OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Devilman

Go Nagai's original horror/action manga Devilman ran for only a single year in 1972, and that garnered in getting its own single-season anime TV series. In that, the title character was about a young man who bonded with a demon and could turn into giant to fight the monster of the week. There wouldn't be another anime take on this until 1987 with its first OVA series that only went on for two episodes acting as hardcore remake to the previous removing all the tokusatsu elements and transformed it into a Lovecraftian nightmare. The OVA got a notorious release through Manga Entertainment first available on VHS and DVD with a British dub peppered with compulsory cursing. This was later released on DVD and Blu-ray through Discotek Media to reach a modern audience. The OVA has a requisite for amping up the violence and bloodshed while at the same time trying to deliver an environmental message about the polar ice caps melting. The director Tsutomu Iida went on to do further horror/action anime like Hellsing. Go Nagai's misanthropic approach to this might be less sensationalized than the 70's kaiju show, even though this original series went on to influence such groundbreaking titles as Evangelion.

Lonely Akira Fudo is living with his friend Miki after his parents were killed in an expedition to the South Pole and gets a visit by his old friend Ryo who tells him his own father killed himself after his own expedition into the jungle. Ryo's father left him the remains of a demon's head that allows its wearer to see the way the world original was ages ago when it was filled with demons until mankind eventually replaced them as the dominate lifeform. Ryo believes the door has been opened for the demons to come out of their suspended animation to challenge humanity and the only way to stop them was to merge demonic spirits with a human host. This proves true after Akira bonds with the demon Amon to become Devilman, a muscular monster masher that can do everything from body slams, sprouting wings, and shooting lasers from antenna on his head. Akira fights an entire night club full of demons that Ryo arranged to summon the demons who also bonded with pathetic partygoers, and then goes on a revenge quest to destroy the turtle demon that absorbed his parent living souls into his shell. Following this is a long battle between Devilman and the topless harpy Sirene who herself merges with another demon to transform into centaur abomination.

The Devilman OVA was intended to introduce the title to a new generation which concludes just as the saga was just beginning. The anime slightly continued in an OVA one-shot titled Devilman Apocalypse that never got an English release, although it does have a few contradictions to the prior series. For a complete rundown of the intended mythos, it is best to check out the Devilman Crybaby anime on Netflix. The 80's OVA series left a notch amidst 90's American otaku as to how brutal anime could be and that it wasn't just a bunch of Hello Kitty stuff, even though this equally takes some away from it as there is far too much savagery. An OVA allows for less limitations on sex and violence, but even the average level of content concerning that market gets taken to its pressure point with Devilman.