Yelling and Projecting

Forcing my personal headcanons into Amino cuz everywhere else would be asking for hate.

Establishing Akira is :nail_care: Within the First 15 Minutes of Devilman: The Birth

We see Akira getting bullied in the beginning pretty severely over some rabbits. We can only assume those bullies are students in the school, not only because they’re on school grounds (and what kinda dudes hang around a school in their free time???) but they also had access to the backyard where the bunnies were kept. After attacking the cute little rodents and slaughtering all but one, they seemingly leave the scene before being able to be spotted when Akira turns the corner.

Now Akira doesn’t see much other than the tailcoat of one of the dudes rounding the corner of the building and he doesn’t think much of it. Instead, he ducks in to find the rabbits all dead except for one, but here’s where it gets interesting. As he’s in the small kennel, the group of bullies come back.

Why would a group of three dudes who mercilessly slaughter the rabbits double back for one last one? Were they really doubling back for that last bunny in the kennel or where they actually going for another target?

If you think about the whole scenario, it falls together too perfectly for it to be considered a coincidence. Akira was the only one who was taking care of the rabbits (at least that day) — even that girl talking to Miki knew he was out back alone. I would be willing to bet that the whole rabbit scene was set up. Those bullies knew Akira cared for those rabbits deeply, perhaps enough to put his life on the line to save one. They knew they could emotionally wound Akira by taking those rabbits out of the equation and leaving them to be found in a bloody mess. What’s more, they knew they could lure Akira into their mess by placing the scene before him in a gruesome display.

It was only after Akira finds the bodies that the bullies RETURN and turn their aggression on Akira, using the bunny as an excuse to harass him. They baited and trapped Akira before beating him up with punches, kicks, and a fucking bike chain to the face!

But what could promote such hostility, especially towards such a quiet boy? What could this young man do to deserve such cruel treatment? Maybe he was being bullied for an unseen reason. Perhaps a certain prejudice towards him.

As soon as Miki arrives on the scene, the bullies scram and Miki takes him back to the nurses office where she cleans his wounds. Akira seems almost unbothered over his face getting split as if he’s trying to sweep the whole fiasco under the rug. He’s quick to change the topic from him, bringing up his family’s trip and simply calling himself unlucky and even “damned stupid.” Akira beats himself down quickly and fluidly as if it has been practiced many times before.

As Miki continues to clean him up, she makes a comment about how she’ll always be there for him no matter what happens — a promise similar to that of marriage in which it’s through sickness and in health.

And yet after he is reassured, he pauses…

He distances himself slightly…

And looks away.

He knows that for him to say he’d return the favor, it’d be a lie. Akira doesn’t want to be tied to Miki because he doesn’t love her in the way she loves him.

After Miki sees this expression and the reluctance he expresses, she curtly apologizes as she realizes she might have gone too far, and hurries to grab her stuff and leave as Akira follows behind her.

During their walk home, it’s mostly quiet. There’s no lighthearted banter, no arguing, no idle prattle. It’s after a moment longer when they’re alone does Akira begin an apology.

“Miki, I’m sorry — for what happened back there,” he weakly offers. It’s a choppy apology and one that requires more information but just as he’s about to explain himself now that it’s just the two of them, tall, blond and handsome shows up.

Akira beams upon seeing Ryo, cutting his important apology short and unfinished to introduce Ryo and Miki. Yet, after doing so, Miki is hesitant and even standoffish. She offers her empty pleasantries flatly, ducking her head some. Akira’s smile falters at the behavior.

Ryo tells Akira he needs “something.” It’s not even hinted at what it could possibly be yet Akira drops everything and goes. He decides in that split moment that Miki should walk home alone, that catching up with Ryo is more important than his apology, and that anything with Ryo would be better than being with Miki.

Akira follows him without another word, right at his heels like a dog. Miki runs after him, adamant on Akira staying with her. She fruitlessly jumps in front of his trance-like walk and, when that fails to get his attention, tugs at his arm to pull him in.

“But I must go,” he says. “He seems really upset.”

There’s also that quick exchange in the subbed version where Miki retorts, “he’s awfully pretty, isn’t he?” In this sentence, she chooses to quit trying to rationalize with Akira and instead tease him, implying Akira is following him this closely because Ryo’s beautiful.

And to this, Akira replies with, “come on, Miki. He’s a guy.”

He doesn’t deny the fact that Ryo is beautiful (because, let’s be real, anyone can see that), but he doesn’t even try defending his actions any further. It appears that Akira is trying to quickly snuff out the comment before he has to go any further in depth with an explanation, perhaps hiding his true reason as to why he’s following Ryo so loyally.

It isn’t until Miki tries inviting herself does Akira even consider her coming along and, after getting denied at the sharp end of the knife, she is readily left behind by the two boys speeding off. Akira even gives her his bag to carry home.

Akira is seen watching out the back window of the car as the two drive away. He watches for quite a long time as if he’s waiting for an opportunity to turn his attention towards the driver, maybe once Miki is out of sight. It’s as if their following interactions could possibly be something he doesn’t want Miki to see — as if he could be judged further.

It’s only after Akira is in Ryo’s car and has some privacy that he actually starts pushing for some answers as to why his previously known “best friend” showed up out of the blue to whisk him away. It almost comes across that Ryo picking him up at the drop of a hat was a common occurrence in his life previously.

TL; DR — Within the first 15 minutes of the episode, the actions and dialogue point to Akira being a closeted gay man, establishing him being the target of ridicule at school. It isn’t until Ryo shows up in the picture — as a love interest, I wager — that Akira’s tone and mood lighten up. He follows him blindly with a deep trust in him while leaving Miki, the girl who patched him up and damn well confessed to him, to walk the rest of the way home alone.