YMMV / Omens

• Adorkable:
  • Lucifer is supposed to be the Villain Protagonist of the story, whose tragic fall from grace is the driving force of the story. All true. What is also true is that the character has a ridiculous, over the top, dorky personality where he pulls pranks on people, insults them, and boasts about how awesome he is. The mental image of the personification of evil being a school yard bully in his youth is quite frankly absurd, but it does give the story a certain charm. These attributes are far more pronounced in Jinx's stand-alone drawings, which are done as filler/fun ideas to draw, where she really lets loose in portraying Lucifer in the most exaggerated ways possible.
  • Amon is a fearsome warrior who will tear apart anyone who stands in his way. However some of his expressions in the middle of his fights are admittedly a little goofy, and his overall demeanor makes him come off less as the champion of all demons and more of a grumpy cat monster who wants to be left alone. Most notably when he confronts Psycho Jenny he tells her to piss off, and his expression looks less like he's ready to kill and more like someone stole his favorite chew toy. Even the fact that the badass apex warrior — who looks like a furry version of the Hulk — used to look like a cat is hilarious in its own morbid way. We guess it's true of everyone that they have their embarrassing childhood photos they would like to forget.
  • In the comic Michael is a sweet cinnamon bun, who is kind, compassionate and thoughtful towards the feelings of others and tries hard to make everyone around him happy. Michael laughs, smiles, and talks about his hobbies and nostalgic stories with excitement. Given how Lucifer and Michael have the same face, seeing the cheery and happy expressions on Michael's face makes Lucifer's perpetual frown seem so alien by comparison. Michael's reactions to Lucifer's antics are also amusing to watch, as he gets flustered by the audacity of his brother. Michael's reaction to humanity and treating their arrival as if God had given them a new puppy is undeniably one of the sweetest moments in the comic. It's actually rather astounding trying to imagine the stoic and professional Michael from Devilman Lady having ever been anything like this, but even the hardest soldiers had their sweet and innocent days at one point.
  • God, believe it or not. Every time Lucifer starts a fresh pile of bullshit for God to clean up, he has these tired, pissed off looks that show he's just done with everything. And he's seriously tempted to get out his belt and deliver an ass-kicking to the wayward angel. It's actually somewhat hilarious to think of God in this humble, down to Earth and relatable way, where he's not just a creator but a struggling dad trying to keep his kids in line. Another aspect of God that is charming, is that when he talks about the beauty and craftsmanship of his creations, he seems genuinely enraptured — as if he were a science teacher marveling at all the possibilities, and the idea that his students might understand and appreciate even a little of what he's saying would make him feel like he did a good job. You sorta feel bad for him that Lucifer is not the best listener, and dismisses all of his hard work as a waste of time.
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Was Samael's misguided rhetoric about God seeing the angels as disposable tools the defining moment of Lucifer's fall from grace? Or was Lucifer doomed to fall regardless of Samael's input? Should Lucifer's downfall be seen as something that was cooking in the angel's mind for a long time, with Samael's argument just being the straw that broke the camel's back? God for his part thinks Samael shares some of the blame and chooses to punish him as a result.
  • Michael characterizes himself as someone who intervenes when Lucifer's pranks go too far, and as someone who needs to apologize on his brother's behalf. Is Michael fairly portraying himself as a passive observer? Or has Michael gotten more hands on with Lucifer's pranks in the past than he would like to admit? But with the caveat being that what used to be harmless fun has gone overboard in recent years, which is why Michael no longer signs off on it. For what it's worth, Lucifer calls Michael stuck up for complaining about his pranks — leading credence to Michael's claim about needing to clean up his brother's messes.
  • Is God a neglectful father who forgot the worth of his angelic children? Or are God's cosmic projects actually worth the time investment that he puts into them? How much of this was a result of God being absent minded, and how much of it was him trying to give the angels space to figure out things for themselves? This is to say nothing of the cosmic balance that being God naturally implies, and how the cost of maintaining things so the universe doesn't literally collapse around them might interfere with family time. The story doesn't give any easy answers, but the author has gone on record saying she wants the audience to see that Lucifer and God both had fair points for their arguments, and neither side was 100 percent right or wrong.
• Applicability:
  • The story borrows religious and supernatural elements, such as God, angels and demons, and they wield amazing, esoteric, otherworldly powers that are quite simply breath taking. But once you move beyond all that stuff, the story has a heavy family focus. It's easy to see the argument between God and Lucifer as a strict but well meaning father getting called out by his bratty son, and the father needing to set an example for the whole tribe by punishing his son. All the supernatural and religious elements are there as a fun backdrop, but if you don't wish to get distracted by that there is a solid, sentimental family drama at the heart of the comic's story.
