A basic level of communication could have avoided every bad thing that happened in the Devilman franchise afterward.
  • In canon Lucifer ultimately suffers an extreme punishment from God. Namely that every time Satan destroys the world and kills Akira, the Earth is reset to a previous version so Satan can suffer the consequences of his actions all over again. The cynical interpretation is that God does this just to watch Satan suffer, but perhaps one could view this as a second chance… one that Satan repeatedly fails.
• Creepy Monotone: Averted in this version. In canon Satan is composed and supernaturally calm, speaking in a quiet tone most of the time. Even when engaging in death battles, with heated tempers you don’t see Satan yell very often. The author experimented with that version, but found the more expressive, even campy behavior of the younger Lucifer to be more entertaining to write.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Happens in two forms. When God relies on the battle angels to take out Lucifer, those angels are easily slaughtered. It reminds that audience that Lucifer is considered the top dog of the angels for a reason. However this doesn’t save Lucifer, because soon after God easily overpowers the angel and expels him out of heaven.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Lucifer may be exceptionally attractive, but his mind is anything but wholesome.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Lucifer wears clothes for the first 3 chapters, but after getting flung out of heaven Lucifer’s robe is destroyed and he’s completely naked, exposing his breasts and crotch. The author has stated that she doesn’t envision Lucifer to be all that different from the canon Satan, and is not ashamed of his nudity.
• Gold and White Are Divine: Lucifer has beautiful blonde hair, and he has 12 glorious white angel wings. They symbolize his divinity, though his divinity is a lower tier than God’s.
• Hair Wings: In the Bible tradition, angels had wings on their head, which they often used to cover their faces when mortals looked upon them. Similar to said tradition, Lucifer also has wings on his head. The head wings flex and move, as an indicator of Lucifer's mood. It might be weird to say it, but at times the dance of Lucifer's wings, especially his head wings can make the angel seem oddly cute. However, in times of distress the wings slack, or worse yet cover his face to indicate fear or shame. The other wings are shown to be retractable, but Lucifer's head wings remain active at all times.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Lucifer is exceptionally powerful and talented, and could accomplish anything he set his mind to. However Lucifer squanders his opportunity to do good for others, and instead of surrounding himself with friends and creating a comfortable space for himself, he instead chooses to be rude to others and keep to himself. Lucifer is only alone and miserable because he chooses to be. Lucifer has all the advantages life could offer, but refuses to apply them for his own betterment.
• Humanoid Abomination: Lucifer looks human, even with the wings as a factor, but beyond that human exterior is an ancient, powerful and otherworldly being. And in truth, the angels are all made of the souls of stars or simply star dust, so Lucifer doesn’t even have DNA in the same way a human does, despite looking like one.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Lucifer has blue eyes, and is certainly a callous and cold hearted character. It only gets worse as time goes along, and by the time of the manga Satan has a creepy, cold, and dispassionate tone to match the coldness of his eyes.
• Intrigued by Humanity: Played with. Lucifer acknowledges to some degree that humans are capable of beautiful things, like love and compassion and self determination, but ultimately sees it as a useless gesture because humans do a bad job of actually making the most of their gifts. Lucifer is one to talk however, and is a hypocrite on this subject, given how he failed to properly use the gifts God gave him.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Lucifer is right to say that God should have given him answers. A soldier can’t endlessly follow orders without getting a sense of what he’s fighting for, or else morale begins to suffer. And it’s the job of a father to make it known that they love their child, because this promotes the self-worth and emotional health of the child. God owed it to Lucifer (and the other angels) both as the leader of their nation, and as their father, to give them answers and provide peace of mind.
• Lack of Empathy: Michael and Lucifer are different in many ways, but the main thing that sets them apart is that Michael is full of joy and compassion. Lucifer by comparison doesn’t care about most people, or at least claims he doesn’t.
• Light Is Not Good: The Bible warns that Satan appears as an angel of light, serving as a message that just because something looks beautiful on the outside doesn’t mean it doesn’t intend to destroy you. Lucifer is associated with light colors, and has all the angelic beauty you would associate with good, but his personality is anything but angelic. By contrast, Akira is the angelic one in personality. Michael is a more straight example of light actually being good.
• Lightning Bruiser: Lucifer is insanely fast. When he moves, it’s as if he were a blur of lightning. Lucifer has more than enough raw power to back up the bruiser aspect of the trope. It’s mentioned in passing that Lucifer’s antics destroyed a portion of a planet’s surface. So even though this version is supposed to be weaker than the manga Satan, he’s still incredibly powerful.
• Meaningful Name: Lucifer is a Latin name that means "shining one" or "light bearer". Sure enough Lucifer has an otherworldly, glowing countenance that is stunning to look at. However, some scholars point out that the light angels are supposed to bear is the glory of God in their hearts, and that aspect of Lucifer's character slowly dies as he grows angry with God.
• Mercury's Wings: Along with his hair wings, Lucifer also has a pair of wings on his ankles.
• Misanthrope Supreme: How Lucifer tries to portray himself. He claims to hate humans, and finds the majority of angels boring and uptight. Michael and God seem to be the only people he has genuine affection for. In the modern era, Akira is the only person that he genuinely cares about, and Akira is the only human he finds valuable – period.
• The Needless: Lucifer doesn’t need to eat, sleep, drink water, or breathe air in order to survive. Complete exposure to the vacuum of space, after being kicked out of heaven, does nothing to harm Lucifer. It is implied however that Lucifer does have a spiritual energy reserve, and if he wastes too much of it he can potentially die. Lucifer can eat food if he so desires, but the energy gained from doing so is so small as to not be worth it.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Downplayed compared to canon. The author felt like the canon Satan was too powerful for anything to be a reasonable danger to him, but even so Satan is extremely durable. Fighting several angels and even being brutally smacked down by God did not kill the fallen angel, and walks away with his life, albeit with some blood and bruises.
  • Further indications of Lucifer's durability are shown during his journey through outer space. Lucifer searches such a large portion of the Milky Way galaxy, that he encounters more than a million planets. To be frank, Lucifer would have to travel light years of distance to find this kind of variety, and for him to accomplish it with any kind of speed he would need to be moving faster than light — an enormous amount of energy to be using. Despite wasting all that energy, and on the verge of passing out, Lucifer still has enough energy to release a huge explosion of energy. Right after passing out, Lucifer gets sucked into a black hole, which flings him out at high speed and causes him to crash land into Earth, causing a crater. To say that God's craftsmanship builds things meant to last, is a bit of an understatement.
• Not So Stoic: The comic version isn’t stoic in the same way the canon Satan is, but this version is prone to hiding his emotions behind a grumpy exterior. On a few occasions that grumpy exterior fades away to reveal a troubled and traumatized individual, who is clearly afraid and very tense.
• One-Winged Angel: Literally an angel, and one with 6 majestic wings on his back. One of the artist’s animations suggests that Lucifer has a serpent of light transformation, that he can access when he’s very angry. Fitting of course, because Satan is described as a dragon in the Bible.
• The Only One I Trust: How he feels about Michael. Notably Michael is the only one Lucifer confides his emotions to. Samael by contrast annoyed Lucifer, and he wanted the conversation to be over soon as possible.
• Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: The angels are portrayed this way. Much like in the manga, angels are androgynous and look like a blend between male and female. The author refers to Lucifer and Michael with he/him pronouns and the two characters call each other brothers in-universe.
• Pet the Dog: Despite Lucifer’s rude personality, he has a few moments that remind you he’s not all bad:
  • Despite being verbally unrepentant about the misery his antics cause, in private Lucifer has a mournful expression for how his actions have hurt Michael. It’s obvious that other than God, Michael is the only person Lucifer truly cares about.
  • When arguing with God, Lucifer expresses fearful anger at the idea that God will get rid of the angels like God tried to do to the demons. That if God is capable of considering demons a failed experiment, what would stop him from considering the same with angels? Despite saying that he finds the angels boring, he still cares enough about them to advocate for their safety.
• Pointy Ears: The original manga depicted Lucifer with pointy elf esque ears once he woke up from being Ryo. They help emphasize that while Lucifer looks human, he is ultimately an alien being in comparison to anything that lives on Earth. The majority of Devilman adaptions have made it a point to show that Lucifer has sharp, pointy ears, but there are a handful of adaptions such as Crybaby that omit this detail. The comic stays in line with series tradition and gives this version of Lucifer his pointy ears.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Despite supposedly being a high ranking angel in the hierarchy of heaven, we don’t see Lucifer do much in the way of celestial responsibilities. Much reference is made to Lucifer’s many pranks, and the one time Lucifer is given a project, and it’s not even a solo project but a group effort with other angels, he complains about it.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Michael and Lucifer may look identical, but their personalities could not be further apart. Lucifer is rude, loud mouthed, arrogant, unapologetic, and is too busy pulling pranks to worry about his responsibilities. Lucifer is also not fond of betraying emotion, and hides behind a grumpy exterior. Michael by contrast is thoughtful, kind to others, tries to stay out of trouble, and is constantly worried about Lucifer and tries to bail his brother out of trouble. Michael is also a very cheerful person, laughing and smiling in a genuine, loving way that Lucifer is too cold to do.
• Poor Communication Kills: To break down the steps that caused Lucifer’s paranoia, which snowballed into an argument with God and eventually caused his expulsion from heaven:
  • Lucifer after seeing the demons suffered from fear and trauma, and wanted answers from God as to what those things were. God refuses to answer, because he wants the angels to stay far away from the demons.
  • Lucifer is afraid that God will grow bored of the angels and destroy them. God has no such plan to dispose of a good creation once it’s already made, even if he does grow bored of them he has no desire to just murder and replace them. God does nothing to put Lucifer’s mind at ease that he doesn’t consider him obsolete.
  • Lucifer is afraid that his actions aren’t pleasing God, and he wants to know what actions to take to fulfill his purpose. God finds it boring to just give his creations the answers, because he finds life more exciting if his creations use their free will to surprise him with new possibilities.
  • Lucifer is upset that God leaves heaven for extended periods, and finds it especially insulting that the first thing he does after coming home for the first time in years is to make them babysit humanity. Lucifer is obviously annoyed by the idea of having to watch over mortal beings, but is more so upset that God is forcing them to figure things out on their own with no guide. God refuses to give answers as to what his plans with the humans are, frustrating Lucifer.
  • Point being: Lucifer went about venting his frustrations in the wrong way, but God had an obligation as a leader and as a father to put his child’s mind at ease. A basic level of communication could have avoided Lucifer’s downfall, and subsequently every bad thing that happened in the Devilman franchise afterward.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Lucifer is smarter and more powerful than any human or angel, but he is emotionally immature and has more than his fair share of misguided judgment.
• Psycho Supporter: Satan is this to Akira, to the point he’s willing to do terrible things for Akira’s safety and happiness, regardless of whether Akira approves of said choices. This is played for comedy in one drawing, where Satan carved a happy birthday message into a planet for Akira, and Akira yells at Satan to stop destroying planets for him.
• Psychotic Smirk: He sports his fair share of these. Lucifer’s first significant scene in the story is laughing hysterically at Michael’s expense as he’s chased by a monster bull, laughing like a crazy super villain with shark teeth. Michael does not find the prank funny, and God is ultimately forced to kill the bull to prevent any further damage, and promptly scolds Lucifer.
• Really 700 Years Old: Angels are incredibly ancient, but don’t look it. The angels all have the appearances of young adults, and yet Lucifer casually mentions to a space whale that they last saw each other eons ago. Wrinkles would really clash with the wings.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: In a bit of irony, despite wearing blue Lucifer is the red oni in terms of personality, and Michael despite wearing red is the blue oni. Lucifer is the stubborn, loud, bombastic adventurer who goes out and starts trouble, whereas Michael is the concerned partner who asks questions before he commits to anything, and is more reasonable about his choices.
• Satan: What Lucifer ultimately becomes. In the Bible, the word Satan means “adversary”, referring to his antagonism towards God and his people. In the comic’s logic, Satan is a title that demons use to refer to their greatest champion. Despite being a Fallen Angel, Lucifer through careful negotiation and brutal displays of power, manages to impress the demon culture and become their Satan. Also from a narrative perspective, this Satan avoids the stereotype of the red man with a long tail and horns. Ironically Amon fits that archetype, whereas Satan is an angel of light.
