Fridge Brilliance
- The friendship between the Eds and Akira and how they were able to help stop Ryou/Satan for good can be seen as a metaphor on how having positive people in your life can help you walk away from abusive relationships.
- From Ryou’s end, as much as he doesn’t believe in love, he ultimately proves to be an utterly toxic person time and time again. He manipulates Akira into trusting him and going along with his plans, resulting in Akira merging with Amon, and then claiming that no one else can be trusted, trying to isolate Akira from his loved ones such as his parents and Miki. Ryou even goes as far as trying to shot an unconscious Miki while Akira was carrying her, outright telling Akira to chose him or he would die alongside Miki. And as Akira learns later on, those words were not a joke as when he tries cutting ties with Ryou the first time, Ryou’s response is to manipulate humanity into turning aganist Akira and his friends, hoping that they would kill the remainder of Akira’s loved ones and each other, allowing him to have Akira all to himself. Finally, when Ryou learns of Akira being in the Ed’s world, he chases him down and tries to reclaim him, making it very clear that he intends on killing Miki and everyone else in the process.
- The Eds, on the other hand, despite their rocky start, grew to geniuely care about Akira. They do their best to support Akira both in and out of his demon hunting, such as encouraging him to talk to them as they would listen to his problems and they respect Akira’s relationships with his family and friends, bonding with them in the process and even putting their own lives on the line to protect them note . And when Akira is outed, the Eds don’t even hesitate to help him and others escape to their world to restart their lives, with Double D even agreeing to fuse with Vis to become a Devilman to protect them.
- In the end, when Ryou is about to be taken away by Red Guy, he continues to try to gaslight Akira into joining him, even if it meant he would be locked away and tortured by Red Guy as well. But Akira, having survived the battle thanks to the support of his friends, firmly rejects him and leaves him to his fate, ending their toxic relationship for good and allowing Akira to finally move on with his life with the people who truly care about him.