  • God's relationship to the angels could easily be read through the vein of a king or commander-in-chief having a break down in morale with the chain of command. Soldiers are supposed to obey orders, but soldiers are also owed a certain degree of kinship with their commander or else the unity of their purpose starts to break down. A soldier can't be expected to fight forever unless he knows what he's fighting for, and when he can expect his mission to be accomplished. A commander who doesn't try to maintain discipline in the ranks, and give the soldiers a sense of optimism that things will be okay, has ultimately failed in his duty. It's easy to interpret God being tight lipped about his plans as a fatal error that cost Lucifer everything. Even if Lucifer went about things the wrong way, he deserved answers from God — both as the leader of their nation (Heaven) and as his father.
  • The angels repressing their feelings around God, for fear of their vulnerabilities and desires counting as sin, calls to mind historical trends of Church fundamentalism placing shame on open discussion of sin. The healthy perspective provided by some theologians, is that it's okay to feel tempted by the wrong choices, and an audience where you feel shunned for genuinely wanting to do better is not a crowd you need to be around. There's a verse dedicated to how even Jesus himself was tempted by sin, but through careful dedication to God's mission was able to resist actually doing it. A healthy relationship with your God would allow you to voice your struggles, and seek help for finding solutions, but in the web-comic Lucifer does not find this healthy balance. For what it's worth God himself seems to realize this system was a mistake, and makes a more active effort to get involved.
• Canon Fodder: This is what makes the prehistoric era such an attractive era to tell a Devilman story about.
  • What is the exact origin of the demons? If God cares about an orderly universe than where did they come from? How did the demons arrive to Earth? And what was so special about Earth they chose that place over other potential candidates? When did God first find out about the demons, and vice versa when did they find out about God's existence?
  • What caused Lucifer's downfall, and expulsion from heaven? And regardless of the reason for Lucifer's downfall, how did the fallen angel feel about it? What was it like for the angel to cope with being separated from his father and his family of angels? How did Lucifer go from paragon of virtue to the nemesis of God? And how did God and the other angels react to the downfall of their paragon, as they saw him go from bad to worse?
  • How did Lucifer become the master of the demons? All versions of the prehistoric era in the Devilman franchise depict Satan as already the default commander of the demon race. It stands to reason that Lucifer recruiting demons to his side must have been a long and difficult process, and yet this labor is never depicted. It's also fair to guess that as wildly different as angels are from demons, that Lucifer would have needed to show off his considerable power to convince/scare demons into obeying his commands, and that this would play a part in Lucifer transitioning from semi-decent person to a villainous asshole.
  • When did the demon vs angel war begin in earnest? Did Lucifer pick out the fight with God, using Earth as a base of operations? Or did God send in the angels as a clean up crew to purge the corruption from Earth? Were all demons united against God when he arrived with his angelic host? Or did certain demons like Amon (someone who hates Satan in canon) create a divided front among the demon ranks?
  • When did certain demons fulfill their canonical roles? Amon is considered the champion of demons, so it would be of interest to see when the comic continuity acknowledges him as an apex example of demon greatness. Psycho Jenny becomes one of Satan's most fervently devoted servants, so it would be interesting to see how that bond is formed. Sirene comes to view Satan as a god more or less, so seeing how a fiery, feisty demon like her was "tamed" by Satan would be interesting to see. Xenon is considered an apex standard for demons even in the modern era, but was always considered second best compared to Satan — seeing how he transitioned from Big Bad to The Dragon would be fascinating to see as well.
  • The overall point being that there is not a consistent vision for what happened in the prehistoric era of Devilman's setting, so there is a broad list of possibilities to work with.
• Creepy Awesome:
  • God's design is a purple, blackish energy being with long elf ears, 3 eyes, and no mouth. This is to say nothing of the bizarre, ethereal forms he often shape-shifts into, out of what is presumably his whimsical desires. Jinx has described God as an inventive artist, who seeks to test the limits of what's possible. Ergo his proclivity towards bizarre shapes could be read as him wanting to test his creativity. The author states God could easily take on a more human shape if he desired, or even look like one of the angels, but he seemingly prefers his purple form.
  • Samael stands out from the other angels on account of his green hair, green eyes, and green wings, and a powerful, black aura that oozes shadowy energy. Naturally the death angel got the more edgy of the designs, and it is admittedly fitting. This gets more pronounced after his transformation, since he now has black eyes with white pupils. Not to mention he attains a classic Grim Reaper cloak and wields a scythe.
  • Demon attractiveness varies wildly in canon, with the majority of them looking like twisted abominations. Some demons have imposing, humanoid designs that wouldn't look out of place as Power Ranger villains, and these demons tend to be the most powerful. Some demons are conventionally attractive by human standards, with their beastly traits being the only thing that distinguishes them as a demon. Nagai's demons if nothing else were always memorable, even if they did get a bit grotesque at times. Jinx has stated that she intends to capture the full gambit of demon designs, so that the audience will see demons that look cool, sexy, imposing, and grotesque alike. Depending on your flavor for horror some of the demons might be interesting precisely because they're creepy.