• Self-Serving Memory:
  • When Lucifer finally stops fighting with Amon, the angel makes an attempt to negotiate with Amon citing that he would be willing to help Amon fight Xenon if he in turn would help fight God. Lucifer further clarifies that God deserves to suffer payback for putting him in all these bad scenarios. Yeah right, it's 100% God's fault for Lucifer's fall from grace and expulsion from heaven — the angel did nothing to warrant that. The Morning Star is ever the prideful one.
  • Ambiguous case in canon. Satan tells Akira that God unfairly tried to exterminate the demons, who may have been harsh beings but were trying to survive. This leaves out the fact that the demons have consistently been characterized as having turned the Earth into a social Darwinist hell hole, where endless brutality and absorbing each other's bio-mass is the name of the game. And we only have Satan's word to go on that God and the angels never attempted to negotiate with the demons, and he could easily be an Unreliable Narrator in this case.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Lucifer fits the archetype of a brash, arrogant, self-serving jock type. His appearance is girly, but his personality certainly fits the mold. By contrast Michael is the sensitive one, showing compassion and concern for others, and is less guarded about his emotions. Michael is certainly the more cheerful and optimistic of the two.
• The Social Darwinist: Lucifer loathes humanity because he considers them incredibly weak. This disgust also applies to animals, and Lucifer arrogantly states that inferior beings should bow in the presence of divine beings like God and himself. While Lucifer shows disgust to demons at first, he eventually grows to respect their power and their tenacity to survive at any cost. Lucifer comes to see the dog eat dog competition of nature to be an oddly beautiful thing, and one of the reasons why he detests humanity is that they lie to themselves about how they’ve risen above this competition and are thus a more moral species. At least demons admit that they’re cruel, and don’t make excuses for their actions.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: Happens a few times. Notably Lucifer has this expression after seeing demons for the first time, and has one again when God nearly kills Lucifer for his disobedience.
• Villain Protagonist: What Lucifer ultimately is. He starts out as an angel loyal to God, but then transitions into Satan the king of demons.
• We Can Rule Together: A driving force in the plot is that Satan tries to pull this with Amon. This is true in canon, as well as the comic. Satan would later try this with Akira in the modern era.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: God tries to instill Lucifer with an understanding of the value of all life. That everything in the cosmos has some kind of value, even if it’s not obviously significant. And some of this value is connected to other things, and works as a cycle of nature – life begets death, death begets life as an example. Lucifer is completely unimpressed and refuses to acknowledge there is any deeper meaning to what God is saying about nature.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: A big problem the angels suffer from as a whole. God comes in and out of paradise as he pleases, and when he does return he checks up on the progress of the angels. It’s implied through dialogue that God showed the angels many spectacular things in the past, taught them interesting facts about the universe, and of course showed them love, but then started coming back to heaven less and less. The angels miss the good old days when God was more outwardly loving, and was less busy with his pet projects in the larger universe. God refusing to explain his long term plans with the angels is part of what leads to Lucifer’s identity crisis.
• Winged Humanoid: Lucifer has 6 pairs of wings. 6 on his back, 2 on his head, 2 on his arm, and 2 on his legs, making for a total of 12 wings. Seraphim in Bible tradition had 6 wings, but because the extra wings look cool we'll let it slide.
• Yandere: This is true of Satan towards Akira in canon. Some of the artist’s drawings of Akira reflect this personality trait, with Satan aggressively flirting with Akira, and forcing himself on Akira despite his discomfort.
• You Are Number 6: In canon, the angels have a disturbing trend of looking very similar to each other, implying that Lucifer despite his rebellious nature and great power, is likely just a mass produced model with some added tweaks to make him stronger. The comic does a better job of making the angels distinguishable from each other. It’s debatable – despite Lucifer’s beauty – if he counts as God’s most beautiful creation, but he at least has his own unique appearance. The fact that Lucifer has a unique soul is what interests God, not his outward appearance, so arguably you could say Lucifer is God’s most beautiful angel because of his unique mind.

Michael

• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Michael's original appearance was in the Devilman Lady manga. His role in that story was the secret leader of the United Human Alliance, supporting humanity in a common goal of self defense against future demon invasion. To show how determined Michael was in this goal, he even set aside God's usual disgust towards demons and allowed the Devilmen to populate the secret army of the Human Alliance. However, Michael was a shadowy character who was made vague appearances, until finally revealing himself in the finale to fight Xenon and Satan who had finally started their invasion. Outside of that one story, Michael has made no other appearances in the Devilman franchise. The author felt this was a shame, and sought to expand on who Michael is, finding him an interesting character to work with.
  • If you go by Bible canon, it still applies to Michael. Popular culture has built Michael up as the war commander of the angelic host, and the most powerful of God's angels after Lucifer left the fold. And the rivalry between Satan and Michael is supposed to be legendary, and an epic tale told through the ages. If you actually read the Bible though, not only does Michael barely show up in it, but him and Satan only have two battles in the entire Bible. ^note  One was the war in heaven, where Michael defeated a dragon transformed Satan. The second was a dispute between Michael and Satan over who would get to possess Moses' corpse.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: In Devilman continuity, angels appear to be hermaphrodites, possessing both male and female parts. The same rules that apply to Lucifer, apply to Michael as well. The comic itself gives no hint if angels even see a meaningful difference between a male or female angel, the same way humans place value in those differences for reproductive purposes. The Bible's angels were capable of sex and reproduction, ^note In Genesis chapter 6, there's a story about angels and humans having children, and these hybrids that were later called Nephilim had super powers but there is no clear hint as to whether or not these angels are even interested in sexual desire. For what it's worth, other characters refer to Michael as a he, and Lucifer calls Michael his brother.
• Angelic Beauty: Angels in general are considered beautiful in the Bible. However, no special emphasis is ever placed on Michael's beauty in the Bible tradition, but in the Devilman Lady canon he's revealed to be Lucifer's twin. On account of being the twin of God's most beautiful angel, Michael ends up being exceptionally attractive in his own right. For what it's worth, Lucifer's beauty is emphasized as a cold, aloof beauty, whereas Michael is more of a warm, friendly beauty.
• Animal Motif:
  • In the Devilman Lady manga, Jun's father compares angels to birds of prey. The point Dr. Fudo is getting at, is that even though angels are beautiful and stunning creatures, they are not weak, fragile creatures but are arguably terrifying monsters in their own right. Dr. Fudo is speaking of angels in a universal sense, so this also applies to Michael.
  • In classical tradition, Michael's ferocity as a war commander is compared to the terrifying might of a lion. In antiquity, Christian Churches and military factions alike had flags and banners of Michael standing next to tamed lions, with his sword raised. Gold is typically associated with lions anyway, so it's fitting that Michael wears golden armor into battle.
• Blood Knight: Averted, for the most part. Michael hates picking fights, and views his powers as a last resort to stop evil when it raises its ugly head. However, some of Jinx's one off drawings have shown Michael enjoying the carnage dealt out to Lucifer a little too much for someone of his supposedly pure morals.
• Color Motif:
  • Michael wears a red robe. Red has a variety of symbolic meanings, including life, courage, passion, violence, and even love. Michael certainly embodies the more positive aspects of the color red, while also possessing enough ferocity to make it as God's most fearsome battlefield commander.
  • Michael was gifted by God with a golden armor, which he can summon at will when he's ready for combat. By contrast Lucifer wears a black armor. In Christian tradition, artwork has depicted Michael with golden armor at times. Michael is also shown wearing a golden armor in the Devilman Lady manga. Gold has multi-faceted symbolism, but the most common meanings are divinity, purity, compassion and beauty. Michael certainly embodies the best of what gold means.
• Flaming Sword: Michael in Christian tradition is thought to wield a flaming sword. The fun irony of this, is that while Michael is stated to have fought Satan twice, it never mentions in either story that Michael used a sword to do it. That's more of a legendary facet the Christians came up with to add flavor to the character, but we'll let it pass because it's cool. Michael in the comic shows great affection for his sword, and views it as a gift from God that he's meant to use responsibly. Though the flames are not limited to the sword, and Michael is able to project flames out of his hands, and even form a flaming aura around his body if necessary.
• Formerly Friendly Family: While all angels are technically siblings — on account of sharing the same creator — something that Samael mockingly reminds Lucifer of, Michael and Lucifer are the only ones who distinctly act like siblings. This makes their estrangement all the more tragic, because Michael has to choose the love he has for his Father over the love he has for his brother, when he would ideally love for all 3 of them to stay together. This tragedy only deepens as time goes on, until it crystalizes into the famous hero vs villain rivalry that Christians know Michael and Lucifer for: Michael is fated to defeat his brother in an epic battle.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Lucifer wastes his talents lazing around in heaven, pulling the occasional prank when it suits his fancy. Lucifer also taunts people, and gets into shouting matches to massage his own ego. Lucifer is capable of so much more, and yet he holds on to foolish whims. Michael by contrast obeys his Father's wishes, even to his own detriment, because he loves God enough to serve him at all costs. Lucifer for his part views Michael to be the foolish sibling, for not seeing that God only sees the two of them as tools, and that even if he can be charitable to God, he still needs answers that God is unwilling to provide — therefore the only sane solution is to become his own guide. God seeing the desires of their hearts gives both of them exactly what they want: he transports Michael to a safe haven, and he casts Lucifer out so he can find his own way.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When Lucifer shits the bed, and verbally throws his abuse at God, Michael slaps Lucifer in the face, demanding to know what the hell he's thinking. Michael outright accuses Lucifer of committing treason, and that he's ignoring all the good God has done for them; giving them life, teaching them valuable lessons, and showing them love, and yet Lucifer is insane enough to make light of that. Lucifer for his part does not heed the advice, and uses his wing arm blade to slash Michael in retaliation. And then he continues his rant at God. Michael has a hard headed brother, to say the least.
• Gold and White Are Divine: Being Lucifer's twin, Michael shares the same blonde hair, and has 12 shining white angel wings. As an angel, these wings are as a sign of his divinity. Further emphasizing Michael's divinity, is the golden battle armor he wears: though like with Lucifer, Michael is on a lower tier of divinity than God.
• Hair Wings: Like Lucifer, Michael has wings on his head. The wings flex and move, as an indicator of Michael's mood. It helps that Michael is already a cheery kind of person, but the dance of his head wings do help to add to Michael's cuteness when he's happy. However, in times of distress the wings slack, or worse yet cover his face to indicate fear or shame. The other wings are shown to be retractable, but the head wings remain active at all times.
• Heroic Resolve: Lucifer mocks Michael for keeping the sword on his belt so often, citing that a sword is meant to be used, but Michael points out that a sword is meant to be controlled by its user, not for the sword to be misused by ill fated passion and anger. When the time is right the sword will be used on an opponent, but until then it's better for him to just practice with it and grow his resolve.
• Humanoid Abomination: Michael outwardly looks human, just like Lucifer and many of the other angels do. Even with the wings as a factor, he still looks human, but beyond said exterior is a mystical, otherworldly being. Plus, in the comic's universe, angels are made out of the souls of stars/star dust, so Michael wouldn't even necessarily have DNA in the same way a human has. Even if angels did have DNA, that DNA would look radically different from ours.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Unlike Lucifer's icy blue eyes, Michael's eyes are characterized by happiness, curiosity, and a sincere compassionate desire to help others.
• Intrigued by Humanity: Michael shares in God's curiosity with the humans. He acknowledges Lucifer's complaints that the humans are flawed and weak, but he also points out that God views them as a long term project and that they'll probably turn into something fun in the future. Lucifer is not impressed, but Michael maintains his optimism that humans will turn into something great. When God tasks the angelic host with watching over humanity, and guiding them to a higher point of evolution, Michael accepts the job with a great deal of excitement in his eyes, pointing out that the female specimen God provided was beautiful. Michael essentially treated the situation as if God had given them a new puppy to play with. Sadly, Lucifer ruins the cute moment with his cynicism.
• Playing with Fire: Michael's powers are flame based.
• Lawful Good: Michael views God's word as absolute, and obviously fulfilling God's wishes therefore must be the ultimate good one can achieve. Even beyond such simplistic and direct logic, Michael serves God out of a sense of duty to please what he considers a loving Father.
• Light Is Good: If Lucifer is the poster child for Light Is Not Good, then Michael embodies the kind of heroic tendencies, and genuine kindness that light morality represents as a concept. Sadly none of that ever rubbed off on Lucifer.
