RyoKira

"Love doesn't exist. There is no such thing as love. Therefore, there's no sorrow. That's what I thought."

- Ryo's monologue to Akira

RyoKira is the non-binary ship between Ryo Asuka and Akira Fudo from the Devilman fandom.

Canon
Ryo and Akira have slightly different dynamic in Netflix's Devilman Crybaby and the original source manga Devilman. While the former makes Ryo focus on Akira solely, original Ryo is more altruistic, as he cares about other people as well. The two have known each other since the moment Ryo arrived at the shores of Japan, where Akira found him. They became friends.

In the manga, the real Ryo Asuka, childhood friend and best friend of Akira, died in a car accident and got replaced by Satan, who took Ryo Asuka's identity.

When they were still children, Akra was the emotional one, always ready to come to help and sympathize with all living creatures, while Ryo remained cold and unfeeling. One day Akira found a dying kitten and tried to nourish it and bring back to life with his care. Ryo kept telling him that it was futile since the kitten would die anyway, and even offered to kill it out of mercy. Akira didn't lt that happen, but then death came after it anyway. Akira cried and told visibly unsympathetic Ryo, who still was new to human emotions and sorrows, that he cried too, intuitively feeling his sadness at the kitten's death.

In present day, Ryo arrives to Japan from the forests of Amazonia, where he went on an expedition. He finds Akira, defends him from a a group of older men. Akira runs to him, and they happily hug each other after a long separation. Despite the distance and time passed, they remained close friends throughout everything. They both have few friends and mean a lot to each other, so Akira agrees, when Ryo invites him to an adult club. There Akira initiates a satanic ritual and summons devil Amon into the body of his friend. Now Akira becomes half-human, half-devil.

In the manga, Ryo saves Akira and Miki from annoying guys and takes Akira with him in his car to drive him at his place. He says to Akira that his father, Professor Asuka, died by killing himself, he explains to him (and by showing him proofs : like the demons skull ) that the demons exist and that they have, together, to eliminate them. Then, they go to a sabbath, their plan being to get both possessed by a demon and the become devilmen. At the sabbath, only akira will succeed to become a devilman, meanwhile ryo almost died lol.

Back to crybaby : Ryo's plan is to start the end of the world, a cruel fight that won't leave any humans alive. That is the reason why he turned his friend Akira into a devil — so they could spend post-apocalyptic eternity on Earth together. However, his plan does not come to fruition, as Akira realizes that his friend isn't as innocent as he thought him to be. As Akira confronts him, Ryo reveals himself to be Satan, a former angel that left God, showing Akira his true form. Akira attacks him, and they clash fiercely, right as their armies, the army of devils and the human-devil hybrids fight each other to death. After the violent battle, the friends, the last two remaining creatures on Earth, are seen lying on a rock. Ryo gazes at the moon and reminisces about their past. He remembers how he's always thought he's immune to human feelings and doesn't care about any living being in the world. He says that love is non-existent, and so is sorrow. Then Ryo looks at his friend with a soft smile, but Akira is non-responsive. As Ryo realizes Akira is dead, he starts crying, shedding tears on his friend's cold chest. Thus, Satan killed the only person he loved, the person who made him feel human, finally proving his own theory he has just shared about love to be wrong.

Fanon
This is the most popular ship in the fandom, as it focuses on the main characters of the story, the protagonist and his antagonist, two opposing forces. The love theme in the story is the red thread that runs from Akira and Ryo to Akira and Miko, to Miko and Miki, to Koda and his partner, and then back to Akira and Ryo. Not only fans, but the casual viewers, and film critics alike have noted the heartbreaking nature of their relationship, and how the powerful message behind Akira and Ryo's odd relationship makes the story unique. Many have noticed the allegory of supernatural hybrids being subjected to bigotry the way minorities, and queer people in particular, are.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TUMBLR

Trivia

 * Devilman Crybaby adapts the ring composition, making Ryo start the story with stating his hypothesis — love doesn't exist, and end the story with the same phrase, but now, in the light of how Akira's presence changed him, it is to be outright disproven.
 * The story begins and ends with the end of the world and the birth of the new Earth, and some believe it means Ryo and Akira have met before in other lives, and they will meet again.