umbrella scene truther

@balsemicvinegar

hi there. yes. ryo's entire arc is about experiencing the human condition and living life as a human being (thus getting to know all the feelings and sensations that come with it—fear, love, etc). a pivotal point of the human experience is death— no matter who you are, you can't run from it, it happens to everyone. ryo became a human and the only way for him to get out of being a human is to die. just like everyone else. he can't escape or run from it, he has to face it head on.

he has to make an irrevocable decision when he meets the demons. giving up his mortal body, choosing death, choosing ascension—that choice means he can never go back. just like with everyone else, the death of ryo's body is permanent. it signifies his loyalty to the demons, because he gave up his entire human life for them.

but at the same time, it thrusts him into a state of liminal existence. due to his existence as an angel, he still retains all his memories from his life as ryo asuka, and this causes distress. he can't go back to the way he was before, as he has been irreversibly changed. now that he knows fear, love, all these different emotions that are human, he can't get rid of them. and they are his undoing; the only reason the demon army doesn't succeed with their plan is because the devilman corps are there to stop them, which only exist because ryo loved akira.