• Mentor's New Hope: While Michael and Lucifer were created from the same cloth/stardust, Lucifer was always God's favorite on account of having a bizarre mutation that allowed him to think outside the box, and adapt faster than anyone else. By all accounts, Lucifer was the logical choice to be the chosen one of the angelic host, but then that plan fell through when Lucifer made an ass of himself and rebelled. It's not hard to think of Michael's increased importance, eventually becoming the war commander of the entire angelic host, as God's way of promoting the next best candidate to replace the failed star student. Given how in the Bible, Michael is trusted to fight Satan, and in Devilman Lady, Michael is given operational control of the Human Alliance — God clearly puts a lot of trust in Michael's ability, as a worthy replacement.
• Mercury's Wings: In addition to the head wings, and the wings on his back, Michael also has wings on his legs.
• The Needless: It stands to reason, that since Lucifer and Michael are twins the same logic of not needing oxygen, rest, sleep, food or water also applies to Michael. The same story where Lucifer pranked a bunch of space whales, it's mentioned that Michael was there, so both of them can handle vacuum conditions and don't need oxygen to survive.
• Number Two: It's mentioned in the prologue chapter, that in God's periods of absence he trusted Lucifer and Michael to watch over heaven and maintain order. While Lucifer may have been God's favorite, Michael still shared in the responsibility of keeping the peace at his brother's side. After Lucifer's rebellion and fall from grace, Michael becomes the permanent second in command, and is clearly God's most trusted agent. Even in the Bible tradition, Michael is the only angel ever said to have fought and won against Satan, and Catholics generally understand Michael to be the commander of the angelic army. God is the only other person said to have fought Satan, but mind you those fights were a Curb-Stomp Battle that God easily won.
• Pointy Ears: Since Michael is Lucifer's twin, it's only natural that he would have sharp ears too. This does however appear to be a fairly common trait among angels.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Michael and Lucifer may look identical, but their personalities could not be further apart. Lucifer is rude, loud mouthed, arrogant, unapologetic, and is too busy pulling pranks to worry about his responsibilities. Lucifer is also not fond of betraying emotion, and hides behind a grumpy exterior. Michael by contrast is thoughtful, kind to others, tries to stay out of trouble, and is constantly worried about Lucifer and tries to bail his brother out of trouble. Michael is also a very cheerful person, laughing and smiling in a genuine, loving way that Lucifer is too cold to do.
• Psychotic Smirk: In one of Jinx's standalone drawings, Michael is in a stand off with Lucifer, and the two of them are bloody and bruised all over, and Michael is trying his best to impale his sword through Lucifer's chest. All the while, Michael has a psychotic look of glee on his face, and so too does Lucifer, as the two of them seem to be enjoying the carnage and the thrill of the fight. Maybe the brothers are more alike than they'd like to admit...
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Eventually Michael becomes the commander of all angelic forces in heaven, and his power certainly matches the rank on account of defeating Lucifer in combat. Keep in mind, that Lucifer was supposed to be the superior brother, with talents that were unique even among angels, and yet Michael manages to defeat him. In the Bible story depicting the war in heaven, Michael fought Satan while the latter was in the form of a dragon, and while he did have some angels on his side, the credit for the victory was primarily given to Michael.
• Really 700 Years Old: Angels are incredibly ancient, but don’t look it. The angels all have the appearances of young adults, despite being old enough to be the great grandparents (dozens of times over) of humans if their age was translated into mortal terms. Michael is not dumb by any means, but he does have a certain childlike love and innocence about him you wouldn't expect an ancient person to have — unlike Lucifer cynicism hasn't come with age.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: In a bit of irony, despite wearing blue Lucifer is the red oni in terms of personality, and Michael despite wearing red is the blue oni. Lucifer is the stubborn, loud, bombastic adventurer who goes out and starts trouble, whereas Michael is the concerned partner who asks questions before he commits to anything, and is more reasonable about his choices.
• Sibling Rivalry: While in heaven, Michael has a degree of envy towards his brother Lucifer, on account of the latter having so much talent. This is fairly typical, as far as normal family dynamics go, but then things take a turn for the worse as Lucifer slips into insanity and rebels against God's norms and traditions. When Michael meets Lucifer — now dubbed Satan — as the ruler of the demons, this sibling rivalry becomes toxic and murderous, as the two brothers try to kill each other. In the Bible, no such brotherly dynamic specifically existed, and it's unclear if angels have preferences for one angel over another. However, the rivalry between Michael and Satan at least has some Biblical basis, on account of the two fighting each other.
• Super Prototype: God envisioned what eventually became Michael and Lucifer as the next stage in evolution for angels. An angel, not only with greater power, but an angel that has a stronger independence and sense of free will, and a mind able to adapt and grow faster than previous angel models. The stardust used for this project was only intended to create one angel, but something inside the energy core mutated and Lucifer broke off and became a separate being. Michael is still exceptionally gifted, as God's experiment intended, but Lucifer's mutation allowed him to advance even further than Michael has in the same amount of time. It's kinda like if you built a computer meant to be a 2.0, but a separate computer fell out of that computer that became a 2.5. For God, this was an astounding curiosity.
• Sword over Head: A famous depiction of Michael shown in various paintings and statutes, is Michael standing over a defeated Satan, holding his sword over head ready to swing it down and slay Satan beneath him. This scene is nowhere in the Bible, and instead it's stated Satan simply fell out of heaven onto the Earth after Michael defeated him. In one of Jinx's one off drawings, she recreates this imagery with a stoic Michael standing over Lucifer, and the defeated angel is none too happy about it.
• Talent vs. Training: A trope that is discussed by Michael. Michael points out that every activity the angels find worthy of doing, Lucifer is able to pick up those skills extremely quickly and master them as if they were child's play. Even though Michael and Lucifer were both cut from the same cloth (in this case star dust), and Michael is a superior breed of angel like God intended, some kind of bizarre mutation made Lucifer better even than Michael was meant to be. Michael is understandably envious, but still works hard, because he wants to please God with further success. Lucifer by contrast has grown lazy, and just wastes his time on pranks, since he deems God's demands and activities to be boring, by and large.
• Undying Loyalty: To God. Michael has many of the same concerns over identity, purpose, and self-worth that Lucifer has, but he never uses them as an excuse to bad mouth his Father or to make light of the love he has for him. Whereas Lucifer sees the relationship between him and God as that of a creator and his toy, Michael sees it as the love between a father and a child, and acknowledges the good things God has done for him. As much as Michael loves his twin, the love he feels for God supersedes the love he feels for Lucifer. By the time of Devilman Lady, Michael jumps at the chance to face his twin, viewing Lucifer to be a cosmic threat to everything their Father holds dear.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: The story acknowledges that God comes and goes as he pleases, and sometimes his absence is for considerable periods of time. When he does return, God does check on the progress of the angels, but the angelic host has come to view God's visits as clinical and scientific, rather than the sense of wonder and love they used to have in the past. Lucifer is the only one with enough nerve to shove this fact in God's face, but Michael is also concerned by this problem. The big difference between Michael and Lucifer, is that Michael isn't willing to throw away his entire relationship with God over this issue, and is willing to make slow progress to fix those problems in the long term. Lucifer is essentially throwing the baby out with the bathwater in Michael's opinion, and Lucifer is quick to forget about all the genuine love that God has shown them in the past, and has the audacity to pretend none of it was real. God for his part, even looks offended that Lucifer saw no value in the time they spent together experimenting, when it clearly meant something to God.
• Winged Humanoid: A given on account of being an angel. How many wings certain angels are supposed to have is a matter of considerable debate in Christian lore. Seraphim are famous for 6 wings on their back. Michael and Lucifer are both seraphim in the Biblical tradition, and the Devilman manga canon reflects this by giving them 6 wings on their backs.
• Youthful Freckles: Other than the red robe Michael wears, the freckles are the easiest way to distinguish the difference between Michael and his twin Lucifer. The freckles also help to establish a certain subtle innocence about the angel that Lucifer lacks (mind you it helps that Michael actually smiles more). ^note And when Lucifer does smile, it's usually because he's having fun bullying someone

God

• Adaptational Abomination:
  • In Devilman God smothers the planet with his aura, but at no point is his body visible to the human eye. It's unclear if God is invisible because he is manifesting as a spirit being and his true form is incomprehensible to the human eye. Or if God's aura is literally so bright that the aura is blocking any view of his body. The only time God is shown with a discernible form is in a flashback to the ancient demon war, where the angels summoned him to slaughter the demon army. Here God takes the form of a "super angel" with golden armor, large wings, and he wields a sword (ironically making Michael an echo of him). In the web-comic, God has an alien form made out of shadowy energy, with no mouth, 3 eyes, and elf ears. Because God is a shape shifting spirit, some of the forms he takes ironically become as terrifying as any demon, and he uses these forms to show how angry he is.
  • In the Bible God is described as an eternal spirit, and no human has ever seen his true face. God was capable of manifesting in human form when he wished to speak to people, ^read God came into Abraham's camp in the form of a middle aged man to inform him that his wife Sarah would get pregnant with Issac. Insofar as you want to associate Jesus with God, then that body is a human form that God incarnated into. but most of the time God interacted with people as an invisible spirit that spoke to them. The one exception to this rule was when God appeared to Isaiah in a mesmerizing form. Isaiah sees a man with skin that glows like bronze, an aura as blinding as the sun radiates all around him, lightning sparks around him, and his body is consumed by a rainbow colored flame. Devilman in some ways might be underselling how horrifying God truly is. +
• Adaptational Badass:
  • The author has flat out said that she doesn't view Satan as capable of defeating God, in any scenario. The manga has had the character of Satan pay lip service to having directly challenged God, and either beaten him or at least made the idea of occupying Earth a costly procedure for him. Satan is a well known liar and a prideful asshole, even in Bible tradition, so this could be a case of Unreliable Narrator, where the fallen angel is white washing what happened to make himself feel better. What makes it more doubtful, is if God was really beaten by Satan, then why does God's mere presence shock Ryo (Satan's human incarnation) into quivering silence? Even Psycho Jenny expresses concern that the wounds Satan suffered from their last battle with God haven't fully recovered, though Satan refuses to acknowledge this as a problem.
  • The comic's version of God, depicts him as an otherworldly, horrifying mass of energy and bizarre shapes, that scares Satan easily into submission upon seeing him. When God actually fights Lucifer, the skirmish is over in seconds, and the angel is knocked out cold for a while. Contrast this with the prequel battle in the manga, where God took on an angelic form, and slaughtered an entire demon army with ease, but as soon as Satan appeared he had to put in more effort. The comic's logic would indicate that any fight between God and Lucifer is God playing with the latter, and that Satan has no hope of victory. It actually gets worse, once you factor in that Satan would have to beat Michael first before he could ever even confront God. And since Michael is more or less Satan's equal, he would be too tired to challenge God in any way by then.
• Ambiguously Evil: In canon, this is really the most logical determination you can make, given the evidence. God never speaks, nor does he have anyone speak on his behalf, so his motives and actions are questionable and mysterious at the best of times.
  • Satan claims God is merciless and cruel, yet Satan is hardly an unbiased source. He's a sore loser who lost the war against heaven, so he has every reason to paint God in a bad light. Satan is a twisted and evil person, with a poor understanding of goodness in general, so him being a good judge of character is laughable. Not to mention, Satan would likely downplay his own mistakes that led to the breakdown in his and God's relationship if he was asked about it. And worst of all, Satan fails to see that by his own moral standards, he is just as merciless and cruel as the God he resists.
  • In canon, God hates Satan and his army of demons, and wants to destroy them. You can make your arguments for Satan having some redeeming qualities, but asking God to sit by and wait for Satan to get his act together without delivering an asskicking, is like hoping that a terrorist will have a change of heart and not detonate the bomb. The demons by contrast are like 99 percent Always Chaotic Evil, reveling in the death and destruction they cause, beyond mere survival, and are hostile to their own ranks let alone the humans that God wants to protect. By any decent moral standards, God is in his rights to want to stop Satan and the demons. At worst, the most you can really say is that God should have acted sooner and kicked their asses before the apocalypse happened, but that comes down to whether or not you believe it's God's job to clean up every mess that gets made on Earth.
  • The author has stated that she doesn't view God as explicitly malicious or evil, but that he is a determined scientist who gets lost in his work and neglects his creations. Sometimes he does deal out harsh punishments, but he does it to get his creations to change their ways. And if they don't, God is not afraid to obliterate them to send a message to his other creations to not follow in that rebel's path. Samael's remark to Lucifer that he doesn't want to defy God's plan, because he might get obliterated for it, would suggest that God has probably done this to other angels before, and that Lucifer is not the first fallen angel.
