Despite the fact that it was released back in 2018, Devilman Crybaby still remains as one of the most polarizing, shocking, and popular anime ever made. Which is understandable, after all, from casual nudity to decapitated heads, this anime is as hardcore as it can get. And what makes it all the more fascinating is the fact that all of those Rated R elements are there in order to tell a tragic and compelling story.
You can dissect Devilman Crybaby and find all kinds of interesting things to talk about. However, the most mind-blowing aspect of the story has to be the ending. Every unbelievable chain of events in this series is a set-up to lead the viewers to this ending, and yet it still felt surprising and overwhelming. So in this article, we’ll try to examine and explain what happened at the end of Devilman Crybaby.
The End of Devilman Crybaby
There are different points in the story that can be said as the beginning of the end, such as the start of the last episode of the series, or perhaps we can go all the way back to the moments when numerous people started to turn into demons. However, for the sake of brevity and clarity, the ending that we talk about in this episode begins with the colossal fight between Akira Fudo, the Devilman, and Ryo Asuka, the one and only Satan.
After the earth suffered a global catastrophic event, which is caused by both demons and humanity, the two central figures of the story finally get the chance to face each other. At this point, both Akira and Ryo have gone way past the point of talking and negotiating. At least that is the case for Akira. After all, Ryo has destroyed every single thing that is precious to Akira. So the only way left is just a good old-fashioned demonic fist fight.
Akira tries his best to hurt Ryo. He even gets numerous support from his fellow Devilmen. But no matter what he does, he can’t even scratch Ryo. He is just so overwhelmingly powerful. After some time, Ryo finally unleashed one of his strongest attacks, and instantly blew Akira to bits. Ryo then spends quite some time talking to Akira’s corpse, reminiscing about their childhood, as the earth slowly turns into a pot of molten lava. And then countless massive meteors come raining down from the sky, and destroy the earth.
The Global Chaos
There are two main things that need to be explained about the aforementioned ending. The first one is how we get to this situation, and the second one is what actually happened right at the end of the last episode. We’ll talk about the first one here, and dedicate the next section to the second one.
So how do we find ourselves in such a messy situation at the end? Well, there are a couple events that triggered this whole mess. The first one is when people realize that there are demons living among them, disguised as regular humans. As expected, chaos ensues and everybody begins to feel afraid and suspicious of each other. It doesn’t take a long time until most major public services and infrastructure become unusable. Some people even resort to violence. Not only to survive, but also to exact revenge against those that they deem as demons.
The next major event is when Ryo appears on the last live television broadcast that is shown all over the globe. He said that feeling afraid, threatened, and just being different might trigger a human to transform into a devil. So he rallied everybody to look for anybody that they consider acting differently than usual, and kill that person before they have the chance to be a devil.
That is when the riots happen everywhere, and people begin to kill everybody who is not part of their group. Such mass hysteria even begins to infect the minds of the governments and militaries all over the world. It doesn’t take a long time until guns, missiles, and even nuclear bombs to soar through the skies. Amidst all of this global chaos, the demons joyfully chomp on every human that they can see.
The End of Humanity
The second most notable thing is the heavy meteor shower at the end, that seemingly comes out of nowhere. Well, as it turns out, it’s not really a random event. Not only that, the same thing has actually happened before.
In the last episode of Devilman Crybaby, Ryo explains to Akira that the earth used to be the home for demons. It was survival for the fittest, where the stronger demons would prey on the weaker ones, and absorb their powers and characteristics. When God defeated him, Ryo (Satan) fell down to earth and had to live among the demons.
He liked the demons’ straightforward way of living, and decided to rule over them. It didn’t take a long time for him to exponentially increase the number, the strength, and the intelligence of the demons. In a way, he was building his own private army, in preparation to once again launch a massive attack on God.
God quickly noticed Satan’s intention, and decided to destroy the earth with heavy meteor rain, and send it back to its initial fiery state. God essentially forced the earth to reset itself. And now we’re back to the present day. Thanks to Ryo’s (Satan) sinister plans, the earth has once again fallen into the hands of the demons. So God decided to once again purge the earth by destroying it with another helping of an apocalyptic meteor shower.