OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Cyborg 009 Vs. Devilman

In a rare crossover between different franchises released through different studios, Shotaro Ishinomori's Cyborg 009 and Go Nagai's Devilman were brought together into a 3-episode OVA series. American fans might know Cyborg 009 when its remake TV series played on Toonami, another that is on Netflix, and it was the foundation for several Japanese superhero teams such as Super Sentai. Devilman has had numerous incarnations released in the States, including a 2-episode OVA, a live-action movie, and a reverse-gender remake TV series branded in English as The Devil Lady. The OVA takes place in a world where both manga titles take place, but some events already covered in previous incarnations are part of its shared continuity.

009 and his fellow cyborgs have just taken down the last of a group of evil cyborgs modeled after the Greek gods, while Devilman finishes off an evil turtle demon holding his family's souls hostage. Now, a new strain of demons seem to have risen up possessing the bodies of teenagers and using them to draw Devilman out. The Cyborgs learn that their arch-enemies, the supervillain organization known as Black Ghost has created a new line of evil cyborgs called High Teens set to stop their efforts of fusing a devil in a cyborg body, similar to how Devilman is really a human bonded with the demon Amon. Black Ghost's new devil-cyborg gets out of control by killing off his creators, and setting his sights on Devilman. The High Teens also confront the Cyborgs, but only the combined efforts of super-fast 009 and Devilman are able to turn the tide in their favor.

The OVA has so far only been released in English via Netflix, with no future plans to be released on DVD or Blu-Ray, but its worth logging on to their service at lease to check this out. The anime captures the brutality of past versions of Devilman along with the stalwart superhero action of Cyborg 009 that became the basis for shows like Power Ranger. It also manages to reach a comfortable middle ground of merging the character designs from both franchises into a singular vision. Like most crossovers that boast "Vs." in their title, there's little if at all actual fighting between the titular heroes, but most fans have come to expect that from superhero team-ups.