#Hell’s Destroyer DevilMask (1999)

A series featuring graphic violence mixed with strange, surreal imagery, often summed up as aiming for a “nightmarelike” aesthetic. However, a combination of unsatisfying ratings and a tendency for episodes to go over budget resulted in it being cut short at only twelve episodes of its planned forty-five episode run, episode twelve ending with its title character lying motionless, seemingly dead, over which are superimposed the words “no more”

Demonic characters featured in this series generally tend to have the names of, though in several cases not the appearances or natures typically ascribed to, demons featured in either the Divine Comedy or the Ars Goetia

In 2007 there was a comic adaptation which, while differing in a few plot details, continued the story from where the television episodes had left off after it had finished adapting the plots of those episodes. According to its writer, the parts of the comic following the adapted television series plot followed fairly closely the original series scripts for episodes that had not been filmed

Though the series has a small yet devoted following, it has also attracted some fairly harsh criticism from many viewers, often variously being called aimlessly dark and gruesome, confusing or both. The odd cinematography, frequent sudden hallucinogenic imagery with little explanation or apparent plot relevance, seeming lack of any particularly sympathetic characters and occasional instances in which an ongoing story element appears to be suddenly abandoned certainly add up to a series that is an acquired taste. Or, as the case may be for some, not acquired

**Plot**

The main character, a biker whose name we never learn, is suddenly ambushed on a dirt road by a criminal group who have mistaken him for somebody who had killed one of their members a year ago. Running him off the road and knocking him unconscious, they take him to an abandoned factory, where they tie him up and attempt to torture him into confessing to the killing, but when he consistently professes to knowing nothing about it they shoot him point blank in the head, killing him

As he dies, he sees a vision of a demon, Malacoda, who offers to grant him a new life and the power to take revenge on his killers in exchange for his soul, which will mean he will go to Hell when he dies again. After some hesitation, he accepts this offer. Laughing, Malacoda places a hand on his face and their bodies melt together in a horrific transformation accompanied by a soundtrack of high, wailing feedback and metallic clanging, reforming as DevilMask, a horned demonic being with a permanently grimacing face whose body resembles exposed muscle tissue

Returned to life in the abandoned factory in which the biker was murdered, DevilMask stalks his former self’s attackers through its hallways one by one and chokes them to death, after which he pours gasoline onto the floor and sets the place alight, walking through the flames unharmed to exit the factory. He then loses consciousness, later waking up as the biker back in human form as the sun rises. In his head he hears Malacoda explain that during the day he will be human, but as night falls he will always transform into DevilMask

Laughing again, Malacoda further explains that because this pact has been made between a human and a demon, the barrier between Hell and the Earth of the living has been weakened, allowing demons to cross over. As they do so the barrier will become still weaker until all of the forces of Hell can invade and conquer living human society. Malacoda claims that demons were once humans who committed evil acts, in most cases murder, only to immediately state that he was lying and that demons have existed long before humans ever did and will exist long after they are all dead. The unnamed biker, regretting his deal with Malacoda, vows to use his powers as DevilMask to fight back any demons that invade, although Malacoda declares that most demons have no loyalty or allegiance and would be likely to fight each other anyway

This plot setup forms the first two episodes. The next few are largely standalone, monster of the week episodes each featuring a demon appearing and attacking some part of human society and DevilMask showing up as night falls to confront and eventually kill that demon. Though, there is a sort of running plot arc involving the landscape of Earth gradually becoming more hellish, reaching the point by episode eight of large areas becoming ever-shifting landscapes of meat and bone with enormous fires raging throughout 

However, in episode nine Earth’s landscape has returned to normal with no real explanation. This is where the plot begins a more continuous arc, generally referred to as the “Stolas Arc” as episodes nine through eleven feature a recurring villain in the owl-like demon Stolas. Initially disguised as a human, Stolas has, unlike the previous demons who have attacked, a relatively elaborate plan: form a cult of human followers who will kidnap and kill people whose souls will then serve to increase Stolas’ demonic powers

Episodes nine and ten are largely devoted to the carrying out of this plan, with the main character barely appearing either in human form or as DevilMask. In episode eleven, Stolas’ plan is complete as he absorbs the souls of those his followers have killed, giving him great power. Revealing his true form, he then murders the cult members and absorbs their souls also

DevilMask arrives at the cult’s hideout and confronts Stolas, but is easily overpowered by the owl demon, who then begins to grow, bursting out of the building the cult’s hideout was in, reaching a gigantic size. DevilMask lies gravely injured in the rubble as Stolas rampages through the city, smashing buildings, crushing fleeing bystanders, catching and devouring people and so on

The episode then ends. In episode twelve, DevilMask is seemingly perfectly healthy, Stolas does not appear to be present and in general the events of the previous three episodes seem suddenly to have not occurred at all. For the first half, episode twelve resembles the non-arc episodes that followed the first two episodes and preceded the ninth. The demon Agares emerges from Hell in a rural town at night and is soon faced by DevilMask 

They battle fiercely for several minutes of the episode. Then the screen cuts to static accompanied by a very low-pitched noise and jumbled footage of previous episodes plays for a while, and then DevilMask is lying dead. This is held as an almost entirely still shot for the rest of the episode, the text “no more” appearing over the last few seconds of it