Has a Greek chorus ever been divided like this?
When you have a group acting in this manner– commenting on the action and helping to frame the creator’s standpoint through this sort of in-story narration– the group is usually divorced from the action. If they’re affected, it’s usually indirectly and never side by side with the protagonists and antagonists. When a “chorus” does join the fray, they’re still a unified group. Whatever “side” they choose, the chorus does so in unity, because the message they deliver is one they share.
When faced with joining the mob and killing Miki and Miko for being a “witch” and a devil respectively, two of the chorus members fight and die in an attempt to save their friends, while the other two betray them and meet their end when Akira delivers fiery retribution upon seeing the corpses of his friends being paraded in front of his burning home.
This chorus of rappers all shared similar views of humanity. They all rejected the decadence and consumption of humanity in favor of expressing themselves through rap. That’s what brought them joy and purpose in life– self-expression of what made them feel human.
And I think that’s what’s at the heart of humanity’s true face in this Apocalypse. The humans we see are reacting to extreme situations. One second a mob is stoning humans presumed to be devils, and the next many of them are hugging Akira after his display of genuine care for human life. The crowd is swept up in one wave of emotion, only to be swayed by another, and they throw themselves readily into both causes. Only a handful of the members of the mob are forced to give up their arms and aren’t persuaded by Akira’s demonstration. The same goes for the chorus. When presented with a mob ready to kill everyone they assume is protecting Akira, two of the chorus members turn on their friends. They both end up leading charges to cut down their former friends, expressing themselves as freely in murder as they did in rap. The two who remain loyal also express themselves freely, but they remain swept up in their devotion to their friends.
It makes me wonder if most people actually have core beliefs, or if they’re just creatures of their mood. Their belief is whatever movement feels emotionally right in the given moment, rather than what resonates as true in every moment. All of the characters who ultimately end up being “good” in Devilman are the ones who stay true to their beliefs regardless of the situation. They may have doubts, but they don’t get swept up in emotional tides. They aren’t a part of any mobs, malevolent of benevolent.
Is that another of humanity’s sins– the capacity to change so readily that many have no true, permanent, moral guiding core?
Also: add that scene with the devils in the film studio on top of everything I said in the previous post. Dang.
SHIN MECHA GUIGNOL 