• Animal Motifs:
  • In the Bible God is associated with doves. Doves are seen as symbols of peace, innocence, and purity.
  • In the Bible God is also associated with lions, and specifically the lion is characterized as a noble lion who uses his strength to protect the weak and the innocent. The Hebrews/Jews were fond of the lion imagery as a symbol of God protecting their nation, and Jesus is even compared to a lion on a few occasions.
  • In the Bible God is associated with the lamb, a symbol of docile innocence and purity that is guilty of no wrong doing. The Jews often sacrificed lambs, as a symbolic gesture blotting out their sins by transferring them to the flesh of the slaughtered lamb. God's Son Jesus is held up as a lamb, symbolically, due to him dying for humanity's sins.
• Awesomeness Is Volatile: In the Bible it's said that no man can directly look at the face of God, because it would either drive them insane or kill them on the spot. The few times God is depicted with a humanoid form, his body is surrounded by blinding light and a flaming aura. There are exceptions, where God used his power to protect the human who witnessed him, but even with this protection the witnesses are dumbstruck at what they see. While the comic gives no indication, God's presence would kill a mortal, his bizarre and otherworldly forms would no doubt shatter their fragile minds.
• Badass Boast: The Bible has plenty, arguably more than can be listed here. In the comic, God praises Lucifer for being special in a few key ways, which warms the heart of the angel. But Lucifer asks God what is special about him? And God responds "Everything!" Arguably, it's not arrogance if you're just stating the truth.
• Because Destiny Says So: Christians accept that God has a grand design for everyone, and even if our individual lives can be ruined by our choices, nothing can upset or reverse God's big picture plans if he doesn't want it to. How much control God has over our choices and our ultimate fate, is a matter of considerable theological debate. In the comic Lucifer drives himself crazy, pondering over these questions of fate vs free will.
• Big Good: How several world religions view him. The author has stated that while God is not "morally perfect" in her perception of the character, she generally sees him as a force for good who means well and wants to promote the advancement of life in the universe. It's just that his instincts as a father are not as well honed as his instincts as a scientist, and many of his creations suffered emotionally for it. Being a bad dad, doesn't make you a bad person necessarily.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Of a sort. God doesn't see anything wrong with exploring the capabilities of his creation's power and intellect, and running tests with them until all meaningful results have been exhausted. God fails to see the emotional distress that he causes the angels when he disappears from their lives, onward to the next experiment, and then popping back into their lives to impress them with the big new invention he created. The author has even stated that even though God is capable of love and compassion, his sense of those emotions is muted compared to how his creations feel it, so this is why he rarely smiles or laughs.
• Deus ex Machina: A common trope attributed to God, that he will step in to save the worthy from an impossible situation when they need it most. In the Devilman canon, God saved human civilization from being wiped out by a nuclear war, and killed millions of demons in the process. A good two for one.
• Divine Intervention: Downplayed. It's implied that in the past God intervened on a regular basis, but eventually he grew bored of solving everyone's problems so directly. God doesn't view it as a "this is a waste of my time" issue, but rather that he's limiting the ability of his creations to evolve into divergent paths, and that ability will be snuffed out if he just gives them the "correct answer" every time.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: In the Bible it explicitly says that God shall not be mocked, implying that people's sins will catch up to them eventually, even if they do them openly in defiance of God. It also says not to tempt God with a challenge. Lucifer does not heed this logical piece of advice, and learns what it is like to fuck around and find out with a deity.
• The Dreaded: Oh definitely. In the Bible, the demons are terrified of God, and in one notable instance thousands of demons spoke to Jesus and begged for mercy. In Devilman canon, the presence of God on the Earth sent all demons on Earth into a panic, and even Satan became a trembling mess, falling into a fetal position. They clearly have PTSD from the asskicking God gave them. In the comic, even though Lucifer talks back to God a lot like a smug brat, when God actually lays down the law and expresses his power in any way, Lucifer quickly shuts up and cowers in fear. The big mistake Lucifer kept making was pushing the boundaries, rather than listening to that fear. The Bible says that fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, so it looks like Lucifer was a slow learner in that regard.
• Eldritch Abomination:
  • How God looks even in his default appearance. When God goes for the truly esoteric designs, he looks like something out of Cthulu’s nightmares. God’s true form isn’t really comprehensible to the eyes of angels or humans, so what form he takes is really a matter of preference. If God has a nightmare form, it’s usually because he’s angry in some way.
  • In the Bible God has a humanoid form that has glowing bronze skin, he has fearsome white eyes, burning white hair, he has a flaming aura, he has a rainbow aura, there is a powerful radiance that shines as bright as the sun, and he has lightning burst around him. Oh and his voice is as loud as a raging river. Yeah, that totally wouldn't intimidate anyone. Also, if you're as amused as us that the "true form of God" looks like an Asura's Wrath character, then join the club.
• Failure Is the Only Option: The more cynical take on God's relationship to his creations. No matter how much he wants us to improve, we're always going to fall short of his standards. This is true both in the theological sense, and a big problem God is struggling with in the comic's lore.
• Friend to All Living Things: God loves all creatures, even the ones of lower intelligence like deer and other small animals. Lucifer finds them boring, and zaps a deer to death just to illustrate how worthless they are on account of being weak. God is amused by Lucifer's perspective, and wishes that he could see the value in them like he does.
• God Is Displeased: A common worry every being feels with God, arguably even regardless of your personal religion. In the comic's story, Lucifer and the other angels drive themselves mad with worry over how to please God, especially since he's vague with his answers as to how to please them precisely. The most direct evidence of things that cause God to be displeased is learned by Lucifer, when he learns that being a jackass and defying him is not good for your physical health, because God will bring out his belt and punish you severely.
• God Is Flawed: God has a sense of justice and is generally fair and kind to the cosmos at large, but he’s not really an emotive or sensitive person. God takes a hands off approach to his creations, and lets them get into mischief, only stopping to intervene when things get really bad. God doesn’t do cruel things just to be petty, but to set an example for other angels to follow, and it’s shown that punishing Lucifer was an emotionally taxing action for him, since Lucifer was his favorite.
• God Is Good: God is generally held up as the ideal standard for morality. The author does acknowledge God has flaws, but is ultimately more of a force for good and wants what he thinks is best for the universe.
• Good Is Not Nice: Just because God has a desire to do good, doesn't mean his standards of justice are always nice. God is willing to use harsh punishments, if it will accomplish what he considers to be a greater social good for the cosmos.
• Good Is Not Soft: God's actions in the Bible, as well as his actions in canon would certainly indicate that if God is ultimately a force for good, he is swift and harsh in his punishment. In some ways, it might even be less that God does this out of any deep seated malicious intent, but rather that he uses an iron fist to crush evil to make the problem go away as fast as possible.
• Green-Eyed Monster: God is very protective and interested in his creations. The Bible states that God is very jealous about keeping his chosen people on the right path by his side.
• Holy Is Not Safe: In classic tradition, it's accepted by Christian theology that God's holy nature purifies evil and that being in his presence with sin in your heart can be deadly for you. In the canon, God simply flexing his aura caused millions of demons and thousands of humans to dissolve into ash piles, and it's unclear if that was intentional on his part or if it was a result of his holy nature.
• Imagination Based Super Power: Comes with the territory of creating an entire universe and being omnipotent. God spoke things into existence, crafted their energy and morphed them into shapes that pleased him, and the rest really is history.
• In Mysterious Ways: The common argument people use when we suffer, and there's no clear answer as to why God would allow this. In the context of the Devilman universe, if God does have a bigger picture for the Earth, Satan, the whole nine yards, he's rather tight lipped about telling anyone what it is.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: God is generally understood to be so good that he would always resist the temptation to sin 100 percent of the time. And it's not even an argument of God would simply change the definition of sin if he ever broke the rule, but rather that God is literally incapable of acting contrary to his own nature. So if God were hypothetically infinitely good, he could never act contrary to his own nature and do things that are bad.
• I Have Many Names: El Shaddai, Yahweh, Jehovah, Tetragrammaton, God. Take your pick. If you want to be generous, Devilman's perception of God has probably been worshiped by countless religions. As far as the demons and angels are concerned though, they don't have a specific name for the deity and simply call him God.
• Light 'em Up: God has amazing light based powers. Even in the Bible God is described as having auras that shine brighter than the sun, and are supposed to be lethal for humans to look at. In the manga, simply a tiny fraction of this light killed millions of demons in an instant, and turned humans into ash piles.
• Might Makes Right: God exists as the logical answer to the Social Darwinist mindset the demons and Satan live by. Their morals standards dictate that power controls destiny, correct? Regardless of how good or bad you view God to be, his power renders him totally self-sufficient, and he is subservient to no one. By that logic, what he deems to be right IS right by virtue of no one being able to challenge him. If the demons don't like it, tough shit. Their hatred of God in some ways could be viewed as envy over God's existence as an apex predator. In the Devilman canon, a tragic reality that Akira faces is that as much as he values justice, how can he enforce that justice without power? If justice requires power to enforce it, then by that logic God's justice is supreme, because who is stronger than God?
• My Greatest Failure:
  • In Christian tradition, God views the fall of mankind as his greatest failure. There's actually a passage in Genesis, where God briefly regretted that he had even bothered creating mankind in the first place, due to how sinful they had become. According to the Bible, creating the plan of salvation was God's way of fixing that failure.
  • In the comic lore, God views Lucifer's fall from grace as his greatest failure. God comes to understand that his clinical, scientific approach to his creations was not enough to satisfy an emotional need that was core to their very beings. God learned from experience what happens when he's not more active in the lives of the sentient beings he's created. The author has said it's a perfectly valid view in the context of her comic, that various world religions were probably set up and inspired by God, to encourage a more direct relationship with humanity, in order to avoid a repeat of what happened with Lucifer. Christianity might very well be one of those religions in practice.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: When God is ready for a punishment, he doesn't monologue, he doesn't laugh, he doesn't ponder. He acts. This sets him apart from the loud and boisterous demons across the franchise who like to monologue and cackle at Akira, but when God wanted his presence to be known he went above and beyond, and he did it quickly and decisively.
• The Omnipotent:
  • In Christian tradition God is considered to be all-powerful, with no meaningful limit as to what he can accomplish. Creating the universe as a whole is often side stepped when talking about power scaling, even though this should logically leave God untouchable for most practical reasons, just by the implication of how much energy would be needed to create something that massive. But everyone loves a good power scaling discussion, don't they? It's a fun way of expressing "My dad would beat up your dad!" But when your dad is God, that's probably very unlikely.
  • The comic author has stated that even if God is not omnipotent in the absolute sense, he's still functionally omnipotent in practice. Saying "God is a thousand times stronger than Lucifer" is essentially the same as saying he's omnipotent, for most practical purposes, and it makes God an impossible standard for Lucifer to ever defeat in one on one combat.
• The Omni Present:
  • In Christian tradition God is considered to have an all seeing eye and an all hearing ear. He can be all places at one, at the same time, and is not surprised by anything. God is certainly perceptive, even if that viewpoint is not necessarily infinite in scope, because in many stories God witnesses things he was not physically present for.
  • The comic author has downplayed this ability significantly, so that God can still be surprised by things. Plus the angst over God being absent would be a moot point if God could be in other places in the universe, and also be in heaven at the same time. The author has mused that perhaps if God actively focuses hard enough he can see just about anywhere in the universe, but it's not a passive ability he has active at all times.
• Orcus on His Throne: Despite all the hype Devilman fans give you, over how God is the "real villain" of the franchise, God is a largely off screen character. He makes exactly one appearance in the whole manga, and that's to stop a nuclear war that would have wiped out human civilization. It can be inferred that God likely showed up with the angelic host that came to wipe out the Earth and/or arrest Satan, but his aura is not specifically seen in the background. It's also difficult to ascertain the personality and motives of a character that doesn't speak, so we're left with the speculation of characters below him to get some idea of what he's like. And if that speculation comes from Satan, you're hearing it from a biased and misguided source anyway.
  • By contrast, the author has stated that she wants God to be a more active character in her comic, and already in 3 chapters God has spoken more lines than he has in 50 years of canon. Though, the author has said it won't be until the later chapters that you learn the darker secrets of what motivates God, so he'll still be a largely off screen character.
