Starring: Show Hayami, Yu Mizushima, Jun Konomaki

Devilman, the sinister super-hero from manga pioneer Go Nagai (Cutie Honey, Mazinger Z), makes a big splash in the trash video market in this spectacularly violent pair of OVA’s: Devilman: The Rebirth (1987) and Devilman: Demon Bird Sirène (1990). Nagai considered this gruesome cult favorite his anti-war work, a parable of injustice and lost humanity. Sure! Why not?

Akira Fudo is your average Tokyo high school student: he tends to the class bunnies, crushes on girls, gets the shit kicked out of him by bullies. When Akira reunites with a forgotten friend, Ryo, his humdrum life gets ripped inside out. The screaming hordes of Hell are on the way, Ryo tells him, and the only way to defeat these monsters? Become one yourself. Merging his soul with that of the fiercest of Satan’s warriors, Akira becomes Devilman, a demon-slaying rage machine with God-like power out on a mission to rip, splatter and crush these invading beasts into pulp.