Armed with this brutal duality, Akira wages a secret war against the demonic invasion. But Apocalypse of Devilman is not a monster-of-the-week action fest. It is a slow-burn psychological horror story that asks a single, devastating question: What happens when the monsters you’re fighting are less dangerous than the terrified mob behind you?
This work directly inspired Evangelion (Hideaki Anno is a vocal fan), Berserk , Chainsaw Man , and even the Devil May Cry series. It codified the “dark hero who loses everything” trope and dared to give its protagonist a victory that tastes like ashes.
The infamous, soul-crushing climax remains one of the most devastating sequences in all of graphic literature. Without spoiling the specifics, Apocalypse of Devilman argues that the true apocalypse isn’t the arrival of hellspawn—it’s the moment civilized society chooses savagery over solidarity.
Here’s a write-up for Apocalypse of Devilman (often considered the original Devilman manga by Go Nagai), broken down for a review, analysis, or synopsis. A Cataclysmic Descent into the Abyss of Human Nature