• Our Gods Are Different: In the Christian tradition, God is an intangible and invisible spirit who existed outside the visible universe and yet was able to act upon it and create things inside of it. God has taken on physical appearances to suit the preferences of human eyes, who need something to talk to, but God at his core is a spirit far above what human senses can perceive. The Devilman canon likely settled for a bright cosmic aura, because Nagai probably couldn't figure out a design fitting enough to capture the imagination for a character as important as God. The comic's depiction of God gives him an otherworldly, arguably freaky design, and at times he seems more like an energy or a force of nature than a being with a physical body. Which does capture the general idea of God being above human perception while also giving us something to look at.
• The Patriarch: In Christian tradition, God is seen as the Father of all beings on account of being the Creator. This is a relationship that transcends DNA, because God manufactured your soul, which is far more personal and intimate than even DNA can be. In the comic, the angels obviously have a similar mindset as they all view God as the ultimate authority figure in their life and they look to him for wisdom and guidance.
• Power Glows: Oh definitely. And if you thought the light surrounding Lucifer was bright, God is like a fireworks display to Lucifer's candle. Despite his shadowy appearance, God glows like a neon light times a million when he wants his presence to be known. This is consistent with canon too, where God with a mere flex of his power stopped a nuclear war by smothering a huge portion of the planet with his aura. That same aura was only matched in size by Akira and Satan flexing their powers together, whereas God reached that size individually.
• Secret Test of Character: In the Bible God was fairly fond of these. In the comic's logic, God is also fairly fond of these because he believes that it's more interesting if his creations find out the truth for themselves rather than him giving them the answers. And as someone who values the diversity that independence brings, if he can't observe how one of his children reacts to the situation differently from another, then he'll never have a good judge of character for which of his children need the most work done on them.
• There Can Only Be One: In the Bible God is pretty explicit about how he's the only God, and at best the only God worth worshiping. God would ideally like to be the master of everyone's heart, but he allows free will to guide mortals and spirits alike down the path they see fit. In the manga, Amon mocks Satan for viewing himself as a valid replacement for God as the singular guiding force for good in the cosmos, when Amon believes both of them suck and there ideally should be no guiding force whatsoever — people should be free to choose their own path.
• Unbuilt Trope:
• The Unseen: In the manga, God does not have an explicit physical appearance of any kind. The most we see of him is a gigantic aura of white and gold light that smothers the Earth with its girth. The comic averts this by giving God an explicit appearance, where he is a purple/blackish, shadowy humanoid with yellow eyes and elf ears. It's certainly an exotic appearance, and it beats the hell out of the generic old man with a white beard Devil Knight went for.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Great attention and effort is made by the artist to showcase that God is capable of this. She envisions God as a primordial, shapeless spirit who can freely take on any form he desires, and often shifts between various shapes simply because he feels like it.

Amon

• The Ace:
  • In Devilman canon Amon is repeatedly referred to as the Champion of all demons. On numerous occasions demons pause in awe of Amon once they realize that Akira resembles him (not immediately realizing Akira is in control), and Akira fighting them causes them to react with shock at the idea that their Champion would ever kill them. The majority of interactions with demons have them showing respect to their champion, but some rare cases have demons view killing the champion as a quick opportunity at gaining fame.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: To put it bluntly, Amon's color and appearance deviates wildly across adaptions. In the 1972 anime Amon was blue. In the manga, and the OVA, Akira becomes a grey/brown hybrid color thanks to Amon's influence. In the Amon manga, Amon's demon form is almost totally black and has sharp reptile scales all over his body. Akira's Devilman form is completely identical to Amon's in the Amon manga. In the Amon OVA, Amon has thick, wild fur that is a mixture of red and black (but is mostly red). By contrast Akira's appearance is a faded purple (almost appearing grey) in the Amon OVA, despite his form being derived from Amon's power. In Crybaby, Akira has blue fur all over his torso, but has thick black fur going down from his groin to his feet. Concept art showed that Akira having red fur was considered. Despite the various options, the comic settled for the Amon OVA appearance, where Amon's fur is black and red.
• Animal Motif: Amon has several:
  • Amon's thick furry form and his muscular build echoes the appearance of a werewolf. Common conceptions of a werewolves as these brutal monsters that tear their victims apart and eat them is very much in line with Amon. Though sometimes wolves are seen as noble animals, and Amon is not without his moments of nobility. Devil Knight flat out reveals that a werewolf demon is one of the component forms that contributed to Amon's shape. ^note  Devil Knight is a messy story that is hard to reconcile with the rest of the franchise's canon, so take this with a grain of salt.
  • Amon is sometimes seen with harsh boney scales all over his body, echoing the appearance of a dragon. Dragons as monsters of overwhelming, destructive might that can consume entire armies and eat the innocent is not far off from what Amon is. Devil Knight reveals that a dragon demon was one of the component forms that contributed to Amon's shape.
  • Amon's appearance is vaguely based off of a bat, and this motif is most pronounced in the wings. Bats are commonly seen as predators of the night, who swoop in from above to suck the blood out of unsuspecting victims. Amon fits the model of this to a T.
  • In the comic Amon is based off a predator feline, like a lion or a tiger. Amon is certainly capable of the ferocity predator felines show in the wild, and much more brutality if necessary. However in a more mundane sense, Amon also shows the dorky, snobbish behavior that house cats typically showcase to humans. Not to mention the fierce independence that cats are known for.
• Anthropomorphic Transformation: Various flashbacks to the ancient era show Amon looking largely the same as Akira's Devilman appearance, a humanoid demon with a muscular build and bright colors on his skin/fur. The Amon manga even showed that Amon could assume a human form. ^note  this was millions of years before Akira was born, so the human form couldn't have possibly been influenced by Akira By contrast, the comic shows Amon as a bizarre tiger-bat hybrid with nothing vaguely hinting at a humanoid appearance. The author has stated that Amon's form from the OVA will be Amon's eventual transformation, but before he gets to that point she wanted to show Amon in a more primitive state of being first. While the individual art pieces are only loosely based on the comic's continuity, the author has drawn Amon in his Amon OVA form, showing that there will be a theme of Amon growing stronger and evolving his appearance to match that new power.
• Anti-Hero: Most adaptions of Amon avoid depicting the demon as outright evil or needlessly brutal. If you leave Amon alone then he won't fuck with you. A handful of adaptions do deviate from this and show a more cruel and sadistic Amon, but this is not the mainstream perspective. Likewise there are versions where Amon becomes a full blown hero who wants to save people (most famously the 1972 anime). The author has stated she wants to depict Amon as a selfish jerk, who is insensitive towards the feelings of others, and is very single minded about serving his own goals. Outside of being a jerk, Amon won't kill you if you don't start shit with him first.
• Bat Out of Hell: Amon's appearance echoes the furry visage of a bat, and the wings on his head and on his back are very bat like in nature. Any stereotypes of bats as a predatory creature of darkness are well deserved when aligned with Amon's personality.
• Bat People: What Amon's canon appearance looks like. In the comic Amon starts out as a bizarre feline demon, but eventually evolves into his more tall, imposing bipedal form.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: In canon Amon is a bare fist bruiser. Assuming his foe can withstand his punches long enough to still have a body left, they will see more of Amon's hands than they ever wished to see. In the comic he starts out as a cat demon on all fours, so he can only slash things with his claws currently. But when Amon evolves, he comes to fit this archetype more closely.
• The Berserker: This is Amon's bread and butter in a fight. If you dare to fuck with him and make him your enemy, don't expect your corpse to have an open casket funeral. Amon is fond of rushing into combat, hitting his foe as hard and as fast as he can, and ripping them limb from limb if he can get a hold of them. This fighting style is so intrinsic to Amon that it bleeds over into Akira when he becomes Devilman. The comic does a good job of portraying Amon's brutality, in one instance ripping a cat demon's guts out.
• Big Red Devil: Amon has bright red fur, black horns on his head, and head wings shaped like a bat's. Fitting for a demon that would come to be known as the champion of demons. Amon fits the stereotype of Satan's demonic visage more than Satan himself does. Mind you the demonic stereotype for Satan is a misconception that caught on, but it's still amusing that if Lucifer stood next to Amon people would be confusing Amon for Satan, rather than the corrupted angel of light who actually IS Satan.
• Blood Knight: Common practice for demons. Amon is shown to have exceptional thrill and exhilration during the middle of intense fights, even when it gets serious Amon keeps pressing on. Amon is capable of showing fear/anxiety during a fight, but one notable thing about him is that he refuses to run away even when he's losing (which is rare for him anyway). The comic Amon differs from the canon Amon, in that while he is no coward, he knows when to make a strategic retreat and plan for the next fight when he's recovered enough to win that war.
• Bring It: In the comic Amon says this word for word when he fights the cat demon Xenon sent to hunt him down. Making this more notable the cat demon turns into an eldritch abomination right out of The Thing, and Amon is not even slightly intimidated. This personality trait is not drastically different from the canon Amon, because Amon has been known to insult his foes during a fight. In the Amon manga Amon even insulted Satan in the middle of their fight, showing that he's not above smack talk.
• Color Motif: Amon has two:
  • Amon's fur is partially black. While there are some positive interpretations of black, it's usually associated with corruption, death, and fear. Amon is certainly a harbinger of death, who invokes fear in his enemies and delivers swift painful death. Even in versions of Amon (or Akira for that matter) where he expresses some goodness, his visage rightfully symbolizes a brutality and darkness contained deep inside — he will always be a monster capable of great destruction.
  • Amon's fur is also partially red. Red has positive interpretations, such as passion, life, love and courage. Some versions of Amon come to embody those interpretations. But red can also embody violence, anger, and self-destructive ambition. Amon's character does match some aspects of the negative interpretations for red.
• Crash-Into Hello: In the comic Amon is extremely weak from days of fighting off his pursuers and struggling with hunger, so he doesn't have the strength to fly. After healing some of his wounds (but still having depleted stamina) Amon flies briefly in pursuit of Psycho Jenny and is unfortunate enough to run into Xenon soon after. Amon tries to do a flying maneuver to evade Xenon's attack, but he's interrupted by Lucifer's crash landing on Earth. Not only does Lucifer crash into Amon at high speed, but the rebound from that impact causes him to fly face first into Xenon. It's almost like God was sending a message that they should stop fighting or something...
• Demonic Possession: All demons are capable of this if their organic body is killed. Their spirit form can merge with someone else's body (typically human) and take them over. The irony of Amon's situation is that when he tries to possess Akira, the boy ends up performing a reverse possession and trapping Amon's soul inside his human body. For obvious reasons Amon holds a great deal of resentment towards Akira for this — and even greater hatred for Satan who orchestrated this in the first place.
• Energy Ball: In canon Amon has the power to fire energy beams out of his hands. In the Amon OVA he uses energy beams to devastating effect on Akira, allowing Amon to win the first round of their fight. In the comic's continuity, Amon is shown to have fire manipulation powers and can blast them out of his hand. On an elemental level this makes him a fun contrast to Lucifer's lightning manipulation.
• Flight: An obvious ability given his wings. In canon Amon does a good mix of ground and air combat, with him being very adept at both. In the comic Amon is weak from days of fighting off pursuers, and managing his hunger, so he avoids flying to converse his stamina. Presumably under healthy conditions the comic Amon would be very adept at flying as well.
• Flying Brick: If Amon isn't crashing into you at high speed on land, then he's probably flying in your direction like a meteor. Several fights in the franchise have shown Akira and Amon use their speed in the air to devastating effect, once their fights get airborne.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Natural for a primal, tiger esque demon, but Amon is naked all the same. Even when Amon evolves from quadpedal to bipedal he still doesn't wear clothes, on account of demons having no concept of shame over their nudity. Helping matters is that his crotch fur is so thick you wouldn't be able to see his penis at a glance anyway. Akira also benefitted from this form of natural censorship in canon.
• Fusion Dance: All demons are capable of doing this. If a demon defeats another demon than he can absorb his bio-mass and attain the powers of that demon. In some instances the fusion can cause the original demon to mutate into a different form. Canon is very wishy washy on what causes a demon's appearance to alter rather than a demon simply getting a power upgrade. Notably Akira consumed Jinmen in one story but he did not become a turtle demon. So what gives? The author has stated that she intends the fusion dance trope to be an explanation for how the primitive cat Amon would evolve into the apex predator Amon seen in canon.
