Devilman Vol.2 OVA – The Demon Bird Review

Synopsis

Devilman Vol.2. The Demon Bird takes place a few years after the first OVA Volume, The Birth. Akira Fudou is now out of high school and a couple of years older. His best friend Ryou Asuka has recovered from his nearly fatal wounds.

Akira is lured into the demon, Jinmen’s hideaway only to be emotionally tortured by him. Jinmen stuns Akira with the fact that he killed and ate his parents.

After tearing apart the demon Jinmen, Akira is ambushed at his temporary home where he lives with the family of his girlfriend, Miki Makimura.

Akira saves Miki from an attack by a demon made of water called Ghelmer. It isn’t long till Akira’s bird like demon antagonist, Sirene arrives to battle Devilman to the death.

The Review

Devilman Vol.2 OVA – The Demon Bird is much improved over its predecessor, The Birth. The character and story development has already been introduced to us in the first OVA volume. Devilman The Demon Bird gets right to the point with the action and horror starting right away.

The animation looks a lot better since this anime was released in 1990. The characters look more mature and don’t have that 80’s type cutesy anime design to them. Vol.2 has a much darker anime style to it.

Akira Fudou no longer looks like an innocent kid and now is buffed up and ready to kick ass. The animation although great for the time pales in comparison to today’s.

I also like that the demons featured in Devilman Vol.2 OVA – The Demon Bird looks more horrific than in the first one. The turtle like amphibious demon, Jinmen is really creepy looking. His shell is covered with the faces of people he has eaten and now tortures their trapped souls.

The harpy looking Sirene looks really cool. She has a nude body of a woman covered with white bird feathers. Her head has an antenna and big wings. She also has huge bird feet with talons for hands/feet.

The fight scenes are even more intense as limbs are torn apart with blood and gore spraying all over the place. There is some brief character development for Akira’s opponent, Sirene in the anime.

She has a grudge to settle with Akira/Devilman, because she hates any demon who joins with a human. She wants to make an example out of him by killing him.

Devilman’s fight in the second half of the OVA with Sirene The Demon Bird is very intense, brutal, and entertaining. Devilman uses his flying ability in this one as he engages Sirene in battle in the skies.

They go back and forth in a slugfest as they both lose a lot of blood and some limbs. I’m not going to tell you the ending, but Devilman meets his match with the Sirene demon.

The hair metal music from the first one makes its return and some melancholy background music is added as well to this OVA.

The one thing I found disappointing with this follow up is that Ryou Asuka doesn’t get much screen time. This is a fast paced action packed anime that you will not get bored watching.

A word of warning it is not for children since it has profanity, nudity, and lots of graphic violence.

Devilman is a cool anti-hero and the entertaining anime series and OVA’s make the anime’s he’s featured in cult classics.

Randy Wheaton