• Cry for the Devil: In the manga Satan's backstory is left pretty vague. The Bible backstory where Lucifer rebelled against God is alluded to, but this is mostly mentioned as flavor text rather than given any deeper analysis. Unique to Devilman's lore is that God and Satan had a disagreement over whether demons fit inside the cosmic order, with Satan fighting Heaven to protect them from extinction. However even with that unique context, Satan's explanation to Akira feels like it leaves a lot to the imagination. At no point are we shown Lucifer's downfall from his eyes and what kind of emotional toll that took on him, and canon Lucifer doesn't seem like the kind of sentimental person that would open up about those details anyway. Satan's explanation to Akira that he felt sorry for the demons excludes details.
• Discredited Trope: The author felt classic depictions of God as an old man with a white beard were too boring and predictable, which is why she wanted to depict God as a more fascinating shape-shifting energy being. While the form does take some getting used to, once you adapt to it the design is admittedly unique.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Lucifer has many fans despite the angel's many sins, both petty and heinous in nature. A cynical mind might observe that if God didn't want us to like Lucifer so much he wouldn't have made the angel so awesome (most beautiful of God's creations after all).
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Lucifer prior to his fall from grace is an egotistical brat. Lucifer after his downfall into the Satan persona is a genocidal maniac who wants to go to war with God, and kill all of humanity. What Satan also is? An elegant angel with incredible, otherworldly powers that make everyone else short of God seem like insects. Satan is intelligent, well spoken, and commands the hearts of an army of demons with his incredible charisma. Satan commands respect as much due to his physical power, as he does from the power of his will. Point being: Lucifer may be evil, and misguided at best, but he is undeniably cool. Ironically the Bible warns its readers to turn to God in the face of Satan precisely because he's so cool, ^Read  2nd Corinthians, chapter 11 warns of how false prophets will use the imagery of Christ to deceive you, which is no different from Satan who appears as an angel of light to deceive his followers into thinking he's good and pure. Even things that are beautiful might be deadly to you if you're not careful. and your weak human will would be overcome by the fallen angel's glory if you faced him by yourself.
  • The demons are horrifying beasts, who live in a dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest blood bath society. Demons care little for honor or love, and live primarily for the purpose of seeking greater power. That said, many of the demons have cool, exotic designs, and wield terrifying, otherworldly powers. And depending on your taste for horror, some of the more scary designs might be appealing in their own way. It also helps that some of the demons have interesting personalities, and have their rare moments where they seem remarkably human in their own regard — stand out examples being Amon and Sirene.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Yes Lucifer is an asshole, even prior to getting kicked out of heaven it's plain for anyone to see that he's a jerk. Once you get beyond the wall of bullshit Lucifer puts around his emotions, it becomes apparent that he's also a deeply vulnerable person. Lucifer was struggling with important existential questions, and without satisfying answers his sense of self-worth was never going to be fulfilled.
  • Samael is a snobby bastard who likes to pick fights with people. Samael has emotional insecurity over the sordid reputation his job as a grim reaper gives him, so he uses those vulnerable feelings as an excuse to lash out at people. Samael used one such occasion to screw with Lucifer, and was punished by God for leading his golden boy astray.
• Quirky Work: While the web-comic has a mostly serious tone, and does get surprisingly dark at times, the characters have a lot of bombastic, exaggerated facial expressions and body language that does get borderline silly at times. Mind you, the Devilman manga itself was a "victim" of this. Sometimes the violence that Nagai intended to be dark and shocking felt so gratuitous that it became funny. Devilman occasionally had very sweet and silly moments interwoven into the story, providing mood whiplash when it went back to being dark. And the philosophy conversations while generally solid, sometimes wandered into the territory of being incoherent and rambling. The web-comic is a brilliant homage for being able to capture the bizarrely profound tone of Nagai's work.
• Stoic Woobie: God certainly counts.
• Ugly Cute:
• The Woobie: Michael is a kind and dutiful son to God, who only tried his best to please his Father and serve his community of angels. Often times Michael's service required him to be the clean up crew for Lucifer's antics, but with his warnings falling on deaf ears. When Lucifer rebels Michael sticks to his morals and stays faithful to God, but tries desperately to get his brother to change course but to no avail. Michael is devastated when he learns of Lucifer's exile and is seen quietly weeping. Things only get worse from there, since by Bible and Devilman canon, Michael is fated to become enemies with Lucifer. If Michael's canon cynicism is any indication, Michael's experiences with Lucifer clearly killed a lot of his prior optimism.