• Good Is Not Soft: Even in the nicest interpretations of Amon, he is a rather grumpy figure who complains about having to help people before finally giving in and doing the right thing. Beyond that, Amon is also still a brutal and formidable fighter who will take no prisoners. If Amon is a nice guy to other people, that doesn't mean he'll be nice to his foes. Amon is definitely the type to rip your arm off, beat you to death with it, and then go home and watch TV with his friends and sleep like a baby.
• Growing Wings: In canon Satan, Akira and Amon are all able summon their wings at will, and to put them away as well. In the comic Amon has yet to evolve this power, with his wings being active at all times.
• Has a Type: If a woman is strong willed and determined then she has Amon's attention. It's even better if she can fight. Sirene is the most famous example of Amon's love interests, and she matches that archetype to a T. The 1972 anime and Grimoire depict Amon falling in love with Miki (who admittedly is strong willed), though that had more to do with Akira's human heart impacting Amon's will. Shin Devilman shows that Amon once had a relationship with Nike, who was a goddess of war and victory in Greek mythology.
• Healing Factor: All demons have a degree of regeneration ability. Amon's regeneration is potent enough that even when Akira lost limbs, he was able to regrow them. Something shown in Crybaby is that a demon can absorb the biomass of another demon to speed up their regeneration, something Akira does during his fight with Satan. The comic follows this logic, showing that Amon eating Xenon's minions healed his exterior wounds quickly. Making this a somewhat grounded ability is that just because this healed Amon's external injuries, doesn't mean it restored 100 percent of his stamina. Amon grabs Lucifer's unconscious body during his escape from Xenon's clutches, hoping to restore himself at a later time, but then he passes out from exhaustion. Regeneration has its limits without sleep or food.
• Horns of Villainy: Fitting for a demon Amon has fairly prominent black horns on his head. They're not as noticeable as his head wings, so they tend to get overshadowed. Even when Amon ventures off into the "nice guy" (for a given value of nice) territory, he looks like a typical evil demon on the outside.
• Kamehame Hadoken: Amon in canon has been shown to charge up massive concentrations of energy and shoot them at his enemies. Most notably he uses this against Satan (understandable against such a powerful opponent). Amon in the comic has not yet shown advanced energy manipulation.
• Made of Iron: Amon as the champion of all demons is extremely durable. In canon he's taken on small armies, and picked fights with multiple demon lords at the same time and shrugged off their attacks. Notably he's been shown receiving bloody wounds and just continuing to pummel his foes as if those wounds were just scratches. Most notably Amon has fought Satan (a uniquely powerful angel) and Hades (a literal god) and not only put up a good fight, but survived both of those fights without serious injuries. The author has stated that she envisions Amon to be part of a class of warrior type demons who can deal out more punishment than the average demon, but there are limits to how much punishment they can take.
• Meaningful Name: In Egyptian mythology there was a god named Amun (sometimes localized as Amon or Ammon), who was the king of the gods. Amun was notable for two things. He was a very powerful warrior who was virtually without equal. And Amun was seen as the standard bearer for what was good and proper in Egyptian culture, and was even held up as a paragon for what other gods ought to act like. Amon in Devilman is considered a uniquely gifted demon, capable of feats of immense strength and combat prowess, and is held up as a standard of nobilty among demons — hence why he's called the champion of demons. The name Amon also means "hidden one" which is appropriate for Amon, since he spends the majority of the story hidden inside Akira's body.
• Noble Demon: The Amon manga depicts Amon in a fairly flattering light. He's shown to be a loner and a drifter who keeps to himself, and tries to avoid unnecessary fights if possible. Amon has the decency to warn people to back off before committing to a fight, but you can tell he enjoys the carnage once it begins. Amon expresses boredom at people's personal problems, but still bothers to listen in his own mild mannered way. When tasked with leadership Amon rejects praise or worship of his power, and never acts like he's worthy of obeying just because he's strong. Amon encourages demons to live their own independent lives and seek out their own meaning, which is why he views Satan with contempt, because the fallen angel views himself as the destined ruler of demon kind.
• One-Man Army: Amon is capable of taking on small armies of demons by himself if necessary. This power is expressed pretty well by Akira's use of his power. In the original manga Akira was winning a one sided slaughter of thousands of demons, and the only reason he lost is because Pyscho Jenny intervened. In Devilman Lady Akira fights 3 demon lords (including Sirene) ^note  keep in mind that Sirene had been feasting on the souls of thousands of humans and demons alike, and had fused with Kaim, so she was very strong at this point , and an army of minions while in hell. Sirene claims Akira is Amon's equal, and points out his power is impressive. The author has stated the primitive Amon seen in the comic is not quite the champion of demons just yet, but he will grow stronger over time.
• Playing with Fire: Amon has an affinity for fire magic. While Amon primarily relies on his fists in canon, he has been seen using fire magic on occasion. In the comic's continuity Amon is seen using fire in some of the author's drawings.
• Psychic Powers: An understated ability of Amon's, but there are occasions where he uses this ability in canon. Even Akira has it to a degree, because he's able to sense the presense of Sirene and her minions from afar before they begin their ambush. Psychic beams of energy have been shown in a handful of adaptions as well, but Amon is never depicted as the primere psychic demon in the same way someone like Psycho Jenny is. The comic so far has not hinted at Amon having anything in the way of psychic powers.
• Self-Serving Memory: When Amon calls a cease fire against Lucifer (in part due to his injuries from Psycho Jenny), he cites the fact that Lucifer sliced off his left arm as one reason why Lucifer HAS to obey Amon's orders; that is if the angel is concerned about fair play. This is ignoring the fact that Lucifer only cut off Amon's arm because the demon was trying to kill him, and that Amon committed the equally horrible crime of ripping off Lucifer's wings and eating them (which regenerated his lost arm anyway). This gives the reader a strong indication of how self-involved and arrogant Amon is.
• Sizeshifter: In canon Amon can grow larger, even to the size of skyscrapers if necessary. The comic has not commented on demons changing size just yet.
• Stationary Wings: Similar to Satan, Amon is rarely shown actually flapping his wings to initiate flight or to maintain it. The wings at the very least are shown to be razor sharp, so there is some utility in keeping them out for offensive purposes, even if they aren't necessary for flight.
• Super-Strength: Natural for a demon, but Amon is depicted on the upper echelon of strength for a demon. The most notable example of Amon's strength was during the Amon OVA, where he casually threw a train through a skyscraper: an object that weighs many thousands of tons. And he didn't just throw it, but he threw it at high speed. No upper limit for Amon's strength has been set for the comic continuity yet.
• Slasher Smile: Amon is fond of a good fight, and is prone to smiling once the carnage starts.

Xenon

• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Xenon in the source material is a considerate boss to the demons. He's seen discussing battle plans with demons before sending them off on their mission. Xenon warns his subordinates about the danger involved with fighting Devilman, and makes sure the demon is confident in their own abilities before assigning the task to them. When Sirene is losing the fight to Akira, Sirene begs Xenon for backup and he answers her request with backup. ^note  In the original manga Sirene specifically calls out to Xenon for aid, and even speaks in a demonic language to gain his favor; with what presumably is a prayer. In the OVA and Crybaby, Sirene calls to Satan for aid instead. Xenon gets upset with Satan in the finale, pointing out that Satan's misguided love for Akira caused the death of many high value demons, which puts their plans in jeopardy. The only hint we've ever gotten that Xenon is casual about the death of his subordinates is in the Toei anime and the Grimoire manga, where he is seen killing his own subordinates.
  • In the comic Xenon throws his minions into danger with little regard for their power or confidence necessary to complete the task, and tells them to shut up and keep their whining to themselves any time they make complaints (even if those complaints are valid). The only thing that keeps Xenon somewhat in line with his original counterpart, is that killing a minion is not his first resort when he's disappointed with them. If a minion shows fear or complains about a task, he just tells them to get back to work. And sending in backup like he did for Sirene in canon? As if. Some of you may die, but that is a risk Xenon is willing to take!
• Adaptational Ugliness: Not that Xenon was ever a lady killer in the looks department, but once you got over his unsettling appearance, and his rather disturbing multi-headed form, he looked vaguely similar to Amon (who admittedly is one of the cooler looking demons). Here Xenon's main head is more monstrous looking and doesn't even look vaguely human, and his extra heads are straight up animals. The torso face draws design inspiration from the Crybaby Xenon, having only a mouth with sharp teeth. In addition, Xenon lacks hands in this form, and only has sharp bone talons at the end of his wings that he uses to slash and impale things with. Presumably, Xenon is at an inferior stage of development, and is set to evolve into the form he has in canon.
• Adaptational Villainy: Not that Xenon was a nice guy in the source material, but the comic adds an extra layer of savagery to his character that was not present in canon. During the primordial era there were demons of grand size who ruled the world. But even though they ruled the world, these giant demons largely kept to themselves, only issuing some rules of conduct here and there to encourage less violence. Xenon formed a grand army, reasoning that a horde of smaller demons could overcome the overwhelming might of these demon lords — he was right. Xenon's cruelty comes not from overthrowing these demons, but from the fact he purged his ranks of people who know what the before times were like. Any demon that could point to a time when things were better than Xenon's rule, or might be strong enough to hurt Xenon's power were purged until he felt comfortable on his throne. In canon Xenon was disgusted by the idea of powerful demons getting killed, and encouraged demons to grow stronger. Not to mention, Xenon was comfortable being subordinate to Satan and did not seek to overthrow him.
• Adaptational Wimp: Xenon in the source material was second only in power to Satan himself. In Devilman Lady he was capable of single handily converting millions of humans into demons with a corruption wave. Soon after humanity fires dozens of nuclear missiles at his position, and Xenon causes them to dissolve as soon as they hit his barrier. In the comic, Xenon is powerful but he's essentially just a demon of the week tier villain with a few magical tricks up his sleeve. A far cry from the demi-god he effectively is in the manga.
• Animal Motifs: Xenon has several.
  • In canon Xenon is covered in very thick fur from head to toe, echoing the appearance of a werewolf. His horns are thick like a goat's, referencing the age old stereotype of Satan having a demonic goat form. He has enormous bat wings, giving him the vibe of a vampire bat/night predator. In Devilman Lady Xenon has a super form where he discards the other heads, and turns into a singular giant bat monster, looking even less human than he was before.
  • Whether it's intentional or not, Xenon is essentially a demonic version of a Cherub. Cherubs were angels with a primary human head, but had multiple heads on their shoulder and back that were various animals (typically a lion or a bird). Could Xenon be a demonic answer to a Cherub, or is it just a coincidence?
  • In Violence Jack Satan unlocks Xenon's true power (merging with his own to achieve this) and Xenon transforms into a 7 headed dragon. Anyone who has read Revelation realizes that Satan had a 7 headed dragon form, making this a Bible reference.
  • In the comic Xenon is more blatantly animal like, and drops any vague pretense of humanoid form he had in canon. Xenon's main face looks vaguely like a bull, but with sharp teeth. To match Xenon has hooves and bull horns to match this new aesthetic. Like the original Amon he has huge bat wings, but instead of hands he has sharp bone talons at the end of each wing. The faces on each head are no longer human shaped but are now a wolf and a vulture. Fitting that a savage monster like Xenon would have a bird of prey and an apex land predator as his supporters.
• Bad Boss: In the source material not so much. The worst we have ever seen of Xenon is in the 1972 Toei anime and in Grimoire, where he is shown willing to kill subordinates for disappointing him. But in the majority of the adaptions Xenon is a fair ruler to demons, and even puts up with insubordination from time to time. In the comic Xenon refuses to listen to the worries of his minions, and treats them like cannon fodder to weaken Amon so he can swoop in and finish Amon off. While Xenon is not fond of killing demon minions if he doesn't have to, he does threaten to kill them if the mood suits him — even someone as valuable as Pyscho Jenny.
• Bat Out of Hell: In canon Xenon has a more pronounced bat monster appearance. In the comic this design motif is less pronounced.
• Bat People: In canon Xenon looks decently similar to Amon, with the most notable difference being the three heads on his shoulders. The comic downplays this similarity pretty heavily.
• Big Bad: In canon Xenon serves the role of The Dragon to Satan, orchestrating the war against humanity on Satan's orders. The comic takes place before Satan took command over demon kind, so Xenon actually does serve the role of head villain in the comic's continuity. The primary focus for a good portion of the story is Satan and Amon teaming up in order to overthrow Xenon's corrupt regime.
