Devilman

Akira Fudo was the human who became the eponymous Devilman. Originally passive and cowardly, but very good natured, thanks to the efforts of Ryo Asuka he is possessed by the demon hero Amon. But due to Akira's pure heart, he gains the demon's powers, memories, bravery, strength, and willingness to fight while maintaining his human consciousness. Now a creature with the body of a demon but the mind of a human, Akira swears to protect his former people against the hordes of demons that seek to destroy humanity. Akira is a teenager with black eyes and has prominent sideburns (like many male Go Nagai characters) with short black hair that is combed forward. At first, he had a rather unimpressive build and stood at an average height of 172 cm (5 ft 8 in), but after his transformation into Devilman, his physiology becomes more athletic and his stature grows to an imposing 186 cm (6 ft 1½ in)[1] with black markings forming under his eyes as a result of Amon's influence. He is often seen dressed in his school uniform, but also wears a black long-sleeve shirt, pants, and shoes in other situations. As Devilman, he stands at approximately nine and a half feet tall (2.9 meters) and weighs roughly 220 kilograms (485 lbs)[2]. His hair is replaced by small black bat wings on each side of his head, and his forehead, extending to his crown, turns red and grows a pair of antennae. His lower body grows dark hair from the pelvic region down to his feet, and his hands and feet grow sharp claws on their digits. He also has a tail with an arrow-headed spade at the tip. Depending on the artwork, Akira's skin color remains the same as his human, gains a blue-green color hue, or, most rarely, is red. The sclera of Devilman's eyes is either empty white or yellow, which are said to be full of grief. When Devilman demands it, he can sprout a pair of large bat-like wings from his back. Prior to turning into Devilman, Akira had some of the best grades in his classes and had impressive intellect, partly due to the fact that he spent most time reading. In terms of physical skills, Akira never thought of joining after school activities for his dislike of sports; as such he wasn't very physically fit. After his first transformation into his Devilman, he became much more physically powerful; having greater strength, speed, reflexes, and combat skills, being able to take on Zann's demon spiders without worry. Devilman is able to continue fighting even after he lost an arm and had his stomach slashed open by Sirene. His ferocious strength allows him to lift heavy objects, tear demons apart with his bare hands, break through barriers, and leap over buildings effortlessly. When Devilman grows his wings, he is able to fly. For various distances he can shoot beams from the antenna on his forehead. Some demons stated that he could even be a major threat to Zennon, although the two never managed to fight each other. In a few short instances, Devilman shows different powers that fit certain situations. One was shown when he was battling Ghelmer, shooting two beams of rays of intense heat from his palm of his hands. He can also release energy from his antenna but in a less focused way than his normal Devil Beam. These same antennae can create signals similar to those used by Sirene to control her fileable arms and used this technique to direct the arm into Sirene's stomach. He has the ability to teleport as shown when he rescued Miko. When Miki's parents are killed, Devilman breathed flames from his mouth on the killers with enough heat and force to burn them to ash in seconds. Another less seen ability is his power to phase through solid objects even through inches of hard steel. He is able to grow to great size which gives him an advantage when fighting smaller demons. As shown with other Devilman, Akira is able to communicate with other Devilman through telepathy but his is limited compared other Devilman. Like all Devilmen he is able to combine with living tissue. While this is never used in the manga, it was used at the end of the novel version to combine with the other Devilman Corps to assume a larger version of himself. In the 'Devilman Lady' manga, after spending a long time in Hell, Akira's powers have heightened to extremes that rival even Satan's. He is able to release electric charges on enemies once he comes into contact with him or her. Devilman can also release energy at an opponent through heightened psychic abilities. For a limited amount of time, Devilman can leave Hell and interact with the physical world, but his actions are very limited without a physical body. He is able to look into a person's memories and for a short while appear visible to a person. He is also able to possess objects, most notably the Devilman Ghost costume made by Jun and fight through said objects with impressive strength and psychic power that can effortlessly tear through enemies. Before his initial transformation, Akira was kind and sweet, but cowardly and highly emotional at the same time. Much of the time, he used to cry in most of these situations. Shying out of any conflict or problems had caused those around him to think him as weak. After becoming Devilman, Akira became much braver and more headstrong, as well as perverse. Because of his originally weak will, his fusion with Amon however caused him to become far more brooding and violent. He was best friends with Ryo Asuka and had been since childhood (although this is later shown only to be implanted memories they only where friends for a year before the Manga started when Satan take the identity of the real Ryo Asuka), he was deeply protective of Ryo. Unknown to him for a long while, Ryo was in love with Akira. However, Akira didn't return the feelings of love and instead cared for Miki Makimura who both shared romantic feelings for one another, much to Ryo's frustration. He cared deeply for his adoptive family who took him in after his parents were too busy to care for him. Before his transformation, Miki was often the only friend Akira ever had and despite being talked down by her for not standing up for himself, Akira genuinely cared about Miki enough for romantic love. Miki was also the biggest hope Akira had for humanity and it was her death that made Akira lose faith in it altogether. This made Akira put all his faith into Devilman because of their pure hearts, but some outer media brought out different paths including his memories of Miki keeping Akira from losing his own humanity to Amon. He later made friends with the gang that originally attacked him after he saved their life from an attacking demon, primarily Masa and Dosu-Roku. He was highly respected and looked up to by the other Devilmen, primarily Massami Izumi and even more so Mico, especially after he saved her life. Later on, in Devilman Lady, he befriends Jun Fudo as the two walks through the depths of Hell, during which Akira admits to Jun that he did in fact love Ryo, but whether this was platonic or romantic is unknown. Later on, during their time in Hell, Jun and Akira begin to fall in love and they have sex in mid-flight. Akira was upset when they could not be together, especially when he saw images of Jun suffering. But his will managed to manifest through a suit Jun made for him that allowed him to protect Jun from some threats she couldn't fight against. He was surprised upon coming back into the world through Satan and finding out Jun was half of Satan. Yet for some reason, he chose not to decline Satan's offer to join the battle against God. He is also shown to express sympathy for certain demons that he had killed when he was alive such as Sirene and Kaim, as well as pure hatred for others, especially the sadist Jinmen.