• The Dragon: In canon Xenon plays this role to Satan. When Satan isn't around ^note such as when Satan was asleep inside Ryo Xenon is the active commander of demon affairs, and he's doing the heavy duty lifting involved in organizing demons to fight, and motivating them to rally around a common cause. Despite any misgivings Xenon has with Satan, it quickly becomes apparent Satan is uniquely powerful and that's the one thing that stops Xenon from being a proper head villain. Satan is the Big Bad because no demon is strong enough to threaten his rule. Since the comic takes place long before Satan took command of the demons, Xenon gets to act as a proper Big Bad in the plot of this story.
• Dragon Ascendant: Xenon only gets to be the Big Bad in the adaptions where Satan is not the focus of the story, or is otherwise absent entirely. In the ancient past Xenon was effectively a dragon to the demon lords of primordial Earth. He schemed against them successfully and ascended to the status of Big Bad some time prior to Lucifer's arrival on Earth.
• Dragon with an Agenda: The majority of adaptions show Xenon as fiercely loyal to Satan, sticking with the fallen angel even after criticizing his emotional weaknesses. The only exception is Crybaby where he tried to assassinate Satan (and failed horribly), so this trope is usually not in his character. In the ancient past of the comic continuity, Xenon was a medium rank demon serving the giants of that era. Xenon rallied together a huge army to overthrow the giants because he was tired of living under their control.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: A major aspect of Xenon's plight in the comic story. Xenon fashions himself as the undisputed commander of all demons, but is deeply upset that that there are some demons that refuse to acknowledge his sacred status as king. The reason why Amon is on the run from Xenon is because he's one of Xenon's naysayers. In canon Xenon has tolerated insubordination before, and even smack talk from his minions. Most notably when Xenon gave the order to spare Akira's life, the demon army effectively told him to fuck off, but as soon as Xenon's general told them that Satan gave the order the demon army obeys the order out of fear of defying Satan. Xenon may command some respect, but he's not the most popular representative of the demons.
• Flight: A given since Xenon has giant bat wings. Notably Xenon does not struggle to fly even when in his giant form, though you could probably chalk this up to demon magic.
• An Ice Person: In the comic Xenon is shown firing a beam of ice out of his torso mouth. This is ironic since Xenon would spend the majority of Devilman Lady's story locked away in a prison of ice, located in the deepest pits of hell.
• Literal Split Personality: Xenon's exact origins are unclear in canon. Was he born with all 4 heads, or were they a fusion of multiple demons that came to an agreement to share a body? In multiple adaptions Xenon is able to split his heads into separate demon bodies, and they can act independently of each other. In some adaptions the multiple bodies will have convenient amnesia and forget they were once part of a singular Xenon. According to the author she envisions Xenon to be a case of multiple demons who came to an agreement.
• Last-Second Term of Respect: In the comic Xenon gets pissy towards Jenny when she forgets to call him Lord Xenon. He shouts her down and says "That's Lord Xenon to you!"
• Multiple Head Case: Xenon in canon has 4 demon heads, one where a normal head should be, two on each shoulder, and one in his torso. Each head looks like a similar type of demon to the main head, but are ultimately distinct faces. The right shoulder is male and the left shoulder is female. In Crybaby he only has 3 heads, with the head torso being replaced by a demon mouth. The comic echoes the Crybaby design, with only 3 heads and a mouth on the torso. Deviating further is all 3 of the main heads are animal like in design, namely a bull, vulture and wolf respectively. In the source material any of the 3 heads are able to talk and express different moods. But in the comic the most we see is that the two side heads are able to look around and glare, but neither have spoken so far.
• Oh, Crap!: Xenon expresses a great deal of surprise when Lucifer falls from the sky, momentarily exclaiming "What the --?!" before Lucifer smacks into Amon and flings the demon face first into Xenon. Shortly afterward Xenon smells one of Lucifer's feathers in the impact zone, and realizes that the fallen angel is associated with God. Xenon expresses a great deal of frustration that "those pests" have returned.
• One-Winged Angel: As disturbing as Xenon's normal appearance is, he has two monstrous forms in canon. One is a giant bat demon the size of a skyscraper that can fly around around. The other is a 7 headed dragon that Satan rides around on when he fights Akira. So far the comic has given no hint that Xenon has a special form like this.
• Satanic Archetype: Xenon may not be literally Satan, but his demeanor echoes some of the sentiments associated with Satan. In most adaptions Xenon is the primary day to day leader of the demons, and it's his minions that infiltrate humanity's chain of command and lead them into ruin. Satan obviously is a leader to the demons, but Xenon is obviously good enough at his job of delegating tasks there's not much slack for Satan to pick up. Xenon's form does match certain pop culture depictions of Satan as a winged demon. Most famously Dante's Divine Comedy depicted Satan as a demon frozen in ice that had 3 heads, and those 3 heads feasted on the bodies of 3 great historical traitors (Judas, Brutus and Cassius Longinus). Ironically Satan is never depicted as a demon in the Bible itself, but instead only has 3 canon forms: an ordinary man that spoke to Jesus, an angel of light, and a red dragon. The demonic Satan is folk lore and speculation, and yet Xenon fits the bill for that folk lore.
• Servile Snarker: Big time. In one of the most humiliating conversations in the manga, Satan effectively confesses the truth of his love for Akira to Xenon of all people. Xenon being a psychotic demon who lives only for violence and world domination is none too happy that demon kind's best warriors — including Amon — were lost because of Akira, and mocks his master for allowing his love to cause such a huge disruption to their plans. Xenon for his part tries to work within the limitations Satan has put on him, and attempts to salvage the situation; asking Satan if he's capable of convincing Akira to join their cause. Sadly no such arrangement is ever made, and the two sides go to war. The author has compared this conversation to being the same as telling Cocaine Bear that you have a crush on someone.
• Smug Snake: Oh definitely. In canon Xenon boasts about the superiority of demon lords like himself and how they will inherit the Earth. In the comic his rhetoric is not much different.
• Spell My Name With An S: Depending on the adaption Xenon's name is spelled as Zenon. What you call him ultimately comes down to your personal preference.
• Stationary Wings: Averted. Worth noting is that in canon Satan is rarely seen actually flexing his wings in order to initiate flight or to maintain his altitude in the air. Xenon by contrast is seen flapping his wings near constantly when he's in the air. Given their magical powers it probably is fair to guess that beings like Xenon and Satan could probably just float regardless of the wings, but it's amusing that Xenon is actually shown using his wings for their intended purpose. The comic shows Xenon flapping his wings.
• Voice of the Legion: In canon Xenon's multiple heads are able to talk in unison, but are also capable of talking independently of each other when it suits them. In the comic only the main head seems capable of speech.

Psycho Jenny

• Adaptational Ugliness: Not to a large extent, since she's mostly the same as she was in the source material. The two major differences are that she has weird looking chicken feet, and she has a mouth with sharp teeth that can open on the back of her head. This is thankfully not even the most bizarre form Jenny has ever taken.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: Psycho Jenny's hair color varies a lot depending on the adaptation. Her hair was white in the manga. In the 1972 anime it was purple. In the Amon OVA, Chibi Chara, and Devilman Crybaby her hair was a bright red. The comic settled for the color red.
• Affably Evil: Psycho Jenny may be a demon, and a quasi second in command to Satan, ^note  If it's not Xenon giving orders to demons, or interupting high level demon fights, then it's Psycho Jenny. It helps that she has the ability to drive people insane with an overwhelming psychic overload. She may be small but you don't mess with her but despite her evil deeds she is unfailingly polite. And no it's not just her eternal smile that makes her affable (if anything that's scary), Psycho Jenny speaks in a mild mannered way, stating current events in an extremely dispassionate, matter of fact way. Even the most disturbing news is as mild as reading a weather report for Psycho Jenny, and you never get any hint of malice from her — to Jenny this is all just business. The comic captures some of that regal nature, but does ground Jenny a bit by showing her smiling composure can be broken (Jenny almost never frowns in any adaption).
• Cephalothorax: In the majority of adaptions Psycho Jenny is just a head with legs and arms coming out of it, and she has no torso or neck to speak of. Some versions have tried to give her a torso, but she still looks really odd without a neck to support the huge head. The Amon manga deviated from this design, but they ended up making her look like a weird goblin creature, which is almost more unsettling. The comic goes for the usual head with limbs coming out of it aesthetic, but does make her a slightly smaller than she is in canon. ^note  Psycho Jenny was shorter than Ryo in the manga, but she was still at about waist height in relation to him. This version would be at the same height as his legs if they stood neck to each other.
• Enigmatic Minion: In canon it's heavily implied that Psycho Jenny has "seen into the script" that lies at the heart of Devilman's universe, and this is why she's aware of their world being stuck in a never-ending time loop set up by God. Whether this is a result of her psychic powers being so advanced she made this insight on her own, or God himself told her is never revealed. Making Psycho Jenny's mystery more bizarre is how she is always seen smiling, so it's difficult to discern what her mood or personal opinion is on anything — just because she looks happy on the outside doesn't mean there aren't extremely devious thoughts going on inside her head. The author has stated she wants to explain not only how she got her psychic powers, but how psychic demons like her are highly sought after for their utility among demon tribes. Also, it's doubtful that the comic's Jenny is as "in the know" as the canon Jenny is, but she's no doubt still knowledgeable on a number of other matters.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Psycho Jenny has jewel shaped eyes. It helps add to her admittedly bizarre and unique design among demons.
• Meaningful Name: Psycho Jenny's demeanor might seem silly and somewhat jovial, but her actions are certainly psychotic. Jenny helps Xenon orchestrate the demon invasion that kills off humanity, and gives no indication she regrets any of it. Don't let a warm smiling face distract you from the evil inside her heart. Assuming you want to read anything into her original spelling of Psycho Genie, there were a number of demonic entites in Arabic folk lore. Genies/djin were capable of immense reality warping powers (something Jenny seems to vaguely border on), but usually carried some kind of price for giving aid to their master. And even if there was no price, the genie would often corrupt their master into some form of evil or degeneracy (ultimate power corrupts their heart), which is certainly in line with Psycho Jenny's relationship to Ryo/Satan.
• Monstrous Humanoid: Psycho Jenny has an unsettling design to say the least, and certainly appears to be one of a kind as far as we can tell. Her limbs seem to come directly out of her head, and even in versions where she seems to have a torso she doesn't have a neck. The Amon manga came the closest to giving her a "normal" form, but even then she still has a head that is unusually big in proportion to the rest of her body. The saving grace of that form is that at least she has a neck and a torso, but her face and long ears make her come off as a goblin. The comic sticks to the spirit of the head with limbs aesthetic, but adds in a mouth on the top of her head to make her even more unsettling.
• Nonstandard Character Design: Demons come in all sorts of weird shapes and sizes, but there's usually a creepy or animal-like vibe that gives it an immediate wow factor. Psycho Jenny is just so weird and uncanny, perhaps even silly in design, that your mind takes a while to process what you're looking at. Psycho Jenny is ultimately more memorable because of this, but it's still bizarre that she's the only demon of her kind that seems to look like this.
• Odd Name Out: In a world of exotic names, like Xenon and Amon, Psycho Jenny stands out for having an ordinary name that would not be out of place in modern day America. In the original manga her name was Psycho Genie, implying that her she's a dijin (demonic genie from Arabic folklore). The only unusual part about her name is Psycho, but it's unclear if the Psycho is considered a proper name or if it's a title.
• Perpetual Smiler: The most consistent (and creepy) aspect of Jenny's character is that she's always seen smiling. Doesn't matter if disturbing carnage is going on nearby, if her side is winning or losing, Jenny is always seen smiling. Some adaptions have downplayed this, but the mainstream perception of her character does fall under this trope. The comic tries to mitigate this somewhat by showing that Psycho Jenny's composure can be broken, and she's capable of frowning or expressing anger. Though the comic still shows that Jenny's default expression is a smile.
• Psychic Powers: Whatever Jenny is, she's gifted with near-immeasurable psychic powers. She can read minds, teleport, fade through walls, summon demons from thin air, and even dissolve objects into nothing with her mind. Her most impressive power is her hypnosis which is virtually impossible to resist. Once you're under Jenny's hypnosis she can pacify you or cause you immeasurable pain. Notably Jenny was able to hypnotize Akira into submission when he was winning his fight against the demon army. Jenny's power is even strong enough to work on Satan, since she was able to pacify Satan into a quiet slumber and then erased the angel's memory of a shocking revelation Jenny didn't want Satan to remember. The comic version is obviously very powerful, but she struggles to overpower a more primitive Amon, so she still has a long way to go before she can match her canon counterpart.
• The Quiet One: Adding to Jenny's disturbing demeanor is that she's seen quietly observing things the majority of the time. She rarely speaks or inquires about anything unless she's directly spoken to.
• Spell My Name With An S: Some adaptions spell Psycho Jenny's name as Psycho Genie. Admittedly there were demonic genies in Arabic folk lore, but it's unlikely they ever looked anything like.... whatever Jenny is.
• The Stoic: Psycho Jenny's smile is unwaivering, and nothing seems to affect her. We never get any personal insights into Jenny's thoughts, so it's uncertain if the smile actually reflects her current mood accurately. Not helping matters is that she always speaks in a somewhat bored, matter of fact speech pattern, which betrays no obvious emotion.
• Undying Loyalty: In canon Psycho Jenny is eternally loyal to Satan. Unlike Xenon who is at least able to mock and judge Satan's character, Jenny offers no moral judgements or critiques, but simply obeys orders. The comic would seem to indicate she's annoyed by Xenon's command position, but serves him since there is no meaningful alternative to the leadership position at present.

Samael

• Blind and the Beast: After Samael is rendered blind, he encounters a demon bull named Mollock. Since Samael is blind he doesn't appreciate how scary and unsettling the beast befoe him actually is. Mollock for his part offers aid, giving Samael bandages to cover his scars, and then promising to help him track down the passengers in Purgatory that he can't see.
• Celestial Paragons and Archangels: Samael was the name of a dark and menacing character in Jewish mythology:
  • From the folk lore Samael was an Archangel, and an angel of death. While there were other angels of death, the Jews considered Samael to be the most powerful of the death angels. Making Samael more notable is that he was called upon by God to a destroyer of souls, and not just a collector of them. Samael's job was to punish the wicked in this life and kill them if God gave the order, and in many cases the processed souls were destroyed permanently in the afterlife to purge the universe of their sin.
  • The folk lore also attributes several traits to Samael that are commonly associated with Satan. Samael is the leader of demons, and the demon lords in this tradition were known as Satans. Essentially Samael only tolerated the demons if they were "just evil enough" to strike down the wicked, but debauchery beyond that point earned Samael's wrath. Samael was quite fond of hosting celestial prosecutions, judging the wicked for their terrible sin — a trait that Satan is attributed with in the Bible, namely being called "the accuser of the bretheren." One story even claims that Samael was the one that tempted Adam and Eve, and then judged them with banishment when they failed his test. And yes, Samael is supposed to be a "good guy" in this folk lore, but something of an unhinged hatchet man that God unleashes on the wicked.
  • So how much the comic Samael matches up with any of this remains to be seen, but one can clearly see the inspiration nonetheless. As for Samael and Satan being confused for each other, it should be noted that Beezelbub, a Philistine god, was confused with Satan in the time of Jesus. So it's not unreasonable that if Samael had a sordid reputation in Devilman's story, that his deeds would be conflated with the more notorious Lucifer/Satan.
• Celestial Bureaucracy: Samael's job is to process the souls of the dead, and send them to purgatory. Since God created the cycle of life and death, one would presume that he managed some of this work in the early days, but over time delegated this task to angels as he moved on to other projects. Samael for his part seems annoyed by such a grisly job as processing dead souls, and acts as if God giving him this job was a sign that he had lost God's favor. Sam does mention in passing that he used to have a favored rank among God's chain of command, so it is implied that being a grim reaper is a downgrade for him.
• Color Motif: Samael is heavily associated with black and green. Green can be seen as a good thing, when applied to trees and grass, but the atomic age has given us the stereotype of the sickly green glow that seems unnatural and signifies a slow death (radiation poisoning). Sam's aura is made up of thick, smokey shadows, and dark is of course associated with death and fear — fitting for a grim reaper.
• Dark Is Not Evil: A stereotype Samael is not fond of. Sam realizes that his shadowy aura, dark aesthetic, and dirty job of sending dead souls to their ultimate destination has given him a bad reputation. However, Sam wants it to be known that he didn't choose any of this, and simply does an unfortunate but necessary task. Lucifer shows disgust for what Sam is, and mocks him as strange and delusional. Lucifer also refers to Sam's job as "processing the waste of galaxies", showing a disregard not only for Sam's purpose (and effectively calling him meaningless), but shows that Lucifer has not gotten over his perception of "lower life forms" as unworthy of his attention. Sam may have his issues, but maybe Lucifer is the real head case here...
• Death Is a Loser: This is Lucifer's perception of Samael. Sam feeling annoyed by being looked down upon by Lucifer, chooses to pester the other angel. After complaining about his job, Lucifer tells Sam to take it up with God, but Sam wisely points out that he doesn't want to be obliterated for stepping out of line.
• Death Takes a Holiday: God eventually punishes Sam not just for leading Lucifer down a bad path, but also because of this trope. According to the author, while Sam does process souls, he's a bit lazy about it. He's supposed to get down in the mud with the dead souls, and meet them in purgatory and process their souls with a more thorough analysis. Instead Sam has just been pushing their souls through the gates, and leaving it at that. God was effectively cleaning up Samael's act.
• Destroyer Deity: This is the role Samael played in the folk lore. The author has stated that God transforming Samael is meant to make him more effective at collecting souls, but what form this will take is as of yet unclear.
• Don't Fear the Reaper: Samael is a fairly attractive individual. He has an adrogynous appearance that borders on handsome at times, but he is also undeniably pretty in a girly sort of way. One would think that if dead people had to deal with a grim reaper, they would want someone like Sam rather than the skeleton in a robe stereotype. Sam for his part wishes he could disparage this perception, but his attractive appearance is not enough to distract dead people from the gloomy task he has to perform when he meets them.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: This is how Samael feels when his status is compared to Lucifer. Samael may have a dirty job, but at least he actually performs his duties. From Sam's perspective Lucifer is a naive brat who misuses his powers and does nothing worthwhile with them, and is painfully uncertain of his place in the world. At least Sam knows what he is and makes the most of it. Sam mocks Lucifer as God's favorite star, insinuating that despite his bratty behavior Lucifer will never be capable of committing any wrong in the eyes of God.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Samael's eyes are a bright glowing green. After God forces a transformation on Samael, his eyes go from green to a glowing white pupil, with black sclera (the white portion of the eye).
• The Fatalist: Samael is pessimistic to say the least. He tells Lucifer that people often go down predetermined paths, with factors they have no way of predicting or controlling. He draws attention to Lucifer's special status as God's paragon, by citing that not everyone is born to be the exception. Samael even comes to a dark conclusion that since God is the only one that is truly special with no flaws, that even the most gifted of the angels are just temporary distractions for God, who will eventually fall out of favor with him. Lucifer is offended by this, and claims that he is pure and his purpose is pure, and that God would never discard him.
• Ghostly Glide: Sam is capable of enveloping his legs in shadow and then riding on top of the shadow. Samael can walk around normally, but Sam seems to enjoy showing off by performing this ability.
• God of the Dead: As the leader of the death angels, this is the role Samael plays. It's his job to guide the souls of the dead to their final destination. How this process works is kept vague, but reference is made to purgatory. Since there is no mention of hell, and heaven has no mortals walking around in it, one can assume that Sam's current mission predates Christian perceptions of eternal damnation or eternal paradise.
• Green and Mean: Samael has green hair, green eyes, wears a green tunic, has green wings, and he has a green halo. Oh, and he's a bit of a jerk. Mind you, while Lucifer is a bit of a biased source (given his own jerk tendencies), even the kind and loving Michael considers Samael bad news.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Samael is jealous of Lucifer's immense powers, and states if he had such gifts he would put them to better use than Lucifer applies to them. Lucifer for his part is disgusted by such a hypothetical, and claims that the purity of his will is why God allowed him to have such grand powers, and God would never allow such a monster as Sam to wield them. Samael scoffs at Lucifer for his naive perception.
• Sickly Green Glow: Samael has a green halo and it glows a rather sickly, translucent green. It serves as a nice reminder that while Sam is an angel, he is an angel of death with a sinister purpose.
• The Grim Reaper: In the Bible tradition, there were angels who guided the souls of the dead to the afterlife. There were even angels whose jobs were to execute people that God wanted punished. This is more pronounced in the folk lore, but it is a canon trait that exists in the Bible itself. Samael being a death angel doesn't match the stereotype of the skeleton in a black robe, wielding a scythe, but all the same his job description matches the grim reaper beat for beat.
• Messy Hair: Similar to Lucifer, Samael's hair has not seen the broad side of a hair brush in eons. Not that this ruins his attractiveness, but one can imagine when your job is as grim as being a death angel, appearances stop mattering as much.
• Painful Transformation: As punishment for leading Lucifer astray, and partially for being lazy with his duties as grim reaper, God sends Samael to purgatory for the indefinite future. Samael is obviously not pleased, but he accepts his punishment with as much grace as he can. If things had ended there, it wouldn't have been so bad for Samael, but God saw fit to transform Sam into a different type of death angel to make him better at his job. The halo rings on Sam's neck, arms and legs suddenly start squeezing with intense force, and they start to burn, and black smoke starts coming out of Sam's eyes. The pain is so intense that Samael passes out, but when he wakes up he's mostly the same as he was before, minus some scorch marks on his neck and limbs, and now his eyes are black. The author has stated that Samael's evolution will be gradual, and when we see him next time what he's supposed to be will be more obvious.
• Professional Slacker: Samael may do his job, but he half asses it. Sam on paper is supposed to go to purgatory with the dead people, and then process their worthiness with a thorough examination. Instead of doing that Sam has just been shoving them through the door to purgatory, and has been shirking on his responsibility. This does not escape God's notice however.
• Really 700 Years Old: Like all angels, Samael looks like he's in his early 30s at most. Despite looking like a young adult, Samael has no doubt been alive for eons.
• Reflectionless Useless Eyes: Samael's blindness is not made immediately obvious, and at first can be chalked up to how dark Purgatory likely is. According to the author Samael's transformation made him blind, though what purpose this serves or if it can be reversed has yet to be addressed.
• Sinister Scythe: But of course. The Grim Reaper aesthetic wouldn't be complete without it.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Samael is ultimately a minor character with limited screen time, but his conversation with Lucifer sets the angel on a bad path that ultimately leads to his expulsion from heaven. Lucifer could potentially have reached that state on his own, given enough time, but Samael certainly accelerated the process by filling Lucifer's mind with garbage notions.
• Smug Snake: Samael has a smugness that almost puts Lucifer to shame. Watching the two of them battle it out in a contest of wit and snark is a sight to behold. What mitigates it somewhat, and makes Sam a reasonably likeable character is that Samael is directing his smug energy towards Lucifer, who is admittedly a huge brat. Notably, even when God dishes out his punishment, Samael's pride forces him to save face, and he does his best to "grin and bear it", almost as if Sam is thinking "I'll get out of this some day. I won't let this get me down permanently."
• Someone Has to Do It: Ultimately, regardless of how Samael himself feels about the job or how his critics like Lucifer feel about him, Sam's job is necessary to the cosmic balance. The souls of the dead have to go somewhere, and they need to be processed. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Similar to Lucifer, Sam wishes that he could gain God's favor. Unlike Lucifer who thinks he can get back in God's good graces Sam has come to accept his situation will probably remain bad for the foreseeable future.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Samael just like Lucifer and Michael feels annoyance over God putting more emphasis on his experiments, than spending time with his angels who are supposed to be his children. Samael points out to Lucifer that every angel in heaven feels this way, but they're too scared to admit it because they're afraid it might rub God the wrong way and upset him.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If Samael had kept his mouth shut and didn't go out of his way to pester Lucifer, then just about every bad thing that happens afterward probably could have been avoided. If Lucifer wasn't soured over his relationship with God, based on Sam's words, then he wouldn't have mouthed off against God, wouldn't have been expelled from heaven. And if Lucifer wasn't expelled from heaven then he wouldn't have gone to Earth and been corrupted by the examples of the demons, and he wouldn't have turned into Satan and become heaven's enemy number one. Now obviously Lucifer bears the majority of the blame for making his own dumb choices, but Samael does share at least a little bit of the blame for what happened.